Spatiotemporal Land-Use Changes of Batticaloa Municipal Council in Sri Lanka from 1990 to 2030 Using Land Change Modeler

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It reads an excellent job, neat and very easy It is well ordered and it is very clear what they did and their results. Congratulations to the authors.

Author Response

Thank you so much for the comments and we do appreciate your comments.

Reviewer 2 Report

This study analyzes the spatiotemporal land-use changes that occurred during 1990–2020 in the municipal council limits of Batticaloa and combines the Markov chain process and the empirical land-use model to simulate the land-use change in 2030. The manuscript is of great significance for understanding the land-use change in Batticaloa and the application of the Markov chain model. However, some revisions are still needed.

1. This manuscript should highlight innovations in research methods or technical routes.
2. As a Technical Note, the data processing and calculation process should be more detailed. At present, the content of this part is too general.
3. It is recommended that the land-use changes during1990 to 2020 be used as a separate part to describe the past land-use changes in detail. In addition, an in-depth analysis should be conducted on the characteristics and possible causes of land-use changes.
4. It is recommended that the simulation results of land-use change in 2030 be described in detail as a separate part. In addition, model validation should be performed on the simulation results to increase the reliability of the results.
5. This manuscript can add the Discussion Section and Conclusion Section to summarize the research methods, research results, research deficiencies, and future research.
6. The manuscript can appropriately add secondary titles to make the whole article structure clearer.
7. The current titles are in the wrong order.

Author Response

Attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

There should even be bodies of water in the maps, the absence of bodies of water distorts the visualization of land use.
There is a very weak discussion in the article, it is necessary to complete it and compare the results of the authors with other works.

Author Response

There should even be bodies of water in the maps, the absence of bodies of water distorts the visualization of land use.

Thank you so much for the comment. This region is comes under Dry zone and a few small water bodies available. We did not consider waterbody as a land-use class when classifying and appreciate your suggestion. 
There is a very weak discussion in the article, it is necessary to complete it and compare the results of the authors with other works.

We have added a separate discussion and a conclusion. In addition most sections in the manuscript revised according to reviewer's feedback.

Reviewer 4 Report

The manuscript analyses the land-use changes of Batticaloa Municipal District from 1990 to the projected state in 2030. The structure of the paper is logical yet incomplete, as it ends with a results section and the reader cannot find a discussion or a conclusion section. Apart from a factual presentation of the results, the authors have no message for the readership. It is not clear what their aim is in presenting their research.

The research is methodologically well-executed, using appropriate procedures and software. While the accuracy of the method is communicated when land use maps are produced, it is not in the case of LCM, even though the software calculates different accuracy metrics (for example Skill Measure).

In addition, there is a lot of wordiness in the text (e.g. abstract line 19) and many spelling mistakes and typos. The design of the figures is acceptable and provides visual support for the results.

The manuscript is not acceptable in its present form and I recommend a major revision for the authors.

Suggestions for revision:

- the introduction should include a clear statement of the problem for which the authors are conducting the study, please define research questions and objectives,

- the presentation of the study area and methods is good, the LCM accuracy data should be reported from the software,

- write a discussion section reflecting on the problem and research questions raised in the introduction and compare the results with literature,

- write a conclusion, which summarises the main messages of the research for the international research community, including the authors' plans for further research,

- improve the quality of the writing and spelling, thorough proofreading is required before submitting the article.

Author Response

See the attachement.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have revised the manuscript. However, some revisions are still needed. Provided the following comments and suggestions：

1. The research innovation of this manuscript should be more prominent.
2. Section 4.1 should give a summary description of the accuracy assessment and emphasize the overall accuracy level during the research period.
3. It is suggested to combine line 196 to line 228 into one paragraph to describe the land-use change from 1990 to 2020 from the perspectives of temporal change and spatial change separately.
4. In Section 4.2, bare land illustrates less loss and less gain, which should be described by specific data.
5. The Conclusions Section should reflect the general trend of land-use change in the study area from 1990 to 2020, and the deep meaning reflected by the land-use change. The content of this part is too simple.
6. The current tables are in the wrong order.

Author Response

See the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors responded to the reviews and supplemented the work. I recommend publishing.

Author Response

Thank you so much for the comments, we do appreciate it.

Reviewer 4 Report

I accept the answers of the authors. The manuscript has been much improved by the changes. There are still typos in the manuscript.

Author Response

Thank you so much for the comments. We checked grammar and punctuation of the manuscript.