The Influence of Street Morphology on Thermal Environment Based on ENVI-met Simulation: A Case Study of Hangzhou Core Area, China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I have read the manuscript titled "Study on the influence of urban street layout on thermal environment" submitted to International Journal of Geo-Information. This paper has some research significance and the workload is large. But I recommend Accept this manuscript after minor revision. Here I have four comments on how to make manuscript better:
1. Please explain what's innovative about this paper compared with the others?
2. For the tittle part, please add the research area to the title for more pertinence.
3. For the figures part, please layout them more clear with high resolution.
4. For the discussion part, please add more results from others and compared with yours.
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
Thanks for your comments and evaluations. We have carefully improved our manuscript based on all the given constructive suggestions both in format and in content. Following are the specific modifications in response to each comments and suggestions from the reviewers.
Point 1: Please explain what's innovative about this paper compared with the others?
Response 1: Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have supplemented in the Conclusions part: On the one hand, a new idea of dividing streets according to land use function and road grade is put forward to avoid the confusion of all streets, which leads to the inability to implement the research results and provides reference for the related research of street form. On the other hand, the numerical simulation method is used to construct the research system of ' bare building model ', and the influence of the single factor of street form on the thermal environment is studied, which provides a theoretical framework for future street form research.
Point 2: For the tittle part, please add the research area to the title for more pertinence.
Response 2: Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have adjusted the title to:The influence of street morphology on thermal environment based on Envi-met simulation : A case study of Hangzhou core area, China
Point 3: For the figures part, please layout them more clear with high resolution.
Response 3: Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have adjusted all figures to higher resolution. All the original high-definition images have been sent to the editorial department by e-mail.
Point 4: For the discussion part, please add more results from others and compared with yours.
Response 4: Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have supplemented the corresponding content in the discussion section. As the discussion part of this study, this paper focuses on the results of the research and the problems found in the actual investigation, and puts forward targeted street form planning suggestions for four types of urban streets, so as to provide scientific basis for the effective mitigation of the thermal environment of various types of streets in the future.
In addition, in the process of revising the manuscript, we highlight the revised parts in blue font, making it easier for the editor-in-chief and reviewers to clearly understand the revised manuscript.
Thank the reviewers again for their useful opinions in this process.
Best wishes.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper is on an important topic, and could potentially make a valuable contribution to the literature. However, its results are quite narrow, and also quite hard to understand as actionable conclusions. I miss a clear research questions (e.g. "What findings can indicate actions to improve thermal comfort in cities, and can these include changes to building and street orientations?") I recommend that the paper be re-structured to more clearly state this or other similar research question, then more clearly present the findings, conclusions, and next steps for research.
There are also a number of statements made without explanation, definition or evidence. For example, the phrase "building wiring rate" is not explained. What is meant here by "wiring?" Streets are also described in the abstract as " the most important public space in the city" but this is not substantiated clearly in the paper. (I agree with this claim, but it needs substantiation, e.g. Mehta, V. (2013). The street: a quintessential social public space. London: Routledge, or UN-Habitat (2013), Streets as Public Spaces and Drivers of Urban Prosperity. Nairobi: United Nations.
There are also a number of non-standard conventions, e.g. names in references in all capitals.
The paper focuses on street orientation as a key parameter, but only briefly mentions other important factors such as urban greening. This is not only a strategy for lowering actual temperatures in heat events, but for providing greater subjective comfort. See e.g. the work of Steemers and colleagues, e.g. Nikolopoulou, M., & Steemers, K. (2003). Thermal comfort and psychological adaptation as a guide for designing urban spaces. Energy and buildings, 35(1), 95-101.
The English grammar and diction are also awkward, and they make it hard to follow the evidence presented.
I think the paper needs significant work to be clear enough to make a substantial contribution to the literature. It is certainly covering an important topic, but the results mush be clearer and more persuasive. I hope these comments are helpful.
As noted, the English grammar and diction are also awkward, and it is therefore hard to follow the evidence presented.
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
Thanks for your comments and evaluations. We have carefully improved our manuscript based on all the given constructive suggestions both in format and in content. Following are the specific modifications in response to each comments and suggestions from the reviewers.
Point 1:This paper is on an important topic, and could potentially make a valuable contribution to the literature. However, its results are quite narrow, and also quite hard to understand as actionable conclusions. I miss a clear research questions (e.g. "What findings can indicate actions to improve thermal comfort in cities, and can these include changes to building and street orientations?")
Response 1 : Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have obtained the following three parts of the results through the adjustment and collation of the research results. The first part of the results is based on network big data and field research, and calculates the range of morphological characteristics of the four types of streets in the study area. The second part of the results is to use ENVI-met thermal environment numerical simulation technology to simulate the thermal environment, and use multiple linear regression models to explore the internal relationship between various street-level thermal environments and their layout factors. The third part is based on the research results, and puts forward the planning and construction strategies of various streets in the future. Among them, the direction of the street will not be planned to implement changes, and explore the optimal street form of each type of street under different street orientations. For example, it is concluded that the thermal environment of ecological north-south streets is only significantly negatively correlated with the near-line rate and the optimal form is t = 0.5, while the thermal environment of ecological east-west streets is only significantly negatively correlated with the aspect ratio of streets and the optimal form is H / W = 0.3-0.4. According to the corresponding results, targeted planning strategies are proposed for the two streets of the future ecological category.
Point 2:There are also a number of statements made without explanation, definition or evidence. For example, the phrase "building wiring rate" is not explained. What is meant here by "wiring?" Streets are also described in the abstract as " the most important public space in the city" but this is not substantiated clearly in the paper.
Response 2 : Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have explained the concept of street orientation, street aspect ratio and near-line rate in detail in Section 3.3.1, and explained in detail the principle of their influence on the thermal environment of the street. For example, near-line rate is the ratio of the length of the street building to the length of the road red line. Near-line rate reflects indica-tors such as the distance buildings along the street and the density building. It is also an important parameter of the street layout. Different near-line rates affect the thermal environment of the street by changing the solar radiation and wind environment in the street. The specific impact has been described in detail in the article. In addition, I have accepted your suggestion and quoted Mehta, V. (2013). The street: a quintessential social public space. London: Routledge, and UN-Habitat (2013), Streets as Public Spaces and Drivers of Urban Prosperity. Nairobi: United Nations. to confirm the urban street as a typical social public space and the driving force of urban prosperity.
Point 3 : There are also a number of non-standard conventions, e.g. names in references in all capitals.
Response 3 : Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have corrected format errors in references, including errors in names, spaces, and punctuation.
回应3：感谢审稿人的建议。我们更正了引用中的格式错误，包括名称、空格和标点符号中的错误。
Point 4 :The paper focuses on street orientation as a key parameter, but only briefly mentions other important factors such as urban greening. This is not only a strategy for lowering actual temperatures in heat events, but for providing greater subjective comfort. See e.g. the work of Steemers and colleagues, e.g. Nikolopoulou, M., & Steemers, K. (2003). Thermal comfort and psychological adaptation as a guide for designing urban spaces. Energy and buildings, 35(1), 95-101.
Response 4 : Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have carefully studied the literature you recommended. We have admitted that subjective psychological comfort does play a guiding role in urban space design, and we will focus on this aspect in future research. At present, this paper takes objective factors as the research object. In previous studies, the research of urban thermal environment mainly uses field measurement method and remote sensing inversion method, but these two methods cannot avoid the complexity of objective factors. However, the biggest advantage of the numerical simulation technology used in this paper is that it can establish an ideal model to control the thermal environment of single factor variables, which is an innovation that cannot be achieved by field measurement method and remote sensing inversion method. Therefore, this paper focuses on the use of ENVI-met simulation software to establish a ' bare building simulation ' to explore the impact of a single factor of street form on its thermal environment. Although a large number of scholars have confirmed that there is a significant impact, this paper proposes the idea of classifying streets first and then studying them, so as to avoid mixing all types of streets together, so as to make the research results more targeted and scientific.
Point 5:The English grammar and diction are also awkward, and they make it hard to follow the evidence presented.
Response 5: Thanks for reviewer’s suggestions. For better reading and understanding, we invited a professional editor to edit the language of our manuscript. Based on the editor's suggestions, we carefully revised the language of our manuscript. Numerous revisions have been made to correct errors in grammar (including the use of articles such as a/an/the, noun plurality, article-noun agreement, verb tense, and noun-verb agreement), and errors in punctuation and spacing.
In addition, in the process of revising the manuscript, we highlight the revised parts in blue font, making it easier for the editor-in-chief and reviewers to clearly understand the revised manuscript.
Thank the reviewers again for their useful opinions in this process.
Best wishes.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Please see attachment for my comments, plus the following suggestions:
1. Please provide a rationale for the selection of only two parameters (H/W and t) to represent the layout in the study.
2. Please rewrite the original Conclusions section that are not merely a repetition of the results but are derived from them.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
It is advisable to consult a native English speaker to refine sentences that appear too short and resemble spoken language.
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
Thanks for your comments and evaluations. We have carefully improved our manuscript based on all the given constructive suggestions both in format and in content. Following are the specific modifications in response to each comments and suggestions from the reviewers.
Point 1:Please provide a rationale for the selection of only two parameters (H/W and t) to represent the layout in the study.
Response 1: Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have explained the concept of street orientation, street aspect ratio and near-line rate in detail in Section 3.3.1, and explained in detail the principle of their influence on the thermal environment of the street. For example, near-line rate is the ratio of the length of the street building to the length of the road red line. Near-line rate reflects indica-tors such as the distance buildings along the street and the density building. It is also an important parameter of the street layout. Different near-line rates affect the thermal environment of the street by changing the solar radiation and wind environment in the street. The specific impact has been described in detail in the article.
Point 2: Please rewrite the original Conclusions section that are not merely a repetition of the results but are derived from them.
Response 2: Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. We have rewritten the conclusion part, summed up the original cumbersome conclusions, draw innovative conclusions. This paper has drawn three conclusions. The first part of the conclusion is that there are obvious differences in the street form of different types of streets. The second part of the conclusion is that the daily variation trend of thermal comfort PMV in different types of streets is similar. However, the diurnal variation of thermal comfort PMV in north-south streets is greater than that in east-west streets. The third part of the conclusion is that there are different internal relations between the morphology of different types of streets and thermal comfort PMV. Accordingly, targeted planning strategies are proposed for various types of streets to achieve effective mitigation of street thermal environment.
At the same time, this study has constructed the research idea of ' street type division-multi-source data acquisition form-bare building model establishment-correlation analysis of street shape and thermal environment ', which provides a reference research framework for the study of the impact of street shape on thermal environment. On the one hand, a new idea of dividing streets according to land use function and road grade has been put forward to avoid confusion of all streets, which makes the research results impossible to implement and provides reference for the related research of street morphology. On the other hand, the numerical simulation method has been used to construct the research system of ' exposed building model ' to study the influence of single factor of street form on thermal environment, which provides a theoretical framework for future street form research.
Point 3:It is advisable to consult a native English speaker to refine sentences that appear too short and resemble spoken language.
Response 3: Thanks for reviewer’s suggestion. In order to better read and understand, we invited professional editors to edit the language of our manuscripts. According to the editor 's suggestion, we carefully modified the language of the manuscript. Many revisions have been made to correct too short or colloquial sentences as well as punctuation and spacing errors.
In addition, in the process of revising the manuscript, we highlight the revised parts in blue font, making it easier for the editor-in-chief and reviewers to clearly understand the revised manuscript.
Thank the reviewers again for their useful opinions in this process.
Best wishes.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper is greatly improved, and nearly ready for publication. Most of my previously noted concerns have been adequately addressed. There are a few places where English diction and/or coherence still needs revision, however. For example, in the first page, lines 34-35, this sentence is a fragment: "Moreover, streets as Public Spaces and Drivers of Urban Prosperity [3]." This is the title of a report, not a coherent sentence. A more appropriate sentence might be, "Moreover, as a UN-Habitat report notes, streets are public spaces in their own right, and important drivers of urban prosperity [3]." Then the citation needs to be corrected (it is an auto-generated version by Google Scholar, and it is garbled). It should be "UN-Habitat. Streets as public spaces and drivers of urban prosperity. 2013. Accessed at http://www.urban-pathways.org/uploads/4/8/9/5/48950199/streets_as_public_spaces_and_drivers_of_urban_prosperity_small.pdf#page=123"
The authors and editors should review the paper for other instances where the English needs to be clarified, and/or citations need to be corrected. With these changes, the paper should make a useful contribution to the literature.
See the comments above.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thanks for your comments and evaluations. We have carefully improved our manuscript based on all the given constructive suggestions both in format and in content. Following are the specific modifications in response to each comments and suggestions from the reviewers.
Point: The paper is greatly improved, and nearly ready for publication. Most of my previously noted concerns have been adequately addressed. There are a few places where English diction and/or coherence still needs revision, however. The authors and editors should review the paper for other instances where the English needs to be clarified, and/or citations need to be corrected. With these changes, the paper should make a useful contribution to the literature.
Response : Thanks for the reviewer 's suggestion. On the one hand, we invited professional editors to edit the language of the manuscript. According to the suggestions of the editor, the incoherent sentences and words in the text have been modified. For example, lines 33-35 on page 1 have been revised to read "Moreover, as a UN-Habitat report notes, streets are public spaces in their own right, and important drivers of urban prosperity." In addition, we also amended lines 245-249 on page 8, 474-479 on page 18, 552-579 on page 21, and 594-600 on page 22. On the other hand, we also corrected the non-standard citations in the text, including citations 2, 3, 6, 10, 14, 28, 53 and 60.
In addition, in the process of revising the manuscript, we highlight the revised parts in blue font, making it easier for the editor-in-chief and reviewers to clearly understand the revised manuscript.
Thank the reviewers again for their useful opinions in this process.
Best wishes.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
