Spatial Analysis of Abandoned Houses and Their Influencing Factors in South Korea

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is very well written paper. The issue is clear presented in Introduction and Literature Review. Methods are easy to follow as well as Results. Only significances presented in Table 4 are misleading - *** should be less than 0.001, ** less than 0.01 and * less than 0.05.

What I have found problematic is Discussion – this is very poor and only low number of previous findings are discussed here. This must be enlarged as many studies deal with the topic of this paper – even published recently with MDPI journals – please se e.g.:

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/3/325

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/1/24

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/9124

https://www.mdpi.com/2413-8851/3/2/65

Author Response

Thanks for the good comments. I’ve edited all of your comments with red letters.
As your comments, the discussion section has been revised as a whole. 
in particular, the added parts are marked in red. 
- line 496-501
-line 523-529
- line 535-547 

Reviewer 2 Report

This study aims to identify factors such as environment and geographic characteristics affecting housing abandonment using spatial regression.

Overall:

• Are there any abandoned houses in 2017 re-used in 2019? (Converted from abandoned in 2017 to non-abandoned in 2019)
• In your manuscript, does “abandoned” mean “vacant?”
• For consistency, please use “abandoned” instead of “vacant” (including texts in Figures)
• All Figure resolutions are too low. Please use higher resolution (e.g. 300 dpi).
• Please refer Figure 1, 2, 4, 6 and Table 1, 4 in text.

Line 29-33:

Please add a citation.

Line 113: (Figure 1)

I suggest using “Step 1,2,3,4” instead of “Method 1,2,3,4” in Figure 1.

In Method 2: “Determining vacant house in the variable boundary area” sounds confusing.  

In Method 3: Admin. Boundary, Dist. Between rivers and vacant houses, river boundaries, dist. Between wastewater discharge and establishments are highlighted. Are they new variables you examined in your study? Then, please add a note.

Line 247:

You talk about policy in line 247, but I cannot find any policy statements in the literature review. You can add some policies or policy-related articles in lit review or remove “policy” in the sentence.

Line 247-258: (About research gap)

You wrote a long literature review from line 117 to line 246, reviewing factors of housing abandonment. From my understanding, your study identifies new variables such as “Admin. Boundary,” “Dist. between rivers and vacant houses,” “river boundaries,” “dist. between wastewater discharge and establishments” as environmental and geographical characteristics. Is it right?

If yes, it could also be a limitation, examined within your site-specific context.

Line 280: (Figure 4)

Please add an explanation about Figure 4.

Line 309: (Figure 6)

What does hexagonal shape mean? Is it an analysis method?

Also, please add legend explaining hexagons, gray dots, red dots, purple dots, lines, etc.

Line 302:

What does “river boundaries” mean? Do you mean watershed?

Line 317-318:

I wonder why you use Perry’s Neighborhood Unit since the radius is 400m (1/4 mile radius). If you want to apply his Unit, your neighborhood depth should be 800m. If you reviewed an article using a 400m neighborhood, please cite the article instead of Perry’s Unit.

Line 320-325:

Please add a citation and an explanation why the National Survey on Environmental Impact used 4km for the vicinity of unpleasant facilities. It would help audience understand why your study employs 4km radius.

Line 406-410:

Please interpret what the hot and cold spots stand for in your housing abandonment context.

Line 412: (Figure 8)

In legend, please use “abandoned” instead of “vacant” to keep consistency.

The text size on the Figure 8 is too big. Please modify text size.

Line 413: (Figure 8)

In title, what is “ma” in title? It seems misspelling. “map”?

Line 487:

“local governments need to not only decide the order of priority for maintaining abandoned houses based on wide and diverse perspectives, but also establish detailed policies and strategic plans.” Please add an explanation if local governments have policies to prioritize maintaining abandoned houses. Need to add a citation.

Line 493-495:

As explained in line 77-86, you selected detached abandoned houses for your study. However, ironically, you stated it as a limitation. Why did you choose detached houses as your study samples? What kind of housing type can be studied further in the future studies?

In addition, limitations and future studies are too short. You could add more.

Author Response

Thanks for the good comments. I’ve edited all of your comments. All comments have been corrected. The modifications are as follows :

Are there any abandoned houses in 2017 re-used in 2019? (Converted from abandoned in 2017 to non-abandoned in 2019) In your manuscript, does “abandoned” mean “vacant?” For consistency, please use “abandoned” instead of “vacant” (including texts in Figures) All Figure resolutions are too low. Please use higher resolution (e.g. 300 dpi).

Please refer Figure 1, 2, 4, 6 and Table 1, 4 in text.

=> It would be good if many abandoned houses would be used, but that is not the case yet. That is the reason why we conduct an annual abandoned houses survey every year. And We edited as pointed out for overall consistency “abandoned” instead of “vacant”.

=> And we also fixed the resolution of the whole pictures.

Line 29-33: Please add a citation.

=> After adding citations [2], [3], [4], [5], the bibliography has been corrected.

Line 113: (Figure 1) I suggest using “Step 1,2,3,4” instead of “Method 1,2,3,4” in Figure 1.

=> (line 115) Edited as advised

In Method 2: “Determining vacant house in the variable boundary area” sounds confusing.

=> (line 113)Method 2 Determining abandoned house in the variable boundary area part has been clearly modified with variable boundary abandoned houses presence, and the distance from variable to abandoned houses.

In Method 3: Admin. Boundary, Dist. Between rivers and vacant houses, river boundaries, dist. Between wastewater discharge and establishments are highlighted. Are they new variables you examined in your study? Then, please add a note.

=>(line 113)highlighted variables are new variables of topographical and environmental characteristics that we want to see in this study. we made a note on the side“newly checked variables”

Line 247:

You talk about policy in line 247, but I cannot find any policy statements in the literature review. You can add some policies or policy-related articles in lit review or remove “policy” in the sentence.

=> we added it as you advised

(line 251-255) The korean government recognizes the seriousness of the abandoned house problem and is working to improve government-level abandoned house management policies and systems. In 2017, “Act on special cases concerning unoccupied house or small-scale housing improvement“ was enacted, and each government enacted ordinances related to abandoned house.

Line 247-258: (About research gap) You wrote a long literature review from line 117 to line 246, reviewing factors of housing abandonment. From my understanding, your study identifies new variables such as “Admin. Boundary,” “Dist. between rivers and vacant houses,” “river boundaries,” “dist. between wastewater discharge and establishments” as environmental and geographical characteristics. Is it right? If yes, it could also be a limitation, examined within your site-specific context.

=> (line 546-560) Thanks for the good point. we will reflect the limitations of the study and follow-up studies.

Line 280: (Figure 4)Please add an explanation about Figure 4.

=>As you pointed out, I added additional explanation.

(line 289-291) Figure 4 shows how densely abandoned houses are in the area. In 2016, the degree of density was not serious, but it was found that the degree of density increased as time went on.

Line 309: (Figure 6)What does hexagonal shape mean? Is it an analysis method?

Also, please add legend explaining hexagons, gray dots, red dots, purple dots, lines, etc.

=> (line 314) we added legend as pointed out.

The meaning of the hexagon represents the administrative division boundary.

Line 302:

What does “river boundaries” mean? Do you mean watershed?

=> for the river boundary, continuous numerical topographic map and river boundary data provided by National Geographic Information Service of the Republic of Korea were used. This data consists of stream centerline, actual width stream, and stream boundary. in case of river centerline is line data, and river boundary is plane data. Therefore, the river boundary is includes both river centerline and the actual width stream.

Line 317-318:I wonder why you use Perry’s Neighborhood Unit since the radius is 400m (1/4 mile radius). If you want to apply his Unit, your neighborhood depth should be 800m. If you reviewed an article using a 400m neighborhood, please cite the article instead of Perry’s Unit.

=>As you pointed out, I added additional explanation.

(line 325-339) Neighborhood environment is a major factor influencing housing. Pedestrian and area scale can be define within 400m from the residence suggested by Perry’s Neighborhood Theory and New Urbanism Planning Technique. The detailed physical area that defined the neighborhood range is different for each researcher. The research defined according to the researcher’s operational definition method is as follows. Appropriate distance for commuting to educational facilities and physical range forming a local community, Kim et al.[30], 800 to 1,200m was suggested. Meanwhile, In the study of Barton [31], Boarnet [32], and Cervero & Duncan [33], the range of 400-800 m is generally defined as a reference walking distance in a residential area. In particular, the study of Kim & Anh [34] suggested that it is necessary to establish a spatial plan focusing on the physical environmental characteristics of the pedestrian area within 400m in order to improve the satisfaction of the residential environment. In this study, the physical environment characteristics of the neighborhood were measured by limiting the minimum distance unit to 400m among the diversity of these limiting distances, and this was reflected in the empirical analysis.

Line 320-325: Please add a citation and an explanation why the National Survey on Environmental Impact used 4km for the vicinity of unpleasant facilities. It would help audience understand why your study employs 4km radius.

=>As you pointed out, I added additional explanation.

(line 341-354) Prior to measuring the distance, the results of the review of previous studies to establish the radius of the sphere of influence around the wastewater discharge plant are as follows. According to the results of the detailed environmental measurement report of the Yeongpoong Seokpo smelter conducted by the Daegu Regional Environment Agency, a national environmental impact investigation agency, a survey was conducted in an area within a 2km radius of the surrounding area in 2014 and 2015[35]. However, since it was difficult to obtain relevant data, the survey was conducted on farmland and schools within a radius of 4 km from 2016. Kim[35], Park et al.[37] soil contamination was analyzed by setting a radius of 4km to find out the cause of damage to the forest. In this way, not only the Ministry of Environment, but also several researchers conducted research on environmental pollution issues, and it can be seen that most of the pollution levels were measured based on the 4km radius of the environmental pollution target site. In this study, based on previous studies, the radius was set as within 4 km.

Line 406-410: Please interpret what the hot and cold spots stand for in your housing abandonment context.

=>As you pointed out, I added additional explanation.

(Line 445-458) These areas are rural areas with a small population, and the elderly tend to live there. It was found that rural areas with many occurrences of abandoned houses had a high impact on the occurrence of abandoned houses in each neighboring area. The identified cold spots were mainly clustered in urban areas such as Geoje, Gimhae, Sacheon, Jinju, Changwon, and Tongyeong. It is a type of cluster in which the number of abandoned houses is small, and at the same time, the number of abandoned houses is also small in adjacent areas. The results of this analysis show that the distribution of abandoned houses is spatially concentrated and has spatial autocorrelation as in previous studies.

Line 412: (Figure 8) In legend, please use “abandoned” instead of “vacant” to keep consistency. The text size on the Figure 8 is too big. Please modify text size.

=>(line 458) Edited as advised

Line 413: (Figure 8) In title, what is “ma” in title? It seems misspelling. “map”?

=>(line 458) Edited as advised

Line 487: “local governments need to not only decide the order of priority for maintaining abandoned houses based on wide and diverse perspectives, but also establish detailed policies and strategic plans.” Please add an explanation if local governments have policies to prioritize maintaining abandoned houses. Need to add a citation.

=>(line 523-529 ) we added it as you advised.

A number of studies have confirmed the following as a way to support the activation of abandoned houses. First, field-based survey and information sharing system establishment; second, establishment of abandoned house maintenance plan and provision of support system; third, the promotion and spread of abandoned house maintenance-related pilot projects; fourth, policies related to laws and systmes are confirmed, such as establishing a system foundation for abandoned houses. [23,37,38].

(Line 493-495):As explained in line 77-86, you selected detached abandoned houses for your study. However, ironically, you stated it as a limitation. Why did you choose detached houses as your study samples? What kind of housing type can be studied further in the future studies?

In addition, limitations and future studies are too short. You could add more.

=>As you pointed out, I added additional explanation.

(line 534-548) Apartments often experience temporary vacancies due to unsold housing, so when the economy recovers, vacant houses tend to be resolved naturally. Unlike apartments, detached houses are mostly abandoned houses, so once they become vacant, they are often left as abandoned houses until they are demolished. The vacant houses left in this way adversely affect the surrounding area such as accidents and crimes, so they are left as a problem to be solved at the local government level, even though they are private property. In future research, in order to look at the housing market as a whole, it is necessary to expand the study to not only single-family houses but also apartments and other houses. It is necessary to verify the need to solve the problem of vacant houses differentiated by housing type by deriving factors for the occurrence of vacant houses for various housing types. These results are judged to be helpful in establishing a comprehensive housing policy in relation to the vacant house problem.

Thanks for the good comments. I’ve edited all of your comments with red letters.

As your comments, the discussion section has been revised as a whole. 

in particular, the added parts are marked in red. 

- line 496-501

-line 523-529

- line 535-547