Spatial Evolution and Multi-Scenario Simulation of Rural “Production–Ecological–Living” Space: A Case Study for Beijing, China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper uses the land use data of the third period to study the land use change and the transformation mechanism of the PELs spaces in Beijing city. The research results have a certain significance for regional planning and related research. However, there are still some problems to be solved in this paper, which are listed as follows:
Line 13, tow punctuation marks appear in succession.
LINE 15, the word the presents a different font.
LINE 20, geographical detector, the right name may be Geodetector in the origin paper. And the names of other places in the paper are also inconsistent, and it is recommended to unify them.
LINE144-146， I think 4 numbers should be able to clearly describe the scope of the study area.
LINE149-150, Some expressions are difficult to understand, for example， high and cool weather in autumn. It is recommended to use a more native expression.
LINE189- 197, the title of Section 2.3.1 is displayed in the wrong place.
The formulas in this manuscript lack the necessary numbering, which makes it difficult for the reader.
Considering that multi-scenario simulation is a feature of this paper, but the review of this aspect is lacking in the introduction, it is suggested to add some related literature review and introduction to improve the integrity of the paper structure. For instance, the following list, but not limited to these.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042425
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2022.104055
https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13233
Table 4, The fonts in the table are not uniform.
Figure 2, What do the ULS and RLS in the picture represent?
There is a contradiction between the scales of Figure 1 and Figure 3. The east-to-west span of the research area in Figure 1 is about 110km, but the east-west span of Figure 3 is about 200km. This is the same research area. I think the scale bar should have been artificially dragged.
LINE 549-554, Too many blank lines should be removed.
In addition, I have another question. The author used land use data spanning 10 years, but if Beijing’s land expansion has undergone major changes in 2015, such as the slowing down of the urbanization process, will this be useful for the simulation? Bring greater impact?
Author Response
Dear reviewer
Thank you for your valuable suggestions. According to your instructions, I have made the following modifications to the article:
1. Revise punctuation marks, English fonts, layout, etc. preliminarily modify English expressions, and have applied for English editing services of MDPI.
2. Add literature review and introduction related to multi scene simulation in the introduction.
3. Use arcgis to revise the scale of research field
4. The research on spatial evolution simulation is mainly based on the geographic simulation optimization system GeoSOS software proposed by Professor Li Xia's team. The main working principle is to use the artificial neural network method to extract the change rules of different types of land space in Beijing under the background of urban-rural integration, and then use the rules in the subsequent simulation and prediction of rural PEL spatial evolution. The study is based on the land change situation of Beijing over the years. The 10-year span can highlight the degree of land use change with high simulation accuracy. The urbanization process is also measured as an influencing factor of land use evolution in the study. The land use situation in 2015 will be further refined in later studies
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper aims to analyze the spatial-temporal variation and the driving mechanism of rural space in Beijing from 2000 to 2020 and simulate the land spatial pattern of Beijing in 2030 under multiple scenarios. It could provide a reference for rural space optimization in Bejing. However, the significance of this study is not clearly stated. Also, the paper is lengthy but the innovation is not prominent. I suggest the authors make substantial revisions on this paper. Followings are my detailed comments.
1. Previous literature also need to be summarized in the introduction. Some literature on the land space classification published in high quality journals in recent 5 years should be added in the introduction.
2. The significance of this study should be present clearly in the introduction. The innovation of this study needs to be clarified in the introduction.
3. The author mentioned many classification methods of PEL space in existing literature. However, it is not very clear for the classification of PEL space in this study. In addition, the title of this paper refers to the Rural “Production-Ecology-Living” Space, why does Urban living space appear in the PEL space classification? It is very important for supporting the following analysis.
4. The location of “2.3.1. Dynamic degree of land use” is chaotic.
5. Whether the connotation of rural production space and rural living space in Figure 4 are the same as that in Table 1? What does rural ecological space refer to? Whether the rural and urban ecological spaces are distinguished?
6. What do the colors in the Figures 5, 6, 7 mean? Rural production, living and ecological spaces refers to what?
7. “3.2. Analysis of spatial evolution mechanism of rural PEL space in Beijing” is suggested to be shorten for better reading.
8. The discussion should add secondary title for more clearly understanding the inspiration of the research results and give some policy implications for optimizing the rural space. Also, limitations and prospect should be clearly present in discussion.
9. The format of Tables and Figures should be further perfect.
10. Language in the whole paper needs to be polished by native English speakers.
Author Response
Dear reviewer
Thank you for your valuable suggestions. According to your instructions, I have made the following modifications to the article:
1. Add some literatures on land spatial classification published in high-quality journals in recent 5 years to the introduction.
2. Put forward the innovation of this research in the introduction.
3. Analyzing the evolution of rural space in combination with urban space is the innovation point of this paper. Rural areas around big cities are areas where agricultural population is rapidly transferred to non-agricultural population. Urban space expansion has a great impact on rural PEL space. The scale and transformation of rural PEL space are closely related to urban space. The rural PEL space in the study refers to the rural space outside the urban built-up area.
4. About the colors in Figures 5, 6 and 7, the darker the color of the square in the figure, the higher the explanatory power of the influence factor q value.
5. Further revise the discussion section to clarify the limitations and prospects of expenditure research.
6. Further modify the English expression of the full text and have applied for the English editing service of MDPI.
Reviewer 3 Report
The article deals with a topic of importance not only for the analyzed area, but it can represent a decision-making model regarding the development of rural land and the space around large urban settlements.
Rural spatial modeling, taking into account natural geographical factors and existing economic activity, must represent the key element of rural production management.
Author Response
Dear reviewer
Thank you for your valuable suggestions. According to your instructions, I have made the following modifications to the article:
1. Further modify the English expression of the full text and have applied for the English editing service of MDPI.
Reviewer 4 Report
The topic of the study is very interesting. Yet, the style and the structure of the paper make it a hard read. I suggest shorter sentences and paragraphs.
The use of "ecology" in the title and the whole paper is not a right choice. I would suggest replacing it with "environment".
Detailed remarks are to be found in the text.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear reviewer
Thank you for your valuable suggestions. According to your instructions, I have made the following modifications to the article:
1. Further modify the English expression of the full text and have applied for the English editing service of MDPI.
2. Use "ecological" instead of "ecology" in the title by referring to the same type of articles previously published in the journal Sustainability and land.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper has been revised and the quality has been greatly improved. After typesetting in English, it can be published in the Sustainability journal.
Author Response
Dear reviewer
Thank you for your valuable comments. Regarding the improvement of the English language style of the article, the article has applied for MDPI's English editing service.
Reviewer 2 Report
English language and style are fine/minor spell check required
Author Response
Dear reviewer
Thank you for your valuable comments. Regarding the improvement of the English language style of the article, the article has applied for MDPI's English editing service.
