Ageing in Place in Disaster Prone Rural Coastal Communities: A Case Study of Tai O Village in Hong Kong

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is a valuable study that fits the topic of the journal Sustainability. The authors have adopted an exploratory qualitative approach to examine AIP experiences and perspectives among older people living in a disaster-prone rural coastal community - Tai O Village, Hong Kong. English is good but the paper should be more well-structured, especially in ‘Introduction’ and ‘Materials and Methods’ sections. I think there are many additional explanations besides the essential ones. The contents should be succinctly described. More importantly, It would be better to consider organizing the methodology and main implications of research with diagrams for readers. Finally, the authors need to carefully review and check some citation errors and typos (e.g. Line 43: (1990; cite others), Line 74: e.g. …, and flood, Line 80: 3.6 mm/yr, etc.).

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for the opportunity to review this article. I found the article to be well-developed and a thoughtful, and meaningful, contribution to the literature. The authors expand on an often overlooked aspect of aging - those aging in disaster-prone environments. I would encourage the authors to review some of the existing literature on older adults in wildfire, hurricanes, and other natural disaster situations. There is literature on the experience of older adults in hurricane-prone environments which may be relevant given the emphasis on coastal communities. 

I also made the following notes regarding opportunities for clarification. Overall, I find the article engaging and impactful.

 

• Are younger individuals not also moving to coastal areas for recreation? What about the role that coastal communities have in tourism?
• Authors such as Rowles, Gollant, and others have argued for an Aging-in-Community approach to understanding why individuals may age in the same community throughout their lives – it is not aging in one location but aging in the community. Does this in any way affect your approach?
• 3) Page 2/ Line 43: You have a note to cite others
• Why did you adopt the DPR Cycle? You state that it is popular, but can you provide citations?
• What percentage of older adults in Hong Kong are low-income? What is the rate of education in Hong Kong? It is difficult to know how representative your sample is without some additional background.
• Regarding your coding, can you provide an overview of common themes that existed throughout all of the codes? You coded by the question, but what were the overarching interview themes that emerged? Additionally, can you tell us anything about the codes that informed the themes – several themes have subthemes, but it appears there might be more there? How was the decision made to include subthemes versus not to include subthemes?
• The discussion could be expanded given a=the large amount of data presented. Specifically, can you identify best practices that could be used to address these concerns? Can you further clarify the next steps?

Author Response

Please see attachement.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf