Farmers’ Strategies to Climate Change and Urbanization: Potential of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Rural Chengdu, Southwest China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper on EbA is a sound contribution to climate change adaptation, as it presents data on its different dimensions. I enjoyed reading it and it is almost ready for publishing.

Please find below my line-by-line comments:

3. Please correct word splitting and EbA for consistency.

15. Please specify country for contextual purposes.

17. The methodology description is vague in the abstract, please be more specific (sampling size and method, parameters of spatial analysis, indicators for data analysis, etc.).

36. Climate change is widely discussed, but I would not consider it well-known. Its effects and impacts are devastating but still under study, and also the way to tackle it.

37. Although (I reckon) the purpose of this sentence is to state that urban areas require agricultural products, the sentence reads as if the focus was on the DIVERSITY of such products, which is not correct.
According to FAO, agricultural production for human consumption relies on some 120 products, of which only three (wheat, rice and mane) account for more than 50%. Monoculture is actually one of the drivers for climate change.

70. Please remove "urban" from the sentence to avoid word repetition. The context is clear.
The sentence should read: "...were purposed to help mitigate the adverse effects of heat, flood, or drought events in urban areas".

71-72. Please add articles "the urban-rural system", "the agricultural landscape", "a hotspot of biodiversity" or change to plural ("systems", "landscapes", "hotspots").

85. Please add article "the agricultural system".

101. Please remove "Generally speaking" from this statement.

106. "last many centuries" is vague. Please remove or specify.

108. Please replace "an investigation" for "a research".

117-119. Please remove the article before "Google Earth".
If there was only one field survey, please add article "a field survey"; if several surveys took place, please change to plural form.
Please restructure the paragraph, as the specification of the spatial analysis in brackets undermines the richness of the methodology.

143. Please take the specifications out of the brackets.

151. Please specify sampling method.

155. Please specify sampling method to select the number of respondents of the two villages.

161. These data collection methods sound interesting. Please describe them furtherly.

167. Could this section be placed in the results? It does not seem to belong to the materials and methods section.

245. Please remove brackets and insert into the sentence.

267. Please indicate the precise percentage.

276-280. Please indicate the precise percentages.

296. Good models! Thank you for introducing this.

304. These are 6 types (not 5 as stated). Please remove "e.g." from all these examples, it is not necessary.

317. This seems to be a note from the authors to complete later?

332. Traditional knowledge is crucial for climate change adaptation, thank you for including it in your research.

333-335. This is valuable information.

422-423. Excellent result! Collaboration and capacity building are essential for sustainability.

434. It would be interesting to learn more about the grid management system, that seems to be widely used in China. Please provide background information and references.

450. The preferences of farmers make me wonder about the existence of policies for climate change adaptation. Do they prohibit or encourage the use of chemical fertilizers? Is the issue even mentioned?

480. This is perhaps due to the lack of climate-responsive policies for agriculture (or their weak enforcement).

497. Systems (in plural).

506. Please put the reference in the correct format.

516. Please put linpan in italics (in all cases).

613. Please make sure to mention the achievement of the research objectives (stated in the introduction) in the conclusion.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript is an interesting topic and has the potential to print in a valuable international journal like “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health”. There are some points if applying them, the manuscript has a good potential to accept and publish.

Title:

- The title is good. It is better not to use abbreviations in the title. I suggest the following title:

Farmers’ strategies to climate change and urbanization: potential of ecosystem-based adaptation

Abstract:

- The abstract is appropriate. However, it is advisable to mention "research method (methodology)" in the abstract (What was the “research method”?).

Keywords:

Not good. Please provide more appropriate and specific words (other than the words in the title of the paper).

Introduction:

- In the introduction, it is necessary to address the novelty of the research. In the theoretical literature in this section, it is necessary to explain the discussion of ontology and epistemology. In a more philosophical sense, why was EbA used?

Materials and methods:

- This section is good. But I have a question:

- In general, what was the kind of research method in this study (Paradigm, type, data, time, gathering data, …)

Results and discussion:

- Good.

Conclusion:

- Good. Please conclude by stating the specific limitations of the research.

References:

- Good and many sources have been used.

- With regard to what was said, my suggestion is to accept the manuscript after “minor revisions”.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.doc