Spatial-Temporal Variation Characteristics and Obstacle Factors of Resilience in Border Cities of Northeast China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1.     There is a contradiction in the first paragraph of the introduction. “the development level of border cities still lags far behind that of other cities, showing higher vulnerability and lower levels of vulnerability when dealing with external threats[5].”Do border cities show high or low vulnerability in the face of threats?In addition, the literature review does not focus on the key words of the paper and does not properly lead to the scientific problems. At the same time, it is not enough to summarize the innovation and significance of this study.

2.     It is necessary to precisely define the particular connotation of border cities. And which cities in Northeast China are adjacent to which countries? Does the economic and social level of neighboring countries influence the development of these border cities?

3.     The discussion section ought to be intimately tied to the scientific matters addressed in the paper and provide precise viewpoints in accordance with the conclusions of the study.

4.     The quantity of references is limited and requires further supplementation.

5.     The terminology used in the paper should preferably employ the concept of "resilience" rather than "toughness".

6.     The subject of the paper’s title is misunderstood. The authors need to make it clear that what this paper studies is the spatial disparities and obstacle factors the border cities resilience in Northeast China.

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

As the authors say, the level of resilience of border cities determines the effectiveness of factor flow in border areas and the quality of town development in space, and the study of border resilience is an effective way to analyze the development status of border cities. The article takes border cities in northeast China as an example to study their resilience patterns and their obstacle factors. It has certain practical and theoretical significance. However, there are also several shortcomings as follows：

Firstly, the Entropy-TOPSIS evaluation model is one of the research methods used in the article, but the methodological introduction and literature references of this method are missing. Therefore, it is recommended to and improve.

Secondly, in "Table 1. Evaluation Index System of Border Cities Resilience", the column of "the nature of indicators" is missing, please complete it.

Thirdly, the current article is solid in the calculation and analysis part, but the discussion part at the end is a bit inadequate. It is suggested that this part should be the focus of revision, and some practical and scientific countermeasures should be proposed.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

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Reviewer 3 Report

As a country with many land neighbors, China's border cities present both challenges and opportunities for development. The article constructs a border city model from two dimensions, the basic resilience dimension and the exclusive resilience dimension of border cities, to measure and discern the resilience status of each city in the northeastern border area and analyze its main obstacle factors, which is of great significance to solve the current problems of the development of northeastern border cities. At the same time, there is still much room for improvement in the article, and the following suggestions are for reference only.

1) The article selects 14 cities located in the northeast border for study, and only mentions the provinces they belong to in general without corresponding descriptions. Therefore, it is suggested that the authors should briefly explain the provinces corresponding to the 14 selected city (state, league) level administrative regions in the overview section of the study area. For example, which cities belong to Liaoning Province, which cities belong to Jilin Province, etc.

2) Part 4 of the article (Spatial-temporal Differentiation of Resilience of Northeastern Border Cities) analyzes the spatial-temporal differentiation characteristics of the resilience of Northeastern border cities in terms of basic resilience, exclusive resilience, and comprehensive resilience, which is informative and reasonable in analysis, but There is still potential for optimization. Could the authors consider adding a short summary of the characteristics in the sub-section headings? This makes the focus clearer.

3) Please recheck Table 1, which appears to have missing elements. Please fill them in.

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

A very good research. In my opinion, the authors have a correct methodology and the results are obtained and verifiable with the help of the data and relationships in the paper. The studied literature is in the field and the discussion on the obtained results is well done. However, in the conclusion chapter, I would like to find out the opinion of the authors on how the research can evolve in the future.

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Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

An interesting and valuable study paper, I do not have much too many comments about the studies. The paper is suitable for publication.