Effect of Different Landscapes on Heat Load to Buildings
, Bernd Leinauer 2, Matteo Serena 3, Elena Sevostianova 2, Burl Donaldson 4 and Igor Sevostianov 1,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I can see the authors have significantly improved the manuscript.
I still have some comments:
Better do not cite the references in the abstract.
Please clearly write down the objectives and innovative points of the study in the end of Introduction Section.
Author Response
Reviewer #1:
- Better do not cite the references in the abstract.
Response. We moved the citations to the Introduction.
- Please clearly write down the objectives and innovative points of the study in the end of Introduction Section
Response. We add the objectives in the end of introduction line 99 to line 107]
Reviewer 2 Report
This is the second round. Just a minor typo : "The values they used for the absorptivity for the grass and xeric landscaping are o.7". (0 instead of o - line 202).
Interesting article.
Author Response
Reviewer #2:
- Line202 "The values they used for the absorptivity for the grass and xeric landscaping are o.7". (0 instead of o - line 202)”
Response. Thanks, we change it.
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper presented to the journal is acceptable with some minor revisions.
Page 2 line 47: I think that it should be "during a summer day". Actually UHI is always present at night, and sometimes during the day. In semiarid climates, it is possible that shadows of buildings reduce the day time UHI intensity, that could be even negative, both in summer and winter. Authors should develop a brief general paragraph dividing most important factors of UHI generation: urban morphology, anthropogenic heat release, and impervious materials - that is the object of the work.
Page 7 line 202: change "o" for "0" in absorptivity value. You should reference the values assumed for emissivity and absorptivity.
I don't understand in the results section, figure 6, why the wind speed is exactly the same in both cases.
I agree with general conclusions about the benefits produced by grass; however I do not understand completely the energy balance. Why at night the heat flux from the wall to the grass is almost always higher than the flux form the wall to the xeric material, if the emissivities are similar (the grass is actually a little smaller)? I expected the opposite: during the night the xeric material should be cooler (by IR exchange with the sky) and the heat transfer from the wall should be higher.
I suggest to include more references, 38 are a little number. There are many papers on UHI intensity and on buildings-environment interaction that could by cited.
Author Response
Reviewer #3:
- Line 47: I think that it should be "during a summer day". Actually, UHI is always present at night, and sometimes during the day. In semiarid climates, it is possible that shadows of buildings reduce the daytime UHI intensity, that could be even negative, both in summer and winter. Authors should develop a brief general paragraph dividing most important factors of UHI generation: urban morphology, anthropogenic heat release, and impervious materials - that is the object of the work.
Response. thanks: we changed it to “during summer day”.
- Line 202 change "o" for "0" in absorptivity value. You should reference the values assumed for emissivity and absorptivity.
Response. Yes, we change it and for the absorptivity value, surface color was relied on to determine the value and for the emissivity the reference was added line 280.
- I don't understand in the results section, figure 6, why the wind speed is exactly the same in both cases
Response. Thanks for this question; the both walls are in the same elevation and our experimental done in NMSU for both wall the distance between two walls is 300 m and in this case the change in wind speed will be very small.
- I agree with general conclusions about the benefits produced by grass; however, I do not understand completely the energy balance. Why at night the heat flux from the wall to the grass is almost always higher than the flux forms the wall to the xeric material, if the emissivities are similar (the grass is actually a little smaller)? I expected the opposite: during the night the xeric material should be cooler (by IR exchange with the sky) and the heat transfer from the wall should be higher.
Response. Yes, as you can see the figures 3 nighttime 8:30 PM to 7:30 AM, the heat transfer from the wall to the landscapes (grass is higher than the xeric because the heat capacity)].
- I suggest including more references, 38 are a little number. There are many papers on UHI intensity and on buildings-environment interaction that could by cited.
Response. Thanks for your comments, we add a reference.
