Characteristics of Suspended Road Dust According to Vehicle Driving Patterns in an Urban Area and PM₁₀ Content in Silt

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The study addresses a pertinent issue, and the chosen methodology is appropriate, with a well-structured manuscript. However, I would like to offer the following recommendations for the authors:

Title

-       Please consider including the study area in the title for better clarity and context.

Abstract

-       It is recommended to include the study area, study period, and key findings in the abstract for a comprehensive overview of the research.

Introduction

-       Page 1, line 39-42, “According to the Ministry of Environment (2009), as of 2010, the social cost of the road environment …”, please update the information or the most recent available data.

-       Page 2, line 52-55, “The emission of road suspended dust is made up of the deposit …”, please consider mentioning other sources contributing to road suspended dust, such as open burning of domestic municipal solid wastes.

-       Page 2, line 59-62, “In recent years, the importance of research related to …”, the reference is from nine years ago. Please use more current references to reflect the latest developments in the field."

-       Page 2, line 62-64, “In a study on NEE conducted abroad, D. Van der Gon., et al. (2013) …”, please check the reference number for this study.

-       Page 2, line 64-66, “According to EEA (2016), it is estimated that …”, please provide the full name of EEA.

-       Page 2, line 69, “Heavy”, please avoid using a capital letter.

-       Please review the symmetry of Figure 1 to ensure its accuracy.

-       Kindly provide the references for the previous studies mentioned in lines 82-84 regarding road suspended dust.

-       Page 3, line 88-89, “To analyze the effect of road suspended dust generated by vehicle driving on urban roads, this study presented four related impact conditions.”, please specify the four related impact conditions mentioned.

Materials and Methods

Study area

-       Please provide the caption for Figure 2 and include details specifying the study area.

Silt loading (sL) and road suspended dust measurement

-       Kindly review Appendix C1 and C2 for accuracy and completeness.

Method of measuring effects of vehicle exhaust gas and suspended dust

-       Page 7, line 209-211, “At this time, the driving speed …”, please provide the reference.

PM10 Contents measurement

-       Please verify the topic number

Results

Suspended dust according to PM10 Contents

-       Please verify the topic number

Discussions

-       I recommend enhancing the explicit connections between your findings and prior studies to further contextualize your results within the existing literature. It would be beneficial to explicitly outline the limitations of the study and present clear recommendations for future research directions. Furthermore, I encourage you to ensure that each key point articulated in your conclusion is robustly supported by the preceding discussion. Strengthening these connections will contribute to the overall coherence of your manuscript and provide a more comprehensive and impactful narrative.

Author Response

We appreciate your recommended acceptance. Lastly, I provided additional reviews along with a discussion on the points raised in the "Discuss" section, outlining previous research on exhaust gas and its limitations. I hope you can review this positively. If there are any shortcomings, please feel free to share your feedback

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

General Comments: 

This paper is a timely topic that contributes to the road resuspended particle emissions regarding non-exhaust particles.

Although based on limited experiments, this paper correlates the amount of silt loading on the road surface with resuspended dust, giving reliable results and new concepts.

This paper is well structured and clear.

This is a useful and acceptable paper for readers of the “Atmosphere”, subject to some editorial revisions.

Specific Comments: 

PM10;

The letter “10” in PM10 is a subscript for mathematical variables and should be subscripted.

P2, Figure 1 and L69-70;

Figure 1 and the text in L69-70 should be deleted.

The citations are insufficient and may be misleading to the reader and are not the result of this study.

The text prior to L69-70 provides sufficient explanation to show Figure 1.

P8, L231;

Insert “ISO 13320” citation.

P18, L488;

Insert a space or tab at the beginning of a sentence.

P19, L542-551;

There is no concluding session;

 it is recommended that P19 L542-551 be separated into concluding sessions.

P19, L551;

There are two periods at the end of the sentence.

P20, References;

All references should be reformatted.

The references should be listed according to the template or author instructions for the type of work.

Author Response

Author response: We appreciate your recommended acceptance.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Yoo et al presented a case study on the characteristics of road-suspended dust associated with vehicle driving patterns. There are several flaws in the method section. The references are limited and not adequate for summarizing the prior findings. There are major issues to address.

Line 17: Please define PM10 when the noun is first used.

Line 55: Please define PM when the noun is first used.

Line 39. This sentence should be rephrased. From the sentence, the report seems from the Ministry of Environment in Korea. Please make it more clearly for the international readers.

The major flaw of the introduction is to state the novelty of the study. The study should summarize the prior findings on road-suspended dust associated with vehicle driving patterns in other areas. There are hundreds of studies documented that did in Europe and North America. What are the new findings compared to the prior ones? The authors did not discuss other prior studies in the introduction. The current version seems experimental reports for the local case study.

2.1 Study area. 

There is no figure caption and map scale for Figure 2. Some words in Figure 2 are covered and can not be seen by readers.

Line 337-341 The description of the IQR method should be moved to the Materials and Methods section.

2.3 Do you measure the chemical compositions of PM10 other than particle size?

There is too limited data discussed in the results section. 

Overall, the manuscript should be reorganized to highlight the novelty of the study. Furthermore, the study should present more data on the chemical compositions of PM10. The current manuscript seems a technical report for the case study, not a research article. 

Extensive editing of English language required

Author Response

I am regret to express my dissatisfaction with my paper. This study aimed to aimed to minimize errors in the empirical aspects of particulate matter concentration modeling in urban areas, which are limitations of existing models focusing on exhaust gas impact measured in fixed equipment or conducted through indoor experiments. Instead, we compared and analyzed concentrations generated during vehicle operation and at constant distances to address these limitations. Therefore, we measured pollution levels at various distances and believe that this approach provides a sound basis for interpreting the results. Regarding the English section, I had it corrected by another service after initial revisions, as I was not satisfied with the first round of corrections. I would appreciate it if you could reconsider the paper with a positive perspective, taking into account the additional revisions made by another service.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

accept