Review of 'Multi-Spatiotemporal Analysis of Changes in Mangrove Forests in Palawan, Philippines: Predicting Future Trends Using Support Vector Machine Algorithm and Markov Chain Model'

The paper mapped the spatio-temporal trends of mangrove forests in the city of Palawan, Phillipnes using Markov chain model highlighting the response of mangrove forests to policy interventions, thus speaking to the role of protective mechanisms in impacting health and abundance of mangrove forests.

Overall, the manuscript is a great attempt by Cayetano et al., Following are a few suggestions for the authors' consideration.

Line 10: I think the authors meant "titled" not "entitled"

Line 16: Mangrove conservation isnt the right term I feel. One can not conserve mangroves using remote sensing, rather study mangroves and thus promote conservation

Line 124: This sentence can be improved, reflecting the exact reasons why repeated, accurate on-ground sampling exercises cant be done. For instance, talking about the inaccessibility of mangrove forests, distance from monitoring locations etc, cost associated with the field visits and high technical skills required to navigate these ecosystems make in-situ sampling difficult for mangrove forests.

Line 125: If the above suggestions are accepted, then consider changing "however" to "thus"

Line 136-141: Consider rewording "The mangroves of Palawan have been protected under the direct human inventions through the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protected area Category I-IV (Long and Giri 2011) and 1992 Republic Act No.7611, commonly known as the Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan Act (SEP Law, FAO 2021); yet this unique ecosystem remains under threat due to climate change and associated rising sea levels (Gilman et al. 141 2008; Giri et al. 2011)."

Line 143: replace "for" with "in"

Line 161-163: sentence hard to understand; may consider rewording

Line 196-197: Repeated info as Introduction Para 2 Line 4

Line 285: If the abbreviation has not been elaborated before, then recommend you to write Electromagnetic spectrum here

Line 371: a brilliant explaination of the Markov tool, nice!

Line 378: replace "have been" with "is"

Line 425: consider adding "diagram of multi-temporal mangrove change detection"

Line 481: Figure description: please do mention the time frame as well

Line 674: Please elaborate the ECAN abbreviation

Line 728: replace "caused" to "cause"

Line 757: replace "may had" with "may be"

Line 788: replace "becomes slightly shifting" to "starts to shift"

Line 814: Maybe you meant "vitally important" instead of "viably important"