Can the Process of Evaluation and Recognition Effectively Promote Water Conservation in Cities? Evidence from China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Currently, there are facts of monitoring the condition and quality of water resources. Under these conditions, an increase in water consumption increases the costs of transportation and delivery of this resource, and also increases the cost of water treatment, while raising water quality standards. An increase in water consumption creates new types of wastewater disposal and the construction of new treatment facilities, where sludge is formed, and also requires recovery and processing, as well as disposal of excess activated sludge at landfills.

 

A special problem in the urban environment is the organization of street cleaning, watering road surfaces and watering plants, which also creates the need for industrial water, which can be used after treating domestic and partially storm drains. In this case, it is necessary to distinguish between natural and climatic features - arid-temperate or subtropical and tropical in the coastal part. In any case, the implementation of a smart city strategy significantly improves resource saving, including electricity and water. Thus, there is no doubt about the relevance of the publication on the analysis and modern policy in the field of water consumption.

 

It is important to note and the authors emphasize the formation of a particularly social format of consumption, its “greening” (Line 87): “The region's development needs and unavoidable "free rider" behavior make it easy 86 for the local government to exhibit obvious "bottom-by-bottom competition" phenome- 87 non in the process of environmental governance [3,4], making horizontal neighborhood 88 behavior comparison an important factor affecting the local government's environmental 89 governance efforts [5]".

 

Thus, a new historical community of people of different social levels, but with common characteristic features of environmental consumption, is being formed. It should be noted that in some countries, the greening of consumption patterns has led to the formation of enclaves where the conditional norm is the presence of an electric car, and not the opposite. In general, under the conditions of the introduction of the carbon index for each group of manufactured products, the declared trends towards its reduction form a new type of balanced economy, as well as a visible vector of sustainable development.

 

In any case, there is a decrease in carbonization of both the economy and personal consumption. Moreover, regardless of the proven, accepted or disputed climate model, there will be a clear reduction in anthropogenic load locally. It is rightly noted that it is impossible to formally and prescriptively reduce water consumption during irrigation without technological restructuring, including reducing side evaporation and water losses, crop selection and solving problems with salinity and erosion processes, as well as creating networks of ponds for collecting surface runoff - reducing diffuse runoff.

 

I would like to note the importance of using the basin principle in spatial analysis of the effectiveness of measures and indicators of the state of ecosystems. These facts were noted in works on the Volga basin (Rozenberg, Zinchenko, 2014).

 

Phrase (lines 193-196) “The water conservation consciousness of the local population plays a crucial role in promoting regional water-saving initiatives, and educational attainment is a key factor influencing individual water-saving behavior. Individuals with higher levels of education exhibit greater water saving awareness compared to others [27].” requires clarification and possibly further development. Currently, a series of sustainable development indices have been developed that correlate with the level of education of the population and the impact of human activities (Maksimova et al 2020). Including the Ecological Footprints indices (Rees, 1992), there is data for China as a whole and by province. It is necessary to more clearly define the social effect, including the conditions of motivation (Sidorov et al., 2021) for the transition to saving water resources and the choice of living in “smart cities” with a high innovative status.

General notes on the article:

 

1. A clearer structure is required - premises, description of the problem, statement of the problem - “hypotheses”, analysis and results.

 

2. A more detailed analysis of the experience of implementing the concept of countries with different types of economies and water consumption saving policies, including South America and Australia.

 

3. Perhaps more attention to the characteristics of the implementation of imagination programs on a national scale, coverage on a scale across provinces, cities and districts. The authors indeed provide a large array of data that requires analysis and generalization, taking into account the hypotheses proposed by the authors and an assessment of the contribution of water use optimization to sustainable development indicators, for example, “Ecological footprints”.

 

4. Add a diagram and tables for assessing the effectiveness of implementing the smart home concept, taking into account consumption - reducing water consumption, as well as the impact on water resources, taking into account the identified hypotheses proposed by the author. For example, present an analysis of information in the format of a SWOT analysis, when choosing a hypothesis, taking into account the results obtained, presented in section “4.5.2. Mechanism analysis under the dual policy".

 

Links:

 

Maksimova O.A., Ledashcheva T.N., Shcherbakova N.S. Prospects for sustainable development of Kazan considering the assessment of key indicators. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. International Science and Technology Conference "Earth Science". 2020. С. 042006. DOI: 10.1088/1755-1315/459/4/042006

Sidorov A. A., A.A., Kudinova G.E., Rozenberg A.G. Motivating the staff Innovation activity for sustainable development. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems. 2021. Т. 161. С. 477-484. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-60926-9_61

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors,

 

This is an interesting and well-executed study and I will propose below some minor revisions so as to improve its theoretical background and contribution.

 

1.         I will propose the develop further the literature review sub-section titled “Assessment of water saving effects of existing policies”. You include several examples from a variety of countries, however you could further develop the reviewing of existing research stemming from Europe, Australia and USA. You provide few and superficial references and although you face word limitations, you could expand further this sub-section. Also acknowledge that there are too many studies that have not been cited/discussed due to word limitations here.

 

2.         You should stress further the originality of the study. There is a significant body of literature around smart city projects and you should highlight why this particular study adds original insights to the existing literature. You can develop further this argument on page 4 and before the Research design. It seems that already several studies (in China and Europe as you cite) have been exploring water related strategies and thereupon, you should further argue how the existing study provides more original and contemporary insights.

 

3.                In the sub-section titled Model Setting (as part of the Methodology) please provide justification for the choice of the multi-time point analysis, as the best method for this study. What did prompt you to follow this particular method? Your methodology focuses on China and I will recommend that you include the term China in the title of the paper.

 

4.             Finally, throughout the Findings and Discussion section, you should connect your new data with existing studies. How does this particular study challenge/upgrade/agree/disagree with existing findings? What is your contribution to the literature review? In the policy suggestions sub-section, your arguments refer to ‘Cities’ in general, without taking into account cross-cultural, economic, political differences. Yes, China faces water scarcity but what about other global cities in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere? Where are these findings applicable and why? The term governance has very different meaning and connotations in central Africa compared to Australia for example, or in Western China compared to Canada. Please consider these policy and political differences since different environmental stakeholders are getting involved in the process in different parts of the world.

 

I will invite you to address these three key points when you revise the document and I hope you will find those useful 

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors The authors made changes that improved the perception of the manuscripts  work. The reviewer thanks for the change and notes the lack of generalized empirical data. I note that the data can be averaged and their array is huge, but can be calculated based on financial expenses and water consumption for water consumption and wastewater disposal per person in a populated area. I agree that this extensive work is a direct indicator of the effectiveness of measures to reduce water consumption.

 

Unfortunately, minor revision of the article and improvement of the publication design are necessary. Some social facts and the terms “free rider” behavior require clarification for the understanding of the authors of the publication.

We need a more clear statement of the problem and justification for the work performed, and the results should be presented in the form of a diagram or SWOT analysis.

Comment.

1. I would recommend that the authors argue for this sentence of line (33-36) “In light of this, China is not only consistently improving national and regional water resource management measures but also implementing the most rigorous water resource management system to advance wastewater treatment, reinforcement water usage control, expedite water conservation projects, and accomplish ecosystem restoration."

Argumentation is possible, for example, when comparing sanitary standards for the quality of water resources in different countries. This requires a comparative analysis of standards for drinking water, wastewater treatment and natural water bodies with commercial and recreational impacts. Particular attention should be paid to the flow of pollutants from the catchment area, including urban areas.

2. Unfortunately, the authors limited themselves to a meager analysis of the policies for optimizing the use of water resources in some countries. With an emphasis on saving money in the event of a lack of water in an arid climate. They also avoid analyzing factors that deteriorate water resources - the introduction of nutrients and an increase in phytoplankton biomass - “water blooms”.

3. The assessment of the criteria for the implementation of the new water policy is unclear; carbon balance is mentioned. For China, there are integral assessments of anthropogenic impact; it is not entirely clear how the measures taken will affect it. The choice of priority regions of the country for the implementation of measures is not indicated, but the article draws attention to arid regions with “scarcity of water resources.”

 

I believe that this publication can serve as an initial stage in conducting comprehensive studies of the implementation of measures to conserve water resources.

Author Response

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