Construction of an Ecological Security Pattern and the Evaluation of Corridor Priority Based on ESV and the “Importance–Connectivity” Index: A Case Study of Sichuan Province, China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
It is an honour for me to review the manuscript number “sustainability-1616708 ” titled “Construction of Ecological Security Pattern and Evaluation of Corridor Priority Based on ESV and "Importance-Connectivity" Index: A Case Study of Sichuan Province, China" for the "Sustainability" journal.
In this interesting article, the authors presented used the spatial distribution patterns of ecosystem services to adjust the ecosystem services value, so as to accurately identify the distribution of ecological sources. The authors used the gravity model and Centrality Mapper tool to build "importance-connectivity" index that evaluates the importance of ecological corridors in linking the sources and the contribution to maintaining the overall connectivity of ecological networks. They finally concluded based on their results that the study of ecological security is of great value and significance to promote the construction of ecological civilization and improve related studies.
The paper is really good and very well written, the authors have a mastery of the subject and know very well what they are talking about. However, there are suggestions that I must make concerning this work in order to improve the overall level of this manuscript to merit publication in this journal.
1) Given the presence of a few English mistakes (grammatical, typos and run-on sentence) I will advice the authors to check their manuscript another time and make a revision by native English or even a specialist.
2) There are some sentences to rephrase in order to avoid plagiarim and also run-on sentences:
*...In this context a method that can effectively balance urbanization and ecological conservation is badly needed...
*...which is more prominent in provinces and cities with low financial levels that are facing a fierce conflict between economic development and ecological protection....
*...affected by the source distribution and supply capacity of ESs in the study area, the corridor density is high in the west and low in the east. Specifically, corridors distributed in the middle of the study area have the highest density, short average length and low cumulative resistance,...
*...Water conservation refers to the ecological process in which ecosystems intercept precipitation, store and purify water, and maintain the normal functioning of the ecosystem. It plays a key role in maintaining human survival and development...
*...The balance between economic development and ecological security is dynamic, and excessive pursuit of economic development will cause serious or even irreversible damage to the environment, but blindly pursuing the environment while ignoring economic benefits is not a sustainable way of protection...
3) There are some important missing references that I would like you to cite concerning ESP and various aspects of land use in this manuscript in order to give it greater dimension and diversity:
*Su, X., Shen, Y., Xiao, Y., Liu, Y., Cheng, H., Wan, L., ... & Liu, G. Identifying ecological security patterns based on ecosystem services is a significative practice for sustainable development in Southwest China. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 1020. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.810204
*Kang, J., Zhang, X., Zhu, X., & Zhang, B. (2021). Ecological security pattern: A new idea for balancing regional development and ecological protection. A case study of the Jiaodong Peninsula, China. Global Ecology and Conservation, 26, e01472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01472
*Su, Y., Chen, X., Liao, J., Zhang, H., Wang, C., Ye, Y., & Wang, Y. (2016). Modeling the optimal ecological security pattern for guiding the urban constructed land expansions. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 19, 35-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2016.06.013 * Aouissi, H.A.; PetriÅŸor, A.-I.; Ababsa, M.; BoÅŸtenaru-Dan, M.; Tourki, M.; Bouslama, Z. Influence of Land Use on Avian Diversity in North African Urban Environments. Land 2021, 10, 434. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10040434 *Jin, X., Wei, L., Wang, Y., & Lu, Y. (2021). Construction of ecological security pattern based on the importance of ecosystem service functions and ecological sensitivity assessment: A case study in Fengxian County of Jiangsu Province, China. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 23(1), 563-590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-020-00596-2 *Zhou, D., Lin, Z., Ma, S., Qi, J., & Yan, T. (2021). Assessing an ecological security network for a rapid urbanization region in Eastern China. Land Degradation & Development, 32(8), 2642-2660. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3932 4) Maybe you should consider adding a part in your discussion when you list and detail the limitations of your study.I have also some minor comments:
1) Line 173 : -In the Figure 1: the coordinates (N, E) of the China map in the left of this figure, it's not clear and also the scale , please redrawn the map.
2) Line 179: In the figure 2: change the color of the southwest Sichuan mountainous region that must be different than the region above (see legend it's nearly same color)
3)Equations: - All equations written with a huge size, and maybe it's not suitable for the manuscript. Please try to reduce the size.
4) There is also no number for all equations. The equation must be accompanied by a number and indicated in the manuscript.
5) Line 481: Figure 4: -You must add for all images a letter: a, b, c, d…..to obtain good orientation.
6) The unit for each image. Line 500 to 505: - What’s the reference by which you made this interpretation (add a citation for example).
7) Line 522 to 523 please leave a space.
8) Figure 6,7: -You must identify the others colors for the both figures.
I hope that the authors will not stand up to my many remarks; I wish them good luck for the publication process and for their career.
Author Response
March 22nd, 2022
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you very much for your email and for the reviewers` comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Construction of an Ecological Security Pattern and the Evaluation of Corridor Priority Based on ESV and the "Importance-Connectivity" Index: A Case Study of Sichuan Province, China (sustainability-1616708)”. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our papers, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. After incorporating their comments into the revised manuscript, I would like to re-submit the draft for your consideration for publishing in Sustainability. The amendments are highlighted in red in the revised manuscript, and the responses to the reviewers` comments are attached below.
Comments of Reviewer
- Given the presence of a few English mistakes (grammatical, typos, and run-on sentences) I will advise the authors to check their manuscript another time and make a revision by native English or even a specialist.
Response: Thank you for your comment and suggestion.
We have used mdpi's Language Editing Services to correct the language errors of the article to make the article smoother and more readable.
- There are some sentences to rephrase in order to avoid plagiarism and also run-on sentences：
*...In this context, a method that can effectively balance urbanization and ecological conservation is badly needed...
*...which is more prominent in provinces and cities with low financial levels that are facing a fierce conflict between economic development and ecological protection…
*...affected by the source distribution and supply capacity of ESs in the study area, the corridor density is high in the west and low in the east. Specifically, corridors distributed in the middle of the study area have the highest density, short average length, and low cumulative resistance...
*...Water conservation refers to the ecological process in which ecosystems intercept precipitation, store and purify water, and maintain the normal functioning of the ecosystem. It plays a key role in maintaining human survival and development...
*...The balance between economic development and ecological security is dynamic, and excessive pursuit of economic development will cause serious or even irreversible damage to the environment, but blindly pursuing the environment while ignoring economic benefits is not a sustainable way of protection...
Response:
We have rephrased these sentences to make them more expressive. For changes, please see the article（page 3, line 126-130; page 9, line 312-314; page 16, line 585-588; page 22, line 776-780）.
- There are some important missing references that I would like you to cite concerning ESP and various aspects of land use in this manuscript in order to give it greater dimension and diversity…
Response:
The articles you mentioned give us a deeper understanding of the topic of this article. We have quoted these articles in different parts of the manuscript and explained them in detail in the discussion section to reflect the validity of our research.
In the Introduction part, we have added a citation to the driving factors of land use change and interpreted "ecological security" (page 1-2, line 38, 41-46).
In the Discussion part, we have added some suggestions on policy formulation and the contribution of our research to the existing research based on the relevant literature (page 21, line 732-734; page 21-22, line 765-772; page 22, line785-792). In addition, we have added two chapters, “Limitations of the study” and “Directions for future research”, to compare this paper with the relevant literature to summarize the limitations of this study and things that can be improved (page 22-23, line 796-825).
- Maybe you should consider adding a part in your discussion when you list and detail the limitations of your study.
Response:
We have added a chapter to the discussion section to summarize the limitations of this study compared with related studies. Based on this, we have also described the future research direction in the “Directions for future research” chapter (page 22-23, line 796-825).
- Line 173: In the Figure 1: the coordinates (N, E) of the China map in the left of this figure, it's not clear, and also the scale, please redraw the map.
Response:
We have redrawn Figure 1 to make the picture clearer while keeping the original content unchanged.
- Line 179: In the Figure 2: change the color of the southwest Sichuan mountainous region that must be different than the region above (see legend it's nearly the same color)
Response:
We have redrawn Figure 2 to enhance the color distinction between the Western Sichuan Alpine Canyon Region and the Southwest Sichuan Mountainous Region.
- Equations: All equations are written with a huge size, and maybe it's not suitable for the manuscript. Please try to reduce the size.
Response:
We have reduced the font size of all formulas to make them more readable.
- There is also no number for all equations. The equation must be accompanied by a number and indicated in the manuscript.
Response:
We have numbered all the formulas to make them meet the format requirements of the paper.
- Line 481: Figure 4: You must add for all images a letter: a, b, c, d...to obtain good orientation.
Response:
We have numbered every picture of Figure 4 to make it clearer.
- The unit for each image.
Response:
We have added units to some tables and figures to make them clearer (Table 2; Figure 4; Figure 5).
- Line 500 to 505: What’s the reference by which you made this interpretation (add a citation for example).
Response:
We have added a citation to the relevant content to make the expression more rigorous (page 15, line 562).
- Line 522 to 523: Please leave a space.
Response:
We have left a space between the two paragraphs (page 16, line 580).
- Figure 6, 7: You must identify the others colors for both figures.
Response:
We have added the base images legend of Figure 6 and 7 to enrich the content of the picture and make its expression clearer.
We appreciate your warm work earnestly and hope that the corrections will meet with approval. Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions. I hope that the revision is acceptable. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely,
Ziyi Liu
Reviewer 2 Report
In general, the work is interesting and original, but i was a bit confused by the number of corridors, and i didnt understand what are those. Perhaps it would not be wrong to describe them more clearly, mentioned in a table, or mentioned in a text.
Author Response
March 22nd, 2022
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you very much for your email and for the reviewers` comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Construction of an Ecological Security Pattern and the Evaluation of Corridor Priority Based on ESV and the "Importance-Connectivity" Index: A Case Study of Sichuan Province, China (sustainability-1616708)”. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our papers, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. After incorporating their comments into the revised manuscript, I would like to re-submit the draft for your consideration for publishing in Sustainability. The amendments are highlighted in red in the revised manuscript, and the responses to the reviewers` comments are attached below.
Comments of Reviewer
- Perhaps it would not be wrong to describe them more clearly, mentioned in a table, or mentioned in a text.
Response: Thank you for your comment and suggestion.
We are aware of the deficiencies in the description of the article in terms of corridor types and their numbers. We supplement the identification and classification of ecological corridors and added citations (page 10, line 401-402; page 11-12, line 441-443, 447-453). Four different types of ecological corridors were selected for focused description in Figure 8 and the parameters of the four corridors were given in Table 4. It is hoped that these revised descriptions can more clearly express the research focus of this article.
We appreciate your warm work earnestly and hope that the corrections will meet with approval. Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions. I hope that the revision is acceptable. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely,
Ziyi Liu
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear authors,
Your article is interesting to read.
My considerations revolve around the formal structure of the text. In particular, I recommend a restatement of conclusions. As it is in the moment, it falls rather short, when compared to the other sections of the text. In particular, I recommend a enlargement and deepining of the idea the authors write in the last 3 lines of the paper, i.e., a clearer establishment of the validity of your research, not only briefly stating but also informing how it can be useful both for policy formulation, and also how it adds from the existend research on the subject.
Best regards
Author Response
March 22nd, 2022
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you very much for your email and for the reviewers` comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Construction of an Ecological Security Pattern and the Evaluation of Corridor Priority Based on ESV and the "Importance-Connectivity" Index: A Case Study of Sichuan Province, China (sustainability-1616708)”. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our papers, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. After incorporating their comments into the revised manuscript, I would like to re-submit the draft for your consideration for publishing in Sustainability. The amendments are highlighted in red in the revised manuscript, and the responses to the reviewers` comments are attached below.
Comments of Reviewer
- I recommend a restatement of conclusions. As it is in the moment, it falls rather short, when compared to the other sections of the text. In particular, I recommend an enlargement and deepening of the idea the authors write in the last 3 lines of the paper, i.e., a clearer establishment of the validity of your research, not only briefly stating but also informing how it can be useful both for policy formulation, and also how it adds from the existing research on the subject.
Response: Thank you for your comment and suggestion.
We are aware of the problems with the Conclusion section of the article. We have revised the Discussion section, added some suggestions on policy formulation (page 21, line 719-720, 732-734, 748-752; page 22, line 785-792), and compared the study with existing research to illustrate the advantages and limitations of the study (page 21-22, line 765-772). The Conclusion part was rewritten, in which the content of the Discussion part is added and the research conclusion is deepened (page 23, line 827-838, 848-862). It is hoped that these revised descriptions can express the research content of this article more clearly.
We appreciate your warm work earnestly and hope that the corrections will meet with approval. Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions. I hope that the revision is acceptable. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely,
Ziyi Liu
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
I would like to thank you for your hard work and also for handling every comment, it's a very good job.
I wish you good luck in the publication process.
