Multi-Scale Dynamic Analysis of the Russian–Ukrainian Conflict from the Perspective of Night-Time Lights

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This study analyzed the impacts of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on nighttime lighting, which is helpful for understanding the socio-economic effects of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. But this study is too simplistic and needs to be further improved.

 

1. In the introduction, please explain the scientific question, the purpose of the research, the relevant research progress (whether there is a study on the Russia-Ukraine conflict based on night light data) and the shortcomings of existing research, and the innovation of this research.

 

2. Study area and data, the second paragraph of the study area needs to give the source of data. Need to give the source and year of the built-up land area statistics, does it match the night light data?

 

3. In the method part, this study only analyzed the change of the night light intensity of the built-up land, ignoring the change of the night light of the roads. Considering that roads are an important part of infrastructure and are greatly affected by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, it is recommended to further analyze the changes in the nighttime lights of roads.

 

4. In the results section, what do the different colors in Figure 4 represent? A legend is required. The y-axis text direction of Figure 4 and Figure 5 needs to be unified. 4.2 is a national-scale analysis, but the figure and text are city-scale.

 

5. This study lacks discussion of the nighttime lighting changes caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, such as its impact on the socioeconomic aspects and the ecosystems or natural environment. Comparisons with existing relevant studies are also lacking.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This is an interesting attempt to analyze the impacts of war with the nighttime lights data. Spatial-temporal changes of the nighttime lights at various scales are described and mapped. However, it is a descriptive article with few theoretical insights and technological contributions. In detail, following adjustments are suggested:

1.     This study fails in identifying the knowledge gap. Nighttime lights data could and has already been used to monitor the impacts to human lives in war. The analyses of the nighttime lights data at the city scale has been widely applied in urban studies. How do the analyses of nighttime lights at different scales in Ukraine in this study contribute to existing knowledge? The answer to this question is the foundation of this study and needs further explanation.

2.     The method applied in this study offers no enhancement to existing technologies about the nighttime lights data application. The authors haven’t considered the impacts from other reasons and bias might be caused.

3.     There is a mixed description of patterns (spatial-temporal changes of the nighttime lights) and mechanisms (the course of the war) in this article. Separating them and strengthen the explanation by matching the events and the changes might be a better choice.

4.    There are obvious traces of machine translation in the writing.  Sentences with ambiguous meaning destroy the reader’s patience.  

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors well addressed my concerns.

Author Response

We would like to thank you for your careful reading, helpful comments, and constructive suggestions, which have significantly improved the presentation of our manuscript. 

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors clarify that there is no innovation in research method but an application of existing method on wars. In this case, the short literature review is the section of introduction might not be enough to address the knowledge gap and existing methodologies. A separate section of literature review is suggested to track the implementation of NTL in different fields. Paper such as 10.3390/rs13050922; 10.3390/rs6021705; 10.3390/land11040489 might be helpful.

After the description of NTL at different scales, a summary and analysis of the patterns of people’s movements or damages of the cities is needed.

 

There are still too many mistakes of grammars. A professional English editor is suggested.

 

Author Response

We appreciate your attentive reading, insightful criticism, and useful ideas, which have greatly enhanced the way our manuscript is presented to you. Every suggestion for a change and feedback made by the reviewer was accurately taken into account.

Comment 1 from Reviewer: The authors clarify that there is no innovation in research method but an application of existing method on wars. In this case, the short literature review is the section of introduction might not be enough to address the knowledge gap and existing methodologies. A separate section of literature review is suggested to track the implementation of NTL in different fields. Paper such as 10.3390/rs13050922;10.3390/rs6021705;10.3390/land11040489 might be helpful.

1. Reply: We sincerely thank you for your thoughtful advice.

To address the knowledge gap and existing approaches, we have added a distinct section.

Additionally,18 pieces of literature from various domains were acknowledged.

We decided to cite reference [17][21][33] after carefully reading the material you provided.

Comment 2 from Reviewer: After the description of NTL at different scales, a summary and analysis of the patterns of people’s movements or damages of the cities is needed.

2. Reply: I appreciate your sound counsel. The manuscript's findings section has been updated by us.

5.1. Dynamic analysis of nighttime light changes at the national scale

In conclusion, NTRL at the national level can depict how a war situation affects the entire nation. NTRL often increases during Russia and Ukraine's peace negotiations; but, when the war between the two countries worsened, the change was undone.

5.2. Dynamic analysis of nighttime light changes at the regional scale

In conclusion, the level of a region's sensitivity to conflict can be indicated by its region scale NTRL. The already-conflicted territory and the one next door are more susceptible to war; in terms of civilian sentiments, the region with a higher proportion of pro-Russian inhabitants is less sensitive to the conflict.

5.3. Dynamic analysis of nighttime light changes at the city scale

In summary, the NTRL change at the urban scale possesses directivity. In the control zone, the nighttime light loss was less severe than it was in the combat zone. Humanitarian aid can stabilize the local combat situation, causing a modest increase in nighttime light output.

5.4. Dynamic analysis of nighttime light changes at the road scale

In conclusion, region and road lights at night are strongly associated. The production of nighttime light from the roadways encircling the city increases as the region's nighttime lights rise.

Comment 3 from Reviewer: There are still too many mistakes of grammars. A professional English editor is suggested.

3. Reply: We regret there were problems with the English. The paper has been carefully revised by a professional language editing service to improve grammar and readability. Meanwhile, we have corrected the inappropriateness in the article.

We would love to thank you for allowing us to resubmit a revised copy of the manuscript and we highly appreciate your time and consideration.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript has been greatly improved. 

I could not catch the meaning of "small economies" in the last section, please kindly check whether it is possible to express your meanings more clearly. The discussion could also be further improved by linking the research with a more general theoretical background. 

Author Response

We would like to thank you for your careful reading, helpful comments, and constructive suggestions, which has significantly improved the presentation of our manuscript. Every point of suggested revisions and comments, brought forward by the reviewers was accurately incorporated and considered.

Comments: 

  I could not catch the meaning of "small economies" in the last section, please kindly check whether it is possible to express your meanings more clearly. The discussion could also be further improved by linking the research with a more general theoretical background.

Reply:

We gratefully for appreciate your valuable comment. In the last section, the "small economies" refer to areas with relatively small economies, such as villages and towns. These places have a lower total amount of light at night and are less relevant to the evolution of conflict.

We have added this point in the discussion part of the manuscript as “As a good representation of human activities, the night light data reflect socio-economic development, population migration, and energy consumption. Possible reasons for the reduction of nighttime lights in the war zone of the Russia-Ukraine conflict are as follows:” in lines 493-496. It aims to strengthen the connection between the general theoretical background of nighttime lights and possible reasons for the change of nighttime lights.

At the end of the discussion and conclusion, we added the advantage of this study and the assumption of future work as” The application of remote sensing earth observation in emergencies not only breaks the restrictions of national boundaries and geographical conditions but also breaks the time boundary between the past and the present. The combination of remote sensing and emergency investigation has many advantages, such as breaking through the limitation of visual space-time and frequency spectrum, revealing the law of multi-scale, and maintaining the objectivity of news. A function model between the light intensity attenuation index and the severity of a war or the degree of economic contraction from the perspective of nighttime light intensity response to the regional economy may be established through further research.”

We would love to thank you for allowing us to resubmit a revised copy of the manuscript and we highly appreciate your time and consideration.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx