Review Reports - Land Suitability Analysis for Vineyard Cultivation in the Izmir Metropolitan Area

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In the article: “Land Suitability Analysis for vineyard cultivation in the Izmir Metropolitan Area” land suitability analysis for vineyard production has been established for the entire metropolitan area of Izmir according to the most scientifically-agreed criteria: elevation, slope, aspect, land capability and solar radiation. These criteria were superimposed through spatial overlay analysis using Esri ArcGIS (ver.10.8) and evaluated using the Principal Component Analysis technique. The research topic undertaken by the Authors is in line with current scientific trends (according to the Authors, this is the first such study for the analyzed area), the research tools used do not raise major doubts.

The article is structured correctly, although I already have some comments at this stage (see further in the list of comments and remarks). It contains all the parts that should be found in a scientific article. However, some content needs to be moved between chapters (see further), from a purely formal point of view, I do not see the sense of separating one subchapter in chapter 1 - if there are to be subchapters, then at least two.

My comments and observations:

I miss a more detailed description of the GIS tools used. Please add a subsection 2 in chapter 1 and elaborate on it, citing a number of international, publicly available publications (what tools, what are they used for, etc.).

2 I don't really understand the notation from line 202-203, please clarify it or write it differently somehow. At the moment it is unreadable.

Subsection 2.7 contains content that doesn't fit very well in this part of the article. The discussion of pluses and minuses of different methods (lines 275-293) fits more into the discussion of results. Further contents (lines 296-301 including tables) are already research results and should be moved to this part of the article.
lines 338-344: according to me this is a methodical element used in the article. This content should be moved to Materials and Methods chapter and there developed and justified based on literature.
I am totally uncomfortable with the content in chapter 4 Discussion. The only thing that fits here is in subsection 4.3. The authors, in lines 369 et seq. announced that they would test the obtained results for the Kozak plateau. First, nowhere in earlier parts of the article was this announced, and second, I do not see this testing in the article. In chapter 4 the authors have included a very detailed description of the Kozak plateau in terms of vineyard cultivation. This is not a discussion of the research results obtained and presented in chapter 3. If Authors really want to test results on this particular area, please announce it in methodology, do it and show results in chapter Results and move description of the area to subchapter 2.1.
In Chapter 4 Discussion please refer your results to other studies of this type, preferably international, in which similar aspects were studied (e.g. for other plants) or similar research tools were used. There are many articles in available scientific databases that show applications of GIS tools and technologies. It is also worth to transfer here those considerations about the possibility of using other methods and the limitations associated with it. I would also suggest wording these considerations a little differently. Reading lines 275-293 one can get an impression that quite commonly used multi-criteria analysis, especially using feature weighting, is better than the method used by Authors, and they didn't use it only because of lack of data...
Please elaborate on the conclusion section, there is not enough content in the current version.
Technical note: please add the source next to all figures and tables.

The article needs to be rebuilt and expanded. I will recommend it for publication when appropriate revisions have been made.

Author Response

In the article: “Land Suitability Analysis for vineyard cultivation in the Izmir Metropolitan Area” land suitability analysis for vineyard production has been established for the entire metropolitan area of Izmir according to the most scientifically-agreed criteria: elevation, slope, aspect, land capability and solar radiation. These criteria were superimposed through spatial overlay analysis using Esri ArcGIS (ver.10.8) and evaluated using the Principal Component Analysis technique. The research topic undertaken by the Authors is in line with current scientific trends (according to the Authors, this is the first such study for the analyzed area), the research tools used do not raise major doubts.

Thank you for your observation, as is written below we now added another subchapter.

My comments and observations:

I miss a more detailed description of the GIS tools used. Please add a subsection 2 in chapter 1 and elaborate on it, citing a number of international, publicly available publications (what tools, what are they used for, etc.).

Thank you for this observation, now we created a subchapter as suggested, which includes a short bibliographic review on land suitability analysis.

2 I don't really understand the notation from line 202-203, please clarify it or write it differently somehow. At the moment it is unreadable.

Thank you for this observation, we changed the sentence.

Subsection 2.7 contains content that doesn't fit very well in this part of the article. The discussion of pluses and minuses of different methods (lines 275-293) fits more into the discussion of results.

Thank you for this observation, now we moved this part in the discussion chapter.

Further contents (lines 296-301 including tables) are already research results and should be moved to this part of the article.

Thank you for this observation, we relocated the text accordingly.

lines 338-344: according to me this is a methodical element used in the article. This content should be moved to Materials and Methods chapter and there developed and justified based on literature.

Thank you so much for this observation, we moved this part in the method while integrating chapter 2.7.

I am totally uncomfortable with the content in chapter 4 Discussion. The only thing that fits here is in subsection 4.3. The authors, in lines 369 et seq. announced that they would test the obtained results for the Kozak plateau. First, nowhere in earlier parts of the article was this announced, and second, I do not see this testing in the article. In chapter 4 the authors have included a very detailed description of the Kozak plateau in terms of vineyard cultivation. This is not a discussion of the research results obtained and presented in chapter 3. If Authors really want to test results on this particular area, please announce it in methodology, do it and show results in chapter Results and move description of the area to subchapter 2.1.

Thank you for this important observation. We deeply revised the manuscript's structure while announcing (the last part of the abstract already announced this) that we want to investigate the Kozak plateau. Then we moved its description in the methodology while leaving in the discussion part the management measures.

In Chapter 4 Discussion please refer your results to other studies of this type, preferably international, in which similar aspects were studied (e.g. for other plants) or similar research tools were used. There are many articles in available scientific databases that show applications of GIS tools and technologies. It is also worth to transfer here those considerations about the possibility of using other methods and the limitations associated with it. I would also suggest wording these considerations a little differently. Reading lines 275-293 one can get an impression that quite commonly used multi-criteria analysis, especially using feature weighting, is better than the method used by Authors, and they didn't use it only because of lack of data...

Thank you for this pertinent observation, we tried to work diffusely to the discussion part working in the suggested direction. For lines 275-293, we smoothed the sentence while highlighting the importance of integrating quantitative and qualitative data.

Please elaborate on the conclusion section, there is not enough content in the current version.

Technical note: please add the source next to all figures and tables.

Thank you for your observation, we added all the sources.

The article needs to be rebuilt and expanded. I will recommend it for publication when appropriate revisions have been made.

Thank you for this final observation. We worked diffusely also to gain more quality by revising the sentencing structure.

Reviewer 2 Report

The content of the paper is a land suitability analysis for vineyard production has been established for the location of Bergama district in the Izmir's Province. The initial criteria used for the analysis were: elevation, slope, aspect, land capability and solar radiation. These criteria were superimposed through spatial overlay analysis using Esri ArcGIS (ver.10.8) and evaluated using the Principal Component Analysis technique.

Its main contribution is in identified new areas for vineyard production in Izmir locality and to define which areas can be considered for the future strategic expansion and management.

The manuscript is clear, understandable, well structured, methodologically accurate and scientific sounded. The tables and figures are appropriate and sufficient. Statistical methods are correctly applied.

The discussion would certainly be suitably complemented by a mention of property conditions in vineyard areas. Land tenure problems (ownership, use, lease) could conflict with solutions that are based only on the scientifically criteria. Anyway, the proposed methodology is good and fully replicable in every part of the world.

Author Response

Its main contribution is in identified new areas for vineyard production in Izmir locality and to define which areas can be considered for the future strategic expansion and management.

Thank you so much for your appreciated comments.

We revised the English language, and attached you can find the certificate of our Academic Writing Center at IZTECH. As for the last point, we added this limitation (land tenure problems) in the discussion part.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have addressed all my comments and made appropriate changes to the article. I accept their clarifications and the revised, current version of the article.