Development of Methodology and Assessment of Ecological Safety of the EAEU and CIS Regions in the Context of Sustainable Development

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank You for invitation to review this paper. It is interesting study however has some imperfections:

I am afraid the paper fits more some journal on sustainability then economies.

The topic should be more scientific showing some relation, now it is presenting descriptive character of the study.

Abstract is too long – focus on the study novelty, aim, methodology and study results

Introduction should present study motivation and study aim/s. Now I cannot find it clear.

Literature review should provide various sources and base on this background Authors should provide hypothesis or scientific questions. Moreover the literature review should be developed please consider also following sources:

Bilan, Y., Hussain, H.I., Haseeb, M., Kot, S. Sustainability and economic performance: role of organizational learning and innovation. (2020) Engineering Economics, 31 (1), pp. 93-103.

Haseeb, M., Kot, S., Hussain, H.I., Jermsittiparsert, K.Impact of economic growth, environmental pollution, and energy consumption on health expenditure and R&D expenditure of ASEAN countries. (2019) Energies, 12 (19), art. no. 3598, .

Duľová Spišáková, E., Gontkovičová, B., Majerníková, J., Spišák, E., Pacana, A. Management of research and development activities in the context of strategy Europe 2020 (2019) Polish Journal of Management Studies, 19 (2), pp. 112-123.

Shpak, N., Dvulit, Z., Maznyk, L., Mykytiuk, O., Sroka, W. Validation of ecologists in enterprise mamnagement system: A case study analysis. (2019) Polish Journal of Management Studies, 19 (1), pp. 376-390.

Urbański, M., Ul Haque, A. Are you environmentally conscious enough to differentiate between greenwashed and sustainable items? A global consumers perspective. (2020) Sustainability (Switzerland), 12 (5), art. no. 1786, pp. 1-25.

Results discussion should be more related to the previous studies comparison

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for consideration of our manuscript. Below we present the answers to your comments. The manuscript text was modified (marked in yellow).  

We changed the paper title to “Development of methodology and assessment of ecological safety of the EAEU and CIS regions in the context of sustainable development”.

We made the abstract shorter. Now it contains the purpose of the study, methodology and results. It is focused on the novelty of the work.

We added the work motivation to the introduction. It consists in the ambiguity of the results of empirical research on sustainable development. Results vary widely across countries and across sustainability scores. This prompted us to study this issue. So, this work aims to develop a methodology and measure environmental safety at aggregated system levels, taking into account natural, social, economic factors with the definition of the place of environmental safety in the concept of sustainable development.

We improved the literature review, and included the recommended references. In addition, 15 more sources were considered.

 

We considered the studies on environmental safety and sustainable development in Europe and Asia. The results do not show an unambiguous relationship between progress in social and economic goals of sustainable development and the level of environmental safety. A study carried out on the territory of the EAEU and the CIS showed a direct relationship between the improvement of the socio-economic situation of the territories and ecological safety and human potential.

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a good empirical paper based on ecological safety issues of the regions of EAEU, CIS, and Russia as a component of sustainable development. The article is interesting and brings some new aspects on ecological safety of the studied regions. However, there are several major aspects which should be revised:

1) Abstract has to be restructured as follows: needs to present what the paper is about; what brings new to the current theories; the method of the paper; the findings.

2) The introduction needs to position this study in the current worldwide literature on ecological safety and sustainable development. It also has to better shape the aims of the study and inform the readers what this paper brings new in the existing literature;

3) The paper needs to have a better literature review section in which authors have to briefly mention what we already know in the existing literature, but not only on ecological safety but also on sustainable development (because this is the title of the paper and in the aims of the study). There are only about 40 references cited in this paper, so authors have to enlarge the references in this paper by mentioning many other studies that dealt with ecological safety and sustainable development in countries of Europe, Asia and other continents and to insist more on what happens in the post-Soviet spaces.

3) Method section has to be a bit clarified and inform the readers from the very beginning what the method is about. Authors can say that they used a mixed methods approach grouped around four concepts.

4) Results are the strong point of the paper, but the discussion section of the paper has no authors cited. It is mandatory the findings of this paper to be linked to the literature review of the paper

5) Conclusions should be a bit expanded by saying what other authors can do to develop further the outcomes of this paper. Also, limitation of this study could be briefly mentioned in the conclusions.

Finally, I have some doubts on the correct form of the title of the paper. Isn’t Russia economically part of CIS? Then why to say CIS and Russia in the title. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for consideration of our manuscript. Below we present the answers to your comments. The manuscript text was modified (marked in yellow). 

1) We made the abstract shorter. Now it contains the purpose of the study, methodology and results. It is focused on the novelty of the work.

2) We added analysis of modern literature on environmental safety and sustainable development to the introduction. Empirical research results vary widely across countries and across sustainability scores. Moreover, the attention of researchers is unevenly distributed between different territories. For example, the territory of the EAEU and the CIS is poorly studied in terms of environmental safety and sustainable development. This prompted us to study this issue. The purpose of the work is to develop a methodology and assess ecological safety at aggregated system levels. The methodology takes into account natural, social, and economical factors, and defines the place of environmental safety in the concept of sustainable development. The object of the study is the EAEU and CIS countries for the period 2010-2019, and the regions of Russia.

3) We improved our literature review and considered the existing studies on ecological safety and sustainable development in Europe and Asia. We added 20 new items to the reference section.

4) We clarified the applied methods. The system of indicators for assessing the ecological safety of regions is formed using a mixed approach, grouped around the four concepts considered in the article (technogenic, environmental, resource and institutional). The integral indicator of the ecological safety of the territory is formed from three blocks of indicators: socio-economic, ecological and human potential.

5) We discuss the existing studies on ecological safety and sustainable development in Europe and Asia. They do not show an unambiguous relationship between progress in social and economic goals of sustainable development and the level of ecological safety. The study carried out on the territory of the EAEU and the CIS showed a direct relationship between the improvement of the socio-economic situation of the territories and ecological safety and human potential.

6) One of the limitations of the study is the insufficient level of organization of continuous static observation in several countries with a low level of socio-economic development. Further research can be aimed at assessing the optimal amount of costs and investments in environmental protection measures, which will contribute to the growth of ecological safety without hindering the sustainable economic development of the territory.

7) We changed the title to "Development of methodology and assessment of ecological safety of the EAEU and CIS regions in the context of sustainable development".

Reviewer 3 Report

- In the abstract it must contain in a clear and concise way: objective, methodology and data, main conclusions, implications and limitations of the study and novelty / added value. the purpose of the study, for example, is only clear in the results discussion section;
- The literature review has to be deeply investigated, showing the conclusions of the reviewed empirical studies;
- In the methodology, data are not presented or the methodology is presented in detail;
- It does not make sense in the discussion of the results to be in the section "
Ecological safety of enterprises as a factor of regional environmental sustainability ".
- The results are not clearly presented or supported by the literature review.
- References must be formatted according to the journal's rules.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for consideration of our manuscript. Below we present the answers to your comments. The manuscript text was modified (marked in yellow).

- We made the abstract shorter. Now it contains the purpose of the study, methodology and results. It is focused on the novelty of the work.

- We improved our literature review and added 20 new items to the reference section. Empirical research results vary widely across countries and across sustainability scores. Results vary widely across countries and sustainability scores. In most countries, the ecological part of sustainable development is most successful, however, not in Asian countries such as India and China;

- The initial statistical data is too large, it comprises 19 pages, so they were not included in the article.

- The subsection "Ecological safety of enterprises as a factor of regional environmental sustainability" was moved to section "2. Approaches to the study of ecological safety of regions”.

- We discuss the existing studies on ecological safety and sustainable development in Europe and Asia. They do not show an unambiguous relationship between progress in social and economic goals of sustainable development and the level of ecological safety. The study carried out on the territory of the EAEU and the CIS showed a direct relationship between the improvement of the socio-economic situation of the territories and ecological safety and human potential.

Reviewer 4 Report

Dear authors,

I can note that it was the hard work with statistical data. However, there are some points for improvement:

1. There is no identification of the type of this manuscript. 
2. You should thoroutholly read the guidelines for authors. The manuscript contains many divergences. For instance, the abstract is too long.
3. Introduction is a quite big review of the problem, but there is no certain identification of the problem and what this paper exactly does for solving it.
4. The methodology shows no precise reasons why these indicators (Appendix B, C) have been used. Moreover, this is the most important aspect of the article and its novelty and I do not understand why you have put it in Appendix. Justification is indicated in general words, which is not entirely correct.
5. Results: there is no initial statistical data, even in the appendices. How can I verify your results?
6. Discussion: There must be the explanation of the obtained results and its comparison with similar studies being made by other authors.
7. No limitations have been identified? I recommend to add this information because the methodology is quite vague. 
8. It seems that it is more the case study for Russia. It is better to think about changing the title of the article. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for consideration of our manuscript. Below we present the answers to your comments. The manuscript text was modified (marked in yellow).

- We made the abstract shorter. Now it contains the purpose of the study, methodology and results. It is focused on the novelty of the work.

- We added the work motivation to the introduction. It consists in the ambiguity of the results of empirical research on sustainable development. Results vary widely across countries and sustainability scores. This prompted us to study this issue. So, this work aims to develop a methodology and measure environmental safety at aggregated system levels, taking into account natural, social, economic factors with the definition of the place of environmental safety in the concept of sustainable development. The objects of the study were the EAEU and the CIS countries for the period 2010-2019, that were poorly studied in this aspect, and the regions of Russia.

 

- We believe that the use of the presented indicators most successfully contributes to the achievement of the goal of the empirical part of the study, i.e. assessing the ecological safety at aggregated system levels, taking into account natural, social, and economic factors. The descriptions of indicators from Appendices B and C were moved to section 3. Methodology.

- - The initial statistical data is too large, it comprises 19 pages, so they were not included in the article.

- We discuss the existing studies on ecological safety and sustainable development in Europe and Asia. They do not show an unambiguous relationship between progress in social and economic goals of sustainable development and the level of ecological safety. The study carried out on the territory of the EAEU and the CIS showed a direct relationship between the improvement of the socio-economic situation of the territories and ecological safety and human potential.

- One of the limitations of the study is the insufficient level of organization of continuous static observation in several countries with a low level of socio-economic development. Further research can be aimed at assessing the optimal amount of costs and investments in environmental protection measures, which will contribute to the growth of ecological safety without hindering the sustainable economic development of the territory.

- We changed the title to "Development of methodology and assessment of ecological safety of the EAEU and CIS regions in the context of sustainable development".

Reviewer 5 Report

I have reviewed the paper entitled “Ecological safety of the regions of EAEU, CIS, and Russia as a component of sustainable development” which is submitted to Economies for potential publication. The article is according to the scope of the journal and publishable after addressing major revision.

The main concerns are:

The English of article has written poorly. I suggested to improve the English through English proofread services or from a native English speaker.

I suggest that the author re-conceive and write the abstract and the introduction part, because there are problems such as logical confusion and poor language expression.

Equation 2 is not very clear. I suggest to use equation editor in the Microsoft Word.

I strongly suggest to authors to write a situation of South Asia, Asia and East Asia regarding ecological safety and sustainable development in the introduction. This is very important point that authors should not ignore it.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for consideration of our manuscript. Below we present the answers to your comments. The manuscript text was modified (marked in yellow).

- We improved the English language throughout the paper.

- We made the abstract shorter. Now it contains the purpose of the study, methodology, and results. It is focused on the novelty of the work. We also revised the introduction, added an overview of the empirical work, motivation, and work purpose.

 

 - Your comment on equation 2 was taken into account. The formula was edited using the Microsoft Word formula editor.

- We discuss the existing studies on ecological safety and sustainable development in Europe and Asia in the introduction. They do not show an unambiguous relationship between progress in social and economic goals of sustainable development and the level of ecological safety. The study carried out on the territory of the EAEU and the CIS showed a direct relationship between the improvement of the socio-economic situation of the territories and ecological safety and human potential.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

After attentively reading twice the revised version of this paper I can say the paper is now much improved. In this respect, I would like to accept this paper for publication.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you!

 

All the best,
authors

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors promoted the requested changes.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you!

All the best,
authors.

Reviewer 4 Report

Dear authors, the work looks better, you have done a good job. However, I think that from the phrase "We believe that the use of the presented indicators most successfully contributes to the achievement of the goal of the empirical part of the study..." we belive  - it isn't a scientific reason for using exactly these indicators. And the second one: "The initial statistical data is too large"... it is also not the reason for hiding it. Most research includes the data in appendix.

Best regards,

the reviewer

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you again for consideration of our manuscript. Below we present the answers to your comments. The manuscript text was modified (marked in yellow). 

- The indicators described in the work are used based on their compliance with the aim of the study, i.e. to measure the ecological safety at aggregated system levels, taking into account natural, socio-economic factors and the factor of human capital development. Natural factors are determined by a set of indicators of anthropogenic impact on the environment. Socio-economic factors are determined by a block of indicators characterizing socio-economic development. Human capital development factors are taken into account by a block of indicators characterizing the level of human development.

- To increase the level of transparency of the data used, we added references for all the information resources used with corresponding web pages.

All the best,
authors.

Reviewer 5 Report

The authors have addressed all the comments and now paper is publishable in its present form.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you!

All the best,
authors.