Escape Route Index: A Spatially-Explicit Measure of Wildland Firefighter Egress Capacity
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article represents an important contribution to a relevant topic that is still largely unexplored: the use of GIS to map fire escape routes. The study is relevant both from a scientific and practical decision-making point of view, providing analysis of real-world entrapments and suggesting a great operational value of this approach in pre-suppression planning.
The article is very well written, methods and results are clearly presented and very extensively discussed. In particular, the article discussion section does a great job in highlighting uncertainties associated with the limitations of existing vegetation maps and inherent to the lack of knowledge of fire perimters prior to fire occurrence -which might be partly adressed in future studies with fire growth simulations under different scenarios-. The need for future research is also thoroughly discussed. Future efforts might focus on comparing satellite based fuel maps against those based on LIDAR vegetation density metrics, and calibrating vegetation coefficients for a variety of vegetation types with further field data.
Just a minor suggestion: perhaps it would be convenient that such limitations and needs for future research might be included in a brief line already at the end of the abstract. That could help the reader to get the feeling right form the start of current limitations and potential future improvements, reducing overconfidence of a product that, while it can already be integrated in operational decision making and benefit fire planning, will undoubtedly keep improving with those future analyses.
I think that with such inclusion the article can be accepted for publication.
It provides relevant information for both scientists and fire managers and opens many questions to keep improving operational maps that can make a difference in smarter and safer fire suppression planning.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your helpful review. We very much appreciate your kind and supportive feedback. We have addressed your suggestion by adding the following sentence to the end of the abstract (lines 33-34):
Continued improvements in accuracy of vegetation density mapping and increased availability of lidar will greatly benefit future implementations of ERI.
Thank you.
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper introduce a new metric for assessing and mapping egress capacity, or the degree to which one can evacuate from a given location, on a broad, spatial scale based on existing landscape conditions.
The paper is well structured, easy to read and the conclusions are based on consistent experimental data.
I believe it is a valid contribution to research: it explains in detail the proposed solution and clarifies its limits. It also details the still open research topics.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your helpful review. We very much appreciate your kind and supportive feedback.
Thank you.
