Urban Green Infrastructure Inventory as a Key Prerequisite to Sustainable Cities in Ukraine under Extreme Heat Events
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors! Noteworthy is the current literature and DOI links as well as extensive visual background in terms of quantity (tables and figures). Information on funding the research and its credibility. I suggest increasing the amount of keywords based on power. I propose to shorten the abstract and extend it with a clear message about the methods used. Instead of information about what was done in the article (Discussed), I propose to write a discount. I propose to re-analyze the conclusions and conclusions, or all the comments in the article in terms of literature or research. Not all seem to be confirmed. Below, there are comments that do not affect the value of the article. Figure 1 has a truncated gray element (European Settlement Map) truncated s Tables 1 to 5 - too large font Figure 6 illegible pictures inscriptions and red dots - I suggest 2 pictures on the page, not three on the page will be much clearer. Recommended font unification in charts, tables, etc. Lots of health! Greetings! ReviewerAuthor Response
Dear reviewer,
We are thankful for your comments and suggestions! Here is our point-by-point response:
I suggest increasing the amount of keywords based on power – keywords are added.
I propose to shorten the abstract and extend it with a clear message about the methods used. – the abstract is substantially corrected, as requested.
I propose to re-analyze the conclusions – the conclusions are reviewed and corrected.
Kindly, the authors
Reviewer 2 Report
Generally
This manuscript reports the results of a case study from the Ukraine, where the impact of four tree species is examined at a site scale. The research purpose is to provide recommendations arising from a case study, specific research questions are not stated. The research design employs data collection at a city and site scale, as well as policy analysis, however the role and purpose of these mixed methods is not stated. There is no definition offered for key terms including “inventory”, so it is unclear what this means and how it is conceptualised for this research. A sizeable portion of the limited literature (34 references) is dated (1980s) without justification; more recent contributions to the literature on green infrastructure are omitted.
While the findings suggest the significance of trees in mitigating urban heat impacts, and further, the importance of species selection, it is weakly supported by a theoretical and methodological framework. A major concern is the presentation: grammatical expression errors persist throughout including the repeated use of “loan” rather than “lawn”; the sequencing of data collection and analysis jumping from detailed site characteristics to policy, city districts, regions, and specific locations; figures missing information describing chart axis and keys (e.g. Fig’s 7-10,16). The manuscript is supported by a large quantity of figures (16) which should be consolidated.
These issues result in a manuscript that is difficult to follow, let alone support, and a challenging read. From this reviewer’s perspective and experience, it needs major revisions including restructuring and proof-reading by a person fluent in English to improve issues with word choice, grammar and expression, to be considered suitable for publication. With major revisions, it offers an interesting insight to the contribution of tree to mitigating urban heat impacts for municipal government and private land managers. The suggestions provided as follows, are offered in the spirit of supporting the authors with developing the manuscript to a greater level of academic rigour and presentation to broaden its appeal to a multidisciplinary audience.
Introduction & Literature Review
Pages 1-2, Lines 31-95
- The introduction needs to present a research question - what question/s is this research attempting to answer?
- Citation/s are missing for the definitions of key terms throughout the article including: “green infrastructure inventory”; “heat wave”; and “heat island”. Some explanation of how these relate to the commonly used term “Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect” is also needed.
- Justification for the case study selection is also missing. Why was Kyiv selected, how does it compare with all other Ukrainian cities? What are the points of difference offered by this selection?
- The points at the conclusion of the Introduction are solely concerned with trees, yet there are many other types of green infrastructure.
Materials & Methods
Pages 2-8, Lines 96-268
- Figure 1: If the research did not use all of these data sources, then Figure 1 should be redacted and perhaps replaced with a conceptual diagram that represents all of the data sources that are applicable to this research, including the policy review.
- Spatial Levels of the Project: There needs to be some explanation of the types of green infrastructure, and why this research focuses solely on trees.
- At the second stage, we performed thermal aerial mapping with an unmanned 116 aerial vehicle (UAV) over selected courtyards of high-rise building residential zones. “Was this a drone? Was it’s deployment within the legal requirements for drone operation in an urban area? Was this method approved by an Ethics Review Committee?
- Figure 2 should be presented in Results.
- Legislation Analysis: This needs to be substantially revised, introduced and earlier as part of the method with explanation of its purpose and relevance, but presented later in Results. It is quite jarring here, given the details and context of the previous pages on the sensors, their design, configuration and installation. The presentation and synthesis of the documents could be improved using a table, with columns for key information and characteristics such as date adopted, publication type, scale of application (local, state, national, international) purpose, green infrastructure types etc. More information is required to help the reader arrive at the same conclusions.
Results & Discussion
Pages 8-18, Lines 269-511
- Section 3 needs an introduction with signposting to help the reader anticipate what is to be presented and discussed.
- Figure 5: The district in the previous Figure (4) (Holosiivsky) is missing? How does you audience know where Locations 1-4 are positioned within Kyiv? How does a region differ from a district?
- Figure 6: The caption is unclear - do the authors mean bottom right?
- Figures 7-10: The legend needs a title and axis labels. The use of red and green for the centre images may present challenges for readers who experience colour-blindness. Without a legend/key, it is unclear what these two colours represent. Each image should be labelled and sub-titled. These four figures could also be consolidated as a composite figure.
- Legislation Analysis (p. 16): This section is difficult to follow; its placement is unclear amongst the detailed site data analysis.
Conclusions & Recommendations
Pages 18-19, Lines 512-570
- The manuscript offers no insights to the research limitations, existing or emerging gaps that remain to be examined.
- The Conclusions are solely focused on the implications for Kyiv and Ukraine – what are the implications for other countries, cities and municipalities at a global level, and how does this shape previous suggestions from the more recent academic literature (see suggestions below) about providing urban greening to mitigate urban heat?
Suggested Additional References for consideration
The authors could consider at least these references, but more are really needed given the limited literature reviewed:- Block, A. H., Livesley, S. J., & Williams, N. S. (2012). Responding to the urban heat island: a review of the potential of green infrastructure./Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research Melbourne/.
- Capotorti, G., De Lazzari, V., & Alós Ortí, M. (2019). Local Scale Prioritisation of Green Infrastructure for Enhancing Biodiversity in Peri-Urban Agroecosystems: A Multi-Step Process Applied in the Metropolitan City of Rome (Italy)./Sustainability/,/11/(12), 3322.
- Fongar, C., Randrup, T. B., Wiström, B., & Solfjeld, I. (2019). Public urban green space management in Norwegian municipalities: A managers’ perspective on place-keeping./Urban Forestry & Urban Greening/,/44/, 126438.
- Kumar, P., Druckman, A., Gallagher, J., Gatersleben, B., Allison, S., Eisenman, T. S., Hoang, U., Hama, S., Tiwari, A., & Sharma, A. (2019). The nexus between air pollution, green infrastructure and human health./Environment International/,/133/, 10518
- Matthews, T., Lo, A. Y., & Byrne, J. A. (2015). Reconceptualizing green infrastructure for climate change adaptation: Barriers to adoption and drivers for uptake by spatial planners./Landscape and Urban Planning/,/138/, 155-163.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
We are very thankful for your profound, detailed, and indeed useful comments and suggestions! We have done our best to introduce changes as close to your recommendations as we could. Please find attached our point-by-point response to your comments (highlighted with grey).
Kind regards,
The authors
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
This manuscript has been significantly improved, now providing the following information: specific research questions; the role and purpose of the mixed methods; definitions for key terms including “inventory” and how it is conceptualised for this research; the sequencing of data collection and analysis jumping from detailed site characteristics to policy, city districts, regions, and specific locations; recent citations of others’ contribution to the literature on green infrastructure. Some minor concerns persist with the presentation - mostly grammatical expression and incorrect word choices. The manuscript is much easier to follow and support and offers an interesting insight to the contribution of tree to mitigating urban heat impacts for municipal government and private land managers.
Author Response
Dear reviewers,
Thank you for the positive reply to our corrections made! To improve the language-related issues, we have ordered the English language proofread by a professional translator.
She kindly provided the certificate of the proofread work done by her; since we cannot attach it to the request, it is available for download following this link: https://cutt.ly/Xlex3F1
Kind regards,
Oleksandra and the authors' team
