Roll/Tip-Over Risk Analysis of Agricultural Self-Propelled Machines Using Airborne LiDAR Data: GIS-Based Approach

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript was focused on vineyards in the alpine region of the Autonomous Province of Trento, used terrestrial LiDAR technology to analyze slope steepness，then ,provided practical guidelines for safer machinery operation, which benefiting farmers, risk assessors, and manufacturers. The manuscript has clear ideas and rigorous structure, the corresponding conclusions was obtained through research. But there are some issues to discuss.

1. The manuscript states that according to ISO 16231-2:2015, integrating georeferenced slope data with tilt angle specifications of common self-propelled machinery. The manuscript mentions the application of geographic information system to obtain slope data, but how to combine with its inclination specification, please explain the specific method.
2. In the design process of the grape harvester, it will consider the impact of its climb and slope angle on the roll, in order to solve the roll problem in practical problems, the first importance should start from the structural parameters of the grape harvester itself. Therefore, it is suggested to use the obtained slope map and the existing structural parameters of the grape harvester to update the design, so as to improve the stability of the tractor under the slope and prevent the roll.
3. In this manuscript, a lot of language is used to describe the use of the obtained slope map to guide the driver or operator to use it, so as to avoid the roll risk. However, there is no specific research content on how to process and analyze the data acquired by LiDAR and GIS. Please modify it.
4. The tilt angle specifications are only a reference, which can not completely solve the rollover/roll problem. In addition, the coverage degree of the terrain model needs to be further improved.

Author Response

Please see the attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript evaluates the risk of agricultural machinery overturning by considering the combination of slopes in mountainous and hilly regions, together with the type of machinery used in agricultural tasks. In particular the study examines the level of risk associated with the use of self-propelled machinery for grape harvesting in the Italian environment.

General Comment

The study proposes the integration of information on the level of risk in the use of agricultural machinery in a GIS platform, taking into account the slope information of mountainous and hilly terrain. This makes it possible to provide important and immediate information resources to both farmers and rural development policy planners. This approach provides a valuable method for characterizing the risks associated with certain agricultural operations in sloping terrains.

Many agricultural operations are carried out using a combination of a tractor and an implement (e.g. chopping or harvesting), please indicate in the discussion how the GIS platform approach could take into account the use of these combined machines.

Image captions must be self-explanatory, some figure captions are incomplete or unclear, please integrate, see Minor Comment.

Minor comment

Lines173-174: High-resolution Digital Terrain Model. Please specify the geometric resolution

L 181: Please clarify, perhaps I have misunderstood correctly. It seems that the original detected data is already 0.5x0.5 m, why was an interpolation always done at 0.5x0.5?

Fig. 3: The caption is not self-explanatory, add description in detail, for example:   Autonomous Province of Trento Digital Elevation Map, from ….

Fig. 5 Including the percentages values of the areas would also improve the understanding of the data.

Fig. 6 Again, the figure description should be more detailed, e.g. Map of the Roll-over risk level for combine harvester without slope compensation system; C1..., C2...etc

Fig. 7 See indications figure 6

Line 256: Perhaps you meant type 3

Fig. 10: Again, detail the caption of the figure. Vineyard area in the municipality of Trento, classification of risk areas for the use of a grape harvester with (W_BLS) or without (NO_BLS) levelling systems; risk category C1:...., C2:...., C3: .......

Fig. 11: Please use the same legends for different figures, sometimes the codes C1, C2, C3 are used, sometimes only the numbers (1, 2, 3) are used (Fig. 11), sometimes only the colour code is used.

Other minor errors in spelling, formatting or English language errors will be corrected by the editorial staff.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Other minor errors in spelling, formatting or English language errors will be corrected by the editorial staff.

Author Response

Please see the attached file

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf