Reply to “Comment on ‘Validating Intensity Prediction Equations for Italy by Observations’ by Sum Mak, Robert Alan Clements, and Danijel Schorlemmer” by Mathias Raschke

Abstract Raschke (2016) commented on Mak et al. (2015) regarding the use of the performance metric, calculation of the epicentral intensity, and treatment of the focal depths for historical earthquakes when the focal depths have not been estimated in the databases we used. In reply, we present our opinions on these issues. We hope this may help the reader to decide how our study should be interpreted and how future studies of similar kinds should be conducted.