Sustainable Transport Infrastructure and Economic Returns: A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Sustainability has become a key factor in the development, especially of transport systems. It is a category of concepts that overwrite existing concepts of ecology, long-term planning, efficiency, and human-orientation in designing. Due to the interdisciplinary nature, this concept is widely explored by researchers and scientists from various fields and areas of science. This, combined with a large number of journals and used sources of knowledge, makes tracking the latest achievements and trends in the field of sustainability difficult. Scientific studies such this one allow orientation in the area of ​​sustainability both at the stage of initial research (by young scientists) and at the stage of advanced research (by experienced scientists). The wide range of sustainability areas and interesting method of presenting the intensity of work and their correlation in various areas make this paper valuable and worth publishing.

The level of English is adequate. The article was properly constructed.

Author Response

Responses to Editors’ and Reviewers’ comments for:

“Sustainable Transport Infrastructure and Economic Returns: A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis”

 

First, the authors would like to acknowledge the editors and the anonymous reviewers whose important comments and suggestions led to greatly improved the manuscript.

 

Dear Editors, 

Thank you for the valuable comments concerning our paper (Manuscript ID: Sustainability-700306 entitled “Sustainable Transport Infrastructure and Economic Returns: A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis”). In view of the Reviewers’ comments, the paper is carefully revised. Our appreciation for the reviewers is fully acknowledged in the revised manuscript. Although the reviewer’s questions and comments are dealt with in the revised manuscript, we still would like to address all the points raised by the reviewers for completeness and as a respect to the reviewing process. We address the following replies to the Editors and the Reviewers as below. 

Reviewer(s)' Comments to Author:

 

Reviewer #1

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

 

Sustainability has become a key factor in the development, especially of transport systems. It is a category of concepts that overwrite existing concepts of ecology, long-term planning, efficiency, and human-orientation in designing. Due to the interdisciplinary nature, this concept is widely explored by researchers and scientists from various fields and areas of science. This, combined with a large number of journals and used sources of knowledge, makes tracking the latest achievements and trends in the field of sustainability difficult. Scientific studies such as this one allow orientation in the area of ​​sustainability both at the stage of initial research (by young scientists) and at the stage of advanced research (by experienced scientists). The wide range of sustainability areas and interesting method of presenting the intensity of work and their correlation in various areas make this paper valuable and worth publishing.

The level of English is adequate. The article was properly constructed.

 Our Reply(A)

We really thank the reviewer for the very valuable comments and suggestions.  Thank you for understanding our contributions in this area.

 

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper provides a bibliometric survey of the transport literature related to infrastructure sustainability issues. The topic is relevant and interesting. The paper is well written. I have some comments, which hopefully can help the authors to prepare a revised version.

The theoretical background of the methodology should be clearly presented.

Sustainable transport infrastructure entails multiple dimensions. While this paper focuses on the environmental aspect, other relevant aspects are often overlooked. I suggest the authors to discuss the following aspects:

sustainable transport investment should consider its externality in a systematic manner and fully appreciated its impact in the multimodal transport system. The authors may refer to

Zhang, F., Yang, H. and Liu, W., 2014. The Downs–Thomson Paradox with responsive transit service. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 70, pp.244-263.

Wang, W.W., Wang, D.Z., Zhang, F., Sun, H., Zhang, W. and Wu, J., 2017. Overcoming the Downs-Thomson Paradox by transit subsidy policies. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 95, pp.126-147.

Not only urban transport systems, the sustainability of intercity transport services also deserves discussion. In particular, the rapidly developing high-speed rail entails large amounts of investments, and have complex impacts on the traditional aviation services. The authors may refer to:

Chen, Z., Xue, J., Rose, A.Z. and Haynes, K.E., 2016. The impact of high-speed rail investment on economic and environmental change in China: A dynamic CGE analysis. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 92, pp.232-245.

Zhang, F., Graham, D.J. and Wong, M.S.C., 2018. Quantifying the substitutability and complementarity between high-speed rail and air transport. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 118, pp.191-215.

 

Author Response

Responses to Editors’ and Reviewers’ comments for:

“Sustainable Transport Infrastructure and Economic Returns: A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis”

 

First, the authors would like to acknowledge the editors and the anonymous reviewers whose important comments and suggestions led to greatly improved the manuscript.

 

Dear Editors, 

Thank you for the valuable comments concerning our paper (Manuscript ID: Sustainability-700306 entitled “Sustainable Transport Infrastructure and Economic Returns: A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis”). In view of the Reviewers’ comments, the paper is carefully revised. Our appreciation for the reviewers is fully acknowledged in the revised manuscript. Although the reviewer’s questions and comments are dealt with in the revised manuscript, we still would like to address all the points raised by the reviewers for completeness and as a respect to the reviewing process. We address the following replies to the Editors and the Reviewers as below. 

Reviewer(s)' Comments to Author:

 

Reviewer #2

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper provides a bibliometric survey of the transport literature related to infrastructure sustainability issues. The topic is relevant and interesting. The paper is well written. I have some comments, which hopefully can help the authors to prepare a revised version.

The theoretical background of the methodology should be clearly presented.

Our Reply(A)

Thank you for the comment. We presented the theoretical context of the approach in-depth and explained our range of approach to familiarize our readers with the techniques presented in the revised manuscript. We refer to our revised manuscript for its detail.

Sustainable transport infrastructure entails multiple dimensions. While this paper focuses on the environmental aspect, other relevant aspects are often overlooked. I suggest the authors to discuss the following aspects:

Sustainable transport investment should consider its externality in a systematic manner and fully appreciated its impact in the multimodal transport system. The authors may refer to:

-Zhang, F., Yang, H. and Liu, W., 2014. The Downs–Thomson Paradox with responsive transit service. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 70, pp.244-263.

-Wang, W.W., Wang, D.Z., Zhang, F., Sun, H., Zhang, W. and Wu, J., 2017. Overcoming the Downs-Thomson Paradox by transit subsidy policies. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 95, pp.126-147.

Our Reply(A)

We are so grateful for the valuable comments. We also understand and appreciate the reviewer's point of view. We agree that the impact of sustainable investment on the multi-modal transport system should be discussed briefly. Therefore, following the reviewer comments, we have incorporated and discussed a multi-modal transport system. We also have referred the papers suggested by the reviewer. Please check our revised manuscript for the detail. Furthermore, in our future work, we will consider the raised points.

Not only urban transport systems, the sustainability of intercity transport services also deserve discussion. In particular, the rapidly developing high-speed rail entails large amounts of investments, and have complex impacts on traditional aviation services. The authors may refer to:

-Chen, Z., Xue, J., Rose, A.Z. and Haynes, K.E., 2016. The impact of high-speed rail investment on economic and environmental change in China: A dynamic CGE analysis. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 92, pp.232-245.

-Zhang, F., Graham, D.J. and Wong, M.S.C., 2018. Quantifying the substitutability and complementarity between high-speed rail and air transport. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 118, pp.191-215.

Our Reply(A)

Thank you for the constructive comments. We understand the viewpoint of the reviewer here and agree to incorporate a brief discussion on the sustainability of intercity transportation services. The rapidly developing high-speed rail sector, in particular, involves significant amounts of investment and has complex impacts on traditional aviation services. And thus, following the reviewer comments, we have discussed the sustainability of intercity transport services in the revised manuscript. We have also considered the suggested references. Respected reader, please refer to the revised manuscript for the pointed comments.  

 

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The wide range of sustainability areas and interesting method of presenting the intensity of work and their correlation in various areas make this paper valuable and worth publishing.

The level of English is adequate. The article was properly constructed.

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have satisfactorily addressed my comments. The paper can be published now.