Spatial Matching and Policy-Planning Evaluation of Urban Elderly Care Facilities Based on Multi-Agent Simulation: Evidence from Shanghai, China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I would sincerely thank the authors for this paper that “based on the multi-agent simulation method, forecasts the supply of and demand for elderly care institutions by comprehensively analyzing elderly people’s behavior, elderly care institutions’ behavior, and the interaction between actors and the environment, and evaluates the rationality of the relevant policy planning.
The title is indicative of the study
The purpose of the study described in the abstract is clear
The methods are adequately described
The results presented should be more consistent with the paper's objective. They should be described in more detail and with less discussion. There is too much description that would be more adequate in the discussion chapter.
I would like to see a table with more data on behaviour analysis elderly people’s behavior, elderly care institutions’ behavior and interaction between actors and the environment.
The discussion and conclusion are supported by the results of study
Author Response
Thank you very much for your comments on my paper. Based on your comments, I have made further modifications to the paper, as follows:
（1） Figure 6, Figure7, and Figure 8 have been added to the results presentation. Some original basic data have not been clearly submitted, and some supplements have been made here. I hope to provide more detailed data on the number of elderly populations, disability rate, and institutional beds mentioned in the paper.
（2） In the paper, Figure 5 is added for the elderly behavior, elderly care institution behavior and environmental interaction. I have tried to clearly describe the relationship between them, and further elaborate separately in the discussion part of the article. Of course, it may not be possible to present the long-term relationship through data simulation, but rather to form the final evaluation of the rationality of the spatial configuration of elderly care institutions based on this relationship path.
（3） The conclusion and discussion part of the article have been rewritten or revised, with a lot of adjustments. It mainly makes some data supplements on the support of your research results, separates and organizes the content, and also attempts to form a certain dialogue on policy recommendations.
Thank you again for your comments. I hope the revised part can make up for the shortcomings of the paper.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
The manuscript submitted for review raises a very important public health problem, which is the aging society and its care. However, I have a few comments:
1. I propose to structure the abstract
2. the aim of the research must be clearly defined
3. the results should not include interpretation; this part of them should be moved to the discussion
4. lack of scientific dialogue in the discussion, i.e. no reference to other research; meanwhile, many countries in the world are struggling with the problem of an aging population, so how to they deal with this problem, what solutions they find
5. if it's possible, some references should be updated, e.g. 2, 17, 18, 24, 27, 36, 38, 39, 40, 42, 47.
Best Regards
Author Response
Thank you very much for your comments on my paper. Based on your comments, I have made further modifications to the paper, as follows:
1) I revised the summary of the paper and divided the main findings into three points.
2) At the end of the first part of the paper, the research purpose is further presented. That is, “this paper focuses on the spatial allocation of elderly care resources, adapting a multi-agent micro simulation model method to analyze and evaluate the spatial matching degree of population facilities and the spatial allocation efficiency of elderly care services, in order to seek to achieve a good matching of 'population-facilities' on the basis of accurately simulating multi-agent decision-making behavior, so as to continuously improve the scientific of the spatial allocation of elderly care services”.
3) Figure 6, Figure7, and Figure 8 have been added to the results presentation. Some original basic data have not been clearly submitted, and some supplements have been made here. I hope to provide more detailed data on the number of elderly populations, disability rate, and institutional beds mentioned in the paper.
4) The conclusion and discussion part of the article have been rewritten or revised. There are many adjustments. I have also made some supplements to your suggestions on research dialogue. Of course, there may be insufficient depth of the dialogue here.
5) For references, I have added some references, 16, 23, 46, 54, 55, 57. But for some references, such as 38, 39, 41, because Agent-Based Simulation (ABS) may refer to these articles, I have made reservations.
Thank you again for your comments. I hope the revised part can make up for the shortcomings of the paper.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Author,
thank you for the changes made. However, although the content of the abstract has been improved, it lacks conclusions.
Best regards
Author Response
Thank you very much for your comments on my paper again. I have further revised the abstract according to the format of similar articles issued by the journal. The research findings mainly include three aspects: first, the disability rate, the number of the elderly with chronic diseases and the demand for institutional beds; second, the vacancy rate of beds; third, the rationality of the spatial distribution of institutional beds.
The conclusion is: "With the increase of the disability rate of the elderly and the high incidence of chronic diseases, increasing the supply of facilities for elderly care institutions is an inevitable choice to meet the differentiated needs of the elderly. The demographic characteristics, psychological, economic costs and spatial distribution of the elderly have a comprehensive impact on the decision-making of institutional elderly care. The planning of institutional facilities needs to combine urban development strategies, comprehensively consider the economic costs, demographic characteristics and spatial distribution, so as to realize the rationality of different types of elderly care institutions Layout ".
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
