Exploring the Determinants of the Urban–Rural Construction Land Transition in the Yellow River Basin of China Based on Machine Learning

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I have carefully considered and read the manuscript entitled “Exploring the determinants of the urban-rural construction land transition in the Yellow River Basin of China based on machine learning” and have the following observations:

The urban-rural construction land transition is an integral element of the urban-rural transition, and it is necessary to understand its determinants to improve regional human–land relationships and sustainability. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal pattern of the urban-rural construction land transition in terms of quantity and structure at the grid scale in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) of China during 2000-2020 by bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis and further explored its determinants based on a machine learning method, the GBDT model. The results showed that both urban construction land (UCL) and rural residential land (RRL) increased, with an annual growth amount of UCL three times that of RRL, and the proportion of UCL (LUUR) remained stable after 2015. The determinants of UCL, RRL, and LUUR varied, with the UCL mainly influenced by socioeconomic factors, the RRL mainly influenced by physical geographic factors, and the LUUR influenced by both socioeconomic and physical geographic factors. Meanwhile, the impacts of different determinants on the urban-rural construction land transition were nonlinear with a threshold effect. In the future, optimizing the distribution of urban-rural construction land and rationally adjusting the structure of urban-rural construction land will be necessary for promoting urban-rural integrated development in the YRB.

Comments and Suggestions for Authors:

This paper needs a little more clarity about your manuscript's theme. There are some still spelling errors, and minor clarifications and improvements are needed for reconsidering it as a publication in Sustainability Journal.

In addition to the above, I have a few major points for the authors to consider before the publication of this work:

• In the abstract please recheck the grammatical and typo errors carefully, such as a typo error and grammar mistakes from a native speaker.
• Please accurately highlight your contribution and novelty in more detail in the introduction.
• Please update your literature with a few latest studies in 2021-22 if applicable:

 

• Recheck the references and their style according to the journal requirements, and in-text and end-text should be the same and vice versa.
• In the result section methods have been used, could your check by using some robust tests for more verifications of your outcomes?
• In the discussion section, the key findings should be compared and contrasted with existing studies.
• The conclusion, key recommendations, limitations, and future implications should more realistic and be based on your results and discussion. So, do consider it accordingly and improve this section.
• The acronyms should be defined at first appearance in the manuscript and then must be consistently used throughout the manuscript.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This study analyzed the spatiotemporal pattern of the urban-rural construction land transition in terms of quantity and structure at the grid scale in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) of China during 2000-2020 by bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis and further explored its determinants based on a machine learning method, the GBDT model. The manuscript is well structured, with rational methods and results. I recommend to accept it after certain improvements. My recommendations are given below.

1)     Some Figures are suggested to redraw. Figure 1,8,9,10 are very blurry with low resolution, also irregular. I would like to remind friendly that author must pay attention to figure and format requirements of journal and treat every detail including tables and diagrams.

2)     The author did not mention how to obtain the area of UCL and RRL from land use data in Section 2. Urban and rural boundary data?

3)     In Section 3.3, parts of the data analysis and discussion lacks originality. Even yet, the findings and analysis related to the data quality, index system and methodology. The peculiarity of the urban-rural transfer phenomena in the YRB area should be discussed. It is important to highlight the similarities and contrasts between China and YRB's urban-rural construction land transition.

4)     In general, the paper is well-organized and the following papers could be referenced.

Cai, B., Shao, Z., Fang, S., Huang, X., 2022. Quantifying Dynamic Coupling Coordination Degree of Human – Environmental Interactions During Urban – Rural Land Transitions of China. Land 11(6).

Cai, B., Shao, Z., Fang, S., Huang, X., Huq, M.E., Tang, Y., Li, Y., Zhuang, Q., 2021. Finer-scale spatiotemporal coupling coordination model between socioeconomic activity and eco-environment: A case study of Beijing, China. Ecol. Indic. 131, 108165.

Liu, Y., Long, H., Chen, Y., Wang, J., Li, Yurui, Li, Yuheng, Yang, Y., Zhou, Y., 2016. Progress of research on urban-rural transformation and rural development in China in the past decade and future prospects. J. Geogr. Sci. 26, 1117–1132.

Liu, Y., Zhou, Y., Li, Y., 2019. Rural regional system and rural revitalization strategy in China. Dili Xuebao/Acta Geogr. Sin. 74, 2511–2528.

Yang, R., Zhang, J., Xu, Q., Luo, X., 2020. Urban-rural spatial transformation process and influences from the perspective of land use: A case study of the Pearl River Delta Region. Habitat Int. 104, 102234.

5)     The conclusion and discussion section has to be enhanced for lacking a more comprehensive inductive overview. Instead of just repeating experimental data, stronger conclusions and expansions are required. he Abstract also lacks a compelling summary that is appropriate for the topic "determinants." They are just typical conclusions (Lines 17-19).

 

 

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This is an interesting study and its quality is good. However, I would like to see the following improvements before making a concrete decision on the manuscript.

1. There is a lack of theoretical analysis of the impact of the determinants on the urban‒rural construction land transition. Before Section 2 Data and methodology, it is necessary to explain how physical geography, location conditions and socio-economic factors affect the urban‒rural construction land transition.

2. For the indicator selection in Table 1, the statistical description is required. For example, among the social and economic factors, the three can be transformed into each other. Is there any collinearity problem that may cause the deviation of model estimation?

3. The results of the model estimation of parameters need to be provided before the summary results appear in Table 2. It is also necessary to test the robustness of the model estimation and analyze the reliability of the results.

4. There is a lack of empirical evidence in the mechanism analysis of the urban‒rural construction land transition. The existing analysis is more suitable for the literature review analysis, but cannot be used as the basis for the policy research. In Section 4.1, we would like to see more quantitative analysis.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

The manuscript is good overall and produced with good flow. I suggest to add value the manuscript by additional one more section with regards to the overview in term of land use changes and morphology. Thsi is in order to provide better perspective on the changes due to the transition.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper is very clear and interesting. The authors have done properly all the necessary corrections. The manuscript has considerably improved and so far, it is endorsed for final publication in Sustainability.

Reviewer 3 Report

Authors have addressed most of my concerns. In my opinion, this study is acceptable for journal's publication.