Effects of Land Use-Land Cover Thematic Resolution on Environmental Evaluations
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper presents four scenarios of thematic resolution, corresponding with the four levels of CORINE classification scheme, and compares them in a real case study of landscape connectivity assessment.
English presentation of the paper can be improved. For example, texts provided in Figure 1 are too small to read. It might be good to add a formula for the performance metrics described in Table 2. Do you want to provide a consistent color visualization method for Figure 7 and Figure 8?
Author Response
Reply: We thank very much the Reviewer for the comments. A revision of the English language on the resubmitted version of the manuscript has been performed. Figure 1 has been modified according to the Reviewer’s suggestions. Figure 7 shows Mas for the four scenarios, while Figure 8 displays changes of Mas between couples of scenarios. The values between images are therefore not comparable. Moreover, Figure 7 shows standardized values of Mas, so divided by the maximum value of Mas. In Figure 8, the Mas changes are divided by the maximum Mas change among the 6 level comparison couples. The chosen colour range and classification of values aim at highlighting the difference among BELUs. So, we think that the current colour visualizations of the images 7 and 8 are the best for displaying the effect of thematic resolution on landscape connectivity at the BELU scale. Finally, the equations of the dMtot and ESV indexes have been added to appendix B.
Reviewer 2 Report
We consider that the article "The effects of land use-land cover thematic resolution on environmental evaluations" can be published in the present form. We believe that the authors succeeded in their research and we want to congratulate them for their work.
Author Response
Reply: We thank very much the Reviewer for the positive comments. We are flattered by the kind words of the Reviewer.
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript, entitled "Effects of land use-land cover thematic resolution on environmental evaluations" (by Pelorosso, R. et al.) focuses on the exploration of the impacts of four different thematic resolutions of CORINE land cover system on the assessment of an environmental aspect, the landscape connectivity. For this purpose, various statistic/metric outputs derived from the PANDORA 3.0 model were presented for an urbanized context in the Bari metropolitan area (Southern Italy). Furthermore, priority areas for conservation objectives and future sustainable urban expansion were identified.
General remarks
The manuscript deals with a topic of significant interest which makes it suitable for publication. The applied methodology and its output results are certainly valuable.
However, I do not find any relevancy between the content of the manuscript and the scope of “Remote Sensing” journal. In particular, I could not detect in the manuscript any remote sensing-specific concept, including either the implementation of a remote sensing-based method/approach or the exploitation and analysis of satellite imagery data (available LC data was just used!).
I would suggest to the authors to submit their manuscript in a journal more related to environmental and/or ecological objectives.
Author Response
Reply: We thank very much the Reviewer for the positive comments. We submitted this paper intending to face an important issue for environmental planning and management but also for future research development in remote sensing. The two aspects are, in our opinion, intertwined and the submitted manuscript proposes a contribution to the discussion on which remote sensing-based products should be developed to fit the demand. Moreover, the special issue “CORINE Land Cover System: Limits and Challenges for Territorial Studies and Planning” already presents several published contributions where LC maps are used to demonstrate potentials for planning and territorial analyses.
