State of Brownfields in the Northern Bohemia, Saxony and Lower Silesian Regions and Prospects for Regeneration by Utilization of the Phytotechnology with the Second Generation Crops

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

2. Methodology

Authors should present the 33 articles that caught their attention in a table, indicating for each one the references (author, year, title, etc.).

3. Results

3.1 Categories of Brownfields

The authors should include this information at the beginning of the chapter, as the characteristics of the categories were chosen through the two references (2, 20). The authors should present this classification in a comparative table, indicating for each brownfield the characteristics and location. We would like to see a map (perhaps a GIS?) to see the location of brownfields.

3.3 Introduce a map for each study area to locate brownfields and also a table summarizing this analysis for each study area.

3.4

In addition, the reader would like to know, for each project considered, what indicators were used for each aspect (environmental, social and economic) in order to establish the rehabilitation methodology used.

6. Conclusions

I suggest that the authors provide an overview of the comparison of rehabilitation methods in other European countries and in the rest of the world, in order to understand the different policies that each country uses to rehabilitate these sites and also to know what is the purpose of each rehabilitation carried out by each government (environment, urban planning, economic development, etc.). 

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

The article tackles with the analysis of the current state with brownfields and revitalization in Northern Czech Republic, and neighboring regions of Germany (Saxony) and Poland (Lower Silesian).

Key words: you should avoid using key words which are also in the title: brownfields, regeneration, phytotechnology.

Introduction:

I recommend you to include the information about the case studies selected (between lines 95-107) as the first part of the sub-section 3.2. Background and history of the focused region (Results section).

At the end of the introduction, you should formulate the research questions in relation with the aim of the study. Moreover, you should emphasize better the significance of the study.

Methodology

The title of sub-section 2.1. Literature search and generation is ambiguous due to the term generation. It can be titled: literature search.

How did you analysed the collected data? The way analysing the data must be well explained.

Results

3.3. Brownfields in the Czech Republic and neighboring Saxony and Lower Silezia regions

I suggest the insertion of a table in which the differences in the way brownfields are conceptualized in the countries selected as case studies should be synthetically highlighted.

You should include the source for maps where are represented the spatial distribution of brownfields and their typology.

The examples of the projects should be numbered: eg 3.5.1. TIMBRE project

Are there other examples of more recent brownfields remediation projects? Or there is any new information on future brownfields remediation planning within the selected case study areas?

Discussion

I missed a discussion section.

You should include in this section several information about the challenges of remediation and potential of phytotechnologies applications including several connections with the  regions selected as case studies;

Other aspects can be included in this section:

(1) importance of research: a better description of the contribution of the results emphasizing expected benefits and contribution of the study (methodologically and  implication for policy, practice);

 (2) the limitations of the study and future research.

Conclusions

Conclusions are generally quite succinct

This section must discuss the following issues:

1. Researcher's view why the case is interesting to be investigated;
2.  Write conclusions more clearly connected with the research questions and goals of the introduction. It should summarize achieved result in the light of those stated goals.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx