Coordinated Development Path of Cultivated Land Utilization in Henan Section of the Yellow River Basin

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

As the country with the largest population data in the world, arable land conservation and utilization has been one of the most important tasks for the Chinese government. The Yellow River Basin is the main grain-producing region in China, and this manuscript delineates different types of cropland protection zones by assessing the vulnerability and resilience of the region's arable land and coupling urban expansion simulations, which is conducive to the formulation of targeted policies to facilitate the realization of coordinated ecological protection, cropland utilization and urban development. This paper expands the perspective previously focused on coordinating agricultural production and urban development to coordinate agricultural production, ecological protection, and urban development in three dimensions, which helps to improve the understanding of arable land conservation and utilization. There are some problems in this manuscript need further revision and improvement.

1. In the Background section, the authors discuss many issues of natural environmental vulnerability in China, but the relationship between ecological vulnerability and conservation and use of arable land is not fully elucidated. Therefore, the research gap is not well articulated.

2. In the study area overview section, it is recommended to add a description of the national contribution of the food production function of the study region to deepen the reader's understanding of this region.

3. In the Methods section, Ecological pressure indicators need to consider not only the stresses from human activities but also the stresses from the natural environment, such as the risk of natural disasters. The nighttime light index and the population density and GDP level have duplicate expression problems, so it is recommended to delete the nighttime light index indicator.

4. In the Results section, it is recommended to verify the accuracy of the ecological vulnerability and ecological pressure valuation results. For example, the eastern region is a plain region but has high ecological sensitivity, and the paper explains that the risk of flooding in the region is high, but the indicator of natural disaster risk is not included in the ecological sensitivity in the paper. The ecological pressure evaluation result of Fengqiu County is much higher than other places, which is also not consistent with reality. In addition, the results of the evaluation of the resilience of cropland do not correspond to reality, as the eastern region is a plain area, and the quality of arable land should be higher than that of the western hilly mountainous areas.

5. The projected results of urban expansion boundaries are not consistent with the current policies in the era of ecological civilization construction in China. China has entered the middle to late stage of urbanization development, and urban land expansion will not be as rapid as it has been in the past, both in terms of national spatial planning constraints and actual demand. The current 2035 projection results are much higher than expected.

6. It is recommended that the possibility of urban expansion be included in the evaluation system of cropland resilience.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Major revision.

1. The Introduction needs to be improved，the logic seems not smooth. For example, the paper introduced the cultivated land protection policies in China (red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land) at line 35 , why turned to introduced something global? 

2. Give a summary for the introduction, add such as the reason, the method, the breakthrough points and the innovation for your paper.

3. Figure 1 the scale need to be changed for the second picture. 0-425-850  to 0-500-1000

4. Table 1 add the resolution ratio of the data.

5. Table 2 why is the meteorological factors only have one factor ”rainfall”, and I don’t think it is a factor for ecological resilience.

6. Table 4 the External resilience need to be rethought. I don’t think it will increace when GDP level/ Population density/night light index is higher. It may be an opposite relationship. Please explain it.

I recommend to polish the language.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

1. Table 1, Revise [程2]

2. Table 4, Revise [程3]

3. The Introduction need to be improved，the logic seems not smooth. （not two sentences in the paper）

2. Give a summary for the introduction, add such as the reason, the method, the breakthrough points and the innovation in your paper. (not in the response).

I recommend a minor revision.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf