Next Article in Journal
Long-Term Influence of Stump-Removal on Components of Hemiboreal Pine Forest Ecosystem
Next Article in Special Issue
The Role of Sustainable Restaurant Practices in City Branding: The Case of Athens
Previous Article in Journal
Digitalization, Circular Economy and Environmental Sustainability: The Application of Artificial Intelligence in the Efficient Self-Management of Waste
Previous Article in Special Issue
Silk Road Heritage Branding and Polycentric Tourism Development
 
 
Article
Peer-Review Record

Planning and Marketing the City for Sustainability: The Madrid Nuevo Norte Project

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2094; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042094
by Theodore Metaxas 1,*, Laura Juarez 2 and Gaby Gavriilidis 1
Reviewer 1: Anonymous
Reviewer 2: Anonymous
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2094; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042094
Submission received: 30 December 2020 / Revised: 9 February 2021 / Accepted: 12 February 2021 / Published: 16 February 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue City Marketing and Planning for Sustainable Development)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

I had the opportunity to read the paper "Planning and Marketing the City for sustainability: 2 The Madrid Nuevo Norte Project" and I found it very interesting.

The paper aims to understand (1) if the Nuevo Norte project is aligned with the principles of sustainability and (2) its impact on the application of city marketing strategies in Madrid.

However, there are some suggestions that you should follow. In particular: 

  • in the "Introduction section" the structure of the work and the reasons that led to deepening the topic should be better detailed;
  • the literature review is missing (normally section 2) on sustainable urban development, and on city marketing (albeit mentioned in the introduction). the review on sustainability should be moved from §4.2 to the "Literature review" section, leaving only the reference with the project there;
  • the section on "Madrid" should be included in the larger section on the NNMP project;
  • In line 350 the quotation mark is missing;
  • a clearer discussion of results is missing and the research questions should be "answered" somewhere;
  • the conclusions shod be more structured, linking them with the results of the analysis.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

Please find attached our response

Thank you

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The purpose of this paper is to examine if Nuevo Norte project (Madrid-Spain) is aligned with the principles of sustainability. Additionally, the paper investigates the impact of Nuevo Norte on the application of city marketing strategies. The topic is innovative, although the assessment is quantitative and the methodology based on surveys. Questionnaires were distributed through Internet to urban developers and planners located in the Spanish capital.  Taken into account this positive assessment as a whole of the paper, I would like to mention some minor changes (or reflections) that the paper  requires in order to be published:

1) Abstract.

Please avoid acronyms in the abstract (MNMP)

2) Definition of the project (Section 4)

One of the problems of this section is that, at least, one map is needed to understand the project. The location of the project in the city should be clear to readers and the connection to the main transport network is also an important information. More information should be given in the paper about the project.

3) Issues of Sustainability

- Authors have selected as sustainable criteria to assess NNMP, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) defined by UN. Please, could you reference properly SDG in the text?

United Nations (2018). The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018.. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/report/2018/TheSustainableDevelopmentGoalsReport2018-EN.pdf

- More detail (data) should be provided in relation of how the project achieves each of the 12 goals. Only general ideas are presented.

 

- Special focus should be given to sustainable transport. Sustainable transport is only mentioned when describing SDG7 (Clean Energy). Authors say :….the project plans the incorporation of sustainable and electrified means of transport, eliminating transports with  energy of fossil origin”. Which type of electrified transport? We now that transport network in this new district of the city should be integrated into the whole city transport systems. Level of transport sustainability in this area will depend on the level of sustainability of the transport network of Madrid. It is very important to mention that the European Union is promoting the design of SUMP (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans). Madrid has already a SUMP. The first version of Guidelines for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning was 94 published in late 2013 by DG Move. Six years later, significant new developments in many areas of urban mobility took place. New technologies, driverless electric vehicles, new business models provide “Mobility as a Service,” shared mobility and cycling. As a result, an update of the original  SUMP Guidelines was published at the end of 2019.

Please, could you detail if the NNMP is including these new forms of mobility? Madrid have some new experiences in FFCS (electric free floating car sharing) and in “MaaS”. There are already scientific results (references) that should be mentioned in the paper:

 

  • Arias Molinares, Daniela & García-Palomares, Juan. (2020). Shared mobility development as key for prompting Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in urban areas: the case of Madrid. Case Studies on Transport Policy. 8. 10.1016/j.cstp.2020.05.017.

 

  • Ampudia-Renuncio, M.; Guirao, B.; Molina-Sánchez, R.; Braganza, L. (2020). Electric Free-Floating Carsharing for Sustainable Cities: Characterisation of Frequent Trip Profiles Using Acquired Rental Data. SUSTAINABILITY. 12 - 1248, pp. 1 - 16.

 

  • Soret, M. Guevara, J.M. Baldasano. The potential impacts of electric vehicles on air quality in the urban areas of Barcelona and Madrid (Spain). Atmospheric Environment,Volume 99,2014,Pages 51-63,ISSN

 

  • Arce-Ruiz, Rosa & Mozos-Blanco, Miguel & Pozo Menendez, Elisa & Aletà, Neus. (2018). The way to sustainable mobility. A comparative analysis of sustainable mobility plans in Spain. Transport Policy. 72. 45-54. 10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.001.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

please find attached our response

Thank you

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors,

thank you for accepting my suggestions.

I have just some more:

  • check the format of the authors' affiliations;
  • check the format of the changes, they seem not to fully meet the guidelines for the authors;
  • I suggest submitting the paper to a proofreading service or to make it revised by a native English speaker, moderate changes are required;
  • in lines 41-44 change <<More particularly the paper tries to provide answers to the following research questions: a) Does NNMP aligned with the criteria of sustainability (economic, environmental and social)?” and b) “does NNMP contributes in the implementation of sustainable city marketing strategies in the region of Madrid?>> in <<More particularly the paper tries to provide answers to the following research questions: a) "Does NNMP aligned with the criteria of sustainability (economic, environmental and social)?” and b) “Does NNMP contributes to the implementation of sustainable city marketing strategies in the region of Madrid?">>;
  • change lines 357-358 in “Does MNNP contributes to the implementation of sustainable city marketing strategies in the region of Madrid?".

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

We submit the minor revisions following the comments that you suggest

All the best

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Back to TopTop