Quantifying the effect of forests on frequency and intensity of rockfalls

Moos, Christine; Dorren, Luuk; Stoffel, Markus

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-291-2017

Articles | Volume 17, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-291-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-291-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 2

Research article

|

28 Feb 2017

Research article |

| 28 Feb 2017

Quantifying the effect of forests on frequency and intensity of rockfalls

Christine Moos, Luuk Dorren, and Markus Stoffel

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Final revised paper (published on 28 Feb 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 01 Jul 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'The paper deals with the influence of forest on the impact frequency and intensity of rock blocks', Anonymous Referee #1, 17 Aug 2016
- AC1: 'Reply comments on "Quantifying the effect of forests on occurrence frequency and intensity of rockfalls"', Christine Moos, 31 Oct 2016
RC2: 'Interactive comments on "Quantifying the effect of forest on occurrence frequency and intensity of rockfalls" by Christine Moos et al.', David Toe, 08 Sep 2016
- AC2: 'Reply to the comments on the paper "Quantifying the effect of forests on occurrence frequeny and intensity of rockfalls"', Christine Moos, 31 Oct 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by Editor and Referees) (14 Nov 2016) by Thomas Glade

AR by Christine Moos on behalf of the Authors (20 Dec 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (27 Dec 2016) by Thomas Glade

RR by David Toe (11 Jan 2017)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Interactive comment on “Quantifying the effect of forests on frequency and intensity of rockfalls” by Christine Moos et al.

1. General comments

I would first thanks the authors for taking into account the suggestions that were given to improve the first version of the paper. The changes done in the material and method section and in the discussion and conclusion section greatly improve the paper. The new simulations that were done to improve the statistical analyses were very much appreciated.

Technical corrections are needed before the final publication (2. See specific comments)

2. Specific comments

P4, L10: The justification given for the simulations performed on a concave slope (in the response to the reviewers) could be placed in the article.

P4, L18: The first sentence could be placed in the introduction section.

P5, L13: The explanation given for the block volume range chosen for the simulations (in the response to the reviewers) could be placed in the article.

P5, L27: As I have mentioned in the first review (Other comments: 3.6.7) the author have mistaken the Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

P8, L19/ P3, L19/ P10, L21/ P10, L26: The expression "reducing effect of forest" should be improved as it was suggested in the first review. It could be replaced by "the protection effect of the forest".

Tab 3: The variable (Intercept) remain undefined.

Fig 8: In the Rt_int model the extreme values observed around -1.5 E90_red have to be explained or discussed. In addition, due to this extreme value, the scale of the box plots could be improve.

Fig 9: New symbols need to be chosen to differentiate the curves aisle, clustered and gaps.

P10, L5: As I have already noticed in the first review the reference cited is not accurate. The result presented in Lopez et al 2016 is : "143 years for forested condition in 1850 to > 2000 years for forested condition in 2013 for a block volume of 1.2 m3". There was less forest in 1850 compared to 2013 but there was forest.

P10, L22: The word elasticity can't be used to describe the soil response during a block impact. It could be replaced by "capacity of the soil to dissipate energy". See the specific comments 3.1.6 of the first review.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (further review by Editor) (15 Jan 2017) by Thomas Glade

AR by Christine Moos on behalf of the Authors (24 Jan 2017)

ED: Publish as is (01 Feb 2017) by Thomas Glade

AR by Christine Moos on behalf of the Authors (02 Feb 2017) Manuscript

Short summary

The goal of this study was to quantify the effect of forests on the occurrence frequency and intensity of rockfalls. This was done based on 3-D rockfall simulations for different forest and non-forest scenarios on a virtual slope. The rockfall frequency and intensity below forested slopes is significantly reduced. Statistical models provide information on how specific forest and terrain parameters influence this reduction and they allow prediction and quantification of the forest effect.