Comparative Analysis of the Factors Influencing Land Use Change for Emerging Industry and Traditional Industry: A Case Study of Shenzhen City, China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Methodologically, the manuscript is lacking novelty and scientific soundness.
English needs to be polished. The authors should generally avoid overly long sentences, nested subordinate clauses, and convoluted wording.
Study area: Line 88-102:
The statements for the study area are too general. For example, from line 129 to line 131:
The proportion of the added value of Shenzhen's emerging industries in GDP increased from nearly 30% in 2012 to 40.9% in 2017, and Shenzhen has become a representative city for the development of China's emerging industries.
A lot of these statements related to this detailed information.
Line 254: Figure 3 can be put in the appendix.
Line 277 and line 295: Two decimal places are enough: Exp (B).
Line 227: independent variables1?
Discussion: Without a deep discussion, it is hard to tell if the proposed method has any academic merits. Moreover, the discussion can include some comparisons with other studies (i.e., the driving forces of specific types of land-use changes/ the land cover changes related to the political changes), because this is the innovation of this article. It is not clear what is literature gab you attempt to fill with your work.
Author Response
Dear editor and reviewers,
We would like to thank you for your positive and constructive comments concerning our manuscript (ID: land-1172800). These comments are valuable and have been very helpful while we revise and improve our paper. We have studied the comments carefully and have made revisions that we hope will meet with your approval. Besides, we have used the English-editing service provided by MDPI to edit this paper (English-Editing-Certificate-30030). The corresponding revisions in the body of manuscript was marked using the “Track Changes” function in Microsoft Word.
Detailed responses to your comments are as follows (in blue font):
Comment 1: English needs to be polished. The authors should generally avoid overly long sentences, nested subordinate clauses, and convoluted wording.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. The professional English editor of MDPI has polished the article.
Comment 2: The statements for the study area are too general. For example, from line 129 to line 131:
The proportion of the added value of Shenzhen's emerging industries in GDP increased from nearly 30% in 2012 to 40.9% in 2017, and Shenzhen has become a representative city for the development of China's emerging industries.
A lot of these statements related to this detailed information.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. In order to avoid repetition with related statements, we have deleted the overly detailed information in the research area in the original text, including:
In 2009, Shenzhen listed the Internet, biology, next-generation information technology, new energy, new materials and cultural and creative industries as strategic emerging industries[49]. In 2012, Shenzhen became the first national independent innovation demonstration zone in China with the city being the basic unit[50]. The proportion of the added value of Shenzhen's emerging industries in GDP increased from nearly 30% in 2012 to 40.9% in 2017, and Shenzhen has become a representative city for the development of China's emerging industries. In 2019, Shenzhen continued to lead the way in strategic emerging industries, which provided an important engine for the high-quality development of Shenzhen's economy[51].
Comment 3: Line 254: Figure 3 can be put in the appendix.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have put Line 254: Figure 3 in the original text in the Appendix A (Line 405-425)
Comment 4: Line 277 and line 295: Two decimal places are enough: Exp (B).
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions.We have changed the data in the two tables to retain two decimal places . (Line 245、Line263)
Comment 5: Line 227: independent variables1?
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have corrected the error and changed it to “independent variables”. (Line 215)
Comment 6: Discussion: Without a deep discussion, it is hard to tell if the proposed method has any academic merits. Moreover, the discussion can include some comparisons with other studies (i.e., the driving forces of specific types of land-use changes/ the land cover changes related to the political changes), because this is the innovation of this article. It is not clear what is literature gab you attempt to fill with your work.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have deepened the discussion and added some comparisons with other studies in the paper as follows:
In previous studies, scholars mostly used regression models to calculate the distribution of urban construction land, agricultural land, and ecological land and conducted analyses on natural, economic, and social influencing factors [59-62]. Among them, the research on the change in industrial land did not distinguish between traditional industry land and emerging industry land. Additionally, empirical analysis on emerging industry land is lacking, and the analysis results of factors influencing industrial land use changes revealed by these articles have a certain deviation[63-64]. (Line 334-340)
Although the spatial model established in this study revealed some of the factors driving changes in industrial land, it still cannot predict when the changes will occur. Therefore, to improve the prediction probability of land use change, we recommend establishing a dynamic model that considers the driving forces in subsequent research. These driving forces should include dynamic factors such as the formulation of new policies and changes in the price of industrial land. As such, the driving force representing the reason for the possibility of change can be revealed by the spatial model. (Line 362-368)
Once again, thank you very much for your valuable and helpful comments and suggestions.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely
Dr. Yunfei Peng
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Title: Comparative Analysis of the Influencing Factors of Land Use Change for Emerging Industry and Traditional Industry: A Case Study of Shenzhen City, China
Abstract: Thorough revision is this section is suggested. The sentences are too long ended and takes away the clarity. Research done should also be highlighted briefly.
Introduction:
Line 48: "decomposing" could you please change this word in the sentence?
The sentences here are also long ended and affects clarity. I suggest keeping the sentences short and concise. Aside these, I find the introduction good.
2 Materials and Methods: Aside checking clarity of sentence as mentioned earlier, I find this section also well written.
I find the discussion section poorly done and woefully inadequate. I suggest it thoroughly revised and properly compared with similar studies or joined to the results section.
The conclusion section should also be redone to properly highlight and study's outcome and some recommendations given
I find the topic interesting and the study in general a laudable one. China's industrial development progress over the decades is worth emulating by developing countries as well as some developed ones finding new industrial development strategies hence I find studies like this important.
I suggest a thorough revision incorporating the comments raised to make the paper publishable.
Author Response
Dear editor and reviewers,
We would like to thank you for your positive and constructive comments concerning our manuscript (ID: land-1172800). These comments are valuable and have been very helpful while we revise and improve our paper. We have studied the comments carefully and have made revisions that we hope will meet with your approval. Besides, we have used the English-editing service provided by MDPI to edit this paper (English-Editing-Certificate-30030). The corresponding revisions in the body of manuscript was marked using the “Track Changes” function in Microsoft Word.
Detailed responses to your comments are as follows (in blue font):
Comment 1: Title: Comparative Analysis of the Influencing Factors of Land Use Change for Emerging Industry and Traditional Industry: A Case Study of Shenzhen City, China.
Response: We confirm that the title is “Comparative Analysis of the Factors Influencing Land Use Change for Emerging Industry and Traditional Industry: A Case Study of Shenzhen City, China”.
Comment 2: Abstract: Thorough revision is this section is suggested. The sentences are too long ended and takes away the clarity. Research done should also be highlighted briefly.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have completely revised the Abstract as follows:
Abstract: Analyzing the factors influencing emerging industry land use change is important for promoting industrial transformation and for upgrading and improving the level of intensive use of emerging industry land. In recent years, to solve the problem of the land resources shortages and expansion space, Shenzhen has implemented a strategy of promoting urban development through technological innovation and has actively promoted the transformation of inefficient industrial land to emerging industry. This article introduces the development, land use types, and spatial distribution of Shenzhen’s emerging industries. Based on the logistic regression model, we analyze the differences between the influencing factors influencing land use changes for emerging industry and traditional industry. The research results show that the distance from public roads, the distance from highways, the distance from railway freight stations, the proportion of secondary industry, and the proportion of tertiary industry are both important explanatory variables for the two types of land use change. Traditional industry land use is also affected by the land slope, the distance from ports, the population, and fixed asset investment. Emerging industry land use is also affected by the distance from the airport, the number of railway stations, the quality of the population, and innovation-driving forces. These results provide a reference for the government to rationally plan emerging industry land and differentiated management of various industry land, to fill the current research gap in the field of land use change, and to contribute to the research cases revealing the mechanisms driving changes in emerging industry land. (Line 13-32)
Comment 3: Introduction: Line 48: "decomposing" could you please change this word in the sentence? The sentences here are also long ended and affects clarity. I suggest keeping the sentences short and concise.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have revised the relevant expressions and simplified the sentences as follows:
Therefore, dividing industrial land into multiple types is conducive to promoting the effective coupling of industrial land supply and demand. It is also conducive to simultaneously promoting the further development of regional economies. (Line 48-51)
Comment 4: I find the discussion section poorly done and woefully inadequate. I suggest it thoroughly revised and properly compared with similar studies or joined to the results section. The conclusion section should also be redone to properly highlight and study's outcome and some recommendations given
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have thoroughly revised the the discussion and conclusion section and added some comparisons with other studies in the paper as follows (Line 333-395):
- Discussion
In previous studies, scholars mostly used regression models to calculate the distribution of urban construction land, agricultural land, and ecological land and conducted analyses on natural, economic, and social influencing factors [59-62]. Among them, the research on the change in industrial land did not distinguish between traditional industry land and emerging industry land. Additionally, empirical analysis on emerging industry land is lacking, and the analysis results of factors influencing industrial land use changes revealed by these articles have a certain deviation[63-64]. Compared with them, our research provides the following innovations: (i) In the cases where the current policy does not clarify the specific type of emerging industry land, we combined the land use practices in Shenzhen to summarize and refine the spatial form of the emerging industry land, which provides a reference for the subsequent formulation of classification standards. (ii) We used a logistic regression model to quantitatively analyze the factors that cause spatial changes in emerging industry land and traditional industry land; thus, the research conclusions are more suitable for the development and planning of emerging industry land. (iii) We innovatively considered the factors driving innovation in land use changes, used remote sensing and geographic information system technology to process source data and influencing factor data on the basis of comprehensive consideration of multiscale factors, and used the administrative area as a unit to match the physical space and land; therefore, the quantitative results are more accurate.
Because land use change is a complex process, this study has the following limitations: (i) Due to the limitations of data acquisition, the population and economic factors were quantified with the street as the unit. If more accurate data are acquired, the results can be interpreted more accurately [65]. (ii) Different stages of development will influence the results of the logistic regression model differently [66]. Since the history of emerging industry is short, no comparative analysis is possible amongst its different stages. (iii) Planning policies will affect land use change [67]. It is difficult to quantify the two factors in space, so the focus of future research will be to select quantifiable indexes. (iv) Classical regression analysis is usually based on independent samples, but spatial correlation can affect the accuracy of the finding [68], so the relevant theory and practice remain to be studied further.
Although the spatial model established in this study revealed some of the factors driving changes in industrial land, it still cannot predict when the changes will occur. Therefore, to improve the prediction probability of land use change, we recommend establishing a dynamic model that considers the driving forces in subsequent research. These driving forces should include dynamic factors such as the formulation of new policies and changes in the price of industrial land. As such, the driving force representing the reason for the possibility of change can be revealed by the spatial model.
- Conclusions
Since 2009, emerging industry has developed rapidly in Shenzhen, which is playing an increasingly important role in social and economic development. The emerging industry land in Shenzhen has assumed a variety of spatial forms, including high-tech industrial parks, creative industrial parks, business incubators, corporate headquarters, makerspaces, and industrial buildings. Regarding the spatial distribution, the emerging industry land in Shenzhen mainly occurs in Nanshan District, given its advantages in terms of innovative resources and talent, and in Longgang District, which has advantages in manufacturing.
We used a logistic regression model to explore the differences between the factors influencing land use change for emerging industry land and those for traditional industry. The research results showed that five factors, the distance from public roads, the distance from highways, the distance from railway freight stations, the proportion of secondary industry, and the proportion of tertiary industry, are important explanatory variables of land use change in both emerging and traditional industries. In addition, industrial land use is affected by the land slope, the distance from ports, the size of the population, and fixed asset investments, while emerging industry land use is affected by the distance from airports, the number of railway stations, the quality of the population, and the factors driving innovation.
Based on a logistic regression model, we identified the most important factors influencing the changes in emerging industry land and traditional industry land and analyzed the degree of influence of each factor on these changes. In terms of practice, the findings provide a decision-making reference for Shenzhen government departments for the reasonable planning of emerging industry land and the differentiated management of industry land to encourage them to scientifically guide the land use structure while developing the economy. As such, they can organize the most effective production activities in the best areas and achieve the best land resource use efficiency. In terms of theory, our findings help to fill the current research gap in the field of land use change and contributes to the research cases revealing the mechanisms driving changes in emerging industry land.
Once again, thank you very much for your valuable and helpful comments and suggestions.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely
Dr. Yunfei Peng
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
I read the article with great interest. In general, I have comments / requests only for the issue of discussion. In line 367 the authors write "Compared with previous studies ..." what studies - it would be appropriate to quote them. And similarly further: line 371-372, since there is "Most studies", the question "what" immediately arises, as is the case with the use of RS and GIS data - this is also more and more often used. It would be appropriate to refer to the followers.
The second issue is rather for reflection, it concerns the answer to the question to what extent these factors are known among local politicians, to what extent was it reflected in regional and local plans / strategies. Is it necessary to raise their politicians' awareness of how to do it (perhaps these are issues to be written in the last paragraph of the article).
Author Response
Dear editor and reviewers,
We would like to thank you for your positive and constructive comments concerning our manuscript (ID: land-1172800). These comments are valuable and have been very helpful while we revise and improve our paper. We have studied the comments carefully and have made revisions that we hope will meet with your approval. Besides, we have used the English-editing service provided by MDPI to edit this paper (English-Editing-Certificate-30030). The corresponding revisions in the body of manuscript was marked using the “Track Changes” function in Microsoft Word.
Detailed responses to your comments are as follows (in blue font):
Comment 1: In line 367 the authors write "Compared with previous studies ..." what studies - it would be appropriate to quote them. And similarly further: line 371-372, since there is "Most studies", the question "what" immediately arises, as is the case with the use of RS and GIS data - this is also more and more often used. It would be appropriate to refer to the followers.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have added quotation to related research as follows:
In previous studies, scholars mostly used regression models to calculate the distribution of urban construction land, agricultural land, and ecological land and conducted analyses on natural, economic, and social influencing factors [59-62]. Among them, the research on the change in industrial land did not distinguish between traditional industry land and emerging industry land. Additionally, empirical analysis on emerging industry land is lacking, and the analysis results of factors influencing industrial land use changes revealed by these articles have a certain deviation [63-64]. Compared with them,……. (Line 334-340)
Comment 2: The second issue is rather for reflection, it concerns the answer to the question to what extent these factors are known among local politicians, to what extent was it reflected in regional and local plans / strategies. Is it necessary to raise their politicians' awareness of how to do it (perhaps these are issues to be written in the last paragraph of the article).
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. In the last paragraph of this article, we present the impact of these factors on local politicians and on regional and local plans/strategies as follows:
Based on a logistic regression model, we identified the most important factors influencing the changes in emerging industry land and traditional industry land and analyzed the degree of influence of each factor on these changes. In terms of practice, the findings provide a decision-making reference for Shenzhen government departments for the reasonable planning of emerging industry land and the differentiated management of industry land to encourage them to scientifically guide the land use structure while developing the economy. As such, they can organize the most effective production activities in the best areas and achieve the best land resource use efficiency. In terms of theory, our findings help to fill the current research gap in the field of land use change and contributes to the research cases revealing the mechanisms driving changes in emerging industry land. (Line 386-395)
Once again, thank you very much for your valuable and helpful comments and suggestions.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely
Dr. Yunfei Peng
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Line 114-115：Shenzhen (22°27'-22°52' N, 113°46'-114°37' E) is located in Southern Guangdong Province, adjacent to Hong Kong, with a total area of 1996 km2 (Figure 1). How about it？
LIne 129-150: Please check the format.
Line 172：Please move to the next page: Table 1. The types and distribution of the emerging industry land in Shenzhen.
Line 175: were vs was. Please check.
Line 71-74: Please cite some international cases as well. For instance, the statistical analysis methods based on regression models have also been used to check the effect of the distributions of industrial land on urban growth in US-Mexico border areas:
*Zhao, C., Jensen, J., & Zhan, B. (2017). A comparison of urban growth and their influencing factors of two border cities: Laredo in the US and Nuevo Laredo in Mexico. Applied Geography, 79, 223-234.
*Zhao, C., Jensen, J.L., Weaver, R., (2020). Global and Local Modeling of Land Use Change in the Border Cities of Laredo, Texas, USA and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico: A Comparative Analysis. Land, 9, 347.
Author Response
Manuscript ID: land-1172800
Type of manuscript: Article
Title: Comparative Analysis of the Factors Influencing Land Use Change for Emerging Industry and Traditional Industry: A Case Study of Shenzhen City, China
Authors: Yunfei Peng *, Fangling Yang, Lingwei Zhu, Ruru Li, Chao Wu, Deng
Chen
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Dear editor and reviewers,
We would like to thank you for your positive and constructive comments concerning our manuscript (ID: land-1172800). These comments are valuable and have been very helpful while we revise and improve our paper. We have studied the comments carefully and have made revisions that we hope will meet with your approval. Besides, we have used the English-editing service provided by MDPI to edit this paper (English-Editing-Certificate-30030). The corresponding revisions in the body of manuscript was marked using the “Track Changes” function in Microsoft Word.
Detailed responses to your comments are as follows (in blue font):
Comment 1: Line 114-115：Shenzhen (22°27'-22°52' N, 113°46'-114°37' E) is located in Southern Guangdong Province, adjacent to Hong Kong, with a total area of 1996 km2 (Figure 1). How about it？
Response: According to your valuable suggestions, we have revised the statement as follows:
Shenzhen (22°27'-22°52' N, 113°46'-114°37' E) is located in Southern Guangdong Province, adjacent to Hong Kong, with a total area of 1996 km2 (Figure 1).
(Line 115-116)
Comment 2: Line 129-150: Please check the format.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have checked and modified the format of the paragraph as follows:
Land is the carrier of emerging industries [51]. Compared with factory buildings on industrial land, emerging industry land is more diverse in its spatial form. The emerging industry land in city is mainly used as follows: (i) High-tech industrial parks, which have been established for the development of high technology industry, including the Dashahe innovation corridor in Nanshan District, Che Kung Temple Industrial Zone in Futian District, Huawei Tech City in Longgang District, the Xixiang agglomeration in Baoan District, and the high-tech industry park in Guangming District. (ii) Creative industry parks, which have been established for the development of creative industries and a creative economy and have mainly been upgraded from inefficient industrial zones and urban villages. (iii) Business incubators, which are specific places established to provide enterprises with technical training and financial support for their growth, including the business incubator bases in Nanshan and Longgang Districts. (iv) Corporate headquarters, which are formed when high-end sectors are separated from the internal organizational structure. The corporate headquarters in Shenzhen, where decision making, marketing, and research and development are conducted, include Huawei, Tencent, Lenovo, Baidu, and more than 60 high-technology companies. (v) Makerspaces, where innovation is the core concept. These innovative workshops provide products and services for users through creative designs, mainly including the Chaihuo (“firewood”) makerspace, the DIY community, the Kaiyuan makerspace workshop, youth innovative and entrepreneurial dream workshops. (vi) Industrial buildings, apart from functioning as places to make products, which are mainly transformed or updated from industrial plants, can also serve as offices for business or financial services or as places for trade shows.
(Line 130-151)
Comment 3: Line 172：Please move to the next page: Table 1. The types and distribution of the emerging industry land in Shenzhen.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have moved Table 1 to the next page. (Line 174)
Comment 4: Line 175: were vs was. Please check.
Response: Thank you for your reminder, the "were" has been changed to "was". (Line 176)
Comment 5: Line 71-74: Please cite some international cases as well. For instance, the statistical analysis methods based on regression models have also been used to check the effect of the distributions of industrial land on urban growth in US-Mexico border areas:
*Zhao, C., Jensen, J., & Zhan, B. (2017). A comparison of urban growth and their influencing factors of two border cities: Laredo in the US and Nuevo Laredo in Mexico. Applied Geography, 79, 223-234.
*Zhao, C., Jensen, J.L., Weaver, R., (2020). Global and Local Modeling of Land Use Change in the Border Cities of Laredo, Texas, USA and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico: A Comparative Analysis. Land, 9, 347.
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have added some international case studies and citations as follows:
Some scholars have also analyzed the impact of the distribution of industrial land on urban growth based on regression models [39-40].
(Line 74-75)
- Zhao, C.; Jensen, J.; Zhan, B. A comparison of urban growth and their influencing factors of two border cities: Laredo in the US and Nuevo Laredo in Mexico. Applied Geography. 2017, 79, 223-234.
- Zhao, C.; Jensen, J.L.; Weaver, R. Global and Local Modeling of Land Use Change in the Border Cities of Laredo, Texas, USA and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico: A Comparative Analysis. Land. 2020, 9, 347.
(Line 511-515)
Once again, thank you very much for your valuable and helpful comments and suggestions.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely
Dr. Yunfei Peng
Author Response File: 
Author Response.doc
Reviewer 2 Report
I appreciate the thorough revision done by the authors.
Most of the concerns I raised have duly been addressed.
I find the current state of the manuscript acceptable for publication.
Author Response
Once again, thank you very much for your valuable and helpful comments and suggestions.
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Overall, this study is local, and the academic contribution is unclear. Without a deep discussion, it is hard to tell if the proposed method has any academic merits.
- Abstract: if possible, please indicate your academic contribution in the end.
- Line 58-64: Grammar issue.
- Introduction: The literature review is missed. i.e., there is a substantial lack of surveys in the literature. What is the state of the studies on influencing factors of land uses? Without this background information, it is hard to tell if the proposed method has any academic merits.
- What are the scientific questions? The introduction provides no summary of research gaps.
- Study area: Line 88-102: these statements are too general. The statement of the study area is too general. Why was this site selected, because of data availability, the representativeness of the site, or other considerations? I suggest that the authors move some materials about Emerging Industry and Traditional Industry to this section.
- Table 2: significant level: The number itself is not important. I suggest the number can be substituted by “*”.
- Discussion: The discussion could be more in-depth. Moreover, the discussion can include some comparisons with other studies (i.e., the driving forces of specific types of land-use changes/ the land cover changes related to the political changes), because this is the innovation of this article.
