Potential Applications of 5G Network Technology for Climate Change Control: A Scoping Review of Singapore

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article analyzes some of the causes of climate change and develops the positive impact that the use of advanced technologies such as 5G can generate. Specifically in the urban environment and in the construction of buildings.
The topic is of great interest and topicality.
First of all, the structure of the headings is unfortunate and unbalanced. They are not grouped in a logical order, which results in an unbalanced treatment and interest of the different aspects. On the other hand, they state that they analyze the different applications of 5G in different environments, but the intensity for each environment is very uneven. They also focus specifically on Singapore, but there is a lack of proper contextualization with other urban and non-urban smart environments.  
From a technology point of view, it should properly differentiate 5G from IoT, knowing that 5G is an enabling technology for IoT. Also, highlight the advantages of 5G technology over current mobile technologies.
Therefore, I suggest reordering the sections into:
1. Introduction, including a clear definition of the objectives of the study and the environmental, technological, geographical and, where appropriate, economic-social contextualization. 
2. Climate change risk factors
3. Benefits of 5G applications to risk factors.
4. Conclusions. 
In the conclusions, only those derived from the analysis carried out in the article should be highlighted.
On the other hand, regarding the methodology for analyzing the risk factors and benefits of 5G technology application, it should be homogeneous, in the sense of having a similar treatment in each particular analysis. This analysis should preferably be based on tables that identify the impact of the factors or benefits of 5G implementation, and complementary graphs that facilitate its global and integrated vision. This analysis should be systematic for each factor or application of 5G technology.
The tables and/or graphs used should indicate whether they are self-prepared or, if so, the source from which they are extracted. A detail to be corrected is the lack of citation of Figures 1 and 13 in the text of the article.
It is also advisable to indicate the source of the data used, to facilitate the contrastability, replication and extension of the analysis performed.
In short, I consider that a major revision should be made to apply a homogeneous methodology to the different elements dealt with in the article.
The references are sufficient and representative of the context of the work.

Author Response

As attached

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The topics covered herein are very provocative, as they include climate change, smart cities and 5G technology.

At the beginning the interest for reading this paper was high, as the expectations were also high. There are some major drawbacks in this work: 

(1) The paper is not well structured because the reader cannot see a very logic  sequencing of aspects discussed. At the end of the Introduction section, some phrases describing the structure of the paper should be introduced;

(2) From  telecommunications engineering perspective, the  arguments to use 5G technology were too general. Also they were not clearly correlated  with the control of climate change (its major beneficiary in this paper). For example in 7.2 what is the contribution of 5G to have a Net-Zero Energy building? 

Other suggestions to improve the paper: 

Row 8: "Nowadays, impacts from..." instead of "Nowadays, Impacts from.."

Row 13: "There are many ways..." instead of "there are many ways..."

Row 43, row 121 etc.: a comma should not separate a subject from its verb.

The title of Section 2: "Significance of the study" instead of "Significant of study.

Keywords in alphabetical order

Avoid repeating "5G technology" syntagm in the consecutive sentences (see the abstract).

Overall the text is too long.

Author Response

As attached 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have substantially improved the readability of the article. The new structure and the added argumentation provide a clear view of the benefits of using the 5G-based network for environmental improvement and climate change control. All this, based on a concrete experience in Singapore.
This new corrected version meets the requirements for publication.
The only detail is the correction of the number of section 2, Climate change risk factors.
An interesting exercise would be the comparison between different similar experiences with the specific case of Singapore, this would allow to obtain a cross information that focuses the structural changes by the use of 5G, against other significant aspects depending on the geographical context.

Author Response

Reviewer' comments highly appreciated and our response as attached. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

I confirm that the authors adjusted the manuscript according to the recommendations. 

Author Response

Reviewer' comments highly appreciated.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf