Regional Sustainable Strategy Based on the Coordination of Ecological Security and Economic Development in Yunnan Province, China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you very much for your kind suggestions, and your suggestions have been very helpful for our article. I will respond to your comments and observations one by one below.
1.The research area is Yunnan Province, China. The research area is sufficient to draw conclusions.
Response：Thank you for your comment.
2.In the abstract, the authors included too extensive conclusions and omitted the description of the method. The goal is very laconic compared to the description of the conclusions.
Response：Thank you for your suggestion. We have revised the abstract based on your suggestions and the revised content is as follows:
Coordination between ecological security and economic development is crucial to sustainable development, and the development strategy should be adjusted according to the type of region. Yunnan Province, China, is a treasure trove of biodiversity but is economically lagging behind. Clarifying the relationship between ecological security and economic development can provide a reference for the sustainable development of similar biodiversity hotspots in the world.The landscape index method and index evaluation method were used to calculate the ecological safety index（ESI） and the economic development index（EDI）, respectively, and the median value of the indices was used for the comprehensive zoning. The coupled coordination degree model（CCDM） was used to assess the coordination status of ecological safety and economic development in each zone.
The results show that (1) Yunnan's ecological security pattern is high in the west and low in the east, mainly influenced by topography, climate and human activities; its economic development is resource-dependent and shows a multi-point dispersed pattern due to poor transportation;(2) Yunnan was partitioned into the Coordinated Development Zone (CDZ), the Ecological Risk Zone (ERZ), the Economic Poverty Zone (EPZ), and the Dual Pressure Zone (DPZ). Among them, CDZs (15%) are mostly areas with outstanding advantageous resources and mature characteristic industries, and relatively spatially dispersed. There are two types of ERZs (35%): one is an area where the intensity of human activities exceeds the ecological carrying capacity, mainly located in the eastern plateau; the other is an area with fragile ecological background conditions, located in high mountains and river valleys. EPZs(35%) are mainly The lagging socio-economics of DPZ (15%) and the fragile ecological environment constrain each other to form a negative cycle. (3) 76% of the regional coordination levels in Yunnan are moderately coordinated, and there is still a certain space for development from the high-quality coordination level. The order of the average coordination degree of each partition is CDZ>ERZ>EPZ>DPZ. The poor basis for coordination and the single approach to coordination have led to the fact that ecological safety and economic development are often more difficult to achieve in areas with large mountainous areas similar to Yunnan. (4) Due to the necessity of biodiversity protection, Yunnan Province should choose the sustainable path of ecological priority and green development. Specifically, CDZ should give play to industrial advantages and brand effects, promote industrial integration and innovative industrial development paths; the key to ERZ is industrial restructuring, industrial ecologization, ecological environment restoration and protection; EPZ should improve transportation and other infrastructure and revitalize economic development under the premise of ecological priority; DPZ is supposed to emphasize human and load reduction and moderate development.
3.I understand that the research area is a province of China, but in the article it is worth referring to other researchers who study the issues raised (sustainable development, the impact of the economy on the environment, etc.). In the article, the authors refer only to authors from China. The international literature on this subject is very extensive.
Response: Thank you for your comments. We have further expanded the literature investigation in related fields, added the research of foreign scholars in the field of sustainable development, and improved the introduction. Sustainable development is a global issue, and ecological safety evaluation is also a research hotspot in the field of ecology. The coupled and coordinated status among ecological, environmental, social, economic, and energy subsystems has also been studied by many scholars, but the literature focusing on the coupled and coordinated development of ecological safety and social economy, with Chinese provinces, cities, or regions as the study area, is predominant. This is closely related to China's remarkable development achievements in recent years and the ecological and environmental problems brought about by too rapid development.
4.The authors describe in detail the methodology used, but in some parts it is incomprehensible, i.e. the purpose of using so many calculations and methods to reach the conclusions that the authors have obtained is incomprehensible. It could be shortened and the article would be more readable.
Response: Thank you for your comments. We have shortened the methodology section of the study, keeping the descriptions of the main and key steps and related tables.
5.Did the authors carry out a statistical analysis of the indicators used? Are all variables normally distributed? Have they been properly standardized? This applies in particular to indicators for building EDI. Is it necessary to use all of them in the end, because, for example, some of them may carry the same information about the studied phenomenon?
Response: Thank you for your comments. In this paper, principal component analysis was used in the calculation of EDI. Firstly, we selected 10 commonly used indicators characterizing the level of economic development. After performing standardization, four representative indicators were extracted by principal component analysis. The information contribution rate of these four indicators is as high as 91.375%, which can cover the required information well and meet the requirements of using principal component analysis to calculate the index. Therefore, only four of these representative indicators were finally used to calculate the EDI, and not all of them were used, also to avoid the problems of data redundancy and information duplication.
6.Some test results, e.g. in table 6, calculated mean values for EDI are worrying (-3.10E-6, 1.55E-6, +4.65E-6), it is better to repeat the analysis and check.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have checked the calculated data and there is no problem with the data itself. The average value of EDI in this paper shows (-3.10E-6, 1.55E-6, +4.65E-6) because there are positive and negative EDI calculation results in Yunnan Province, and most of the districts and counties have negative EDI or low value of zero point few, and only 13% of all districts and counties have EDI greater than 1. Therefore, when calculating the average value, the result obtained is a very small value close to 0. It can only be expressed by scientific notation.
7.The objectives contained in the article do not fully reflect their implementation, i.e. the conducted research is very detailed and extensive, but this is not sufficiently pointed out in the form of objectives.
Response:Thank you for your comments. We have revised the study objectives section to correspond to and fully reflect the study content. The revised study objectives are as follows:
(1) Spatial pattern, temporal changes and causes of ecological security and economic development in Yunnan Province; (2) Spatial distribution, temporal changes, causes and characteristics of each zone; (3) Coordination and characteristics of ecological security and economic development in Yunnan Province; (4) Sustainable development strategies of each zone.
8.The added value of the article are graphical sets in the form of drawings (maps), they are clear and understandable
Response: Thank you for your recognition of the work on the chart section.
9.In conclusion, the content with method and results (a lot of information) is not fully reflected in the summary, introduction and summary (too laconically). Worth improving.
Response: Thank you for your comments. We have sorted out the introduction and summary sections of the article to make the content and logic clearer and more complete. The results are presented in the revised version.
10.Congrats on your work to the author of Lingyu Meing. The very idea, data analysis, making sure not to make any mistakes in the calculations, developing the results, writing everything is a lot of effort and practically a whole article. However, the remaining tasks (supervision, administration or review?) are just an addition, a small amount of work, not very time-consuming work. I hope that other contributors will get involved in improving the article and help Mr. Lingyu Meng. Co-authorship will then be fair.
Response：Thank you for your kind suggestion. We have revised the author contributions section to balance the work of the co-authors. The revisions are as follows:
Conceptualization, Meiying Sun and Lingyu Meng;Investigation, Le Zhang and Rongjin Yang; Writing-original draft, Lingyu Meng; Writing-review@editing, Meiying Sun and Rongjin Yang; Visualization, Le Zhang and Xiuhong Li; Supervision, Rongjin Yang; Project administration, Xiuhong Li.
Reviewer 2 Report
The article is devoted to the issue on regional sustainable strategy based on the coordination of ecological security and economic development. The authors focus on the case of Yunnan Province in China, where rich biodiversity but low level of economic development are observed. The choice to study the region, where ecological and economic development tendencies are controversial, provides a basis for a new knowledge in the issue in scientific and practical areas. Introduction well demonstrates research gap in terms of Chinese experience, but overall statement of research problem on ecological security and economic development worldwide is not discussed. This reduces scientific contribution of the research to overall understanding of coordination between ecological security and economic development. Although, the article demonstrates high scientific and practical significance for the concrete region. The authors demonstrate wide knowledge in the theme and specific knowledge in ecological and economic peculiarities at regional level. The article presents detailed visualization of the research. The research design is logical. The authors offer regional strategy for each detected zone depending on combined types of ecological security and economic development what highlights practical significance of the study. In the reviewer’s mind, it is possible to recommend to the authors to pay attention on literature review and conclusions.
Recommendations for improvements in the article:
1) The issue on ecological security and economic development is topical worldwide. Within the article, the literature focuses mostly on the cases in China. It is recommended to expand review of literature. This will help to highlight the authors’ scientific contribution to the research gap not only within the case, but also within the theme.
2) It is recommended to define sustainable strategy in terms of ecological security and economic development. How do the authors see its main components? This will help precisely to evaluate regional and sectoral peculiarities.
3) It is recommended to precise conclusions. Conclusions may be structured according to the sense of economic sectors and their effects on ecological security. In this context, the authors may elaborate not only general recommendations that are difficult to implement in practice, and which require long-term, but also to offer recommendations given the existing ecological situation, economic structure and population density. Is it possible to improve negative effects of economic activities on ecology through changes in behavior and practicing in sustainable manner?
Author Response
Thank you for your professional and kind comments! Your suggestions are very helpful to our article. I will respond to your comments and comments below.
(1) The issue on ecological security and economic development is topical worldwide. Within the article, the literature focuses mostly on the cases in China. It is recommended to expand review of literature. This will help to highlight the authors’ scientific contribution to the research gap not only within the case, but also within the theme.
Response: Thank you for your comments. In response to your comments, we have intensified literature research on the coordination and sustainability of ecological security and economic development. Ecological security is the research focus in the field of ecology. There are many literatures related to ecological security assessment in various countries and ecosystem types. Few papers have studied the coupling and coordination of multiple subsystems, such as ecology, environment, energy, society and economy. However, there are few articles on the coordination and sustainability of ecological security and economic development, especially in ecological hotspots, most of which focus on biodiversity conservation and ignore the damage to the ecological environment caused by resource-dependent development models. We further describe the literature survey in the introduction and the revisions in the new draft.
(2) It is recommended to define sustainable strategy in terms of ecological security and economic development. How do the authors see its main components? This will help precisely to evaluate regional and sectoral peculiarities.
Response: Thanks for your advice. Sustainable development means not only the conservation, rational use and strengthening of the natural resource base to support resilience to ecological pressures and economic growth, but also the integration of environmental concerns and considerations into development plans and policies. The sustainable strategy of coordinating ecological security and economic development is to develop economy while ensuring ecological security and create a virtuous cycle of ecological protection and economic development. In order to form a virtuous cycle, different regions need to be classified and discussed to clarify the coupling and coordination between ecological security and economic development and its influencing factors. Major obstacles to regional development were identified in order to propose targeted sustainable development strategies. In this paper, the median value of ecological security index and economic development index was used to classify the regional types, and four types of regions were obtained: coordinated development zone, ecological risk area, economic poverty area and double pressure area. They each face different degrees of development problems, limiting the formation of a virtuous cycle.
(3) It is recommended to precise conclusions. Conclusions may be structured according to the sense of economic sectors and their effects on ecological security. In this context, the authors may elaborate not only general recommendations that are difficult to implement in practice, and which require long-term, but also to offer recommendations given the existing ecological situation, economic structure and population density. Is it possible to improve negative effects of economic activities on ecology through changes in behavior and practicing in sustainable manner?
Re: Thank you for your advice. Based on the assessment of ecological security and economic development level, this paper divides the types of areas and calculates the coupling coordination. The causes, characteristics and coupling coordination of spatial pattern of different types of belts are analyzed, and the sustainable development strategies for different types of belts are proposed. We put forward our views from the perspective of strengthening coupling coordination and promoting the formation of a virtuous cycle, involving industrial restructuring, ecological and environmental restoration, and reducing the load on land and population. More specific recommendations are made in Section 4.4.
