Impact of the Innovative Green Wall Modular Systems on the Urban Air

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper titled “Impact of the innovative green wall modular systems on the urban air” presents a good topic for readers of this Journal. However, some lacks emerge after reading the paper. Below is the list of lacks to justify my decision to “moderate revisions” for the manuscript.

 

 

1-       Lack of novelty. You have to specify the novelty in the final part of introduction.

2-       Too little bibliography for this type of work, on a so broad topic. I strongly suggest that the authors try to add some more references especially in the "part 1 (introduction)" of the paper. I have indicated some suggestions for specific section of paper, but more can be added to make the foundation for the arguments stronger.

3-       Figures quality is not adequate for the publication on an international Journal (with a good IF as "Sustainability" journal). In particular figures 9 and 10 are not legible (you have to change format and colors). Because some figures seem to be taken from data sheets, perhaps the number can be reduced.

 In the meantime, I think that the authors should take into account some specific comments that follow, which, in my opinion, will improve the work for a future submission.

SPECIFIC COMMENTS

Paragraph 1 (Introduction). It is too much short. It is interesting to consider following papers, where similar technologies (green roof) are studied in order to analyze benefits.

·         Pumo D, Francipane A, Alongi F, Noto LV. The potential of multilayer green roofs for stormwater management in urban area under semi-arid Mediterranean climate conditions. J Environ Manage. 2023 Jan 15; 326 (Pt A):116643. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116643.

·         Cristiano E, Deidda R, Viola F. The role of green roofs in urban Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem nexus: A review. Sci Total Environ. 2021 Feb 20; 756:143876. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143876.

·         Elena Cristiano, Antonio Annis, Ciro Apollonio, Dario Pumo, Salvatore Urru, Francesco Viola, Roberto Deidda, Raffaele Pelorosso, Andrea Petroselli, Flavia Tauro, Salvatore Grimaldi, Antonio Francipane, Francesco Alongi, Leonardo Valerio Noto, Olivier Hoes, Friso Klapwijk, Brian Schmitt, Fernando Nardi; Multilayer blue-green roofs as nature-based solutions for water and thermal insulation management. Hydrology Research 1 September 2022; 53 (9): 1129–1149. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2022.201

Figure 3: I suggest to replace, using English language as required by international Journals, please.

Figures 9-10. I suggest to replace please.

References paragraph: It is too much poor.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your kind reply,

Please find file with corrections (point-to-point comments),

Have a nice day!

 

Warm Regards,

Natalia Shushunova and authors 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Very interesting topic because of air purification.More quantitative than qualitative research.The research is not very precise (approximate) due to the fact that it refers to other NASA research, which was done on a smaller sample.Note that NASA research was done over 30 years ago.Not only the outer surface of plants cleans the air but also the soil in which the plants are planted and the root systems of these flowers.And maybe even more cleans the air the root system of flowers and earth with activated carbon.

It would be good to write how and with what methods air-purifying plants (Gas chromatograph-mass selective detector) were tested.And repeat these tests with the same methods with this current configuration of flowers on this 26.1 m3 volume.Because different results may be obtained with 50 flowers in a given volume and different results with 200 flowers in the same volume of the room.Sterilized soil will also give different measurement results.

How many plants were tested in this 26.1 m3 volume?Or how many square meters of flowers were placed for testing?Make a drawing of the positioning of the flowers in this test space.

It may turn out that 300 flowers will be needed to effectively clean a room of 26.1 m3.

Consider changing the topic to study the interior of the room.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your kind reply,

Please find file with corrections (point-to-point comments),

Have a nice day!

 

Warm Regards,

Natalia Shushunova and authors 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for clarifying the confusion. Work looks better now.