Transformation of Industrial Land in Urban Renewal in Shenzhen, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Article review: Transformation of Industrial Land in Urban Renewal in Shenzhen, China
This paper analyzes the transformation direction and spatial pattern of industrial land transformation based on a set of unique and reliable data of all urban redevelopment projects of industrial land in Shenzhen city from 2010 to 2018. The term "unique" seems to be greatly exaggerated here.
The authors analyze a common trend in spatial management. Spatial development of cities requires new land for development. Most often at the expense of agricultural or post-industrial areas. The industry (the current trend in the world) - "get out of the cities". The conducted analysis only confirms the existing situation.
Specific questions to consider in your evaluation include:
- the time taken for the analysis - 2010-2018 - why is that, or has something happened in the spatial policy and the region?
- 3.2:… four categories according to their function in urban development:… are these the only directions of transformation?
- UPSGS guidelines before and after 2014… for clarity, the differences should be discussed
- on what basis is this classification? - according to UPSGS, own?
- a few sentences of explanation about autocorrelation would be useful, Moran's index
- Table 1: Public facility land (P) - what does it mean, do green areas also mean?
- L291: 'However, our empirical analysis shows that more than half of the redevelopment projects for new industrial land do not conform to the industrial renewal policy' - this should be referred to in the discussion.
- L321: The natural break point method… - the method should be explained
- why 0.5-0.5 km?
There is no discussion of the results obtained, forecasts and plans for the future - such ideas can be used in other countries.
There were also no significant issues related to the costs of industrial land transformation, or rehabilitation costs (depending on the type of industry and its impact on the environment.
The article is a fairly simple way of using statistical data (it is difficult to find a scientific method here). Lack of free space is a common problem in cities. Spatial policy is conducted on different principles in different countries. The article is even interesting, but it is difficult to say whether the described case study will find a wider audience for the journal. There is no description and no applicability of the procedure in other countries. For example, there are no forecasts and conclusions for the future (after 2018).

Author Response

We thank the editor and reviewers of Land for giving us the opportunity to revise the
article and for providing the constructive comments and enlightening suggestions.
Revisions were made to improve the manuscript based on these comments, and the
manuscript professionally edited by a native English-speaking colleague before
submission. Our detailed responses to each of the points raised by the reviewers are
shown in the file.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper addresses the redevelopment and transformation of industrial land following the growing trend of urbanization in an area of China. Through the analysis of data related to urban redevelopment projects of the industrial land in Shenzhen city from 2010 to 2018, the direction of transformation and the spatial model of land transformation are outlined. The results show that most of the decreasing industrial land has been transformed into commercial, residential and new industrial spaces causing significant effects on the urban spatial structure of this city. These changes are also analyzed and used as a basis for formulating future strategies and policies with a view to sustainable development.

The work is well written and the geostatistical analyses used are well illustrated. It is understandable the logic of the work performed and the potential fields of application. 

Minor suggestions are the following:

• Figure 1 lacks a scale factor to define the size of the study area;
• Figure 6 - you need to translate the legend

Author Response

We thank the editor and reviewers of Land for giving us the opportunity to revise the
article and for providing the constructive comments and enlightening suggestions.
Revisions were made to improve the manuscript based on these comments, and the
manuscript professionally edited by a native English-speaking colleague before
submission. Our detailed responses to each of the points raised by the reviewers are
shown in the file.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Transformation of Industrial Land in Urban Renewal in Shenzhen, China

The following comments/suggestions should be addressed to improve the quality of the paper

Abstract

• The abstract is not concise, with lots of redundant information.
• What proportion or size of industrial land that was found to be substantially decreased due to urban renewal (line 23)?

1. Introduction

• The introduction fails to highlight the environmental sustainability benefits of brownfield redevelopment.
• Line 38: Rephrase this statement because it is unclear: “The construction land scale of megacities in China”
• The novelty of the study is not clear. What knowledge gap is it trying to fill?
• What general principle/theory informs the present study?

2. Context for Industrial Land Transformation in Shenzhen

• The justification for selecting Shenzhen City rather than other Chinese cities is not clear.
• What is the source of Figure 1?  

3. Research Methods and Data Collection

• Why limit the data collection to 2010-2018?
• What kinds of data were collected from the public authorities and the references (at least URL citations)?
• How were the data collected and in which format e.g. raster, vector, hardcopy maps, etc.?
• To allow replication, the authors should explain how they did these processes: “data geolocation, data format conversion, and superposition calculation” (line 196)?

4. Empirical Results

• Line 260: What is the proportion of 867.55 ha out of the total land area of Shenzhen City?
• Line 263: the 280.27 ha is redeveloped into both TRADITIONAL and NEW industrial land according to Table 1. So, correct the statement.
• Lines 361-364: the legends on Figures 2, 3, 5, and 6 as well as both axes in Figure 4 are not legible.
• The section lacks a discussion to compare the findings with similar prior studies and relate the findings to the research questions/objective.

5. Conclusion and Discussion

• This section should be renamed: “discussion and conclusion” because the conclusion comes at the end.
• The discussion should show how the findings corroborate or differ from prior studies and likely explanations.
• It should highlight urban planning/management and environmental sustainability implications of the findings.
• What values the paper adds to the literature: state their importance to the field, including policy implication?
• To what extent the methodology can be applied to other cities?
• What are the limitations of this study?

Author Response

We thank the editor and reviewers of Land for giving us the opportunity to revise the
article and for providing the constructive comments and enlightening suggestions.
Revisions were made to improve the manuscript based on these comments, and the
manuscript professionally edited by a native English-speaking colleague before
submission. Our detailed responses to each of the points raised by the reviewers are
shown in the file.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Authors They corrected the text as recommended by the reviewers. As a result, the article seems more interesting. I recommend it for printing.

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors have adequately addressed all the comments I raised in the earlier version of the manuscript