Investigating the Effects of Mining on Ecosystem Services in Panzhihua City: A Multi-Scenario Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors, With your case study on the effects of mining versus other land uses, many interrelationships, trade-offs and synergies, you have taken on an enormous amount. You have achieved quite a lot. I keep trying to bring the treasure trove of empirical studies closer to you, which would make the objectives of this study more tangible. Other than that - perhaps out of too much European thinking - you could think again about "urban" in the title, or "mining cities".

 

Introduction

Lines 24-27

I wouldn't make it so absolute. Either refer more clearly to the reference, or tone it down a bit: "Over the last half century, the Earth's ecosystem services are estimated to have declined by around 60% overall, due to the relentless increase in the world's population, industrialization and urbanization.".

 

Lines 37-39

Is that worded quite correctly? It seems somewhat questionable that it takes bundles to determine the predominant ESs; it seems it might just be the other way round.

 

Line 45

"these evolving" à such evolving

 

Line 49

In addition, changes in land use have a significant impact on the ES.

 

Lines 64-65

All well and good, but why is it so special that it is cited here? Are the authors among the first, or did they do it for a comparable or neighbouring region?

 

Line 67

Better to write it out first, gross domestic product.

 

Line 69

"diminished" à As a result, these phenomena, which are pronounced in mining landscapes, reduce the supply of ES.

 

Materials and Methods

Line 91

An opening bracket should never be at the end of a line.

 

Lines 94-102

Please provide a reference to the weather and mineral deposits, even if it is a reference to Table 1.

 

Lines 138-140

I think the important methodology needs to be shown in more detail. In particular, how the expectation for 2050 was inferred.

 

Line 146

No punctuation mark "." after "is diminished".

 

Line 157

I doubt whether this can really be a definition for false alarms ("pixels simulated as unchanged but observed as changes").

 

Lines 196-203

A brief explanation is given, from which so much does not emerge. For example, proximity or distance to the potentially natural state does not seem to be included.

 

Lines 213-214

Please rephrase the sentence to make it clearer. Is the "coefficient of impervious" to be related to a specific variable or a specific term?

 

Results

Lines 249-253

For a starting section of the results, it comes across as too unsorted and dry. The first two sentences seem justifying; perhaps they belong more at the end. The last two sentences of this first results section do not mention any results and therefore seem more like methodology.

 

Line 249

Excess space (after OA).

 

Line 252

"were shown" in Figure 3 à are shown

 

Lines 254-255

à  Between 2000 and 2020, most of the area was used for arable land and forests, which account for over 80 % of the total area.

 

Lines 281-283

I wonder whether this is really suitable to be called 'observed'. Nothing was observed directly, but changes indicated by pixels, which stand for spatial units. Personally, I tend not to use 'observed', but "we conclude/ deduce" or something similar.

 

Lines 311-312

à  Grassland, forests and bodies of water with a high ESV have a particular influence on regional ESV fluctuations.

 

Lines 321-322

The drop in the r-value is not that huge. I would therefore choose a weaker term than "evidenced". (à  The synergistic correlation between SC and HQ decreased, as indicated by a decrease in the r-value from 0.21 to 0.19./ which is reflected in a decrease in the r-value from 0.21 to 0.19.)

 

Line 324

"will be enhanced" à will enhance?

 

Line 325

Different spelling of r-value here.

 

Discussion

Lines 400-402

This is, of course, a common consideration, which sees "environmental degradation difficulties" in connection with the initial stages of a succession series (e.g. after a major disruption such as mining) and "increasing the amount of high-value vegetation" with a forested state later in a succession series. So far it is understandable. However, more precision is needed in the formulation, because "ecological efficiency" is usually present in nature, even at the beginning of a succession series (https://doi.org/10.1086/668571). Possibly with other plant and animal species and less structure than humans consider favourable for their environment. It always depends on what the focus is on or what is desired. For example, water may initially be more available to humans and animals than when succession has progressed more towards the actually desired vegetation conditions! This is because evapotranspiration increases with the vegetation cover (Figure 9 in https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2017.04.0074), which has an empirical effect right up to the level of a catchment area: years of runoff in the form of a stream dried up when so much vegetation had grown in the catchment area that it evaporated the available water from then on. Only the consideration of such cases in the formulation will provide the manuscript with characteristics of the actual progress of knowledge.

 

Lines 412-414

Yes, that is what I meant before. In order not to limit the references here to Chinese ones and to have an explicit empirical example, the following could also be included (https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70546).

 

Lines 436-449

Perhaps the following can provide further food for thought. Thanks to free succession alone, a German lignite mining area that had been renaturalised for less than 20 years harboured interesting and valuable breeding birds that are sometimes rare elsewhere (https://doi.org/10.3390/land11050718). And in anticipation of your subsequent chapter ,"4.5 Limitations and Prospects", it can be said in accordance with the title of this empirical study that good ideas and concepts regarding protection and planning can also be addressed with findings from the supposedly disadvantaged mining areas.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I have reviewed the manuscript entitled ‘Investigating the Effects of Mining on Urban Ecosystem Services in Panzhihua City: A Multi-Scenario Analysis’. This study provides a novel approach to explore the effects of mining activities on urban ecosystem services. It analyzes the complex interaction among ecosystem services across different mineral types under multiple scenarios. The whole is relatively comprehensive. However, the argumentation basis of the article is insufficient and needs to be revised. Detailed suggestions are as follows:

 

1. There are many models for ecosystem service assessment. However, only the InVEST model is discussed in the introduction. There is no detailed description of other models. 

 

2. You mentioned that Panzhihua city is a typical mining city in China. Do  other mining cities in China have the similar climate, location, geology, topology, and population as Panzhihua city?

 

3. In "3.3.1. ESs Changes ", Line 287, it does not specify the time frame over which these regions have high soil conservation, unlike the previous sentence.  Do these regions also fluctuate or do they remain consistent?

 

4. In "3.3.2. Spatiotemporal Distribution of ESBs during 2000-2050 ", Line 349, it mentions "ESB2 will convert to either ESB4 or ESB1 ", but you don't mention how ESB3 can be converted.

 

5. In " 4.4. Investigating Variations in Interactions Among Mining ESs Based on Mineral Types", it is recommended to add some detailed analysis about how various minerals can have influence on ecosystem services.

 

6. As for figure 5, it would be more appropriate to enlarge the font size of some sub-figures for better readability.

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx