A Comparative Study on the Spatial Structure Characteristics of National-Level Traditional Villages in Liaoning, China

Comments 1: First of all, what are the scientific questions and the research gaps in the previous studies on traditional village analysis?

Response 1: Agree. The additions are marked in red, lines 47-49, and illustrated in lines 97-99 to study the development of traditional village spaces.

Comments 2: The article only selected 30 national-level traditional villages as samples. Although they were divided into different types, the sample size was small and may not be sufficient to fully represent the overall spatial structure characteristics of national-level traditional villages.

Response 2: Thank you for pointing this out. In response to this question, first I provide an explanation of the changes in the number of traditional villages at the national level in Liaoning Province, from 2012 to 2019 the state has published a list of five batches of traditional villages, Liaoning Province, the third batch: 8, the fourth batch: 9, and the fifth batch: 13, which accounts for 0.4% of the total number of the state (6,819), which explains the current situation of the protection of traditional villages in Liaoning Province. Historically the Liaoning region belongs to the area of minority activities and is dominated by nomadic activities, with fewer areas and numbers of settlements formed.

Comments 3: It is recommended to conduct in-depth analysis of specific villages in each type of plain, hilly and mountainous areas, explore the intrinsic connection between natural factors such as terrain, water system, vegetation and the spatial structure of the village, and how these natural factors work together to affect the spatial form of the village.

Response 3: Agree. I have, accordingly, done modified to emphasize this point. Additions have been highlighted in red, see table3 for basic information.

Comments 4: When explaining the spatial structure of traditional villages, the article does not delve deeply enough into their historical and cultural background, and fails to fully demonstrate the cultural significance and social changes behind the villages.

Response 4: Agree. I have, accordingly, done modified to emphasize this point. Additions are marked in red, see Table 3.

Comments 5: The study needs to strengthen research on the village’s historical evolution, folk culture, social structure, etc., and combine spatial structure analysis with historical and cultural background.

Response 5: Agree. I have, accordingly, done modified to emphasize this point. Additions are marked in red, see Table 3.

Comments 6: Please clearly state the reliability of the data source, the methods of data collection and processing, and the possible errors, biases and uncertainties in the data processing process.

Response 6: Thank you for pointing this out. In response to the data problem, derived from the official data of the software, all the authors need to provide is to construct the model, and the model is calibrated by iterative corrections, i.e., the model is correct to get the data results.

Comments 7: It is also recommended to formulate more specific and feasible protection measures and action plans for different types of traditional villages, while considering support from various aspects such as policies, funds, and technology to improve the practicality and effectiveness of protection strategies.

Response 7: Agree. Additions marked in red, lines 350-353, 356-360, 372-376, 380-384, 387-389, 390-394.

Comments 8: The cause-and-effect relationship is unclear. In the authors' future study, machine learning methods, such as random forest, could be used to quantitatively discover the relationship. Please refer to below for discussion.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2024.107486

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112237

Response 8: Agree. Additions highlighted in red, lines 446-448.

Comments 9: There is a need for more comparisons with other regions or international experiences to verify the universality and specificity of the research findings.

Response 9: Thank you for pointing this out. At present, this paper on traditional villages to domestic research, foreign in the study of the current situation to show the development process and its content of the transformation will be studied in the subsequent study.

Comments 10: If the research involves surveys or interviews with village residents, it should ensure that the research process complies with ethical standards and respects the privacy and rights of the respondents.

Response 10: Thank you for pointing this out. In response to this question, all of which are not covered by the research team's on-site research.

Comments 11: The The conclusions of the article are too general and fail to fully consider all possible influencing factors.

Response 11: Agree. Changes are highlighted in red, lines 404-435.

Comments 12: The outlook for future research directions at the end of the study is not clear and specific enough, and fails to provide sufficient guidance and inspiration for subsequent research.

Response 12: Agree. Changes are highlighted in red, see lines 442-449.

4. Response to Comments on the Quality of English Language

Point 1: Extensive editing of English language required.

Response 1: See picture after the paper.

5. Additional clarifications

 我想向期刊编辑提供一个修改后的电子邮件地址，由于前期填写错误，需要更改该地址，并按 [email protected] 进行修订。

Comments 1: lack of a clearly defined aim of the paper (research hypotheses or detailed objectives). The authors only indicated in lines 72-73 that: "The present study emphasizes and explores the conservation of the spatial structure of national-level traditional villages in Liaoning". In my opinion, this cannot be considered the purpose of the work. The purpose of the paper should be clearly indicated at the end of the Introduction.

Response 1: Thank you for pointing this out. In response to this problem, the purpose of this paper is not to protect the work and make the spatial structure more rational.

Comments 2: the paper lacks definitions of important concepts used by the authors in the paper, such as: traditional village, spatial structure, etc.

Response 2: Agree. I have, accordingly, done modified to emphasize this point. Separate additions were made to address conceptual issues, highlighted in red, with the traditional village concept added to lines 33-37, the spatial structure concept added to lines 186-195, and the spatial syntax concept added to lines 200-210.

Comments 3: lack of indication of the method of selecting the research group. The number of studied villages is sometimes indicated as 30 and sometimes as six (see the abstract). Why the difference? Please explain.

Response 3: Thank you for pointing this out. In response to this question, first I provide an explanation of the changes in the number of traditional villages at the national level in Liaoning Province, from 2012 to 2019 the state has published a list of five batches of traditional villages, Liaoning Province, the third batch: 8, the fourth batch: 9, and the fifth batch: 13, which accounts for 0.4% of the total number of the state (6,819), which explains the current situation of the protection of traditional villages in Liaoning Province. Historically the Liaoning region belongs to the area of minority activities and is dominated by nomadic activities, with fewer areas and numbers of settlements formed.

Comments 4: lack of description of research methods. How were quantitative indicators defined? Their description in the attachment is unclear and insufficient (besides, it is a table, not a figure).

Response 4: Agree. I have, accordingly, done modified to emphasize this point. The research methodology has been modified, marked in red, lines 200-210, and the definition of indicators has been added to characterize them, see Table 4.

Comments 5: the authors sometimes write unclearly or use mental shortcuts, e.g. in lines 106-113 the authors write about the third, fourth and fifth groups. Which groups are they talking about? In another place (lines 149-150) the authors write: "In summary, the city of Shenyang had the largest number of national-level traditional 149 villages". Are the studied villages part of cities? Please explain. There are similar formulations in other parts of the paper.

Response 5: Thank you for pointing this out. To address this issue, the third, fourth, and fifth groups of 106-113 refer to the list of traditional villages published three times from 2012-2019 in China, of which there are a total of 30 in Liaoning Province, and the specific list is the name of the villages in Table 1.Line 149-150 refer to the division by type, such as Table 1, the polygon of the plains type of villages is the city of Shenyang accounted for a large proportion.

Comments 6: it is not indicated how the numerical values presented in the paper were calculated, e.g. in table 4. They are not clearly interpreted. Is such a large number of digits after the comma necessary?

Response 6: Agree. I have, accordingly, done modified to emphasize this point. The definitions and calculations of the indicators have been increased and are shown in Table 4. The data in Table 5 have been retained to two decimals, and due to the small differences in the control values, a multiplier has been applied to retain the two digits.

Comments 7: tables and figures in the paper are often illegible. Some tables are more of a figure than a table, e.g. tables 5-10.

Response 7: Agree. I have, accordingly, done modified to emphasize this point. Modify some of the red markings by replacing Tables 5-10 with figures 3-8.

Comments 8: the Conclusion section is limited. It should be expanded, referred to the aim of the paper (research hypotheses).

Response 8: Agree. Changes are highlighted in red, lines 404-435.

Comments 9: in my opinion the way of citing literature should be changed. It is not necessary to provide the titles of works in the text of the paper. In addition, it is worth expanding the literature.

Response 9: Agree. I have, accordingly, done modified to emphasize this point. The title of the work appearing in lines 87-109 has been deleted. And expanded documentation is added in lines 80-88, lines 91-96, lines 109-112, and labeled in red.

4. Response to Comments on the Quality of English Language

Point 1: I am not qualified to assess the quality of English in this paper

Response 1: See picture after the paper.

5. Additional clarifications

 I would like to provide the journal editor with a revised email address, which needs to be changed due to a letter being filled in incorrectly up front, revised as [email protected].

Comments 1: First of all, the line numbers mentioned by the authors in the response did not correspond at all to the line numbers in the revised manuscript.

Response 1: Agree. The last response has been proofread in response to question 1:”First of all, what are the scientific questions and the research gaps in the previous studies on traditional village analysis?”respond to lines 47-49, 80-82, 91-96.

Comments 2: Liaoning region belongs to the area of minority activities and is dominated by nomadic activities, with fewer areas and numbers of settlements formed. That means Liaoning region is not an appropriate study area for the purpose of this analysis.

Response 2: Thank you for pointing this out. Due to the particularity of Liaoning region, its experience of the process of transformation from nomadic life to farming life is of great significance in the formation of northern villages, especially in the choice of environment in the area where the settlements are located, which is particularly important and can fill the gaps in the Chinese villages, and is worth studying.

Comments 3: When constructing the theoretical framework, the manuscript basically copied existing research results and lacked certain innovation and independence.

Response 3: Thank you for pointing this out. This thesis favours basic research, which is of greater significance due to the fact that there are fewer studies of villages in northern China, although it lacks a certain degree of innovativeness.

Comments 4: The manuscript mainly uses space syntax for research and the authors should combine the GIS analysis, field research, resident interviews and other methods to obtain more comprehensive and multi-dimensional data support.

Response 4: Thank you for pointing this out. According In this paper, Gis analysis and field research were conducted, and due to the limited length of the paper, specific analyses of each village were not put into the text.

Comments 5: It is necessary to supplement the methods such as interviews and observations to gain a deeper understanding of the living habits, cultural customs and views of the village residents on the spatial structure of the village in order to enrich the research content.

Response 5: Agree. The issue has been modified. Changes are marked in red, lines 224-251, 277-281, 299-308, 336-340.

Comments 6: The manuscript divides villages into plain, hilly and mountainous types based on altitude. This classification method is relatively simple and ignores other important geographical, cultural or social factors, such as topography, historical and cultural background, and economic development level.

Response 6: Thank you for pointing this out. According to the classification method historical-cultural and economic classification, the results are confusing and cannot be directly causally related to the spatial structure of the village. Therefore, only topographic and spatial structure pattern aspects were used.

Comments 7: Increase in-depth analysis of multi-dimensional factors such as culture, society, and economy, explore how these factors work together to affect the spatial structure of traditional villages, and how to take these factors into account during the protection process.

Response 7: Agree. The issue has been modified. Changes are marked in red, lines 475-483.

Comments 8: The manuscript still has many key problems in terms of language expression and formatting specifications. There are some paragraphs where the sentences are not smooth and the expression is not clear. The MDPI language service must be used.

Response 8: Thank you for pointing this out. To address this issue, this thesis uses the LetPub language service and will eventually undergo another language revision.

Comments 9: Due to limitations in sample selection, research methods and data sources, the conclusions drawn from the study may only be applicable to specific types of traditional villages or specific regions, and their universality is rather questionable.

Response 9: Thank you for pointing this out. In response to this problem, the main result of this thesis is to provide some reference to the formation of traditional settlements in the north and the evolution of living habits of ethnic integration.

Point 1: I am not qualified to assess the quality of English in this paper.

Response 1: To address this issue, this thesis uses the Letpub language service, which will eventually be performed

3. Point-by-point response to Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments 1: The manuscript can be accepted in this journal after improving the language using the MDPI language service.

Response 1: Agree. Language changes have been made.