Extraction of Geolocations from Site Maps in the Context of Traffic Counting

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The reviewer would like to see more justification on the original part of the paper, the suitability assessment of the content in order to justify the selection of this special issue. The objective paper is poor. You should also improve the applicability potential of the proposed approach, include study limitations and future prospects. More recent references are needed. The reference style is out of the requested format. Overall, the paper needs a systematic revision.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Moderate changes are needed. 

Author Response

The structure and content of the paper were revised. In comparison to the first draft, new approaches to realize the geo-referencing approaches are introduced and assessed. The limitations are added to the conclusion. The approach is transferable to other domains if reliable data sources as a reference are available. The future prospects were described before. A dashboard was developed that includes the traffic measurements and the geo-coordinates.

More recently published papers are cited.   he references were adjusted according to the reference style in the Sustainability template.   The quality of writing in English was improved.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The main research content of this paper is to address the extraction of geographic coordinates for traffic counting stations, in order to integrate traffic volume measurements with location information and provide more comprehensive data support for transportation planning experts. The study successfully utilized the open-source tool QGIS to extract over 1400 measurement locations from PDF maps, and created geographic information files (GeoTIFF) containing coordinates and rotation forms. By using transformation matrix formulas, the geographic coordinates of these locations were calculated, and a target database structure was defined to associate traffic volume with location. The contribution of this study to the academic field lies in proposing a method to extract geographic coordinates for traffic counting stations and successfully correlating the extracted coordinates with traffic volume data, thereby providing more accurate and practical data support for the transportation planning field. Suggestions for the paper include:

1.     The paper mentions the successful extraction of geographic coordinates from PDF maps using the QGIS tool, but lacks specific method descriptions and experimental validation processes. It is recommended that the authors provide detailed descriptions of the algorithms or techniques used, along with relevant experimental results and detailed evaluation metrics to validate the accuracy and reliability of the methods.

2.     The paper mentions the successful extraction of over 1400 measurement locations, but does not provide a detailed presentation and analysis of these data. It is recommended that the authors include specific graphs or statistical data to clearly demonstrate the extraction results, and analyze and explain the results for better understanding and evaluation by readers.

3.     The conclusion briefly mentions some limitations and future research directions, but the discussion of the practical significance and academic contribution of the study is relatively simple. It is recommended that the authors delve deeper into discussing the importance and application potential of the research results in the field of transportation planning, comparing them with existing methods to highlight the innovation and advantages of the study.

4.     The writing structure of the paper needs to be clearer and more coherent to ensure that readers can smoothly understand the research content and argumentation process. Additionally, it is suggested that the authors revise and polish the expressions in the paper to improve readability and the accuracy of technical writing.

5.     The paper should more fully cite relevant literature and research work to support the paper's statements and method descriptions. Additionally, it is recommended that the authors conduct more comprehensive research and comparison of existing methods and tools, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the methods employed.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

1. The structure and content of the paper were revised. In comparison to the first draft, new approaches to realize the geo-referencing approaches are introduced and assessed (QGIS + geo-referencing with one reference point, geo-referencing with two reference points). The methods are described with formulas in detail. The approaches are compared based on different criteria in chapter 5. The most suitable solution is chosen based on criteria as speed, usability, accuracy etc. QGIS is the solution with the highest potential. Experimental results and detailed evaluation metrics are presented regarding the accuracy of the QGIS and the two reference point solutions.
2. Statistical data was not gathered. As part of the evaluation, the accuracy of different approaches is compared. 
3. Different approaches that have the potential to solve the described problem are introduced and compared (geo-referencing with one or two reference points). Different methods are compared. The relevance of the approach for the traffic planning domain is highlighted in the conclusion. New data sources could become available more easily.
4. The structure and content of the paper were revised (see 1.). The quality of writing in English was improved.
5. More recently published papers are cited.  The references were adjusted according to the reference style in the Sustainability template.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript presents an approach to extracting geographic information from images and aligning this data with corresponding geo-information. The subject matter is intriguing and offers a unique perspective on data extraction and alignment techniques. However, the manuscript predominantly focuses on a highly specialized need from a specific project, which will be unlikely to be encountered by other people.

 

I recommend that the authors consider revising the structure of their paper to highlight the applicability of the methodology introduced. It would be beneficial to emphasize how this methodology can address a more general set of problems beyond the specific case study presented, which will then, have value of publication. 

Additionally, the manuscript delves into detailed technical descriptions related to their specific project's specific implementation, such as database structures and field names and the utilization of image data in 'PDF' format.  The title also need to be modified for the same reason, the inclusion of 'PDF' in the title appears unnecessary and could potentially mislead readers about the paper's core focus. A more descriptive and encompassing title would better reflect the manuscript's contributions and objectives.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

There should be a major improvement on the quality of English.

- Many sentences are isolated without proper logic link.

- Many sentences have grammar errors.

- Some words are not correct such as data base should be 'database'.

Author Response

1. The structure and content of the paper were revised. In comparison to the first draft, new approaches to realize the geo-referencing approaches are introduced and assessed (QGIS + geo-referencing with one reference point, geo-referencing with two reference points). The methods are described with formulas in detail. The approaches are compared based on different criteria in chapter 5. The most suitable solution is chosen based on criteria as speed, usability, accuracy etc. QGIS is the solution with the highest potential. Experimental results and detailed evaluation metrics are presented regarding the accuracy of the QGIS and the two reference point solutions.
2. The relevance of the approach for the traffic planning domain is highlighted in the conclusion.
3. Technical descriptions related to the specific project's specific implementation, such as database structures and field names are no longer part of the paper. In the title "PDF based" is removed. 
4. The quality of writing in English was improved.  

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper was improved. Thank you.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Moderate changes are needed.

Author Response

Quality of English was improved.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf