Effects of Human Activities on Urban Vegetation: Explorative Analysis of Spatial Characteristics and Potential Impact Factors

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

the article is interesting and overall well written. I have a few comments, mainly about the text arrangement and some general principles.

My recommendations: 

1. The overview of research in the Introduction can be further developed.
I miss a bit of a more legible presentation of the various discourses to which the content of the article refers. In my opinion, the international research review is also unsatisfactory. I understand that the article concerns the issues of the territory of China, but the issues discussed in the article have a more universal dimension.
2. Chapter two should be called Materials and Methods or simply Methods.
3. It is possible to consider enlarging some of the figures (eg 6, 7, 8). They would benefit from readability.
4. There are too many tables in the Discussion chapter. In my opinion, they are more suitable for the Results chapter. The tables are justified in the Discussion chapter if they compare the results of our research with the results of other researchers' research - confirming them or showing, for example, uniqueness. A table as a simple research background is a better fit for Results.
5. As I mentioned, the literature review should be strengthened.

Sincerely

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewers, 

Thank you for the positive comments on the contributions and the proper summary of this paper. We have improved the manuscript based on your valuable suggestions. In this cover letter, your comments are marked in blue and our revisions are marked in red. The revised parts of the paper are shown in red in the revised manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper covers an interesting topic but it needs to be improved.

The introduction is too long. Please include only what is relevant for your study.

There are citations mainly in the introduction and no citations in the text. Please detail consider other relevant studies in the field and their methodology.

The results and conclusions are not as they should be. The conclusions are not well written and too short. You should focus on the relevance on your study and include some recommendations. Conclusions should be a lot more relevant not just a couple of rows.

There are no detailed comments as the paper need to be improved a lot. So please consider the following:

• do another introduction and include only what is relevant
• methodology should include also details about previous studies using this methodology. Include citations.
• Results and conclusions need to be rewritten. The conclusion section should explain the relevance of your study. 

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewers, 

Thank you for the positive comments on the contributions and the proper summary of this paper. We have improved the manuscript based on your valuable suggestions. In this cover letter, your comments are marked in blue and our revisions are marked in red. The revised parts of the paper are shown in red in the revised manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This article approaches the issue of effects of human activities on urban vegetation using an explorative analysis of spatial characteristics and potential impact factors.

Overall, the article is very well written. The abstract includes relevant information. Introduction is relatively well sustained by international references. 

However, the are some minor shortcomings:

• the figures quality should be improved since part of them are hardly readable
• a graph / figure synthesizing the methodology should be added
• the main results of this work should be better emphasized
• the main conclusion should be better emphasized

I would recommend a minor revision.

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewers, 

Thank you for the positive comments on the contributions and the proper summary of this paper. We have improved the manuscript based on your valuable suggestions. In this cover letter, your comments are marked in blue and our revisions are marked in red. The revised parts of the paper are shown in red in the revised manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

I have no more comments. I welcome the changes in the article. I only have a general note on the map layout. They should all be either left or centered.

Sincerely