Pandemic-Resilient Urban Centers: A New Way of Thinking for Industrial-Oriented Urbanization in Ethiopia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to read this manuscript titled " Pandemic Resilient Urban Centers: A New way of Thinking for Industrial Oriented Urbanization in Ethiopia". The topic of this manuscript is interesting and would be a good contribution to this field. I think it could be considered for publication in Urban Science once the following issues are addressed.

First, replace the keywords that already appear in the manuscript's title with close synonyms or other keywords, which will facilitate your paper to be searched by potential readers. Some of the keywords, like “pandemic”, “resilience”, “urbanization” are generalized statements, and they do not accurately refer to the core content of this article.

Second, I think this article is more like a review article than a research article, as the methods section of this article looks very weak in its current state.

Third, the quality of the diagrams of the current article is not very good, I suggest the author to improve them.

Four, please use a consistent approach to cite references.

Five, the manuscript's language is partly difficult to follow, and some grammatical errors exist in the manuscript. Therefore, a critical review of the manuscript language will improve readability.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, 

Thank you very much for your constructive comments and inputs for the betterment of our research work. Accordingly, we edited the document and made some changes in part 3 and part 4 to avoid duplication of concepts. Please find the attached file .   

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

First of all, I would like to thank you for this nice work and interesting research topic. Some proposals for the improvement of your manuscript:

• It is suggested to include your keywords in alphabetic order.
• It is also recommended to include a table of nomenclature with all the abbreviations mentioned in your manuscript.
• Line 19: what do you mean as 'contemporary' planning methods?
• In your abstract, I would propose to restructure the phrase 'Therefore, this 25 article recommends planners should become proactive and work in collaboration with different stakeholders for the creation of resilient and livable industrial parks oriented urban centers': this statement is quite obvious and does not really explain an originality of your contribution. Please be more specific on your research question.
• Line 31: effects and not effect. We had many consequences in different aspect of our lives due to pandemics.
• Line 41: please avoid the repetition of the word 'losses'
• Line 43: please add a comma before 'which'
• Line 44: you can avoid repeating 'COVID-19' and connect the phrases
• Lines 49-51: this phrase is too general and quite obvious as a statement; it is suggested to be removed.
• Lines 52-57: what is the connection to the previous statements? please introduce intermediate phrases to link them.
• Line 66: 'industrial leads' and not 'lead': grammatical error
• Line 66: 'what kinds of measures' and not 'measure': obviously we will have more than one.
• Line 74: please add a full stop before 'from'
• Lines 74-75: you are referring to statistics without mentioning neither the date of being retrieved neither the source. Please be more specific.
• Line 89: please remove a gap before 'The' paper ... (formatting)
• Line 105: please keep the same style for all your references as it is suggested to the authors' guide and template provided by the journal.
• Line 107: please avoid repetitions and do not mention twice the word 'definition'; instead you can simply say 'based on this...'
• Line 109: please add the comma before 'which' and not after
• Line 118: please remove gap between 'century' and 'ecological' (there is an extra)
• It is very important to cross-refer to your manuscript all the material provided (tables, graphs, figures, etc.). For tables, and relevant, please follow the journal's template accordingly. It is also important to mention and focus on the context of the 'urban resilience' and how this can be connected to the pandemics; for the moment it is not very clear to your manuscript.
• Line 143: please remove a gap between 'earth' and 'throughout'
• Table 2 is good but it is not cross-referred properly neither well analyzed as outcomes. What is the real objective of having it? What does it show and what is the finding to extrapolate for this work?
• Line 156: you mention to 'historians' without giving specific examples and/or relevant citations; please specify.
• Line 168: please be sure that you use the same reference style for the whole document and in accordance to the journal's template and guide.
• Line 183: same comment as previously in regards to the citation.
• All the websites (links) and relevant documents should be well encoded and be provided as citations at the manuscript as well as at your reference list at the end of your manuscript and not be mentioned as a footnote in the middle of your text.
• Line 188: please remove a gap between 'disease' and 'like' (there is an extra).
• It is strongly recommended to include two seperate sections for the results and the discussion so as to be well clarified for your readers especially in regards to your findings.
• Line 231: please add the full stop after the end of your reference '7'
• Lines 235-240: please be more specific when you mention data, when the data is retrieved and from what sources, date, etc. it is a dynamic process so we need to be precise on our arguments.
• Line 254: is this classification your own scientific production or it stems from the work of another researcher? if so, please mention accordingly the citation.
• Please cross-refer Table 3 at your manuscript and follow the journal's template to present it.
• Line 263: 'author' and not 'autor' 
• Line 268: please add a comma after the word 'section'
• Please cross-refer Table 4 and follow the journal's template for its presentation.
• Line 292: the caption concerns the table and not a figure. Please correct it accordingly.
• Please cross-refer Table 5 and follow the journal's template for its presentation.
• Line 314: it concerns 'figure 4' and not '5' as there is the mistake mentioned above.
• Please cross-refer Table 6 and follow the journal's template for its presentation.
• Line 320-321: it concerns 'figure 5' and not '6' as there is the mistake mentioned above.
• Line 322: put the word 'impact' in plural (certainly there are more than one)
• Line 334: please add a comma before 'such'
• Line 338: please remove the full stop and add a comma before 'such'
• Line 389: it concerns 'figure 7' and not '8' as there is the mistake mentioned above.
• Lines 395-410: please check the formatting for these paragraphs.
• Please cross-refer figure '9' and correct it to '8' (see abovementioned reasons).
• The part of the conclusions is quite poor, please enricht it accordingly and add possible perspectives for future further research on the topic.
• The reference list is NOT in line with the journal's template and authors' guidelines. Please correct it accordingly.

Thank you for your consideration.

Good luck with your mansucript.

Best,

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, 

Thank you very much for your constructive comments and inputs. I edited the document as per your comments and I also make some modifications in Part 4 specifically, 4.1 to 4.4 . I also give special emphasis to 'innovative planning measures' and give a dedicated part as Part 5.  Please find the attached file. 

Kind regards, 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

     The article presented for review raises a very interesting issue of the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the development of industrial parks and urban centers in Ethiopia.

     The strengths of the article include the multithreaded description of the phenomenon under study. The authors approached the topic comprehensively. They presented many aspects of the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the development of industrial parks and urban centers in Ethiopia.

     Some shortcomings (elements for discussion) include:
- the placment of “4.1. Definition and Nature of Industrial Parks (IPs) ”and“ 4.2. The Nexus of Urbanization Versus IPs ” in the chapter “ 4. Results and Discussion",
- a bit too low reference level in the "Discussion" to the results of other studies,
- too little attention was paid to the fact that the covid-19 pandemic lasts only 2 years, which could have been significant due to the fact that many of the postulates and procedures postulated in the article have not yet been implemented by planners.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, 

Thank you very much for your time to review our article and forward constructive comments. Accordingly, we reviewed the article and make some modifications on Part 4 and Part 5. Please see the attached file. 

Kind regards, 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to read the revised version of the manuscript titled " Pandemic Resilient Urban Centers: A New way of Thinking for Industrial Oriented Urbanization in Ethiopia", and for the detailed responses to my earlier comments. I am satisfied with this revised version.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your valuable time to review again the manuscript. We are very grateful to have you for your insightful comments, which helped us to enrich our article. 

Kind regards, 

Daniel Tesfaw

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

First of all, I would like to thank you for your consideration to my comments and my suggestions. Many of the detected points are improved, however, you should still give emphasis on the template provided by the journal as well as the a careful reading to the instructions and authors' guide. Many points, such as the reference list or the captions for tables and figures are not in accordance with the instructions for the authors. Another point to be reconsidered is the part of the conclusions, which needs still more explanatory arguments and also the perspectives for future work. 

Thank you for your consideration.

Best,

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your time and dedicated effort to providing that you provide such kinds of valuable comments and suggestions. Accordingly, We reviewed all the manuscript again and made modifications on: grammar, paraphrasing some lines and graphs, a list of references, tables and figures as well as the conclusion parts.  We attached the report for your reference.  

Kind regards,

Daniel T.