Analysis of Land Surface Temperature Dynamics in Islamabad by Using MODIS Remote Sensing Data

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper should improved, the title is not well written, introduction needs improvements according to the title and add some previous work history history and also define why your work is different. The figures are poorly described. The number of references are short.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

Your work covers topics related to climate change, but is not suitable for publication in its current form. Below are my comments and in attached file.

Abstract: there is no purpose and no indication of research methods, please also provide some conclusion. Introduction: you have presented too little world literature, there are works e.g. from Europe describing this problem of urban heat islands. Besides, please describe the purpose in detail, because you have a lot of elements used in your research methods.

Research methods: research area - the map is weak, it needs to be changed, the satellite image shows nothing, please insert a map with the location of the country, city in the background of Asia, I know where is Islamabad, but not others.

Hotspots - please also describe them, because there is no information in this section about them. I did not notice in the methods of describing the time of your research - periods, they must be described in detail, because you only give years, and the abstract contains information about periods lasting several days. What is it about? I do not know.

Each of the methods you have chosen must be supported by formulas, and also described in detail in the results. The picture with the methods shows more of the elements you used, because ArcGis shows, but there is nothing in the description. This you have to change.

Results: this section cannot contain citation of other items, here you only insert the results of your work with the individual indicators from the methods, this must be arranged as you presented in the research methods. Without the correct layout, your article cannot be considered a research paper.

Each figure must be described in detail in the results, you provide descriptions in the results of various figures, but they are also wrongly numbered.

Please also put information under the figures with what programs were made, this is missing. Please, describe only your results in the results, and then refer your results to other works in the discussion.

Discussion: where is she? you have a lot of references to other works in your results. Please compare your results with the results of other authors. Without this section, no articles are currently published in science.

Conclusions: are correctly structured

Best regards

Reviewer

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors,

Thank you for the opportunity to read your article. The subject is an interesting, current one, but in order to increase the value of the manuscript I have some suggestions:

- the abstract of the paper does not have the classic structure in the fatherhood. After the introductory phrase, the purpose of the study should be briefly presented, then the research methods used in the study, the results are presented, but there should also be a sentence as a conclusion.

 

- introducing the research gap, to see what is missing from the specialized literature and what your new article comes with;

- also, in the introductory chapter, I consider that other specialized works should be cited, 20 works are too few for an article that can be published in Sustainability. You should look for the literature on climate change in the countries most affected by this phenomenon. Many articles on this topic have been written in countries in Asia and Europe. Also, the urban heat island is approached in a series of works from Japan (eg.Tokyo), France (eg Paris), Romania (eg. Bucharest, Brasov).

 

- please describe the purpose of the study in more detail, more clearly

 

- I suggest the introduction of a discussion section; It would be advisable to compare your results with other similar results in the literature. These are the things that are written in the discussion section.

 

-check carefully on the magazine's website the citation mode of some sites, my attention was drawn to work no. 21, incorrectly cited in the bibliography.

Sincerely,

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Authors improves a lot and much better than previous one.

Author Response

We appreciate that you have accepted the revised manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

Second version Your article is better. You corrected the article according to my suggestions.

Best regards

Reviewer

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you for sparing time to review our manuscript. It has greatly improved the overall quality of the manuscript. 

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear colleagues,

I have re-read the revised version of the manuscript and agree with it for publication.

I have one more comment to make: I suggest you reduce the number of words in the abstract. The abstract is very long. It must include one sentence each from: introduction, purpose of the study, methodology, results and conclusions. The summary must be brief, but at the same time comprehensive. You must remove details, abbreviations, etc.

Sincerely,

Author Response

Thank you for pointing out the suggestion. We have revised the abstract and reduced number of words from 348 to 213 while keeping in view the significance of the idea and context in a cohesive way. 

The edited abstract is as follows;

The rapid pace of un-attended urbanization has caused the urban heat island phenomenon due to which United Nations SDGs agenda 2030 calls for immediate actions for “sustainable cities and communities”. In this context, the case of the emerging metropolitan city Islamabad has been studied based on its developmental discourse vis-à-vis associated environmental problems. Time series trend for the Land Surface Temperature was generated by investigating the change in minimum and maximum variability, against a dataset of 1960-2012 which was obtained from the Pakistan Meteorological Department, along with MODIS LST images from January 2000 to December 2015. Statistical comparison of an 8-day composite of maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) temperature reveals an increasing trend with R2 values of 0.2507 (Tmin) and 0.1868 (Tmax). The box plots for both Tmin and Tmax depict changes in seasonal patterns for Islamabad, with summers becoming longer and winters becoming harsher. Moreover, the application of the Mann-Kendall test affirmed the slope of R2 linear trend map and showed temperature regression in Margalla Hills National Park and in such urban zones, which had an expanded vegetative cover. These findings will act as a guide for urban planners and future researchers to maintain a standardized urban heat island and promote the concept of sustainable cities in the future course of action.