Quality Analysis on Spatial Planning Pattern of Rural Area in Southern Shaanxi, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The research about China's rural revitalization planning strategy and the development space of rural settlements have achieved remarkable results. It is a hot issue and remarkable significance. It proposes the value of radius can be used as a measure of the development scope of the village to controlling the scope of settlement construction. The research results of this paper are expected to define a theoretical basis for the spatial optimizing of rural area in southern Shaanxi. Some advices are as follows:

1. what is the “ladder-shaped ”in Table 6, This belong to Mode or Distribution area. Please explain it.
2. I'm confused about Table 7. The components of spatial structure means inner factor and the factors of spatial structure means the outer factor in the research. The” Component Influencing factor” describes the outer factor or inner factor in Table. Please explain it in the research.
3. The describe of “ southern Shaanxi has gradually formed a unique cultural environment” in the line 238, what the means about the cultural environment.
4. This formula to calculate the construction scope of each village in line 399. What is the scope of applying this formula?

 

Author Response

Question 1: What is the “ladder-shaped” in Table 6, This belong to Mode or Distribution area. Please explain it.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. The description “ladder-shaped” in Table 6 is a mode of spatial structure. We have modified it in the research. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question2: I'm confused about Table 7. The components of spatial structure means inner factor and the factors of spatial structure means the outer factor in the research. The” Component Influencing factor” describes the outer factor or inner factor in Table. Please explain it in the research.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. The components of spatial structure include inner factors and outer factors. In our research we described the inner factors as the components of spatial structure, and the outer factors is the factors of spatial structure. So, the components of spatial structure contain two meanings. We modify the description in Table 7. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 3: The describe of “southern Shaanxi has gradually formed a unique cultural environment” in the line 238, what the means about the cultural environment.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. The cultural environment concludes Qin culture, Ba culture, Chu culture, and Shu culture in southern Shaanxi. It is characterized by the transitional climate between the north and the south in China and the integration of the Qin culture, Ba culture, Chu culture, and Shu culture. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 4: This formula to calculate the construction scope of each village in line 399. What is the scope of applying this formula?

Answer: Thank you for the advice. This formula can apply in River valley and the ladder-shaped scattered mode in rural mountainous areas in China. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Reviewer 2 Report

Abstract

The abstract needs some improvements to be more clear. The research problem and its context should be framed in order to get a better understand of the research question. The main objective should be expressed, as well as the main the main conclusions.

Introduction

The research question does not appear clearly evidenced for the reader to understand the reason for the study.

Line 38-68 The state-of-art should be on paper in a chronological way regarding the references or other studied authors. It is too short without enough deep regarding spatial distribution, rural settlements and other related topics. Moreover, with only six references focused on Chinese studies and not in the international context, evidences the weak part of the introduction.

What are the gaps of studies developed before?

Why this is important? What this research brings as innovation to the scientific communitiy or to the topic of spatial distribution in the rural settlemenst context?

Line 71, The objective of th research is missing even the author express what research proposes.

Methodology

The methods used are quite known and the authors didn´t express any possibility to cross data in order to generate new interpretation of data relating them with spatial distribution. This section and its descriptions are too predictable.

Results

The results  presented are not well identified from the methodology, besides that and are not well comprehensible.

References

Almost of the bibliographic references have focused on Chinese case studies, which evidences a lack regarding the international scientific context.  more than 10 years, which shows the gap to achieve a good state of the art. This is a serious gap in the writing of the manuscript and its topicality as a research topic. Moreover, this section should be increase

Author Response

Question 1: Abstract

The abstract needs some improvements to be more clear. The research problem and its context should be framed in order to get a better understand of the research question. The main objective should be expressed, as well as the main the main conclusions.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. We have modified the abstract more clearly. we add the research problem and adjusted the conclusion. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 2: Introduction

Line 38-68 The state-of-art should be on paper in a chronological way regarding the references or other studied authors. It is too short without enough deep regarding spatial distribution, rural settlements and other related topics. Moreover, with only six references focused on Chinese studies and not in the international context, evidences the weak part of the introduction.

What are the gaps of studies developed before?

Why this is important? What this research brings as innovation to the scientific communitiy or to the topic of spatial distribution in the rural settlement context?

Line 71, The objective of the research is missing even the author express what research proposes.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. Previous studies on rural settlements focused on location, formation, spatial distribution, evolution, landscape, and the relationship between rural settlements and natural conditions respectively. At present, there is a lack of theory and practice to improve rural environment and space structure by using quantitative comprehensive analysis method, especially the research on the classification of rural spatial structure and the control of rural development scale in mountainous areas with fragile ecological environment.

The mode of rural spatial distribution will be a theoretical guidance for rural planning, which is very important. The innovation of this research is to classify the spatial structure of mountainous villages according to the geographical environment. It puts forward the weight of internal and external factors that affect the spatial structure of villages, and finally defines the reasonable scale of the planning villages.

We increased the purpose of the study. The classification of rural structure can optimize the spatial structure of rural planning and have better practice of supreme rural planning.

Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 2: Methodology

The methods used are quite known and the authors didn´t express any possibility to cross data in order to generate new interpretation of data relating them with spatial distribution. This section and its descriptions are too predictable.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. We use GIS and AHP to study villages respectively. In image processing, measuring geographic distribution is used to determine the center of mass of the village. Measuring geographic distribution is commonly used spatial statistical method in ArcGIS. The data cluster can display the center of gravity of a certain characteristic of vector data in the image through the derivation and calculation of its central component. According to the distribution status of the population of each village, the research confirms the quality points of eleven villages in the town in turn. The research used the method of AHP to classify the influencing components of spatial structure. Then the expert scored those components, synthesized the experience and judgment to analyze and estimate the influencing value of spatial structure. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 3: Results

The results presented are not well identified from the methodology, besides that and are not well comprehensible.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. The methods in research are the pathway to the conclusion. From the ArcGIS we achieved the distribution status of the population of each village, and confirms the quality points of eleven villages in the town in turn. The result shows that the distribution forms are classified into two types, which are clustered form and random form. Observing the settlement of the cluster form, the Moran’s index of the medium-density cluster type is 0.064653, which is much higher than its expected value E(I) of -0.006536. And Moran’s index of high-density cluster type is 4.782703, which is much higher than its expected value E(I) of -0.008. Compared the two Moran’s indexes, the high-density cluster type is much higher than the medium-density cluster type, which demonstrates that the population has a relatively strong relationship with the spatial structure based on the constant measure distance, and its relationship is positively correlated. From the AHP, we classified the components of spatial structure and got expert scoring. The result is that the influencing degree of geomorphological conditions is 33.4, which is the main influencing factor. The influencing degrees of land use scale and population quantity are 27.6 and 27.7, which are the key factors. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 4: References

Almost of the bibliographic references have focused on Chinese case studies, which evidences a lack regarding the international scientific context.  more than 10 years, which shows the gap to achieve a good state of the art. This is a serious gap in the writing of the manuscript and its topicality as a research topic. Moreover, this section should be increase.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. This article mainly focuses on the analysis of rural areas in the special region of Southern Shaanxi in China. There have been a lot of studies on rural structure in China. Therefore, almost of the bibliographic references have focused on Chinese case studies. We have added international scientific reference in research. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors

Thank you very much for your interesting contribution on Quality Analysis on Spatial Planning Pattern of Rural Area in Southern Shaanxi, China. This work is highly contributing the understanding of rural planning process, understanding, challenges concept / benefits and impact on local people. This current version needs more revision.  Introduction part, Gap analysis and discussion part need more revision.

Abstracts: Start the first sentence of abstract with global concept and provide other information accordingly.

 Introduction

 Provide the global challenges of urbanization and its impact on agriculture in the starting paragraph of introduction section and review the scientific work of developed and developing countries in the related topic.  

Please provide more successful story for the analysis of spatial pattern and planning using new tools and technology. Review the major challenges  for effective planning process in mountain and rural area and its impact .  

 The government plan and policy also play the vital role to develop the effective spatial planning pattern in rural area.  Please review some government policy and further provide the capacity development option to develop effective planning process using GIS and remote sensing technology in rural area. Add some text in introduction section, result and conclusion too.

Location

Provide the details about study area: Geographical extent in DMS, area elevation, total population. Overlay the elevation range in figure 1.

Line 95: Define the National and historical cities in details.

Provide the understanding level of local people about the effective planning process using new technology  if possible. Or recommendation is required.

 Provide the limitation of study in the final paragraph of discussion section.

Author Response

Question 1: Abstracts: Start the first sentence of abstract with global concept and provide other information accordingly.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. We have modified the abstract in the research. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 2:  Introduction

Provide the global challenges of urbanization and its impact on agriculture in the starting paragraph of introduction section and review the scientific work of developed and developing countries in the related topic. Please provide more successful story for the analysis of spatial pattern and planning using new tools and technology. Review the major challenges for effective planning process in mountain and rural area and its impact. The government plan and policy also play the vital role to develop the effective spatial planning pattern in rural area.  Please review some government policy and further provide the capacity development option to develop effective planning process using GIS and remote sensing technology in rural area. Add some text in introduction section, result and conclusion too.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. We added the content about the government plan and the policy about develop the effective spatial planning pattern in rural area in introduction. In accordance with the scale of rural development, we will solve the problems of limited rural economic development, population reduction and inadequate infrastructure. Reasonable optimization of village spatial structure is the basis of improving the rural living environment in China. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 3: Location

Provide the details about study area: Geographical extent in DMS, area elevation, total population. Overlay the elevation range in figure 1.

Answer: We added the detailed information about the southern Shaanxi area. The southern Shaanxi region covers an area of 69,500 square kilometers and has a population of about 8.87 million, with an altitude below 2,087 meters. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 4: Line 95: Define the National and historical cities in details.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. We added the concept in Line 95. The concept of the National and historical cities is ancient village, containing rich historical information and cultural landscape. It is China's material cultural heritage. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Question 5: Provide the understanding level of local people about the effective planning process using new technology if possible. Or recommendation is required.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. Through GIS and AHP, we summarized the basic theory of rural planning in southern Shaanxi and put forward development control scale for rural planning. We will provide the understanding level of local people about the effective technology in the further research.

Question 6: Provide the limitation of study in the final paragraph of discussion section.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. We added the limitation of study in the final paragraph of discussion section. The conclusion of the study can only be used as the theoretical basis of mountainous rural planning in China. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Some gaps remain the same unanswered in the manuscript. Improvements are insufficient and responses are shallow as inappropriate on some items.

Author Response

Respond to Reviewer

Question 1: Abstract

The abstract needs some improvements to be more clear. The research problem and its context should be framed in order to get a better understand of the research question. The main objective should be expressed, as well as the main the main conclusions.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. We have modified the abstract more clearly. We add the research problem and adjusted conclusion once more. We add the necessary why we want to do this research. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

 

Question 2: Introduction

Line 38-68 The state-of-art should be on paper in a chronological way regarding the references or other studied authors. It is too short without enough deep regarding spatial distribution, rural settlements and other related topics. Moreover, with only six references focused on Chinese studies and not in the international context, evidences the weak part of the introduction.

What are the gaps of studies developed before?

Why this is important? What this research brings as innovation to the scientific community or to the topic of spatial distribution in the rural settlement context?

Line 71, The objective of the research is missing even the author express what research proposes.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. We have supplemented the contents of foreign studies on rural spatial in the paper, and supplemented some important studies due to space limitations. I will introduce it to reviewers in detail below.

Recently, many countries have begun to implement multiple strategies to reinvigorate villages. Since World War II, European countries have adopted multifunctional agriculture and multifunctional countryside approaches as rural development paradigms. A differentiated countryside has become a major feature of rural spatial change. Settlement distribution reflects the relationship between the human and natural environments, sociopolitical factors and other factors during a certain period. Therefore, the spatial planning pattern of rural settlements is a popular topic in rural geography research. Early scholars paid attention to the formation and location of rural settlements. With the development of geographic information technology, the main research

methods for analyzing rural settlements are spatial statistics and spatial metric analysis. Focusing on processes, patterns, and mechanisms, scholars have conducted abundant research in this field. In the temporal dimension, research has centered on the evolution of scale and landscape. In the spatial dimension, scholars have studied the distribution pattern of rural settlements in typical regions. Based on the research above, which provides a solid foundation for the optimization of rural settlements, scholars have proposed various optimization models. Although several studies have discussed the distribution of rural settlements and influencing factors from different perspectives, limited studies have observed the distribution difference related to multifunctional rural transition. In addition, existing optimization models generally consider the unilateral factors of natural environment or social relation, ignoring the distribution result of rural settlements caused by sophisticated influences of different factors. Therefore, in the context of the changing countryside, understanding the correlation between rural production functions and the spatial distribution characteristics of rural settlements is necessary for mountainous rural reconstruction. At the same time, most of the current rural-related research scales are mainly at the county level, but rural territories within counties have large differences. It is difficult to scientifically grasp the spatial differentiation at this level. The uniform optimized model is also difficult to apply in differentiated rural areas. Hence, there is an urgent need to analyze the correlation between spatial planning pattern and spatial characteristics at the micro scale and to explore how to separately guide the optimization of rural settlements according to local conditions. To fill this research gap, this paper attempts to construct an analytical framework for understanding the impact of spatial characteristics on different patterns of rural settlement and conducts a quantitative analysis with 26 national historical and cultural villages in southern Shaanxi region. Based on the analysis results, ideal rural settlements construction patterns are proposed to guide the optimization of rural settlements. Considering the obvious regional differences in spatial characteristics that have formed among the geographical environment, we select 26 national historical and cultural villages as the object as the research area. The goals of this paper are to address three pressing questions: (1) How do spatial characteristics impact spatial planning pattern? (2) What are the internal factors and external poppies that affect spatial structure, and what are their priorities? (3) What are the important factors in the reconstruction of rural spatial structure? The research is expected to provide theoretical support and practice guidance regarding the spatial planning and optimization of rural settlements in mountainous area in developing countries.

Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

 

Question 3: Methodology

The methods used are quite known and the authors didn´t express any possibility to cross data in order to generate new interpretation of data relating them with spatial distribution. This section and its descriptions are too predictable.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. We use GIS and AHP to study villages respectively. In this study, 20 traditional villages in southern Shaanxi were selected as the research objects, and the spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors were analyzed by using the correlation spatial analysis of ArcGIS10.2 software, Spatial autocorrelation, Spatial interpolation and Spatial metric analysis. In image processing, measuring geographic distribution is used to determine the center of mass of the village. Measuring geographic distribution is a commonly used spatial statistical method in ArcGIS. Spatial autocorrelation, considering the location of points and the attribute of their changes, measures the correlation between the values of various variables according to the spatial distribution status. Moran’s Index is used to measure the spatial correlation of each residential area. Spatial interpolation is often used to convert measured data at discrete points into continuous data surfaces for comparison with the distribution patterns of spatial phenomena to ensure the accuracy of the imaging of geographic data, Inverse Distance Weight (IDW) is used in the calculation process. As a crucial parameter of space, distance is an important research content for optimizing the regional layout. The position of the centroid point is described in the population distribution center rather than the geometric center of the space. This index is the focus of this research. The result shows that the distribution forms are classified into two types — clustered and random. Compared the both Moran’s indexes, the high-density cluster type is much higher than the medium-density cluster type, which demonstrates that the population has a relatively strong relationship with the spatial structure based on the constant measure distance, and its relationship is positively correlated. However, Moran’s index of the other three spatial forms — high-density cluster type, Arc-banding type, and scattered type — displays a random character. It is demonstrated that the spatial structure of the rural settlements in which the population does not reach a certain amount doesn’t have a strong relationship with its population. The data cluster can display the center of gravity of a certain characteristic of vector data in the image through the derivation and calculation of its central component. According to the distribution status of the population of each village, the research confirms the quality points of eleven villages in the town in turn.

The method of AHP to classify the components of spatial structure and got expert scoring. In this method, experts score internal and external influencing factors respectively, judge their importance, and finally determine the weight value of influencing village space. And then takes objectively synthesized the experience and subjective judgment of most experts to quantitatively analyze and reasonably estimate the influence value given by experts.

Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

 

Question 4: Results

The results presented are not well identified from the methodology, besides that and are not well comprehensible.

Answer: Thank you for the advice.

The methods in research are the pathway to conclusion. From the ArcGIS we achieved the distribution status of the population of each village, and confirms the quality points of eleven villages in the town in turn. The result shows that the distribution forms are classified into two types — clustered and random. Observing the settlement of the cluster form, the Moran’s index of the medium-density cluster type is 0.064653, which is much higher than its expected value E(I) of -0.006536. And Moran’s index of high-density cluster type is 4.782703, which is much higher than its expected value E(I) of -0.008. Compared the both Moran’s indexes, the high-density cluster type is much higher than the medium-density cluster type, which demonstrates that the population has a relatively strong relationship with the spatial structure based on the constant measure distance, and its relationship is positively correlated. So we analyze the result of the Moran’s indexes, the research propose the conclusion that the spatial structure of mountainous settlements can be summarized into three types as agglomeration type, belt type, and dispersion type. The team conducted long-term visits and investigations in southern Shaanxi, and the results showed that 67.3 % of the rural settlements in this area are located in the valleys, and their spatial layout can be divided into aggregation type account for 13.6%, belt type account for 47.2%, and dispersion type account for 39.2%. The modes of the spatial structure are represented as the river valley mode and the mountainous ladder-shaped scattered mode.

   From the AHP we classify the components of spatial structure and got expert scoring. The result is that the influence degree of geomorphological conditions is 33.4, which is the main influencing factor. The influence degrees of land use scale and population quantity are 27.6 and 27.7, which are the key factors. So we analyze the result of the AHP, the research propose the conclusion that the factors influencing rural settlements development are ranked as geomorphological conditions > population quantity > land use scale in southern Shaanxi. When the value of spatial autocorrelation of the population gets closer and closer to 1, the rural settlement space can form a state of aggregation. The smaller the population, the more obvious the influence of topography on the settlement space, and vice versa, the settlement space is clustered together.

 

Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

 

Question 5: References

Almost of the bibliographic references have focused on Chinese case studies, which evidences a lack regarding the international scientific context.  more than 10 years, which shows the gap to achieve a good state of the art. This is a serious gap in the writing of the manuscript and its topicality as a research topic. Moreover, this section should be increase.

Answer: Thank you for the advice. This article mainly focuses on the analysis of rural areas in the special region of Southern Shaanxi in China. There have been a lot of studies on rural structure in China. Therefore, almost of the bibliographic references have focused on Chinese case studies. We have added international scientific reference in research. Thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions once more.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors

  Thank you very much for the revised version of the manuscript.  In this version authors address some comments . However,  the introduction part still week. I asked you for more reference  about global challenges of urbanization and its impact on agriculture.  Similarly,    more successful story for the analysis of spatial pattern and planning using new tools and technology not properly mentioned in the revised version. Include the major challenges of rural-urban planning in complex topography.  And highlight the major issue and similar findings  in discussion section also.

Still this manuscript needs major revision .

Author Response

Respond to Reviewer

Question 1: I asked you for more reference about global challenges of urbanization and its impact on agriculture.

Answer: Thank you very much for the revised version of the manuscript. Global urbanization has led to increasingly serious consumption of natural resources and energy, which has caused global environmental degradation. The global urbanization will reach to 70% in the next 40 years. As a result, sustainable urban development is one of the most severe challenges in the 21st century. Under the influence of many factors, urban development has shown new trends. The spatial distribution structure of human economic and social activities has entered a new stage dominated by cities. The urban population in developed countries may have a negative growth, while the urban population in developing countries would have increased steadily. Given the current technology and industrial conditions, the expansion of some metropolitan areas in developed countries seems to reach the upper limit, while a number of new metropolitan clusters will appear in developing countries. In the process of globalization, many cities in developed countries dominated by manufacturing and service industries have fall into decline. The so-called "urban paradox" has appeared in developed countries, that is, accompanied by achieving vigorous growth of cities, there are problems such as serious income gaps, massive social exclusion, and the irreconcilable contradiction between geographical and spatial distribution of cities. The binary structure problem of cities in developing countries have become more serious, appeared a large number of slums with poor infrastructure.

The impact of urbanization on agriculture is mainly reflected in the migration of rural populations to cities. A large number of farmers have left the cultivated land, making increasingly abandonment of farmland. As a result, China's grain import rate is gradually increasing, making China's food security a problem. From the perspective of economic structural changes, urbanization is a process of gradual transformation from agricultural activities to non-agricultural activities and the updating of industrial structure. In China, urbanization has its impact on agricultural development. Theoretically, the process of population migration has played a role in promoting and restricting agricultural development. There are six accelerative effects. 1) Urbanization would create more jobs, attracting a large number of rural populations to urban areas, promoting the conversion of agricultural labor force to non-agricultural labor force. 2) A reduction in the labor force employed in agriculture would make the arable land concentrated in few people, creating the necessary externalities for the realization of large-scale, mechanized and specialized production in agriculture. 3) The rapid development of urban non-agricultural industries would provide necessary technical support and social services for agricultural modernization. 4) Urbanization would form a large amount of funds back to agriculture, forming a strong financial support for agricultural development. 5) As the agricultural product consumption quantity and scale increase, it would provide a market for China's agricultural development. 6) The gradual escalation of residents’ consumer demand for agricultural products would provide guidance for modern agricultural production in China and promote the advanced adjustment of agricultural production structure. However, there are also two negative effects. 1) The urbanization promotes the eligible agricultural migrant population, which are the high-quality labor force in the countryside, bring adverse effect to agricultural development according to the human resources and the capital investment. 2) The fluctuation relationship between the supply and demand of agricultural products would restrict the speed of urbanization development.

 

Question 2: More successful story for the analysis of spatial pattern and planning using new tools and technology not properly mentioned in the revised version.

Answer: Thank you very much for the revised version of the manuscript. At present, the research methods of urban spatial structure include: spatial simulation, virtual reality, factor ecological analysis, model and quantification, etc., which can be further subdivided into landscape ecology, spatial variation, spatial syntax, complex networks method, weighted superposition of spatial elements, fractal method, typological method. In the research on the spatial structure of rural settlement morphology, methods such as fractal theory, fragmentation index, uniformity index and nearest neighbor index can be used to study the regional spatial structure of rural settlements. By using the methods such as settlement patch shape index, the research studied the spatial structure of settlement morphology from the aspects of settlement spatial structure elements, spatial structure types, spatial structure patterns, and spatial structures composition. By using GPS, RS, and GIS technologies and methods, combining with the related results of land and landscape ecological patterns, the research studied the impact factors from the spatial distribution, the spatial hierarchical alienation, and the spatial morphology.

 

Question 3: The major challenges of rural-urban planning in complex topography.

Answer: Thank you very much for the revised version of the manuscript. The Complex terrain refers to the mountainous terrain with much height difference, generally including hills, slopes, cliffs, potholes, and rivers. The challenge of rural planning under complex terrain is the assessment of natural disasters, the restriction on construction land, and the increasing cost of public service facilities, road transportation facilities and infrastructures. At the same time, due to the land and space planning, urban and rural planning should delineate the control lines of the urban development boundary control line, the permanent basic farmland protection red line, and the ecological protection red line respectively according to the urban space, the agricultural space, and the ecological space. The delineation of the three lines of urban and rural planning for complex terrain is rigid conduction, which is also a resource management and control thinking based on a spatial planning system. The core of regulation should change from the protection of a single element of cultivated land resources to the protection of all elements of mountains, water, forests, fields, lakes and grasses. Under the condition of complex terrain, the construction land requires the land with good qualities, which are often farmland. Therefore, the contradiction between construction land and permanent farmland needs to be resolved in the planning composition. For urban and rural planning with complex terrain, the ecological protection red line needs to be controlled through legislation, and administrative authority. The permanent basic farmland protection red line needs to coordinate the contradictions caused by different formulation timelines. The core of urban development boundary control line needs to ensure the size and the formulation of differentiated policies inside and outside the line.

 

Question 4: And highlight the major issue and similar findings in discussion section also.

Answer: Thank you very much for the revised version of the manuscript. We have revised the conclusion in paper. The distribution of rural settlements and population in mountainous areas are relatively scattered in space. The expansion of settlements, the evolution of spatial structure and the formation of internal differences are closely related to the spatial differences of their natural conditions and the spatial differences of the economic development conditions. Due to the prominent contradiction between human and land, the settlements always have the traditional natural economy model, with low productivity and obvious jumping diffusion characteristics. The research of rural settlements spatial structure should learn from the methods of modern urban spatial structure. The development of rural settlements and the evolution of their spatial structure can be studied from the perspectives of history, society, and economy, putting forward the unit and hierarchical model of spatial development of mountainous rural settlements. It is also possible to explore the quantitative methods of various factors and the influencing factors affecting the development of rural settlements and the evolution of their spatial structure.

1. China's mountainous rural area has fragile ecological environment, simple economic activities, poor infrastructure and public service facilities. Furthermore, the mountainous rural settlements have disorderly development and scattered layout. The important problems facing the spatial planning of mountainous rural area is to coordinate ecological protection and village development.
2. The spatial structure of mountainous settlements can be summarized into three types as agglomeration type, belt type, and dispersion type. The team conducted long-term visits and investigations in southern Shaanxi, and the results showed that 67.3 % of the rural settlements in this area are located in the valleys, and their spatial layout can be divided into aggregation type account for 13.6%, belt type account for 47.2%, and dispersion type account for 39.2%. The modes of the spatial structure are represented as the river valley mode and the mountainous ladder-shaped scattered mode.
3. The factors influencing rural settlements development are ranked as geomorphological conditions > population quantity > land use scale in southern Shaanxi. When the value of spatial autocorrelation of the population gets closer and closer to 1, the rural settlement space can form a state of aggregation. The smaller the population, the more obvious the influence of topography on the settlement space, and vice versa, the settlement space is clustered together.
4. The greatest resistance to the development of rural settlements and the optimization of their spatial structure in China lies in the lack of strong industrial support. Therefore, rural industrialization is the key point of the development of rural settlements and the optimization of their spatial structure. The development of rural settlements in southern Shaanxi should strengthen the connection between the villages and control the construction scope of each settlement. The proximity index of the settlement within the scope is an important spatial measurement index, based on which the ideal radius (R) and maximum radius (R+d) of settlement construction can be inferred. Based on the analysis results of the GIS above, a radius of 284.12m can be used as a measure of the development scope of the village. As a result, the focus of rural planning is to reconstruct the rural space, and to guide the moderate concentration of rural population through the construction of central villages.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors

Improvements were made, however flaws remain it. In the abstract, the main objective of the research is not identified, as well as a conclusion about the study. Just added the context of the investigation problem. The review responses are not deep in new knowledge (only descriptive) and are considered inadequate.

Author Response

Reviewer 2：

Improvements were made, however flaws remain it. In the abstract, the main objective of the research is not identified, as well as a conclusion about the study. Just added the context of the investigation problem. The review responses are not deep in new knowledge (only descriptive) and are considered inadequate.

 

Answer: Thank you for giving us revision suggestions again. We have added the main objective of the research in abstract, and we have revised the conclusion of the research. In the study, we also have revised some expressions about innovation points, especially the conclusion of the research was deeply revised after further analysis of data.

The details of the modification are as follows：

Abstract: There have been many studies only focused on the factors affecting the spatial distribution of rural settlements, without paying attention on the function and scale of them. China's mountainous rural area has the problems such as the fragile ecological environment, the poor infrastructure and the public service facilities. As a result, the mountainous rural settlements demonstrated a disorderly and scattered layout. This research takes southern Shaanxi as the research area and uses quantitative and qualitative analysis to analyze the field survey data, revealing the spatial form of rural settlements and its influencing factors. The research results show that: 1) The spatial structure of mountainous settlements can be summarized into three types as agglomeration type, belt type, and dispersion type. The individual settlements are discrete, and the spatial structure of the settlement groups exhibit small-scale clustering in the large area. 2) The influencing factors of spatial structure are ranked as geomorphological conditions > population quantity > land use scale. 3) The number of settlements in the study area is constantly decreasing, and their boundaries are gradually shrinking, showing a randomly distributed characteristic. 4) The radius of 284.12m can be used as a measure of the development scope of the village to controlling the scope of settlement construction. The objective of the research is to classify the special structure and propose the optimizing spatial mode in mountainous rural area.

Conclusion：

The distribution of rural settlements and population in mountainous areas are relatively scattered in space. The expansion of settlements, the evolution of spatial structure and the formation of internal differences are closely related to the spatial differences of their natural conditions and the spatial differences of the economic development conditions. Due to the prominent contradiction between human and land, the settlements always have the traditional natural economy model, with low productivity and obvious jumping diffusion characteristics. The research of rural settlements spatial structure should learn from the methods of modern urban spatial structure. The development of rural settlements and the evolution of their spatial structure can be studied from the perspectives of history, society, and economy, putting forward the unit and hierarchical model of spatial development of mountainous rural settlements. It is also possible to explore the quantitative methods of various factors and the influencing factors affecting the development of rural settlements and the evolution of their spatial structure.

   Under the condition of complex terrain, the construction land requires the land with good qualities, which are often farmland. Therefore, the contradiction between construction land and permanent farmland needs to be resolved in the planning composition. For urban and rural planning with complex terrain, the ecological protection red line needs to be controlled through legislation, and administrative authority. The permanent basic farmland protection red line needs to coordinate the contradictions caused by different formulation timelines. The core of urban development boundary control line needs to ensure the size and the formulation of differentiated policies inside and outside the line.

（1）China's mountainous rural area has fragile ecological environment, simple economic activities, poor infrastructure and public service facilities. Furthermore, the mountainous rural settlements have disorderly development and scattered layout. The important problems facing the spatial planning of mountainous rural area is to coordinate ecological protection and village development.

（2）The spatial structure of mountainous settlements can be summarized into three types as agglomeration type, belt type, and dispersion type. The team conducted long-term visits and investigations in southern Shaanxi, and the results showed that 67.3 % of the rural settlements in this area are located in the valleys, and their spatial layout can be divided into aggregation type account for 13.6%, belt type account for 47.2%, and dispersion type account for 39.2% .The modes of the spatial structure are represented as the river valley mode and the mountainous ladder-shaped scattered mode.

（3）The factors influencing rural settlements development are ranked as geomorphological conditions > population quantity > land use scale in southern Shaanxi. When the value of spatial autocorrelation of the population gets closer and closer to 1, the rural settlement space can form a state of aggregation. The smaller the population, the more obvious the influence of topography on the settlement space, and vice versa, the settlement space is clustered together.

（4）The greatest resistance to the development of rural settlements and the optimization of their spatial structure in China lies in the lack of strong industrial support. Therefore, rural industrialization is the key point of the development of rural settlements and the optimization of their spatial structure. The development of rural settlements in southern Shaanxi should strengthen the connection between the villages and control the construction scope of each settlement. The proximity index of the settlement within the scope is an important spatial measurement index, based on which the ideal radius (R) and maximum radius (R+d) of settlement construction can be inferred. Based on the analysis results of the GIS above, a radius of 284.12m can be used as a measure of the development scope of the village. As a result, the focus of rural planning is to reconstruct the rural space, and to guide the moderate concentration of rural population through the construction of central villages.

Thank you very much.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors

  Thank you very much for your revision.   I agree the response of authors and accept the revised version of the manuscript. Authors can add more text from response copy to main  manuscript and elaborate your finding,  mainly in data collection, application of GIS ,RS and discussion part.  Please check all figures, Table, reference  number as well as need to present  high resolution figure in the main text. Still location map is low resolution please make it  high  resolution.

 

Author Response

Reviewer 3：

Thank you very much for your revision.   I agree the response of authors and accept the revised version of the manuscript. Authors can add more text from response copy to main manuscript and elaborate your finding,  mainly in data collection, application of GIS ,RS and discussion part.  Please check all figures, Table, reference number as well as need to present high resolution figure in the main text. Still location map is low resolution please make it high resolution.

Answer：Thank you for giving us revision suggestions again. We have added more text from our response content copy to finding, data collection, method and discussion part. We also have checked all figures, tables and reference number and then have presented the high resolution figure in the research.

Thank you very much.