Deploying the Total Operating Characteristic to Assess the Relationship between Land Cover Change and Land Surface Temperature in Abeokuta South, Nigeria

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper entitled “Deploying Total Operating Characteristic Curve to Assess the Relationship between Land Cover Change and Land Surface Temperature in Abeokuta South, Nigeria “wants to analyze the relationship between land cover change and land surface temperature using the Total Operating Characteristic curve (TOC). The paper is fascinating and well-structured. The study is conducted in Abeokuta, where urbanization is very high. The paper summarizes the relevant review in the introduction. The methodology part presents the applied approach. Figures and statistical outputs support the results. The authors should also consider the questions and suggestions written below： 1. The four land cover categories contain subtypes that are not well explained. 2. The introduction reports few papers but enough to understand the background. However, I suggest citing other outstanding papers, especially on the relationship between land surface temperature and land cover change during a time interval or multiple time intervals. 3. The authors' names should be written before references 4 and 5 in line 36. 4. Line 119, please write the QGIS version number. 5. The conclusions of this paper have been obtained from other experienced literature, what is the significance of using TOC method to study the relationship between land cover change and land surface temperature? 6. The end of line 200 should be a dot. 7. The colorbar in Figure 3 and Figure 4 should be changed by another color because the current version of the color is not easy to see. 8. Improve the formatting of Fig. 8 and Fig. 9. The sizes of the insets in these figures are inconsistent. Please unify the size in the graph. 9. Line 262: promise should be promises. 10. Much further discussion is warranted on the many biases and limitations of the study aside from the ones presented. 11. This paper is too brief and should be supplemented with a section that uses a GeoDetector to explore the effects of the interaction between the four land cover categories on land surface temperature (LST). 12. The conclusion of this paper is not clear, please state clearly and logically the conclusion reached through the experiment.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We appreciate your time and effort in carefully reviewing our manuscript and offering constructive feedback towards enriching it. In what follows, your comments are in black, and the authors’ responses are in red.

The four land cover categories contain subtypes that are not well explained.

We have included table 2, which provides definitions concerning the land cover categories.

The introduction reports few papers but enough to understand the background. However, I suggest citing other outstanding papers, especially on the relationship between land surface temperature and land cover change during a time interval or multiple time intervals.

We have included citations [12-13] to provide context concerning the relationship between LST and land change.

The authors' names should be written before references 4 and 5 in line 36.

We have made the necessary changes (see line 36).

Line 119, please write the QGIS version number.

We have made the necessary changes (see line 126).

The conclusions of this paper have been obtained from other experienced literature, what is the significance of using TOC method to study the relationship between land cover change and land surface temperature?

We have added the text in red to the conclusion to outline the importance of using TOC to study the relationship between land cover change and land surface temperature (See lines 375 – 381).

The end of line 200 should be a dot.

We have made the necessary change (see line 126).

The colorbar in Figure 3 and Figure 4 should be changed by another color because the current version of the color is not easy to see.

We have changed the colors of the maps (see figures 2 and 3).

Improve the formatting of Fig. 8 and Fig. 9. The sizes of the insets in these figures are inconsistent. Please unify the size in the graph.

We have improved the formatting of Fig. 8 and 9.

Line 262: promise should be promises.

Please refer to line 284 for the correction

Much further discussion is warranted on the many biases and limitations of the study aside from the ones presented.

We have added the text in red to the Discussion to describe other factors that might influence our results (See lines 352-359).

This paper is too brief and should be supplemented with a section that uses a GeoDetector to explore the effects of the interaction between the four land cover categories on land surface temperature (LST).

We investigated the GeoDetector via http://www.geodetector.cn/ and found it fascinating. However, we believe that using GeoDetector to explore the effects of the interaction between the four land cover categories on land surface temperature (LST) is a research question that can occupy another paper (a paper we might consider in the future). In addition, we also made our paper concise so that readers can spend less time absorbing the important findings we have presented in the paper.

The conclusion of this paper is not clear, please state clearly and logically the conclusion reached through the experiment.

We have added the text in red to the conclusion to outline the importance of using TOC to study the relationship between land cover change and land surface temperature (See lines  371 – 381).

Sincerely,

Authors

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscripts can be published in its current format.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for endorsing our paper and recommending it for publication.

 

Sincerely,

Authors

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors,

I have been pleased to read your paper, but I have found some aspects that must be improved: this paper seems more like an investigation of method than the real site exploration. For developing exploration, you will have to make some more aspects to investigate. It is not clear what time of vegetation did you investigated (if you have information, species of vegetation would be very beneficial to get image of the spatial changes) because it is not the same if you have a forest, or just green land covers on the site. they have completely different effect on mitigation of temperature. Whis data base for vegetation you used? Corine land cover is widely used in Europe, but if you have not used data base which generates vegetation type or species, please describe why. And the last fact which is not clear - what is developer pressure level on the explored area (some developing changes can be less or more influenced on temperature) and maybe give some insights into possible reduction of temperature in the future by developing with NBS solutions...

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We appreciate your time and effort in carefully reviewing our manuscript and offering constructive feedback towards enriching it. In what follows, your comments are in black and the authors’ responses are in red

Dear authors,

I have been pleased to read your paper, but I have found some aspects that must be improved: this paper seems more like an investigation of method than the real site exploration.

You are correct, “this paper seems more like an investigation of method than the real site exploration.” because the goal of this paper is to present TOC as an efficient method for assessing the relationship between land change and land surface temperature.

 For developing exploration, you will have to make some more aspects to investigate. It is not clear what time of vegetation did you investigated (if you have information, species of vegetation would be very beneficial to get image of the spatial changes) because it is not the same if you have a forest, or just green land covers on the site. they have completely different effect on mitigation of temperature.

We have included Table 1 to clarify the question of time stamps for the satellite imagery. The table shows 1987, 2004, and 2021 as the image acquisition dates. Thus, the sensor collected all the land cover categories, including vegetation, during the dates specified in Table 1. Table 2 provides descriptions of the four land cover categories. Table 2 describes Vegetation as “Areas predominantly covered by different tree species with high-density continuous canopy, areas that were disturbed by fires and/or logging, and forest resulting from natural regrowth.” As the definition of Vegetation suggests, we don’t distinguish between vegetation species. This is because our imagery's spatial resolution (30*30 meters) makes it difficult to distinguish between vegetation species. However, we agree that different vegetation covers will affect land surface temperature. Perhaps, the question of the effect of different vegetation on land surface temperature is appropriate for another research publication.

Which data base for vegetation you used? Corine land cover is widely used in Europe, but if you have not used data base which generates vegetation type or species, please describe why.

Please refer to our response to the previous question concerning vegetation (especially table 2).

And the last fact which is not clear - what is developer pressure level on the explored area (some developing changes can be less or more influenced on temperature) and maybe give some insights into possible reduction of temperature in the future by developing with NBS solutions...

Please refer to lines 294-306 for information concerning developer pressure.

Lines 328-331 give some insights into possible reduction of temperature in the future.

Sincerely,

Authors

 

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear author,

Please add to the discussion/conclusion (or make limitations of investigation) where you make note that this paper is an investigation of method not the real site exploration and that you have not explored different types of vegetation (which can be made in the future investigations) but you focused on exploring method.

I have noticed spell check mistake in an abstract.

Best regards

Author Response

Dear Review,

Thank you for the additional feedback.

We have made the necessary change to the paper to reflect your suggestions. Please see lines 381-385. We also proofread the abstract for typographical and spelling mistakes.

Sincerely,

Authors