Influence of Land Use Change on the Surface Albedo and Climate Change in the Qinling-Daba Mountains
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
figure 5 in results must be a diagram.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Title: In all the article the discussions were about how Land Cover CHANGES have an influence over surface albedo and climate, and I think in the title the word "change" must be present.
Introduction
Page 1 Line 22: ”land use activity regulates climate via 29 land cover changes”. Land use changes are just one of the factors influencing the climate. Please complete and quote accordingly.
Page 2 lines 47 to 49: A question arrise from this statement you have made: So, it is better to change through deforestation the forest into pastures and crops in order to "increase the albedo and cool the climate"?! Please don't make such a hazardous statement, because you can encourage deforestation as a practice. The phenomenon is much complex.
Page 2 line 57: is not "incoming solar radiative", but "incoming solar radiation"
Materials and Methods
An image of 1 km resolution for the land cover data is very rough in order to discuss about changes. On a 1kmx1km surface you can have more than one land cover (you have mixed pixels), don't you have vector land cover databases, which can be a better choice when you want to discuss about changes?
Page 4 Figure 2: What do you mean by "Changes in regional"? Some classes are not clearly observed on the image.
Page 4 lines 115 to 118: Please specifi what you have done with the MODIS product. You have create a mean annual image for the studied years? The same for the radiative data.
Results
Page 5 figure 3: The images have the legend not very clealy visible, pease enlarge the legend for all 4 maps.
Page 6 Table 2 and 3: Please explain the mechanisms that generate the observed changes in land cover. The changes from construction land to woodland, grassland or unused land I think there are very small. A 0.13 km2 change I think is more an error than a real change. A 1km2 or a 2km2 change it means 1 or 2 pixels. Such a small change must be verified because can be an error or something .
Page 7 Figure 4: The images must be enlarged to be more clear.
Page 7 lines 222 to 224: The phrase is not clear. What do you mean by " as unused land use patterns such as cultivated land,......" Form your phrase results that cultivated land, woodland, grassland and water area are components of the unused land, which is not true!
Page 8 Figure 5: please use thicker lines for this two graphs.
Conclusions
Page 11 lines 339 to 340: you cannot convert construction land into construction land....this is no chage, so please revise the phrase.
Comparisons with other similar studies in China but also in other parts of the world are needed in the discussion and conclusion sections.
A very good work, which involved a large volume of data to be processed, but care must be taken with some of the statements in the text because they can lead to risky conclusions.
The english is good.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The selected research topic is quite interesting and it has also been done in an appropriate way. However, some points are required to address in order to enhance the quality of the study.
Major
- A detailed explanation of each land-use type is required. As an example, what do you mean by unused land? How about the scale of the data.
- As you mentioned in LN 118, Surface albedo data is a 500m scale. Again you said it as 1km data in LN 128. Would you please clarify it?
Note for both points 1 and 2: A comprehensive meta information is strongly suggested.
- A flow diagram/ flow chart that explained the methodology is suggested.
- The discussion is not a summary of the results. It should be discussed the result what you have gained along with the impacts of the results, future implications, and benefits to the society. Basically, you have to cook the result in order to produce different tastes.
- It can be observed the summary of the results is also the conclusion. However, it's not wrong. Basically, conclusions should only be presented with the concreted information rather than the summary of the results.
- Some additional readings which aligning with your research are also suggested as follows, https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/8/5/65/htm, https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/9/7/461
I wish you all the best in your research activities.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The material is much improved. The authors took into account all the suggestions made.
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript has been improved and all comments have been addressed
