The Relationship between Rural Spatial Form and Carbon Emission—A Case Study of Suburban Integrated Villages in Hunan Province, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors,

The paper has research potential, but it has to be well-organized and well-written in order to address the observed issues. It is very difficult to follow the research path since the continuous introduction of the new methods, without previous explanation. The structure of the paper should be improved.  

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

I am very grateful to the reviewers for your valuable comments, and I have revised them one by one, and the revised parts are marked in red, and I have made the following revision notes:

1. The title of the paper, in accordance with the experts' comments, has been simplified and changed to "The Relationship between Rural Spatial Form and Carbon Emission --A case study of Suburban Integrated Villages in Hunan Province, China".
2. The introduction section, adjusted according to the experts' comments. The current state of research is introduced from the general research on spatial patterns and carbon emissions in the world (References 4-7), the general research on spatial patterns and carbon emissions in China (References 8 and 9), the existing research on urban areas (References 16-28), and the existing research on rural areas (References 29-34), respectively.
3. On reflection, it was felt that the relevant research literature on Ertunt E was not sufficiently relevant to the topic of the study, so part of the reference was removed.
4. A reference to the impact of spatial planning on carbon emissions has been added on page 3, line 6, as per expert opinion 10-14.
5. The research specific questions and hypotheses have been added at the end of the introduction (p. 4).
6. Figure 1 has been revised based on expert advice.
7. A brief explanation of the interpretation and calculation methodology for all the indicators in Table 1 has been added at the end of 2.1, following expert advice.
8. Indicators represented with X in Table 4 have been replaced with the name of the specific indicator.
9. Duplicates in line 266 have been deleted.
10. In the research methodology section, 3.1 Carbon Emission Calculation Methods, an introduction to the method of obtaining carbon emission data for buildings has been added, including a brief introduction to typical building types.
11. According to the experts' suggestions, the paper has been reorganised into the order of introduction, theory, research method, research result and conclusion; the research method has been introduced one by one according to the calculation method of carbon emission, quantification method of spatial pattern and correlation research method of spatial pattern and carbon emission; and the research result has been reorganised according to the way of 4.1 Research and quantification calculation result of spatial pattern, 4.2 Calculation result of carbon emission, 4.3 Correlation calculation result and 4.4 Reference value of spatial pattern. The research results are also rearranged according to 4.1 Spatial pattern research and quantification calculation results, 4.2 Carbon emission calculation results, 4.3 Correlation calculation results, and 4.4 Spatial pattern reference values. The results of table 8, table 9, figures 5 and 6, subsection 4, etc. have been added according to the suggestions of experts.
12. Replace Table 14 with Figure 8.
13. According to the expert opinion, at the beginning of the research methodology（Page 7,under Table 2, it is explained that the research was carried out on different building types, the typical sample of the research is introduced and the number of information is given.
14. The discussion section focuses on the research findings on the two elements of building density and neighbourhood group agglomeration, and discusses them in the context of the actual villages and existing widely recognised research findings. First, according to the raw data of building density in Table 4, the villages with higher density are mainly Lutang Village, Tianhan Village, Shaoshan Village in northern Hunan and Hongxing Village in southern Hunan, and these villages also have the highest final carbon emissions when compared with Figure 6. Thus, the conclusion of the study is in line with the actual situation of rural development in Hunan. Second, the findings of the study on the impact of building clusters on carbon emissions are in line with the findings of existing studies.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

this paper is good.

Author Response

I am very grateful to the reviewers for your valuable comments

Reviewer 3 Report

The article is related to the highly current problem of greenhouse gas emissions. The main objective was to investigate the correlation between rural spatial form and carbon emission in plain terrain. To do this, the authors conducted a study in 18 villages in China. Despite the overall good level of the article, it contains some weaknesses that should be improved. The main concerns are the methodological side of the article:

1. The emissivity coefficients used, e.g. page 9-10, may be questionable. Yes, this is a typical problem for this type of article but it is worth explaining the methodology in detail in the appendix

2. The most serious objection to the article concerns the source of the data. There is a table with 10 coefficients which later appear on page 4 and it is not really clear where they came from. How they were calculated should be in the appendix. Same table 8 : "Transportation carbon emissions are estimated based on the miles travelled by villagers and the energy consumed per mile". Where did the information on how much was travelled by villagers come from?

3. Once these comments have been taken into account, they should result in a change in the structure of the article to make it easier to understand the various coefficients and how they are calculated.

Overall, the article presents a good level. Research on the impact of rural spatial form and carbon emission is of both scientific and practical interest. They can influence the land-use policies of a country. Of course, one should be aware that this type of research deals with local conditions and will be difficult to transfer to broader aspects. The literature review, which contains mostly positions regarding China, needs some revision. It would be worth taking a broader look at these studies as the situation unfolds around the world. Minor technical errors:

Line 17-18 - this is unintelligible in the abstract should be reworded. In the article itself it is ok.

Line 63 - pounds? Better to express it in kg

Table 1 - on two pages

Figure 1 - illegible, elements obscured

Line 288 - firstly

Author Response

I am very grateful to the reviewers for your valuable comments, and I have revised them one by one, and the revised parts are marked in red, and I have made the following revision notes:

1. In response to the expert's question on the emissivity coefficients used, for example on pages 9-10, the sources of the carbon emission coefficients for different building materials are explained after Tables 5 and 6, with the main reference to the parameters in the existing studies；
2. In response to the experts' comments on the calculation method of spatial pattern indicators in Table 4 and the calculation method of transport carbon emissions in Table 8, firstly, a brief explanation of all spatial pattern indicators in Table 4 is given at the back of Table 1 (p.5), and secondly, the method of calculating the data for all the indicators from x1 to x10 is explained in the research methodology in 3.2 (p.9); and additional explanations are provided for the source of the information on villagers' travel distance in the methodology forcalculating the transport carbon emissions (line 4 on p.8). Additional explanations are provided for the source of the information on villagers' travelling distance in the methodology of calculating the transport carbon emission (line 4 on p.8).
3. The structure of the article has been restructured according to the experts' opinions, and reorganised in the order of introduction, theory, research method, research result and conclusion; the research method is introduced one by one according to the calculation method of carbon emission, quantification method of spatial pattern, and research method of correlation between spatial pattern and carbon emission; and the research result is also reorganised according to the way of 4.1 Research and quantification calculation result of spatial pattern, 4.2 Calculation result of carbon emission, 4.3 Correlation calculation result, and 4.4 Reference value of spatial pattern.
4. The expression in lines 17-18 of the summary has been modified to read“quantified the spatial morphology indicators of the overall rural community and the neighbourhood building groups, and investigated the relationship between rural spatial form and carbon emission in plain terrain”；
5. In response to the units in line 63, the original reference 7 has been removed in the latest version.
6. In response to your comments, Figure 1 has been redrawn and line 288 has been revised.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I appreciate the effort the authors put in to improve the quality of the work. Now, it could be accepted for publishing. 

Best regards

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

I am very grateful to the reviewers for their valuable comments, and I have revised them one by one, and the revised parts are marked in blue, and I have made the following revision notes:

1. In Figure 4 cad has been changed to capitalCAD.
2. Sections 348-355 on methods for calculating carbon emissions from rural communities have been merged into1 Methods for Calculation Carbon Emissions , and the subheading for 3.1 has been changed to “Measuring carbon emissions of the rural community”.
3. The original 4.3.1 on the steps and methods of principal component analysis was merged with3 of the research methodology section with reference to the experts' comments, and only the final  results of the correlation analysis were retained in the results section.
4. In the discussion section, a comparison of the resultsof the existing relevant literature is added. On the one hand, a study on the influence of the building groups forms on building energy consumption is included to demonstrate the important influence of building group forms on carbon emissions in the conclusions of this study; on the other hand, the findings of the relevant studies on rural areas in China are added to further illustrate that existing studies have also confirmed that building density in the countryside is positively correlated with carbon emissions.
5. At the same time, the author of the article and the first affiliation of the authorhave were adjusted.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx