Application and Validation of a Municipal Administrative Area Spatial Zoning Model in Village-Town System Planning
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
How to manage the urban rural interplay is a crucial issues in several countries. However I found this paper useless. it appears a computer based exercise and a reader can only accept everything in it.
It deals with many topics and mix to many different ideas.
I found its reading really difficult.
Author Response
Response: Thanks for you previous time and comments. We have changed the manuscript significantly. Our previous studies focused on the construction of the model, and the scope and field of application of the model were also involved. The reason is that the model not only has important value in the zoning of village-town system, but also has good value in the zoning of urban system and urban zoning. Every aspect clearly involves too much content to be reflected in an article, so I decomposed it into four paper s. This paper is not only one of the applications of the model, but also a supplement and validation to the previous research. Therefore, we believe the value of this paper lies in that the unified and perfect model of urban spatial regionalization (this model) can not only solve the key problems of the village system, but also effectively avoid the current situation that the village system zoning draws lessons from the decentralized and diverse urban system zoning model. At the same time, the application effect has been verified, which provides a good idea and solution for the village system zoning and the formulator of the village system zoning. Question way.
We sincerely hope the changed formation can meet your requirement. Thanks again.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The subject is worthy of research, but the article requires several important improvements both in its structure and content, so I propose the authors a careful revision in order to eliminate the current shortcomings and improve its relevance and scientific soundness. Below I detail my main concerns and minor issues found.
MAIN CONCERNS
1) Significance of results/Originality: The authors have other studies on the same subject in the same area as they have specified in the bibliography. In this regard, it is important to specify and highlight the extent to which the findings of this article represent a significant scientific advance and how it differs from previous articles, so that this contribution does not involve a simple reinterpretation of the study previously conducted. In addition, clear description of formulation in methods used and numerical results obtained specifically for this article is requested (figures from 2.4 subsection are not clearly justified).
2) Structure: the structure of the article is too simple. Mixing the methodology and results sections lead readers to confusion. Moreover, the lack of a specific results section prevents knowing clearly what are the results obtained in this article and which correspond to other studies. Therefore, I recommend dividing section number two into two independent chapters, methodology and results.
On the other hand, the third section is also confusing. It is not clear which text is part of the discussion, nor is there a conclusive text of the research carried out. Therefore, I also recommend separating this section by differentiating what corresponds to the discussion and what corresponds to the conclusions following the template provided by the journal on its website.
3) Introduction: The authors go directly to the specific issue of MMA without situating the importance of the research context previously. It is important to show previously the importance of the topic and why it deserves research placing it in a wider international context to make it attractive to the readers of the journal (for example references 5-9 cite only local studies in China, this sense I recommend to expand the number of international references of high scientific impact incorporating examples of other continents such as the following:
García-Ayllón, S. Rapid development as a factor of imbalance in urban growth of cities in Latin America: A perspective based on territorial indicators. Habitat Int. 2016, 58, 127-142.
MINOR ISSUES
- MAA should be placed in l.18 rather than l.24
- Not necessary to cite previous study l.21
- Eliminate M S (l.93) y place references after “others”
- Split enormous paragraph from l.78 a l.157
- Cite previous study in l.185
- Review reference order from final introduction to beginning section 2 (goes from 61 l.183 to 66-65? in l.245)
- Explain kappa value or at least include a reference for readers not familiar with it
- Table 2 can be reformatted to maintain the vertical orientation of the sheet
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thanks for you previous time and comments. We have changed the manuscript significantly. Please find the response in the attached file. Thanks again.
Best regards,
Yujing Zhao
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
All the suggestions requested by this reviewer were implemented and the new version of the article has significantly improved the previous one. In my opinion the article can be considered for publication.
