Research Progress of the Impacts of Comprehensive Transportation Network on Territorial Spatial Development and Protection

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Congratulations for your work. I would like to comment on some ideas that can improve the article.

Firstly, some figures have very small letters and are therefore difficult to read. Especially figures 1, 4 and 5.

Secondly, it should be noted that the territory (and its ecosystems) is a source of environmental goods and services necessary for the social and economic activities of each country. Transport infrastructure promotes accessibility to the territory and the transformation of rural land into urban land, eliminating ecosystems and their environmental services. This is an indirect but very important impact because of infrastructure constructions are almost always irreversible and it is very difficult to avoid this effect, especially in critical ecosystems. Furthermore, rural green infrastructure is composed of areas that produce ecosystem services connected to each other by ecological connectors that allow the movement of fauna and flora between the different ecosystem zones. Therefore, the barrier effect of transport infrastructure will be produced for long periods of time and, at the same time, the potential promotion of urban development in unsuitable places. I think these possible consequences should have special attention.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you for your comments and great suggestions.

Each comment proposed by you has been revised and addressed carefully. We made numerous revisions to improve this manuscript. In preparing our revisions, we paid particular attention to (1) increasing the size of the text in the images for clearer reading, (2) explaining some key terms to ensure that readers can understand them accurately, (3) adding the positive and negative ecological impacts of transport on territorial space in Chapter 3, and appropriate deletions have been made to the contents of Chapters 2 and 3, (4) adding the main theme of the article in the Introduction section, Discussed the background of countries around the world regarding transport and territorial space development and conservation. We hope that the following point-to-point responses address the issues raised by the reviewers. Please acknowledge receipt of this manuscript at your earliest convenience, and if any additional information is needed, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Here is our detailed response to your comments.

We hope that the revised manuscript will be accepted by the journal.

Thank you and best regards!

Comment 1: Some figures have very small letters and are therefore difficult to read. Especially figures 1, 4 and 5.

Response: Thank you for your comments. We've made the letters larger in Figures 1, 4, and 5 larger. Please refer to the revised manuscript. Thank you again.

Comment 2: It should be noted that the territory (and its ecosystems) is a source of environmental goods and services necessary for the social and economic activities of each country.

Response: Thank you for your great suggestion. We have tried to to add to section 3.3 of the article some discussion of the important environmental service values of territorial space and its ecosystems, and pointed out the irreversible impacts on ecological and agricultural land use that will be driven by the construction of transport infrastructure that will shift land use from ecological and agricultural land use to urban land use, causing irreversible impacts on ecosystems. Please refer to the revised draft. Thank you very much for your constructive comments.

Comment 3: The possible consequences of rural green infrastructure on ecosystems should also be of particular concern.

Response: Thank you very much for pointing out this deficiency. We have expanded some of the content of 3.3 by adding green highways, eco-highways, animal passages, and ecological restoration along transport routes in relation to the content of transport ecological infrastructure. Thank you again.

Yours sincerely.

Prof. ZHU Gaoru

2024.3.23.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript entitled Research Progress of the Impacts of Comprehensive Transportation Network on Territorial Spatial Development and Protection  aims at review Transportation Network characteristics and their impacts community as a potential for along the lines of theoretical foundation, effect assessment, research evaluation and out-look.
The manuscript is timely because the high relevance of the topic, but not yet ready to be published in LAND. Firstly, a clear aim is not very well highlighted in the introduction, such as a clear hypothesys. from the title I expected a large review of the relationship between multi-scale and multi-mode transport, but this part is not very clearly stated. Indeed in the chapter 2 very long description to all the type of transportation is described, whithout a clear of the transportation network type and the potential in integrated transport on spatial development 247 of national territory. I suggest to short chapter 2-3. No corsideration are done about urban areas as compunds emitters (strategic environmental impact assessment). This consideration can alter the suitability of one specie in comarison with other species in urban environment due for example to the planning of transportation infrastructure that is a very critical problem in urban environment.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you for your comments and great suggestions.

Each comment proposed by you has been revised and addressed carefully. We made numerous revisions to improve this manuscript. In preparing our revisions, we paid particular attention to (1) increasing the size of the text in the images for clearer reading, (2) explaining some key terms to ensure that readers can understand them accurately, (3) adding the positive and negative ecological impacts of transport on territorial space in Chapter 3, and appropriate deletions have been made to the contents of Chapters 2 and 3, (4) adding the main theme of the article in the Introduction section, Discussed the background of countries around the world regarding transport and territorial space development and conservation. We hope that the following point-to-point responses address the issues raised by the reviewers. Please acknowledge receipt of this manuscript at your earliest convenience, and if any additional information is needed, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Here is our detailed response to your comments.

Comment 1: A clear aim is not very well highlighted in the introduction, such as a clear hypothesys.

Response: Thank you for the suggestion. We have revised the introductory section and in its last paragraph we have discussed in detail the research objectives, main idea and expected results of the article. We will systematically review the research on the territorial spatial effects of transportation and analyze the impacts of transportation from the perspective of both territorial spatial development and protection, as well as the specific mechanisms for generating them. Thank you again.

Comment 2: From the title I expected a large review of the relationship between multi-scale and multi-mode transport, but this part is not very clearly stated. Indeed in the chapter 2 very long description to all the type of transportation is described, whithout a clear of the transportation net-work type and the potential in integrated transport on spatial development of national territory. I suggest to short chapter 2-3.

Response: Thank you for your comments. In Chapter 2, we add the impact of different scales and types of transport infrastructure on the spatial development of the national territory. In addition, for the contents of Chapters 2 and 3, we have made appropriate deletions and shortening. Please refer to the revised manuscript. Thank you very much.

Comment 3: No consideration are done about urban areas as compounds emitters (strategic environmental impact assessment).

Response: Thank you very much for pointing out this deficiency. We add the relevant content in section 3.1 and explain that the strategic environmental impact assessment is not only limited to conventional ecologically sensitive areas, but also that the impact of the construction of transport infrastructure on the inner-city environment is also significant, and that the relevant research involves the city's ecology, climate, species diversity and so on. Thank you again.

We hope that the revised manuscript will be accepted by the journal.

Thank you and best regards!

Yours sincerely.

Prof. ZHU Gaoru

2024.3.23.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This is a review of transportation development and its impact on surrounding areas. The review adopts Territorial spatial development and protection as the background as the review. After the review, we prefer a minor revision decision.

1. In this review, territorial is a very important theme. However, in the process of the analyses, there is seldom research that talks about the definition of 'territory'. In the discussions about development and ecology, there is little review's contribution of territorial transport or over-territorial transport. It is necessary to explain the boundary of the concept of territory.

2. In this review, there are many uncommon expressions like "the Outline of the Fourteenth Five Year Plan and Visionary Goals", "three zones and three lines", etc. Some of these words need more explanation. Though these words can be understood in the Chinese context, it is hard for other readers to understand their meanings.

3. There are some incomplete reviews in the articles. In line 163, there is only citation number of 25 and 26. There is a lack of explanation for these articles.

4. There are a lot of empirical research citations in this review. A link between the subject of this review and the preference for empirical research is needed. The scholars in the article do not just focus on the Chinese situation. However, the background of the review is mainly related to China.

5. For the timeline of Tables 1 and 2, seem like they have some potential logic to govern these articles in a time sequence. It could be better to give a clearer summary or figure to show this process.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you for your comments and great suggestions.

Each comment proposed by you has been revised and addressed carefully. We made numerous revisions to improve this manuscript. In preparing our revisions, we paid particular attention to (1) increasing the size of the text in the images for clearer reading, (2) explaining some key terms to ensure that readers can understand them accurately, (3) adding the positive and negative ecological impacts of transport on territorial space in Chapter 3, and appropriate deletions have been made to the contents of Chapters 2 and 3, (4) adding the main theme of the article in the Introduction section, Discussed the background of countries around the world regarding transport and territorial space development and conservation. We hope that the following point-to-point responses address the issues raised by the reviewers. Please acknowledge receipt of this manuscript at your earliest convenience, and if any additional information is needed, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Here is our detailed response to your comments.

We hope that the revised manuscript will be accepted by the journal.

Thank you and best regards!

Comment 1: In this review, territorial is a very important theme. It is necessary to explain the boundary of the concept of territory.

Response: Thank you for the suggestion. We have added a relevant explanation of the concept of territorial space in the introductory section of the article.

Comment 2: There are many uncommon expressions like "the Outline of the Fourteenth Five Year Plan and Visionary Goals", "three zones and three lines", etc. Some of these words need more explanation. Though these words can be understood in the Chinese context, it is hard for other readers to understand their meanings.

Response: Thank you for the suggestion. We have explained the terms "the Outline of the Fourteenth Five Year Plan and Visionary Goals", "three zones and three lines" and other special words in Chinese according to your request.

Comment 3: There are some incomplete reviews in the articles. In line 163, there is only citation number of 25 and 26. There is a lack of explanation for these articles.

Response: Thank you very much for pointing out this deficiency. We have modified the sentence where the citation number of 25 and 26 is located and expressed the specifics of these articles. Thank you again.

Comment 4: There are a lot of empirical research citations in this review. A link between the subject of this review and the preference for empirical research is needed. The scholars in the article do not just focus on the Chinese situation. However, the background of the review is mainly related to China.

Response: Thank the reviewers’ comments. We have added to the background of the introductory section, which is now no longer limited to China, but covers developed countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and Japan, where the synergy between transport and territorial space is more adequate, as well as developing countries such as Iran, Viet Nam, Indonesia and others, including China, which are faced with huge needs for transport construction and territorial space development. In addition, in order to strengthen the linkage between the theoretical review of this paper and other empirical analysis articles, it is proposed in the section of expected goals and outlook that the study of the territorial space effects and mechanisms of transport will provide reference for further promoting the synergy between transport and territorial space and guide the construction of actual projects. Thank you very much.

Comment 5: For the timeline of Tables 1 and 2, seem like they have some potential logic to govern these articles in a time sequence. It could be better to give a clearer summary or figure to show this process.

Response: Thank you for your great suggestion. We have revised the corresponding text sections of 2.4 and 3.4 to summarize in clearer terms the research process on the impact of transport on the development and protection of territorial space. Thank you very much for your constructive comments.

Yours sincerely.

Prof. ZHU Gaoru

2024.3.23.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

its suitable for publication