Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper focuses on a very timely topic of the resilience of networks in urbanized agglomeration areas. The paper can be regarded as original as it is very useful to see how the originally rural structures can survive (or not) during the urbanization processes.

The research was executed with a state-of-the-art methodology. The methods are well selected, supporting the research purposes well. So, the results rely on the well-demonstrated methodology toolset. The datasets involved are fine. The results are clear and very well visualized. The conclusions are based on the research outcomes. In general, If I evaluate the research and its outcomes only, I would say, this is an excellent paper.

However, two important things are missing from the current version of the paper.

1) the literature review is almost totally missing. Some sources are cited and processed in the introduction. However, these are not enough to show the importance of the topic, the context, and the results of other scholars. So I recommend including a sound literature review chapter.

2) LImitations of the research are not described.

 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

Point 1: the literature review is almost totally missing. Some sources are cited and processed in the introduction. However, these are not enough to show the importance of the topic, the context, and the results of other scholars. So I recommend including a sound literature review chapter.

Response 1:

Thank you very much for your important review comments on the literature review section, which has been detailed in a separate section and revised as follows.

The literature review firstly describes the origin and development of the word resilience in the field of biology, then analyzes the research on resilience in complex human social systems, then gathers the important previous research results on regional resilience and urban resilience analysis, and finally analyzes the research results on urban resilience measurement in the process of urban network construction.

Resilience in the field of ecology is defined as the ability of a system to maintain the functioning of its core functions and its stability in the face of external shocks[1]. Turner constructed a relatively robust evaluation system in order to further study the resilient system of the ecosystem subject to vulnerability[2].In 2007, Liu, Jianguo, and Dietz, Thomas conducted a coupled study of the complexity of human and natural systems and found important effects of resilience[3]. Oliver and Heard analyzed three important func-tions of resilient ecosystems: diversity, heterogeneity, and hierarchy[4].

Since then, academic research on the application of resilience began to expand into sociology and urban planning, and one of the hallmarks is the spatial character that resil-ience has been given. Schluter applies the concept of resilience to more complex human social systems and analyzes the resilience of social-ecological systems in the context of dynamics[5]. Barthelemy relates spatial networks to resilience and discusses the resilience of network topologies under spatial constraints[6]. The proliferation of empirical studies on "regional resilience" and "urban resilience" has led to the development of a new theory of urban network structure[7,8] and regional resilience[9,10]. Peng and Yuan reviewed the derived concepts of resilience and the application of resilience in disaster prevention and control, and regional urban planning in recent years[11] Forbes added key cultural factors to the social-ecological system to study regional resilience[12]. Ahern examines the ra-tionale for introducing resilience into urban planning and design and concludes with a theoretical system for building and strengthening urban resilience[13]. Meerow and New-ell extend the concept of regional resilience to urban resilience and summarize six basic concepts of urban resilience[14]. Leichenko analyzes the important impact of a compre-hensive and rational resilience strategy on climate change from the perspective of urban resilience[15]. Crucitti adds hierarchical clustering analysis of complex networks to the study of urban resilience, further expanding the scope of urban resilience theory research[16]. Boschma argues that regional resilience should be viewed as dynamic de-velopment and further enriches the theory of resilient development at the institutional and industrial levels[17].

The theory of resilient development has given rise to Research on the correlation be-tween urban network structure and regional resilience and the exploration of the meas-urement of urban network structure[18]. Suire examines its core-periphery and decentral-ized structure in a knowledge network to measure urban resilience in a given economic context[19]. Recently, some scholars have enriched and explored the connection between "resilience" and "regional resilience", and proposed that "urban network resilience" char-acterizes the spatial structure of cities[20]. Alizadeh and Ngah combine a neural network approach to examine the topology and spatial structure of urban networks in their study of sustainable urban development[21]. Cariolet and Colombert focus on the impact of air pollution on urban resilience in relation to the transport sector and verify the importance of "fast scanning" for urban resilience in Paris[22]. Many scholars have assessed urban network resilience[23]. Rus and Kilar assess the impact of earthquakes on urban resilience from the perspective of complex networks, clarifying the importance of considering open spaces, in the recovery process of cities suffering from earthquakes[24]. Pan and Dang construct an urban network for the transportation industry, focusing on the resilience of the transportation process, and apply a grid capacity-based metric to propose two major strategies for improving the ranking and resource allocation of resilience[25].

The first step to assessing the resilience of urban networks is to construct an urban network system. Currently, new forms of urban spatial connections and social organiza-tion, represented by "flow spaces," have emerged[26]. Castells and Manuel have elaborated on the primary connotation of "flow space" from the perspective of geography[27]. Chris-topherson et al. combine the resilience between urban networks and regions and argue that different urban network structures affect urban network resilience[28]. Palekiene et al. build on this by identifying the direct impact of urban network structure and function on urban network resilience[29]. Therefore, the urban network structure of the flow space consisting of multiple urban networks is one of the important ways to assess the resilience of urban networks.

Although the resilience of city cluster networks has been studied with enthusiasm, most scholars have focused on a single type of network, while less Research has been conducted on multiple city networks. What is the correlation between different types of urban networks? What are the patterns of the spatial and temporal evolution of multiple network resilience in urban clusters over the study period? All of them need to be further explored. Therefore, this paper selects 48 cities in the Yellow River Basin as research ob-jects and constructs a multi-city network resilience evolution model based on resilience. Theory and social network theory compares and analyzes the evolution level of resilience of urban networks in the Yellow River Basin in 2014 and 2021.

Point 2: LImitations of the research are not described.

Response 2:

The limitations of this paper have been added in Part VII, as follows：However, this paper still has the problem of small research scope and small time scale. The scope of future Research can be expanded or refined to county-level cities, and more years can be added in time to comprehensively understand the evolutionary devel-opment of the resilience of multiple city networks in the Yellow River urban agglomera-tion.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Excellent work but, in my opinion, Statistics treatment should be more explaines for specialists (perhaps in an annex with more references)

Some details:

 

p.8 Is it ok, equation 9?

p.14,15. Figure 6 "Finance" ok. Rest do not fit linear behaviour, any explanation?

 

p.17, 18. Figure 7 They do not fit linear behaviour, any explanation?

 

 

 

Dactilographic questions:

p.2 lines 48, 49. "Since then..."

p.2 line 57. Castells, Manuel et al. (alone in references)

p.4 lines 141-144. One sentence is repeated

p.5 line 170 (December 2021)

p.5 line 184 December instead of January

p.5 line 195 Associations between nodes. ??

p.6 line 204 Space between words

 

p.11 line 336 The?

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

 

Point 1: p.8 Is it ok, equation 9?

Response 1:

This formula is a pasting error, which has been corrected after referring to the literature again. The pasting error here does not affect the later results, which are calculated by the software gepi0.9.2.

 

Point 2:p.14,15. Figure 6 "Finance" ok. Rest do not fit linear behaviour, any explanation?

Response 2:

Figure 6 shows the network matchability, which can show both heterogeneous and homogeneous matchability, and the matchability varies from network to network. The data in this paper are obtained based on real networks, and it is the combination of hierarchical, matching and transmission of the carry-over toughness evolutionary evolutionary coordinate system that is used to assess the level of network toughness evolution in this paper.

 

Response 3:

The transportability of different network types is likewise likely to differ, and it is due to these differences that the network resilience development of the urban agglomerations in the Yellow River basin can be truly reflected, which does not conform to linearity, indicating that their transportability is not well developed and will be affected when the resilience evolution is evaluated, and these are reflected in Table 3, Table 4.

 

Point 4:p.2 lines 48, 49. "Since then..."

Response 4:

The duplicate, illogical statements have been modified to” Since then, some scholars have enriched and explored the study of urban network struc-ture and regional resilience. Recently, some scholars have enriched and explored the con-nection between "resilience" and "regional resilience", and proposed that "urban network resilience" characterizes the spatial structure of cities”

 

Point 5:p.2 line 57. Castells, Manuel et al. (alone in references)

Response 5:

It was an oversight on my part and has been modified to “Castells and Manuel”

 

Point 6:p.4 lines 141-144. One sentence is repeated

Response 6:

The duplicate statement " In addition, there are regional differences within the Yellow River Basin urban agglomeration." has been removed.

 

Point 7:p.5 line 170 (December 2021)

Response 7:

The statement has been changed to December 31, 2021

 

Point 8:p.5 line 184 December instead of January

Response 8:

The statement has been changed to December 31, 2021

 

Point 9:p.5 line 195 Associations between nodes. ??

Response 9:

The four network types constructed in the previous section are undirected graphs with weights, and a best-fit threshold is found by the maximum interclass difference method to decide whether nodes are linked or unlinked to each other

 

Point 10:p.6 line 204 Space between words

Response 10：

Spaces have been added between words

 

Point 11:p.11 line 336 The?

Response 11:

Lowercase letters have been changed to uppercase letters.

 

Thank you very much for your review comments. Your seriousness and rigorous attitude are worth learning from me!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf