Urban Canopy Parameters’ Computation and Evaluation in an Indian Context Using Multi-Platform Remote Sensing Data

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

A false positive rate of 17.27% for the building morphology seems high... do you have any insights into why this is the case?

Figures in general: - the resolution of these figures is fuzzy, and I would recommend a higher resolution version be provided for publication.   I would also encourage the authors / journal to enlarge them as much as possible to fit the width of the paper print area, so to maximize legibility

Table 6: I see that a linear model was fit to all of these parameters.  Were other regression fits attempted?  Was linear the best outcome for all the parameters? 

Appendix A: normally I would prefer to see the equations for the parameters presented in the methods section, but given the number of parameters you are assessing, I agree with clustering them in an appendix. 

References: I see one reference to work by Timothy Oke -- I really think you should review a bit more of his work in your intro, as he is a stalwart in Urban climate research. 

Figure 5 - suggestion, remake this simple scatterplot graph using another graphing platform other than excel.  Sigmaplot, Matlab, etc. 

Overall, the discussion is ok, but it is lacking some comparisons of the results between the three cities, and what factors may have led to variance in the results.  Surely there must be differences in the city layout, building size and density, and surfaces -- how was this assessed in your study?   How would your methods transfer to a really large city, like Mumbai or Kolkata?

Author Response

Authors thank reviewer for his constructive suggestions. All suggestions are addressed and point wise answers are as below: 

Comment: A false positive rate of 17.27% for the building morphology seems high... do you have any insights into why this is the case?

Response: The false positive rate of 17.27% falls within the expected range for urban morphology extraction using VHRS optical stereo data as accuracy achieved in this study is comparable to earlier published studies for complex urban environments such as the development pattern in study areas (Xu et al., 2017; Gupta et al., 2022). Urban areas in complex urban environment such as Indian cities are generally characterized by high-density development patterns, which introduces complexities in accurate identification of building footprints due to overlapping structures, varied building heights, and shadow effects.

The discussion section is modified to discuss these results. Pl see Section 4 Para 2.

Comment: Figures in general: - the resolution of these figures is fuzzy, and I would recommend a higher resolution version be provided for publication.   I would also encourage the authors / journal to enlarge them as much as possible to fit the width of the paper print area, so to maximize legibility

Response: We thank reviewer for the observation. Resolution has been upgraded, and figures are enlarged for better clarity.

Comment: Table 6: I see that a linear model was fit to all of these parameters.  Were other regression fits attempted?  Was linear the best outcome for all the parameters?

Response: Other regression models, such as polynomial and logarithmic fits, were tested; however, the linear model provided the best fit for the parameters analyzed. Polynomial fit with higher orders also did not provide significant improvement.

Comment: Appendix A: normally I would prefer to see the equations for the parameters presented in the methods section, but given the number of parameters you are assessing, I agree with clustering them in an appendix.

Response: Thank you for the feedback.

Comment: References: I see one reference to work by Timothy Oke -- I really think you should review a bit more of his work in your intro, as he is a stalwart in Urban climate research.

Response: Yes We do agree with the Reviewer. Two of his significant contributions were already referred.

1. D. Stewart and T. R. Oke, “Local climate zones for urban temperature studies,” Bull Am Meteorol Soc, vol. 93, no. 12, pp. 1879–1900, 2012.
2. T. R. Oke, “G. Mills, A. Christen, and JA Voogt, 2017: Urban Climates,” 2017, Cambridge University Press.

Further, additional references to Timothy Oke's foundational work in urban climate research have been incorporated in the manuscript.

3. Grimmond, C. S. B., & Oke, T. R. (1999). Aerodynamic Properties of Urban Areas Derived from Analysis of Surface Form. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 38(9), 1262–1292. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1999)038<1262:APOUAD>2.0.CO;2
4. S. B. Grimmond, T. S. King, M. Roth, and T. R. Oke, “Aerodynamic roughness of urban areas derived from wind observations,” Boundary-Layer Meteorol., vol. 89, no. 1, pp. 1–24, Oct. 1998
5. . Voogt and T. . Oke, “Thermal remote sensing of urban climates,” Remote Sens. Environ., vol. 86, no. 3, pp. 370–384, Aug. 2003.

Comments: Figure 5 - suggestion, remake this simple scatterplot graph using another graphing platform other than excel.  Sigmaplot, Matlab, etc.

Response: Thank you for the suggestion. We agree with the reviewer that alternative platforms like Matlab or Sigmaplot may provide additional benefits. However, it has been ensured that the quality of scatterplot produced in Excel is of the highest possible quality for publication.

Comments: Overall, the discussion is ok, but it is lacking some comparisons of the results between the three cities, and what factors may have led to variance in the results.  Surely there must be differences in the city layout, building size and density, and surfaces -- how was this assessed in your study?   How would your methods transfer to a really large city, like Mumbai or Kolkata?

Response: The discussion section has been expanded to include a comparison of the results between the three cities, highlighting key differences in city layout, building size, density, and surface characteristics.

Pl. see Section 4 Para 4.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an important methodological contribution to the definition of urban canopy parameters.

Most studies on urban climate lack detailed information on surface characteristics, which are essential for diagnosing, for example, urban heat islands.

The article's major innovation is the use of different platforms that use high-resolution remote sensors.

The research procedures are presented in detail as well as the results. The article can be a reference for urban climate researchers, especially for studies that develop spatial modeling.

It is only suggested that the spatial resolution of the maps be improved. It is difficult to read the information in detail, as it is exceedingly small.

Author Response

Authors thank Reviewer for his positive feedback. Answers to comments are as below: 

Comments:

• This is an important methodological contribution to the definition of urban canopy parameters.
• Most studies on urban climate lack detailed information on surface characteristics, which are essential for diagnosing, for example, urban heat islands.
• The article's major innovation is the use of different platforms that use high-resolution remote sensors.
• The research procedures are presented in detail as well as the results. The article can be a reference for urban climate researchers, especially for studies that develop spatial modeling.
• It is only suggested that the spatial resolution of the maps be improved. It is difficult to read the information in detail, as it is exceedingly small.

Response: Thank you for the insightful feedback and positive comments. The resolution of the maps has been improved for better readability and clarity.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for your revisions and replies.  I am generally pleased with all of your changes and responses, but I still disagree (as a personal rule) with the use of excel for presentation-plots for publication.  That said, the effort made to ensure they are presentable is noted, and I am fine with accepting this paper for publication.    Thank you and good work overall! 

Author Response

Comment: Thank you for your revisions and replies.  I am generally pleased with all of your changes and responses, but I still disagree (as a personal rule) with the use of excel for presentation-plots for publication.  That said, the effort made to ensure they are presentable is noted, and I am fine with accepting this paper for publication.    Thank you and good work overall! 

Reply: Authors thank Reviewer for his encouraging comments. As suggested, all the scatter plots figures have been regenerated using Matplot library in python. Pl. see figure 5, 6, 13, 14, 15 and 16.