Spatial Distribution and Driving Mechanisms of Rural Settlements in the Shiyang River Basin, Western China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 1)

Comments on paper sustainability-2480323

This paper puts forward a comprehensive study on the spatial distribution and driving mechanisms of rural settlements in the Shiyang River Basin, western China. The study serves as a good example for spatial distribution and driving mechanisms of rural settlements and it was improved than first version, I think this paper is the appropriate one for the sustainability proceedings to publish after revisions.

However, the following comments are the point for the further processing.

(1) The abstraction and conclusion almost the same, and the introduction is not obvious enough.

(2) The language is not very clear, has to improve.

(3) Obtained research results are not matched with the research methods.

(4) The discussion section is also particularly weak and has no discussion significance.The discussion section should be written, because some content written in result section have to put in discussion section for improve the persuasiveness , For example the natural factors and socioeconomic factors, should be written in the discussion section.

(5) In Figure 4. in the 2019 figure has a legend, but other figures no any legend, other figures also need to add legend.

(6) 2.2. Data sources and processing section have to rewriting, if it written with tabular form it will more better, for example the data source, spatial resolution, time resolution,data type et all.

(7) 2.2. Data sources and processing section you only introduce the data,but the data processing part was not evident.

(8) The paper is too long. It needs to become more processed.

(1) The language is not very clear, has to improve.

(2) The paper is too long. It needs to become more processed.

Author Response

审稿人 1：

本文对石羊河流域农村聚落的空间分布及驱动机制进行了综合研究。该研究为农村住区的空间分布和驱动机制提供了一个很好的范例，并且比第一版有所改进，我认为本文是修订后出版的可持续发展论文集的合适论文。但是，以下评论是进一步处理的重点。

（1）抽象和结论几乎相同，引言不够明显。

响应：我们感谢这一建议。

在对整个手稿进行了深入思考之后，我们接受了这个建议，保留了摘要，并重写了一个完全有意义的结论。结论突出了研究的主题和重要性，总结了研究的科学性和实用性，并指出了可能的建议和改进。根据审稿人的建议，我们重新组织了结论，如下：

 

5. 结论

遥感与空间分析方法的结合，可以有效揭示农村聚落分布变化与各种环境因子的关系，是探索农村聚落空间分布格局形成机制的有效方法。石羊河流域农村聚落正在经历不同程度的扩张，总体格局正在向集约化方向发展。移民和城市化地区的变化程度比其他地区更为严重。不同的环境因子对农村聚落的空间分布和变化有不同的影响。在自然环境方面，地形和水源是农村聚落空间分布的自然基础。在社会经济环境方面，改善交通条件对农村住区具有一定的吸引力和集群效应。城镇的扩张对农村住区的分布产生了显著的辐射效应，城镇与农村住区的关系更加密切。住区的变化也对环境产生逆向影响，在改善社会经济环境质量的同时，改变和破坏生态环境。脆弱生态环境中农村住区的流失减少了水资源的开发利用，也给区域生态环境保护和荒漠化治理带来了新的挑战。因此，有必要结合流域内的地方规划需求，优化聚落的空间格局。我们提出了一些政策建议，如合并重组保护区内的居民区，开发宜居区以容纳转移的产业，控制和收缩生态缓冲区。更全面的量化评价体系，可以保证优化农村人居环境布局的科学性、合理性和可操作性。旨在改善人与土地的关系，提高资源利用率，促进长期生态安全，促进该地区的可持续发展。

 

此外，我们还重新组织并撰写了深刻而清晰的引言，避免了重复的文字和笼统的描述，突出了研究的背景、研究进展、科学问题和意义。详情如下：

 

1. 介绍

农村地区是指以农业人口为主的定居点[1]。农村聚落的空间分布反映了在一定的自然、经济和社会发展环境下，农村居民在其分布区域内的居住活动[2]。农村住区的空间格局和形态特征随着农村地区的发展而不断演变，特别是在发展中国家。在反映社会发展进步过程中人类土地关系演变趋势的同时，也成为影响区域经济发展的重要因素[3-5]。

基于农村聚落空间分布演化对农村经济社会可持续发展的重要性，研究农村聚落空间格局演化特征和驱动因素对整合农村土地资源，提高土地资源保护和集约化利用水平具有重要意义。服务乡村振兴战略[6]。从19世纪开始，研究从农村聚落的空间形态和土地变化的主题开始，主要是定性性质[7]。在20世纪和21世纪，学者们对定性和定量方法相结合的空间结构、形态类型和发展趋势感兴趣[8-12]。随着GIS和RS的快速发展，以及景观生态学理论和方法的整合和应用，农村聚落空间格局的表征逐渐受到多学科融合发展的影响，研究内容丰富[13-15]。目前，关于农村聚落空间格局演变的研究多种多样。研究内容涉及空心村的空间分布特征、驱动因素、布局规划、新农村建设、空心村改造[16-19]。在研究方法方面，点轴理论、空间分析、重力模型、加权沃罗诺伊图和空间自相关是热门应用[19-21]。关于研究领域，许多研究集中在快速城市化地区，大都市郊区，黄土高原地区以及低山和丘陵地区[6，22-23]。现有文献以驱动因素为目标，主要探讨地形条件、交通位置和社会经济状况对农村聚落空间格局演变的影响机制[24]。然而，研究主要依赖于已发表的土地利用数据，缺乏高精度的提取和验证[6，25]。此外，基于单一时期数据的静态研究不能反映农村聚落的动态变化，难以准确把握其规律性特征。RS和GIS方法的发展使其成为监测农村住区在空间和时间上扩展的动态分析的有力工具。

农村聚落是农村社会、经济和文化的综合代表，对生物多样性和资源保护至关重要[26]。在我国，石羊河流域的传统绿洲聚落是在其自然环境的影响下形成的[27-30]。然而，随着城市化、经济发展和区域功能的提高，这些传统农村聚落的空间格局在不断变化[31-32]。令人惊讶的是，在快速城市化背景下，对绿洲农村聚落演变的实证研究相当有限，无法掌握其时空尺度的规律性特征[33]。干旱内陆河流地区的农村发展方式更加依赖绿洲和水资源，与其他地区相比，特征差异显著[34]。特别是对这种特殊地理环境下农村聚落的空间特征和驱动因素的研究较少。在空间上，对农村住区分布的空间位置仅定性描述，使得一些地区的农村居民规划管理做法过于肤浅，无法实现精准管理。在我国农村农业工业化和城镇化不断加快的背景下，分析区域环境综合影响下农村住区的空间分布特征，有利于了解和掌握农村住区分布特征和土地利用情况，对改善人居环境具有重要的现实指导意义。

综上所述，乡村振兴战略持续实施亟待解决的关键问题是：21世纪初实施促进农村住区集中政策以来，流域农村住区发生了哪些变化？影响流域农村聚落空间格局变化的关键因素有哪些？深入分析农村聚落空间分布格局及其影响因素，是研究农村聚落、理解和协调人地关系的重要途径。本文以石羊河流域为研究区，利用GIS分析了2000—2019年研究区农村聚落的空间分布特征和变化，探讨了它们与各种环境因子的关系。它可以为决策者提供可持续土地管理和区域发展的重要信息，也为乡村振兴建设提供科学依据，对指导农村住区具有重要的理论和实践意义。

 

(2) The language is not very clear, has to improve.

Response: Thank you for raising this important question. We have polished and consulted native English speakers for paper revision before the submission this time. We obtained assistance from an expert (Dr. Julian Norghauer) majoring in English for revision of English language, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and overall style. Please see the revised manuscript for details.

 

(3) Obtained research results are not matched with the research methods.

Response: Thank you very much for the good instruction.

By comparing all the methods and results, we have accepted the suggestions and added the explanation information of formula (1), and the Buffer analysis method for factor analysis in the method section to ensure the integrity of the manuscript information. The details are as follows:

The area of land under rural settlement is the cornerstone of exploring how rural settlements have evolved. Its spatial changes can reflect the degree of rural settlement evolution over a period of time. Below, ∆RSA indicates the change in the area of a give rural settlement patch within a certain period:

                               (1)

Where, RSA_i is the area of rural settlements in the early stage of the study, RSA_n+i is the area of rural settlements in the later stage of the study, and ∆RSA is the area of rural settlements during a certain period of study in the study area.

Buffer analysis can reflect the proximity or influence degree of a geographical elements or space object and its surroundings. The location factors selected in this study mainly include roads (linear elements) and rivers (linear elements). By establishing buffer zones for roads and rivers, the distribution of rural settlement and their relationship are reflected. The specific operations are as follows: taking roads, rivers as objects, and use the Buffer Analysis tool to establish concentric rings with different radii as buffer zones; Then overlay the relevant attribute data of each buffer zone and rural residential land, and calculate and statistically analyze the scale and evolution characteristics of rural settlement within each buffer zone.

 

(4) The discussion section is also particularly weak and has no discussion significance. The discussion section should be written, because some content written in result section have to put in discussion section for improve the persuasiveness , For example the natural factors and socioeconomic factors, should be written in the discussion section.

Response: Thank you very much for your valuable advice.

We have accepted the suggestion and rewrote the discussion. Especially, the factor analysis in the results section was included in the discussion by integrating with the original discussion. In addition, we have removed some general descriptions. The section only retained specific and meaningful content, including pattern explored, factor analyzed, possible suggestions proposed, and limitations and perspectives discussed. Please see the revised manuscript for details.

 

(5) In Figure 4. in the 2019 figure has a legend, but other figures no any legend, other figures also need to add legend.

Response: Thanks for your suggestions.

We have accepted the suggestion and added legends to all the figures. Please see the revised manuscript for details.

 

(6) 2.2. Data sources and processing section have to rewriting, if it written with tabular form it will more better, for example the data source, spatial resolution, time resolution,data type et all.

Response: Thank for your valuable suggestion.

We have accepted the suggestion and rewritten the data source and processing, mainly remote sensing data. We have reorganized the information of remote sensing data in the form of tables, including satellite, sensor, source, spatial resolution, time resolution, number of images. The details are as follows:

 

2.2. Data sources and processing

The social and economic data sets were obtained from the official website of the National Bureau of Statistics of China and the official websites of local governments. The basic geographic data came from the National Geographic Information Resources Directory Service System (http://www.webmap.cn). The rural settlement area was obtained by the visual interpretation of remote sensing images and detailed comparison of land survey data in Gansu Province. Different scholars have various understandings of rural settlements [6, 17, 23, 37-39]. According to the Provisions on the Statistical Di-vision of Urban and Rural Areas issued by the National Bureau of Statistics, in principle, the administrative units and division approved by the State Council are taken as the division objects. Therefore, rural settlement is defined as "rural settlements below the designated town" [38]. Referring to the definition standards provided by studies, rural settlement mainly includes land types closely related to the production and life of rural people: rural homesteads, commercial land, surrounding gardens, scattered trees, and other basic construction land that is not connected to cities and towns.

Landsat satellite data, ZY-1 02C satellite data, and ZY-1 02D satellite data were used to extract the rural settlement information. Information about the derived images is summarized in Table 1. To ensure the quality of image data, the principle of large image coverage area, few mosaic images, and low cloud content were carried out. The downloaded image product level is Level 1, which is image data that has undergone data analysis, denoising, registration, and other processing. The preprocessing was essentially concerned with stack, correction, mosaic, clip and projection.

Table 1 Basic information of remote sensing images used in the study.

Satellite	Sensor	Source	Spatial resolution /m	Time resolution /day	Number of images
Landsat	TM	USGS (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/)	30	16	4
ZY-1 02C	PMS	Natural Resources Satellite Remote Sensing Cloud Service Platform (http://sasclouds.com/chinese/normal)	5	3	8
ZY-1 02D	VNIC		2.5	3	8

 

(7) 2.2. Data sources and processing section you only introduce the data,but the data processing part was not evident.

Response: Thank you for raising this important question.

We have accepted the advice and added a detailed introduction to data processing in the revised manuscript, especially for remote sensing images. The added content is as follows:

Layer Stack: Since the downloaded TM data contains independent bands (GeoTiff) and is in grayscale image, it is necessary to use the Layer Stacking tool for band combination in order to better reflect the true characteristics of the ground surface. Mosaic: Taking the image stitching of a certain period as an example, select an image with good imaging quality as the reference, and stitch other images with it. During the stitching process, set histogram matching, color matching, and choose feather tool to achieve better stitching results. Finally, using this method to complete the stitching of other images. Clip: The vector boundary data of the study area are used to clip the image to make it only include the area of the Shiyang River basin. All graphic data were transformed into a unified Albers equal-area conic projection by ArcGIS software (Version 10.6). Based on ArcGIS 10.6 software, three phases of rural settlement distribution maps for 2000, 2011, and 2019 were obtained through manual visual interpretation.

 

（8）论文过长。它需要得到更多的处理。

响应：感谢您强调这一缺陷。

我们采纳了审稿人的建议，优化了语法、句子结构、单词和图形，使稿件更有条理、更易读。我们通过完善句子并删除重复的描述和不必要的介绍来压缩论文的长度。引言、结果和讨论都得到了提炼，一些一般性的描述被删除了。引言（第1节）在修订稿中进行了重新组织，介绍了本研究的必要性和意义，恢复了现有研究的主要贡献，并明确了本研究的目标和意义。我们删除了结果和讨论中的重复描述。详情请见修订稿。

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 3)

Most of the crutial issues were corrected. The images in the downloaded PDF file are low quality. F. e. Fig.1., 2 and other. Figure 4, 8, 9 is too small, it is difficult to compare different images and to find the difference.

In my opinion the conclusions should somehow refere to environmental aspects, since authors conclude that spatial distribution pattern is constantly changing. In my opinion it has an environmental effect, but it is not a subject of the research in this article.

English language has been corrected

Author Response

Reviewer 2:

Most of the crutial issues were corrected. The images in the downloaded PDF file are low quality. F. e. Fig.1., 2 and other. Figure 4, 8, 9 is too small, it is difficult to compare different images and to find the difference.

In my opinion the conclusions should somehow refere to environmental aspects, since authors conclude that spatial distribution pattern is constantly changing. In my opinion it has an environmental effect, but it is not a subject of the research in this article.

Response: Thank you very much for your excellent guidance.

We have resaved all the figures at 300dpi and provided high-quality PDF and all original figures, to ensure that any reader can see the information clearly. Please see the revised manuscript for details

In addition, we have accepted the advice and rewritten the conclusion refer to environmental aspects. Different environmental factors have different impacts on the spatial distribution and changes of rural environment. The changes in settlements also had a negative impact on the environment, altering and damaging the ecological environment, while improving the quality of the social and economic environment. The loss of rural living environment in fragile ecological environment has reduced the development and utilization of water resources, and also brought new challenges to regional ecological environment protection and desertification control. The new conclusions are as follows:

The combination of remote sensing and spatial analysis methods can effectively reveal the relationship between the distribution and changes of rural settlements and various environmental factors, and is an effective method for exploring the mechanism of the formation of the spatial distribution pattern of rural settlements. The rural settlements in the Shiyang River Basin are undergoing various degrees of expansion, and the overall pattern is developing towards intensification. The degree of change is more severe in the immigrant and urbanized areas than in other areas. Different environmental factors have different effects on the spatial distribution and changes of rural settlements. In terms of natural environment, topography and water source are the natural basis of the spatial distribution of rural settlements. In terms of social and economic environment, improving transportation conditions have a certain attraction and clustering effect on rural settlements. The expansion of towns and cities has a significant radiation effect on the distribution of rural settlements, with a closer relationship between towns and rural settlements. The changes in settlements also have a reverse effect on the environment, changing and damaging the ecological environment while improving the quality of the social and economic environment. The loss of rural settlements in fragile ecological environments reduces the development and utilization of water resources, but also brings new challenges to regional ecological environment protection and desertification control. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the spatial pattern of settlements in combination with local planning needs within the watershed. We propose some policy suggestions, such as merging and reorganizing residential areas in the reserve zone, developing liveable areas to accommodate transferred industries, controlling and contracting ecological buffer zones. A more comprehensive quantitative evaluation system can ensure the scientific, reasonable, and operational feasibility of optimizing the layout of rural living conditions. This is aimed at improving the relationship between human beings and land, increasing resource utilization rates, promoting long-term ecological security, and promoting sustainable development of the region.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments on paper sustainability-2293294

1.This paper presents a comprehensive study on the spatial distribution and driving mechanisms of rural settlements in the Shiyang River Basin, western China. The study serves as a good example for spatial distribution and driving mechanisms of rural settlements. But I think this paper is not the good one for the sustainability proceedings to publish.

However, the following comments are the point of refusing the paper.

(1) The abstraction and conclusion almost the same, and the introduction is not clear enough.

(2) The language is not very clear, has to improve.

(3) Obtained research results are not matched with the research methods.

(4) The discussion section is also particularly weak and has no discussion significance.

Reviewer 2 Report

ِA good research which raises an important issue related to the association of rural settlements and population with several regional elements in the Shiyang River basin. Nevertheless, there are many observations that researchers should pay close attention to.

 

- In the abstract and conclusion, as well as in the body of the paper, the expression “the number of settlements decreased between the years 2011 and 2019” is not accurate….we can say that the percentage of increase in settlements decreased. However, the number of rural settlements did not decrease, as shown in Table 2 in the paper.

The researchers frequently indicated that the spatial distribution of settlements was affected by several factors in addition to government policies. The impact of government policies should be explained in more detail in the introduction. How can researchers rule out the effect of these policies on research results?

The paper language should be well re-checked. Often, researchers use some vocabulary that can be replaced with more linguistic terminology.

For example, in line 24, "seriously impacted," significantly impacted... Line 31-32 "serious shortage" Lack of water, water scarcity, water shortage. And more.

- In line 120: How were the areas of rural settlements extracted by remote sensing and aerial photographs? How were the boundaries of the towns determined? If what is meant is the borders in Figure 1, then they do not represent the borders of the towns.

- The researcher talked a lot about correcting images, their number and types, including drawing up Table No. 1. All of this are insignificant compared to discussing how to use these images in calculating the areas of towns (rural settlements), for example, or any other indicators that were extracted from these images. That should be modified.

- The results of the mathematical equations mentioned in the paper. It should be reviewed in tables and discussed and not limited to figures. You should also explain more about the method of applying the mentioned equations.

- How were longitudes and latitudes relied separately on in equations (3,4) to determine the location of the settlements?

Figure 1: The regions on the map do not represent cities but their administrative borders. They should be renamed according to the map, or the city's exact location should be determined. Rephrasing the figure's title, deleting the cities' names, and giving a symbol, number, or point showing the city's location is also preferable. The city's name is not essential for analyzing city locations and their impact on research variables.

Figure 7 does not express in any way the size of the rural settlements in the study. Therefore, it is preferable to use a map or a group of maps to describe the difference between the size of the studied rural settlements.

- Reducing the headings of the primary and secondary paragraphs to the minimum possible.

- In the conclusions, the researchers spoke, especially in point (3), with information that did not come in detail in the research as much as it came in the conclusions.

Reviewer 3 Report

The references and introduction can be improved. The images can be presented in a more comprehensive, clear way to show The results, however this is only a recommendation. The resolution of the images should be improved.