Land-Use Composition, Distribution Patterns, and Influencing Factors of Villages in the Hehuang Valley, Qinghai, China, Based on UAV Photogrammetry

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In this study, an object-based human-assisted classification approach was used to obtain ultra-high resolution land use data of villages by using remote sensing images of unmanned aerial vehicles, and the land use composition and spatial pattern of villages were accurately analyzed. The influence and contribution of natural factors and social economic factors on land use composition were discussed. This study provides UAV remote sensing data for assessing the environment of village settlements, and provides suggestions for village planning and environmental improvement, and provides scientific basis for village living environment planning in Hehuang Valley. However, there are still some problems in the article, and it is suggested that the author make major revision. The main opinions are as follows:

1. Keywords are not refined enough, and the object-based human-assisted classification approach among the seven keywords is too long. It is suggested to select the words that can best reflect the main content of the paper and have a series effect on the full text content.

2. The fourth paragraph of the introduction describes the research in recent years, but what are the limitations of the relevant research in the past? What is the innovation of the article? The first paragraph of the introduction writes the importance of rural revitalization, and the key words also include rural revitalization, but the article does not reflect it.

3. The study area map suggests adding specific locations of study areas in China or Qinghai Province. The importance of selecting the study area is not enough, and the natural geographical characteristics of the region lack of literature support. Refer to Stephen Klosterman et al., Agricultural and Forest Meteorology,2018; Xiaoyong Bai et al., Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 2023.

4. 55 representative village community clusters were randomly selected as research objects. Why choose this area as the research object, we need to reflect the necessity and significance of the research area.

5. The abbreviations in Figure 3 are suggested to be explained in the title for easy reading, such as HT, XDT. It is recommended to indicate clearly what the horizontal coordinate in Figure 5 indicates.

6. Why choose linear function and KNN classifier to classify land use? What is the basis of land use classification? Lack of reference support.

7. Part 3.3 describes the use of correlation analysis to calculate the impact of natural and human factors on land use, but the calculation method of contribution rate is not reflected. How to get the specific contribution value of temperature, precipitation and altitude to land use is suggested.

8.  The feasibility of land use classification technology was analyzed in the discussion, but the accuracy of the results of the paper was not compared. How to ensure the accurate classification of land use?

9.  The suggestions on village planning and environmental improvement are too few and lack pertinence and practicability. It is suggested that the author revise them again and summarize them in combination with the rural revitalization emphasized in the article.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Language improvement is necessary. Note that some technical terms are accurate.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Reviewer

Comments to the Authors

The manuscript "Land-Use Composition, Distribution Patterns, and Influencing Factors of Villages in the Hehuang Valley, Qinghai, China, based on UAV Photogrammetry," written by Xiaoyu Li and Zhongbao Xin, has been carefully reviewed. The manuscript maintains the study elements and is shaped in an appropriate research design. The study is a good work that uses high-resolution spatial data to focus on land use composition and the impact of some natural and hypogenic factors on the different land uses. Consequently, this study can be published after the following notes and points are considered and clarified.

The study notes

The introduction

-      Your title indicates the goals of your study, which you need to state obviously at the beginning of your manuscript. As common, the objectives of a study are declared at the end of the introduction. So, put your evident objectives at the end of your introduction to help the reader understand the study and its results and demonstrate these objectives.

Methodology:

-      You used only the 2022 UAV image to find the land use classification of the villages. This is accepted to show the land use for a specific point in time. However, you aimed to find the pattern of land use in these villages, which is dynamic and changeable over time. Do you think one year of classification is enough to achieve your objective, or do you need to add more years with adequate time intervals of classification to show a clear pattern of land use? Explain and fix.

Results

-      You classified the land use of 55 Hehuang Valley villages, and you connected that to the distribution of the land use composition. Therefore, provide a land use map for the whole village area with appropriate scale, even in parts as you divided (North, Middle, South), that indicates information about the study area's land use.

-      You studied the composition of land use, so the presentation of the villages’ land use classification is an important part of your work. Figure 3 presents insufficient information on the classification; for example, the maps are so small, cannot show clearly different classes, and cannot be enlarged to get apparent features. Also, the map scale is not recognizable. Therefore, divide the figure into more detailed figures showing the apparent land use categories, such as including each row in one figure.

-      Presenting the class areas of the villages is another essential piece of information you need to add. So, add the classification areas data of the villages in tables or graphs.

-      The accuracy assessment results indicate essential information about the confidentiality of the land use classification results you got and will use in some following related analysis. So, add the accuracy assessment details, such as the confusion matrix, to present your types of accuracy, like producer, user, and overall accuracy.

-      In Figure 7, you stated AP but did not explain what this acronym stands for. However, you did not mention the MAP that you mentioned in the figure in the analysis of the influencing factors. Review and fix that.

Conclusion

I went through the study parts that explained and provided detailed information about the study, the study area, and the constraints of conducting more comprehensive and spatial-covered research. Highlight in your conclusion some of the limitations you encountered and include some future recommended research or needed work.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Grammar notes

While I read the manuscript, I found some grammar mistakes in the text parts, including punctuation, sentence structure, and subject-verb agreement.

I placed some of these mistakes as examples,

In the abstract:

-      The villages have a relatively scattered distribution, with most (, most) concentrated on both sides of the main roads.

-      Land use composition of villages, with contribution rates of 50.56% and 12.51% (,) respectively.

-      The use of UAV remote sensing imagery to acquire ultra-high spatial resolution land-use data will provide a scientific basis for the planning of the living (for planning the living) environment in the villages of the Hehuang Valley.

In the introduction:

-      Low elevation human settlement and major (a major) agricultural production area.

-      Monitoring land use at ultra-high-resolution (high resolution) using remote sensing is a critical strategy for protecting resources.

In the Study Area and Data Sources:

-      The images were collected from July to August in 2022 (August 2022).

-      the classification results were corrected to improve classifycation (classification) accuracy.

In the results:

-      The spatial forms of villages in (at) the edges of the Hehuang Valley.

In discussion

-      Subsequently, pixel-based-machine (based machine) learning algorithms have increasingly been applied to land-use classification.

In conclusion

-      This study was based on a large amount of data, which were (was) used to obtain an ultrahigh-resolution land use classification dataset of villages.

-      This study conducted analysis on (an analysis of) the composition, spatial form, and influencing factors of village land use.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This manuscript used unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing imagery and an object-based human-assisted approach to obtain ultra-high-resolution (UHR) land use data for 55 villages and accurately analyzed village land-use composition and spatial patterns. Two main points should be addressed to improve the work.

1.     The novelty and importance of this work should be emphasized in the end of the Introduction part, especially in the technology part. Exploring land use composition and spatial morphology of villages is an interesting topic, the authors should emphasize more on this part.

2.     The methods employed in the current study are quite traditional. The comparison and discussion of other approaches in classification and shape index measurement should be further explored.

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. Simply performing experiments using existing methods does not meet the journal's high requirements.

2. Although the use of ready-made methods can provide a certain foundation and support for research, in order to enhance the innovation and impact of research, researchers can consider further improvements and innovations in method selection.

3. The paper may need to further discuss the advantages and limitations of object-level human-assisted methods. Discussion of the accuracy, efficiency, and impact of this approach on results can help readers better understand the study's methodological choices and interpretation of results.

4. The paper does not compare with other land use classification methods.

5. The readability of some graphics can be improved (for example, the display of the results in Figure 3 is relatively blurry)

6. It is recommended to provide a detailed description of the experimental environment in the paper to enhance the credibility and scientific nature of the research.

7. There is no mention of how the improved accuracy after correction through manual visual interpretation is achieved.

8. The description mentions the overall accuracy but not the individual category accuracy. In land use classification, classification accuracy can vary widely between categories, and understanding the accuracy of each category can provide a more comprehensive assessment.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have responded to my questions, and the revised manuscript has been significantly improved, and the paper can be accepted for publication. However, there are still some problems, please revise it carefully. The main comments are as follows:

1. The previously suggested lack of refinement of keywords does not refer specifically to the object-based human-assisted classification approach; it is a suggestion to select, for all seven keywords, the ones that best reflect the main content of the paper and have a tandem effect on the content of the whole text.

2. There are too many abbreviations for the figure names in Figure 4, and it is recommended that the abbreviations be placed in the support material, referring to the format of the Figure5 figure names. In addition, the text in Figure 4 and the scale in Figure 3 are not readable at all, and it is recommended that the y-axis scale in Figure 5 be placed on the left.

3. Line 543 indicates that the correlation is not Figure 6, and there is no correspondence between the figure and the presentation of the results; there is a problem with the formatting of lines 153-157; lines 609-613 describe the strengths and weaknesses of conventional UAVs, and these statements clearly should not be in the conclusion section, so please check for formatting problems. Authors should double-check and take it seriously to ensure that the paper is rigorous and standardized.

4. Abbreviations for proprietary names have been provided above, do not repeat them below, just use the abbreviations, such errors are common in this paper, please check.

5. Part 4.3 focuses on the influence mechanism of natural factors (temperature, precipitation, altitude), which can be appropriately extended to discuss the influence mechanism of social and economic factors.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Language improvement is necessary. Note that some technical terms are accurate.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have responsed to all the issues. No further problems.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf