Study of Urban Greenery Models to Prevent Overheating of Parked Vehicles in P + R Facilities in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,
This is an interesting experiment although I would like to see it being more connected to the issues of urban planning that are mentioned in the first paragraphs of introduction. I also encourage you to work on the discussion and conclusion chapter.

At least two other P+R in Ljubljana (PR Stuzice, PR Studenec) are multilevel parkings with cars parked indoors. Indoors P+R seem to be rather common and viewed as a favourable solution in growing and densifying cities. I’m not sure why a short, preliminary test in one of these locations was omitted. Could you perhaps write abut this in the introduction presenting the situation in Ljubljana - which of the P+R are seen as better functioning, what is the general direction in urban planning/strategies in Ljubljana - improvement of existing open space P+R or building multilevel, roofed (or perhaps underground) P+R? Are these outdoor P+R a thing of the past or is this an opportunity for greening the city and as such is identified by the governing bodies in the city?

Observations on parking patterns reflecting shading tree canopy:
In paragraph starting with line 290 you conclude some behavioural observations in drivers. This is just a general observation that drivers tend to get in the car and drive without paying much attention to the heat inside the vehicle. Did you observe or keep track of behavioural patterns regarding parking under tree canopy? Often drivers “predict” shading and observe the way sun operate in parking lots and then choose parking spots (inf they can) that will be shaded during the hottest period of the day. Such behavioural analysis could strengthen your case and present additional evidence for the increase of tree canopy coverage in P+R.

I would like to see Conclusions being separate from Discussion section. In the discussion you should mention research that has dealt with the temperature of car interiors in roofed or shaded P+R infrastructure. You mention this, but don’t quote or discuss any research on that. Perhaps you should also look at some design solutions or cases (landscape, architectural projects) that fit the models you presented and are good examples of how to design parking spaces with necessary greenery. This would be very interesting and useful. Conclusions, as a separate section, should present brief summary of the results.

Please provide source of map and photo material for Image 1

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, 

The five-member team of academics, who developed and submitted the above-mentioned manuscript to the journal Sustainability, would like to thank you very much for your valuable comments and suggestions aimed at improving the quality of our research. 

The manuscript has been revised according to obtained review reports. 

Please find our response to the comments in attached file. 

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

At the first, I would like to thank Authors for an interesting article. I have read the article carefully. In my opinion, the work was prepared very well. The Introduction includes the literature review. Also, the Authors clearly emphasized motivated the undertaking studies. In my opinion, a few sentences of a novelty for conducted research could be placed. The Methodology was described properly. The results were shown clearly. I suggest separating the chapter Discussion and conclusion for two separate. In my opinion, the reviewed article meets the high requirements of Sustainability. I will be happy to see published work in the Journal.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, 

The five-member team of academics, who developed and submitted the above-mentioned manuscript to the journal Sustainability, would like to thank you very much for your valuable comments and suggestions aimed at improving the quality of our research. 

The manuscript has been revised according to obtained review reports. 

Please find our response to the comments in attached file. 

Author Response File: Author Response.doc