Comparing the Evolution of Land Surface Temperature and Driving Factors between Three Different Urban Agglomerations in China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe paper should more clearly point out any local factors which are responsible for temperatures evolutions in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2020
Author Response
Dear reviewer，
We are very grateful for your comments on our manuscript. We appreciate the good advices very much which are very helpful in improving our manuscript. Especially, thank you for giving us the very detailed suggestions and references which can really do good for the improvement of the manuscript. Thanks again. The main responses to you are attached and any further revisions are welcomed.
Kind regards，
Lizhi Pan
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsComments:
RE: sustainability-2735247 - "Comparing the evolution characteristics of land surface temperature and driving factors among three different urban agglomerations in China"
Journal: sustainability
Type of manuscript: Article
It can provide scientific and theoretical basis for the mitigation of UAs' UHI effect by examining variations of LST among different urban agglomerations. The topic is interesting, the authors have made an interesting study, which is attractive to relevant researcher. The subject fits in the general scope of sustainability. Just, I suggest some modifications before publication.
Introduction: In the last sentence of the penultimate paragraph, the author proposes “Therefore, there is a need to fill these gaps by exploring......”. The authors reached this uncautious conclusion(fill these gaps) with a short two-paragraph literature review. To some extent, literature review is not comprehensive and rich enough.
Materials and Methods: It is suggested that the author further explain the reasons for choosing three urban agglomerations as representatives on the three levels. The legend in Figure 1 is not legible and readable, and the same problem occurs in Figure 3.
Title and abbreviation rules of Section 2.3. “Urban Agglomeration Built-up Area Intensity (UABI)” are the same as in the abstract, but not as expressed in the body of this section(intensity of urban agglomeration 138 built-up area (UABI)). t is suggested that the author check and modify similar problems in the article. In the Section 2.5. Spatial Analysis and Statistical Regression Methods, the introduction to methods is too simple.
Results: The setting of sub-headings in this part needs to be further optimized, and the content expressed by the front and back headings needs to be progressive or juxtaposed. Currently, section 3.5 takes research methods as the title, while sections 3.1 to 3.4 extract the findings into headings. In the penultimate sentence of the last paragraph of the introduction, it is stated that “The purpose of this study is to reveal the evolution characteristics of LST in UAs in different levels......”. Therefore, the content of the result should correspond to this section. Therefore, the author needs to explain why the Spatial and Temporal Distribution of UABI is arranged at 3.1. Generally speaking, the influencing factors should be identified first, and then analyzed or discussed separately.
Discussion: From 4.1 to 4.4, four differences are discussed, there seems to be a lack of general discussion that echoes the topic of the essay and the problem to be addressed in the introduction. Meanwhile, any Description and discussions should be beyond the local case itself, otherwise it cannot attract more international readers. It is recommended that the author add a discussion section and make substantial revisions before re-examination. At the same time, be careful not to overlap too much with the results.
Conclusions: It is suggested that the first paragraph of the conclusion be divided into two paragraphs, and express the conclusions in the second paragraph with serial numbers. In general, the conclusion should be based on the previous results and discussions, and should be brief and concise, giving only the core concluding content without elaboration.
It would be better if the authors can supplement the research contributions, and recommendations of future studies.
Overall, the paper is a good technical effort. There still are some repetition and grammar errors in the MS, authors need to check them carefully.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Overall, the paper is a good technical effort. There still are some repetition and grammar errors in the MS, authors need to check them carefully.
Author Response
Dear reviewer，
We are very grateful for your comments on our manuscript. We appreciate the good advices very much which are very helpful in improving our manuscript. Especially, thank you for giving us the very detailed suggestions and references which can really do good for the improvement of the manuscript. Thanks again. The main responses to you are attached and any further revisions are welcomed.
Kind regards，
Lizhi Pan
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsAlthough I'm not familiar with the Geo-detector software, the applied method appears robust and justified by specific criteria. Its core premise assumes that if an independent variable significantly affects a dependent variable, then the spatial distributions of these variables should be similar.
Author Response
Dear reviewer，
We are very grateful for your comments on our manuscript. We appreciate the good advices very much which are very helpful in improving our manuscript. Especially, thank you for giving us the very detailed suggestions and references which can really do good for the improvement of the manuscript. Thanks again. The main responses to you are attached and any further revisions are welcomed.
Kind regards，
Lizhi Pan
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsComparing the evolution characteristics of land surface temperature and driving factors among three different urban agglomerations in China by Lizhi Pan, Chaobin Yang, Jing Han, Fengqin Yan, Anhua Ju and Tong Kui
General: This is a comprehensive analysis of the factors driving the land surface temperature in three different urban agglomerations in China employing regression and Geo-detector methods.
Specific:
Maybe the authors should consider that an interested reader has to keep quite a large number of 3 to 4 letter abbreviations in mind to follow the text.
Abstract:
L26: DEM…. Has it been defined?
L29: “showed a weaken effect“ ? weaker
Figure 1. „Overview map of the study area. (a) Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei national-level urban agglomer- 104 ation (BTH). (b) Shandong Peninsula regional-level urban agglomeration (SP). (c) Central Shanxi 105 regional-level urban agglomeration (CS).“
…. I am not sure whether all readers of this Journal know where the cities are situated which you mentioned in the text. They need to be marked and named.
L180: „sum of the variances of these smaller regions is less than the variance of the region“ …. temporal variances ? How many datapoints are required as a minimum ? And below: Is sum(Nh) = N ?
L219: … ‘extent of the changes was insignificant‘… I guess it is spatial extent; and insignificant means what ? Was statistics involved?
L250: ‘the most obvious warming area was in the upper part‘ … upper part?
L260: “From 2015 to 2020, "two points into a surface" evolves into "two points into a sur- 260 face" ?? Plus phenome … is that word correct?
Section 4.4:
Taking the reviewer as an average reader, she/he would not understand part of this section, independent of the writing: (i) Best fit regression between which variables? If it is LST and UABI, say it in the very beginning; (ii) and is it for the whole period (or for decadal subperiods that have been also looked at)?
„The driving mechanism of LST in these three UAs with different development levels 379 was quantitatively analyzed by using linear regression analysis and Geo-detector modeling. The results showed that the best-fit regression coefficient of BTH wasR_2010^2 = 0.58 (1.47°C increase in LST for every 10% increase in UABI), and the best-fit regression coefficient for SP wasR_2015^2 = 0.66 (1.27°C increase in LST per 10% increase in UABI), and the CS best-fit regression coefficient wasR_2020^2 = 0.55 (for every 10% increase in UABI, LST increased by 1.83°C). The best-fit regression coefficient R2 of CS was the smallest (0.55), but its warming effect on LST was the largest (1.83°C). The results of the single-factor test showed that the rank of the influencing factors in these three urban agglomerations is as follows: DEM > UABI > NDVI > T2m > POP.“
Fig 8 and Tables 3 to 5: Generally, the results are quite descriptive. If the authors find some physically relevant explanations a sentence or two for each of the interactive processes would be highly appreciated.
Just a note: Some references are attached which may have escaped the authors attention - may be due to the fact that these authors do not appear to be embedded in the related circles of ‘urban-science’. That does not mean that these publications should be included in the introductory overview, but should serve as an info of a research group the present authors may not be aware of.
Cai et al. 2019: Remote sensing greenness and urbanization in ecohydrological model analysis: Asia and Australasia (1982-2015), Sensors 19, 4693
Cai et al. 2019: Urbanization and climate change: Insights from eco-hydrological diagnostics, Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN) 647, 29-36
Cai et al. 2017: Urbanization and the thermal environment of Chinese and US-American cities. Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN) 589, 200–211
Huang et al. 2023: Mechanisms of urbanization: Evidence from geographical, climatic, social-economic and nighttime light data. Ecological Indicators 148, 110046
Comments on the Quality of English Language-
Author Response
Dear reviewer，
We are very grateful for your comments on our manuscript. We appreciate the good advices very much which are very helpful in improving our manuscript. Especially, thank you for giving us the very detailed suggestions and references which can really do good for the improvement of the manuscript. Thanks again. The main responses to you are attached and any further revisions are welcomed.
Kind regards，
Lizhi Pan
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 5 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsI think the study can give a positive contribution to the journal. The proposed comparison underlines the importance of the topic and give a first steppingstone for future application in different urban areas - with the outlook of monitoring changes in UHI with different techniques to control it.
The present study hence is valid - I would only suggest a bit of more clarity in the discussion and in the results, underlining the next steps.
Author Response
Dear reviewer，
We are very grateful for your comments on our manuscript. We appreciate the good advices very much which are very helpful in improving our manuscript. Especially, thank you for giving us the very detailed suggestions and references which can really do good for the improvement of the manuscript. Thanks again. The main responses to you are attached and any further revisions are welcomed.
Kind regards，
Lizhi Pan
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 6 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe article is interesting and holds potential value across various sectors, particularly for those responsible for configuring and managing large cities. However, some adjustments are required before publication.
For a journal like 'sustainability,' it is imperative that the article provides a more comprehensive overview, emphasizing the significance and necessity of the information presented.
The conclusions need to be rewritten to highlight the impact of these relationships, elucidating the advantages or disadvantages associated with each. The current narrative tends to be overly descriptive, overlooking the opportunity to establish greater relevance by emphasizing the implications of the presented data.
Author Response
Dear reviewer，
We are very grateful for your comments on our manuscript. We appreciate the good advices very much which are very helpful in improving our manuscript. Especially, thank you for giving us the very detailed suggestions and references which can really do good for the improvement of the manuscript. Thanks again. The main responses to you are attached and any further revisions are welcomed.
Kind regards，
Lizhi Pan
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
