Expansion of Industrial Parks in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration: A Spatial Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1. The first sentence of the introduction does not point out the topic or importance of the study. And there are many long sentences in the introduction part, which affects the reading.
2. The presentation of innovation is relatively weak and not closely linked to the previous literature.
3. There seems to be several irrelevant paragraphs after the research method.
4. There are some mistakes of the upper corner marker of the unit of measure in the manuscript, and some words are misspelled, for example, Cangzhou is written as Changzhou in some parts of the results.
5. The three expansion modes mentioned in the results section 3.3 are not defined and calculated in detail, and the process and results of MEI application are not clearly explained.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewers:

Many thanks for the insightful comments and suggestions concerning our manuscript (ID: Land-1399667). We have considered your comments and have incorporated almost all your suggestions in the revised version of our paper. We also have a detailed response to each comment in the below. In the paper, the changes made are clearly highlighted using the "Track Changes" function. We feel that by revising our paper according to your constructive suggestions, the paper has been greatly improved.

The following are the answers and revisions.We have made in response to the reviewers' questions and suggestions on an item by item basis.

 

Specific Comments 1：

The first sentence of the introduction does not point out the topic or importance of the study. And there are many long sentences in the introduction part, which affects the reading.

 

Response to comment 1:

Thanks a lot for the helpful suggestions. We have revised and improved the article according to your comments. The revisions focus on the first paragraph of the introduction. Please check the first paragraph.

Firstly, we have deleted some specific effects of development zones on global economic development in the first sentence, because considering the opinions of reviewers, these content does not play a significant role in pointing out the topic or importance of this study.

 

Then, at the end of the first paragraph, we further indicate the necessity of carrying out this study. The specific contents added are as follows:

So, more importantly, China’s rapid urbanization is very closely to the proliferation of different kinds of development zones. It has dramatically influened the national land use and land conver changes fostring urban expansion [3]. We need to examine the impact of changes in human socio-eonomic activiteis on land use changes from the perspective of development zones.

 

Finally, we further edit the language of the introduction, trying to modify some long sentences into short sentences, in order to enhance the readability of this paper.

 

Specific Comments 2：

The presentation of innovation is relatively weak and not closely linked to the previous literature.

Response to comment 2:

Thanks a lot for the accurate suggestions. We have supplemented a series of studies on spatial expansion of industrial parks. The details are as follows:

“In the research on the spatial expansion of industrial parks, Zhang pointed out that the expansion of industrial parks presents the characteristics of large scale, high speed, the development of human settlement space driven by industrial space, and low land use intensiveness. She believes that the spatial expansion of the parks emphasizes quantity rather than quality, and it is proposed that economic parks need to pay more attention to the quality of space expansion and focus on intensive growth[52]. Based on the analysis of the spatial scale and benefits of my country’s urban development zones, Wang et al. believes that development zones are responsible for the expansion of urban space and have the characteristics of "aperture" and "honeycomb" effects[25]. Geng finds that, driven by local interests and poor planning control, there are problems in the construction of development zones in China, such as the impulse for spatial expansion, extensive land use, and chaotic regional spatial development order[53]. Taking the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone as an example, Rao et al. studies the spatial development characteristics and problems of the park in the transition to a new city. They pointed out that the industrial parks have the characteristics of spatial development such as the transformation of the spatial scale from small to large, and the transformation of the spatial structure from a single cluster to multiple clusters[54].”

 

On the basis of reviewing these studies, we further emphasize that, “Most studies on the patterns of spatial expansions of industrial parks are mainly qualitative and focus on prominent issues and drivers of expansions and, thereby, propose optimization strategies and regulation paths for industrial parks’ spatial structures [37,38]. Further, some important microscale studies are only case studies [39]. From the regional perspective, there are often numerous industrial parks within a region. There are many differences among different industrial parks. For example, the spatial expansion characteristics of industrial parks in different locations may be different.Therefore, although some scholars have obtained certain spatial extension rules of industrial parks based on case studies, relevant conclusions may not be universally applicable. UnsurprisinglyAdditionally, due to different economic development stages, the characteristics of spatial evolution at the macro scale of groups of industrial parks within specific regions might differ from those of an individual park. But studies focusing on long time series and quantitative expansion analyses of groups of industrial parks within specific regions are fewer.”

 

Specific Comments 3：

There seems to be several irrelevant paragraphs after the research method.

Response to comment 3:

Thanks a lot for the careful review. We are so sorry that we forgot to delete the paragraphs which are indications of the journal for the authors in the journal template. In the revised manuscript, we have deleted the relevant content.

 

Specific Comments 4：

There are some mistakes of the upper corner marker of the unit of measure in the manuscript, and some words are misspelled, for example, Cangzhou is written as Changzhou in some parts of the results.

Response to comment 4:

Thanks a lot for the careful review. We have further checked the article during the revision process, and corrected some spelling mistakes. This also reminds us that we must pay attention to avoiding spelling mistakes.

 

Specific Comments 5：

The three expansion modes mentioned in the results section 3.3 are not defined and calculated in detail, and the process and results of MEI application are not clearly explained.

Response to comment 5:

Thanks a lot for the helpful suggestions. It was our fault that we lost some important information. According to the comments, we have added the definition of LEI corresponding to the three expansion modes in the section 2.4. Meanwhile, we have also explained the calculation process of the results in detail before the analysis in section 3.3.

MEI is not a very important indicator that we pay attention to, and it is almost not involved in the results analysis section. So, after further consideration, we determine to delete the methods and results relevant to MEI.

Reviewer 2 Report

Good paper, interesting topic. It could be strengthened by more consideration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration itself. You jump straight into industrial parks in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei but don't say much about the urban agglomeration itself - apart from high rates of urbanisation. Readers might benefit from a couple of sentences about the importance of urban agglomerations themselves, and also how you define the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. You use a fixed administrative geography, which is okay, but acknowledging how the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration is defined would add important context. Some relevant papers might help with this, because there are different ways of defining the urban agglomeration and explaining why you use this one is important methodologically:

Fang, C. (2015). Important progress and future direction of studies on China’s urban agglomerations. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 25(8), 1003-1024.

Fang, C., & Yu, D. (2017). Urban agglomeration: An evolving concept of an emerging phenomenon. Landscape and urban planning, 162, 126-136.

Harrison, J., & Gu, H. (2021). Planning megaregional futures: Spatial imaginaries and megaregion formation in China. Regional Studies, 55(1), 77-89.

Author Response

Response to reviewers

 

Dear Editor and Reviewers:

Many thanks for the insightful comments and suggestions concerning our manuscript (ID: Land-1399667). We have considered your comments and have incorporated almost all your suggestions in the revised version of our paper. We also have a detailed response to each comment in the below. In the paper, the changes made are clearly highlighted using the "Track Changes" function. We feel that by revising our paper according to your constructive suggestions, the paper has been greatly improved.

The following are the answers and revisions.We have made in response to the reviewers' questions and suggestions on an item by item basis.

 

 

Specific Comments：

Good paper, interesting topic. It could be strengthened by more consideration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration itself. You jump straight into industrial parks in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei but don't say much about the urban agglomeration itself - apart from high rates of urbanisation. Readers might benefit from a couple of sentences about the importance of urban agglomerations themselves, and also how you define the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. You use a fixed administrative geography, which is okay, but acknowledging how the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration is defined would add important context. Some relevant papers might help with this, because there are different ways of defining the urban agglomeration and explaining why you use this one is important methodologically.

Response to comment:

Thanks a lot for the helpful suggestions. According to the reviewer’s suggestion, we have added section 2.1 to introduce how to define the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration and the importance of the urban agglomeration itself, taking both the relevant resarch recommended by the reviewer and the Jing-Jin-Ji’s actual development situation into consideration. The details are as follows:

2.1 Definition and overview of the study area

An urban agglomeration is defined as a group of cities consisting of one or more mega-cities at the core of at least three other large cities within a specific geographical area, all of which rely on a developed transport and communication infrastructure network, have a compact spatial organization, and close economic links, ultimately leading to the formation of conurbations and a high degree of integration[42]. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration is one of the largest urban agglomerations which is the current foci of China’s New Nrbanization strategy.Under the multiple effects of regional location advantages, policy advantages, and economic advantages, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration has formed a modern industrial system, a highly developed infrastructure network, and a close relationship with the world economy. The agglomeration belongs to the important node in the world city network, the leader of national technology and high-tech industrialization, the center of domestic and foreign financial institutions, and the important world-class urban agglomeration in East Asia. In our study, 13 cities in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei are defined as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, which is consistent with the existing research results and conforms to its country's development strategy positioning.According to a series of works [43-45]. Based on the permanent population of the municipal districts in 2015, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration has formed a multi-level urban system consisting of megacities, large cities, medium cities and small cities (Table 1). Among them, Beijing and Tianjin are super-large cities. There are 4 large cities with a population of 1 to 5 million, including Tangshan, Shijiazhuang, Handan, and Baoding; and 6 medium-sized cities with a population of 500,000 to 1 million, namely Qinhuangdao, Xingtai, Zhangjiakou, Langfang, Chengde, Cangzhou. The only small citie with a population of less than 500,000 are Hengshui.

Table 1 The hierarchical scale structure of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration

Level	Type	Population	Number of cities	Cities
1	Super-large cities	> 10 million	2	Beijing, Tianjin
2	Megacities	5 million - 10 million	/	/
3	Large cities	1 million – 5 million	4	Tangshan, Shijiazhuang, Handan, Baoding
4	Medium-sized cities	500,000-1 million	6	Qinhuangdao, Xingtai, Zhangjiakou, Langfang, Chengde, Cangzhou
5	Small cities	< 500,000	1	Hengshui

 

References

42. Fang, C., 2015. Important progress and future direction of studies on China’s urban agglomerations. Journal of Geographical Sciences 25(8), 1003-1024.
43. Fang, C., Yu, D. 2017. Urban agglomeration: An evolving concept of an emerging phenomenon. Landscape and urban planning 162, 126-136.
44. Harrison, J., Gu, H., 2021. Planning megaregional futures: Spatial imaginaries and megaregion formation in China. Regional Studies 55(1), 77-89.
45. Fang, C., Mao, Q., Ni, P. 2015. Debates and explorations of scientifically selecting and hierarchically developing China’s urban agglomerations. Acta Geographica Sinica 70(4), 515–527 in Chinese.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The article examines the spatial expansion of industrial parks in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration between 1990 and 2015. In general terms, a positive response is given to what is indicated as results of the investigation since countermeasures and ways to optimization of spaces. Perhaps its formulation, yes, is excessively generic and should be specified in specific actions and actions.

As aspects that could be improved, the introduction refers to the economic development of China in recent years, but no mention is made of the state policy that has made it possible or the appearance of industrial location factors that have positioned the country as a industrial giant. This has had enormous repercussions in developed countries with a gradual process of industrial relocation, sponsored by the abundant and cheap labor, the availability of land or the implementation of much more lax fiscal, economic and environmental policies. This should also be included as a substantial part of the development process so that it is understood in all its aspects.

The study is perhaps excessively descriptive in some issues and part of an idea that is already known in advance, such as the industrial development of the analyzed area. The techniques used and the cartographic representation are adequate, although the maps should be polished for their final representation (they have Chinese characters and signs that appear by default).

Finally, two issues that are estimated to need to be reviewed. The first would be the conclusions. The section is more of a summary than true conclusions that identify the most salient features of the study. The second, in the materials and methods section, there are paragraphs that are indications of the journal for the authors. They should be removed.

Author Response

Response to reviewers

 

Dear Editor and Reviewers:

Many thanks for the insightful comments and suggestions concerning our manuscript (ID: Land-1399667). We have considered your comments and have incorporated almost all your suggestions in the revised version of our paper. We also have a detailed response to each comment in the below. In the paper, the changes made are clearly highlighted using the "Track Changes" function. We feel that by revising our paper according to your constructive suggestions, the paper has been greatly improved.

The following are the answers and revisions.We have made in response to the reviewers' questions and suggestions on an item by item basis.

 

 

Specific Comments 1：

The article examines the spatial expansion of industrial parks in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration between 1990 and 2015. In general terms, a positive response is given to what is indicated as results of the investigation since countermeasures and ways to optimization of spaces. Perhaps its formulation, yes, is excessively generic and should be specified in specific actions and actions.

Response to comment 1:

Thanks a lot for the helpful suggestions. Regarding part of the content of this article, especially the

industrial parks’s construction paths is too generic, we firstly explain the dual economic structure and unbalanced industrial development characteristics of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration. Next, we put forward the differential industrial parks’ development paths according to the regional imbalance. Besides, we have added more specific development paths for ndustrial parks of different cities. Through the above modifications, we strive to make the ways and measures to optimization of spaces more in line with the characteristics and feasibility of the region, rather than being excessively generic. Please check section 4.3 for details.

 

Specific Comments 2：

As aspects that could be improved: the introduction refers to the economic development of China in recent years, but no mention is made of the state policy that has made it possible or the appearance of industrial location factors that have positioned the country as a industrial giant. This has had enormous repercussions in developed countries with a gradual process of industrial relocation, sponsored by the abundant and cheap labor, the availability of land or the implementation of much more lax fiscal, economic and environmental policies. This should also be included as a substantial part of the development process so that it is understood in all its aspects.

Response to comment 2:

Thanks a lot for the helpful suggestions. Limited by the author’s knowledge and vision, the discussion part only focused on geographic thinking, and selected the most important factors affecting the industrial parks’s expansion pattern in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration. However, the reviewer put forward multiple influencing factors that affect the industry and its land allocation from a broader, more comprehensive, and professional perspective, including abundant and cheap labor, the availability of land or the implementation of lax fiscal, economic and environmental policies. According to the comments, we add to discuss the influence of some other factors. Please check section 4.1 for details:

(4) Some other influencing factors: The expansion of industrial parks is not only a geographical phenomenon, but also an economic phenomenon. Therefore, many eco-nomic factors also affect the location of the park and its expansion. Among them, labor and land, as the most important resource endowment components of a region, often affect the region's industrial development positioning and future changes. For the Bei-jing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, Hebei area outside the Beijing-Tianjin dual core has become the key area carrying all kinds of industrial transfer parks with lower man-power and labor costs, as well as more abundant available land resources, and then be-come the main area of inustrial parks’ expansion. Thus, it has led to significant edge-expansion of the parks in the periphery of the Beijing-Tianjin dual-core. From the perspective of policy factors, in addition to the main regional and industrial policies mentioned above, fiscal and tax policies and environmental policies are also important factors affecting the development and change of regional industries, and thus affecting the location and expansion of industrial parks. In the context of the near-saturation of industrial land in Beijing and Tianjin, as well as serious regional environmental pollution and prominent urban diseases in Beijing and Tianjin, the guiding role of fiscal funds and environmental protection policies has been used to improve the carrying capacity of industrial transfer in Hebei. In particular, through the implementation of tax incentives to guide regional industrial and transfer to the Beijing-Tianjin area, so as to promote the further expansion of industrial parks in these areas.

 

Specific Comments 3：

The study is perhaps excessively descriptive in some issues and part of an idea that is already known in advance, such as the industrial development of the analyzed area. The techniques used and the cartographic representation are adequate, although the maps should be polished for their final representation (they have Chinese characters and signs that appear by default).

Response to comment 3:

Thanks a lot for the careful review and the helpful suggestions. The descriptive content is mostly concentrated in the Discussion section. In consideration of expert opinions, some descriptions of relevant industry development in the research area have been deleted. In addition, we deleted the Chinese characters and signs in the relevant maps.

 

Specific Comments 4：

Finally, two issues that are estimated to need to be reviewed. The first would be the conclusions. The section is more of a summary than true conclusions that identify the most salient features of the study. The second, in the materials and methods section, there are paragraphs that are indications of the journal for the authors. They should be removed.

Response to comment 4:

Thanks a lot for the helpful suggestions.The conclusion part has been revised to supplement and enrich the expansion characteristics and modes of industrial parks in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, in order to highlight the salient features of our study. Please check the conclusions section.

The second, we have deleted the paragraphs that are indications of the journal for the authors in the materials and methods section. Thank you again for the careful review.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have responded well to my initial comments and I suggest, with very minor amendment, that this can now be published, such as km2.

Author Response

Response to reviewer 1

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thanks for the comments and suggestions concerning our manuscript in the second round (ID: Land-1399667). We have considered your comments and have further checked and modified our paper. In the paper, the changes made are clearly highlighted using the "Track Changes" function. Please check the revised version. Thank you again for your approval of the article revision.

Specific Comments：

The authors have responded well to my initial comments and I suggest, with very minor amendment, that this can now be published, such as km2.

Response to comment:

Thanks a lot for the comments on article writing. We have changed “2” in all “km2” to the superscript according to your comments. There are 15 such changes in all. Please check the revised manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Following the review by the authors, most of the questions raised in round 1 have been modified.

Author Response

Response to reviewer 3

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thanks a lot for your approval of our revised article in the second round (ID: Land-1399667). We have further checked and modified our paper. And some spelling mistakes have been corrected. In the paper, the changes made are clearly highlighted using the "Track Changes" function. Please check the revised version.

Thank you again for your helpful suggestions on improving the quality of our article.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf