Study of Settlement Patterns in Farming–Pastoral Zones in Eastern Inner Mongolia Using Planar Quantization and Cluster Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments to the Author 

Overall, this research topic is very attractive to readers, which quantitatively analyzes the classification characteristics of settlement patterns in the agricultural-pastoral zones of eastern Inner Mongolia. And the authors have done a lot of research and statistical work, a comprehensive set of standard indicators for quantifying and classifying sedimentation patterns has also been developed. However, the scientific theory in this paper has not been explained clearly, and the key findings of this research are somewhat vague. The paper is a little hard to follow because the framework of this paper has been organized illogically and improperly. Otherwise, this paper would be benefiting from the concise and proper English expression and the correct language grammar. The figures should be modified into a standardized format. Thus, the paper needs a minor revision before the acceptance.

 

Other suggestions for the revision are put as follows:

 

1. The clarity of Fig.1 is very low, the legends as well as the text are very blurred, and there are still some Chinese labels. Please ensure that all images are made by the author himself, and that there is no conflict of interest or plagiarism.

 

2. The work requires intensive improvement of the text editing. Please avoid some low-level errors, such as: the font in the formula is not uniform; Figure 3: The title font is incorrect.

 

3. Are Table 3, 4, and 5 the right sizes? They're not matching up with Tables 1 and 2 and the fonts are way too big compared to the body fonts, which is totally wrong.

 

4. This manuscript requires significant refinement in terms of spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. It is strongly advised that the piece be polished by someone with expertise in English academic writing.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

This manuscript requires significant refinement in terms of spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. It is strongly advised that the piece be polished by someone with expertise in English academic writing.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This article studied on the morphological features of the pastor oak -farming landscapes in China, which greatly contributes to understanding the landscape method. It is an inerrstesty research and  features based on a very solid research and analysis. It is an intersection study and contributes or be land use files. However, o suggest the author restructure the article to improve its residents hip..

Below are my major comments on the paper structures.

1. The production section should clearly summarize henreweach gapna ondicate the research purposes. However, many parts of it talk about the research methods. If true authors want to focus on suggesting a research method innovation, please restructure.

2. The international background should be included ar he intrudction part. The sustainability is a renowned international journal. Please describe the research significance under the global scaope.

3. The limitations of the research should be moved to the conclusion part.

4.suggest to rewrite the discussion part and conclusion. Please discuss what are the meaning of your findings in this study.

below are some minor comments:

1.

Line 47 China’s should be added before the angry.

2. Line 50-54. I don’t understand the meanings, please rewrite.

3.line 58-121 it is more like a research method introduction.

4.line 59 rely heavily on , it is not a common expression.

5. L289; line 331: please change discovered to found

6. line 294-296 please move to method part or delete.

6.

599-501 I don’t understand the meaning.

 

 

I recommend to write the English language carefully. One point I concern is that generally sentences are too long and meanings unclear. Many languages used. Are not comin in Englishh. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript entitled Study on Settlement Patterns in Farming-pastoral Zones of Eastern Inner Mongolia using Planar Quantization and Cluster Analysis after Major revision

The Abstract section needs to be changed in some way. The authors need to add a sentence explaining the main methodology used in this research. Also, I recommend the authors to write more about the geographical features of Mongolia. These geographical features are related to the distribution of settlements in the country.

The section Keywords

In this section, I recommend that the authors add another spatial method that was used in this study.

The section "Introduction

Lines 44 -48 ,

I recommend the authors add more definitions of rural settlements if they can find them.

They should also write more about Mongolia's national strategic planning in this section.

In this section of the manuscript, the authors stated that they used and analyzed few methods and procedures for analyzing rural settlements. I strongly recommend the authors to organize this section by methods as they have listed, step by step.

First method, in my opinion, should be statistical,

Second mathematical, third in situ, fourth GIS, fifth spatial and so on.

On the other hand, I recommend the authors to read and analyze two valuable scientific papers (references) that could be cited.

In these works, the authors can find many interesting and helpful thoughts about GIS, spatial and numerical methods in the analysis of rural settlements.

- Valjarević, A., Filipović, D., Živković, D. et al. Spatial Analysis of the Possible First Serbian Conurbation. Appl. Spatial Analysis 14, 113–134 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-020-09348-1.

- Liu Z. Rural Population Decline, Cultivated Land Expansion, and the Role of Land Transfers in the Farming-Pastoral Ecotone: A Case Study of Taibus, China. Land. 2022; 11(2):256. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11020256.

The Research Methods section

Table 1,

Very interesting table, but these equations can be compared to Newton's modified gravitational formula. It would be nice to compare.

The subsection Area of the settlement

Line 191, Did the authors import georeferenced or non-georeferenced form of area of settlements, better explain.

If the shape (shp) is digitized and georeferenced, the authors need to better explain the flat area.

The subsection shape index of the planar bounding pattern of the settlement

Equation 2,

I saw that the authors used the formula for a regular polygon to estimate the area, but please double check this formula.

The subsection settlement building density

This equation is very important for many reasons, but there are several formulas for calculations (estimates), you can see some of them in the recommended paper. The main problem in estimating settlement building density is the different definitions of cities in the world. The density of settlement in India, China or Finland is not the same.

The subsection research scope and data sources

Figure 2,

Well drawn figure, but the study area needs better visualization, it is very difficult to understand. Also the geographical coordinates (latitude, longitude) are very hard to see, so correct them.

The subsection Analysis of the results of the cluster analysis

I read this part of the text carefully, but I did not see how the authors determined the radius of the cluster?

Did they use GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to determine it or not?

Table 5: I noticed that the authors tried to determine the settlement types in this table. The row with the areal arrangement pattern looks very similar to me as the illustration on the topographic maps. So the authors need to do a better job of explaining how they arrived at this form of settlements.

For this rank of the journal, it is mandatory to add a "Discussion" section.

In this section, authors must explain previous or published research on the same topics and with similar scope.

I think that in this section authors must also explain what problems (limitations) there are in this research.

Conclusions section

In this section, the authors must find answers to the following questions?

Why is this research important?

How do the authors explain the relationship between agricultural and grazing zones and the spatial characteristics of settlements?

How can the government of the Republic of Mongolia help in this case?

The paper is interesting and scientifically correct and has the potential to be published.

I recommend a Major revision

Good luck to the authors

Reviewer#1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript entitled " Study on Settlement Patterns in Farming-pastoral Zones of Eastern Inner Mongolia using Planar Quantization and Cluster Analysis. Now the manuscript is scientifically correct and acceptable for publication.

With due respect

 

Reviewer#1