The Importance of the Strategic Urban Rehabilitation Plan in the Sustainable Development of the Municipality of Machico

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The sustainable development of urban areas is a necessary process for their proper functioning, which was pointed out by the authors of this study on an example the situation of the Municipality of Machico. As part of the work, the document "The Strategic Plan for Urban Rehabilitation (PERU) of the Municipality of Machico" was analyzed, which is one of the most important and necessary from the perspective of recovering urban centers in order to improve the quality of life of residents, with simultaneous care for the protection of the local natural environment and optimization conditions for the usufruct of the city of Machico in terms of mobility, that is, a better future in general. This is especially important in terms of the intensification of modern, unfavorable civilization phenomena, such as the financial or economic crisis.

The assessed work is interesting, properly thought-out and preceded by an in-depth analysis of the available materials, enriched with own inventory documentation of sample buildings in various conditions (in ruins, in terrible state of conservation and in bad state of conservation) and delimitation of the and separation of the analyzed areas in many different and necessary aspects and and subjecting them to detailed analyzes. The inclusion of sensitive points and objects on the maps is a particularly valuable element of the work, as it fully reflects the scope and importance of the discussed issue.

The critical remarks:

In general, in my opinion, the work is complete and the topic is exhausted in the assumed scope, while the correction (enlargement) is required in figures 1,3,5,6 and in particular 8,9,10,11,13, which are very important for the subject matter but in the reviewed version of the article are extremely small and therefore exceptionally illegible.

Author Response

Dear Reviewers.

I apologize for the delay in responding to your suggestions. I had my one-month-old son admitted to intensive care due to a respiratory problem caused by the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) I send my answers in the attachment.

Thanks for your kindness,

Me Raul Alves

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear  Sir;

1-In the summary of the article, you should emphasize your purpose a little more and change the results.

2-Please, it would be better if you make generalizations supported by the literature in the introduction part of your study.

3-You mentioned rehabilitation areas in your work. Do you think the size of these areas can be increased? Please address this issue in the discussion section of your article.

4-You can specify the method of your article under a separate heading and specify the stages of its article.

5-The discussion part of your article is very lacking, please support it with current literature.

Author Response

Dear Reviewers.

I apologize for the delay in responding to your suggestions. I had my one-month-old son admitted to intensive care due to a respiratory problem caused by the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) I send my answers in the attachment.

Thanks for your kindness,

Me Raul Alves

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

1

The Municipality of Machico's Urban Rehabilitation (PERU) can be understood in its holistic context. However, this manuscript requires an explanation of specific measures of Urban Rehabilitation (PERU). According to the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic that you mention, through the targeted buildings in the urban sites, you must describe the specific repair and regeneration process as a result of the decision-making process, as well as the process with the residents prior to taking urban regeneration measures.

 

2

The author noted:

The New Municipal Regulation for Urbanization, Building and Fees (NRMUET) [9] provides for a bond in its article 30 for the maintenance of load-bearing walls in stone masonry. in order to protect and safeguard the heritage within the EUAH, extending it to the entire perimeter of the ARU in the parish of Machico.

 

Here, there are regulations for structure and materials, etc. If you mention that regulation, it is necessary to compare the use of materials for the buildings and the percentage of overall material use seen in the renovated building covered in this manuscript. The attribute information on the overall material and structure of the target site covered in this study is required to be mentioned because you already metioned in this manuscript “with an in loco observation of the state of the facades and roofs at the exterior level. ” . Then, for each building in the target site, specific details on the restoration of the building, such as repair method, material use, structural reinforcement, etc., should be included. In this way, it is expected that Urban Rehabilitation (PERU) will be able to identify the differentiated characteristics of urban regeneration projects for sustainable development. These matters are not mentioned at all in the contents of this manuscript.

 

3.

The author noted:

In terms of quantity, the Porto da Cruz ARU accounted for a total of 85 buildings and in terms of quantity, the Machico ARU has a total of around 492 buildings., the model of the evaluation form of the level of conservation prepared for application in the New Regime of Urban Lease - NRAU was followed, where the state of conservation can be classified as:

• Excellent (predominance of level 5 anomalies):    

• Good (predominance of level 4 anomalies):  

• Medium (predominance of level 3 anomalies):   

• Bad (predominance of level 2 anomalies):    

• Very bad (predominance of level 1 anomalies):  

• Ruin (building that cannot be used for reasons of safety and/or health.  

 

Photographs of the target buildings in Machico and Porto da Cruz are needed to serve as examples of the state of conservation mentioned by the author. Readers should be able to understand the state. Therefore, in this manuscript, the author, please add photos that show the exact status of the six steps you mentioned to this manuscript. For example, seen as in Figure 4, the written content is too subjective and cannot be understood.

The author must make a table for comparing the states of historic buildings between the two cities, organizing the actual status of each building by grade. Such actions will help readers understand the regeneration process of the two cities.

 

4.

The author noted:

The methodology adopted for the work, in a first phase, was the study of the legal framework for rehabilitation (Legal Framework), followed by the analysis of the main characteristics and problems identified for each of the ARUs (Characterization and Diagnosis of the ARU), moving on to the definition of rehabilitation strategies (Strategic Frame-work), right after the definition of structuring projects (Definition of the ORU) and finally an analysis of the sustainable development of the territory leveraged by PERU.

 

Please describe an analysis of the sustainable development of the territory with the specific building cases based on the buildings. There are none at all in this manuscript.

 

5.

The author noted:

The Strategic Axes (EE) of the Municipality come mainly from the need to renew and revitalize Machico and Porto da Cruz, through the treatment of the built fabric and public space. Therefore, the following axes are defined, with their respective objectives (OE):

1. Rehabilitation of the Building Park;

2. Rehabilitation of the Socioeconomic, Cultural and Sporting Structure;

3. Promoting Sustainable Mobility and Strengthening Integration and Connectivity;

4. Qualification of Public Spaces;

 

Between Machico and Porto da Cruz, through the treatment of the built fabric and public space as mentioned by the author, a diagram representing the overall rehabilitation plan on a map should be included in this manuscript,

 

 

6.

Please specifically describe the comparative contents between Urban Operations in Machico ARU (left) and Porto da Cruz (right) in Graph 1. According to Graph 1, the differences in the reconstruction methods between the two cities are evident. An explanation is needed for why the differences are seen between the two cities.

 

 

 

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewers.

I apologize for the delay in responding to your suggestions. I had my one-month-old son admitted to intensive care due to a respiratory problem caused by the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) I send my answers in the attachment.

Thanks for your kindness,

Me Raul Alves

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear  Sir / Madam;

Thank you for the article corrections

Reviewer 3 Report

Your revised manuscript has been much better because it contains more specific examples and contents than the previous one.