Study on the Geographical Spatial Characteristics of Forest Health Resorts in Fujian Province, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript proposed a study on geographical spatial characteristics of forest health resorts in Fujian Province. Initially, I think that authors need to specify in the manuscript title where it is located (country), the Fujian province region. The way the manuscript was structured by the authors made it very difficult to understand the text.  I think that, as it was presented, extensive restructuring in the manuscript are required, so that itself can be published in Sustainability. Below are a set of observations that led me to the decision: reject the manuscript at this stage.

 General comments:

1)      The authors should better work on the statistical results obtained in the study.

2)      Authors need to work better on the abstract and topics of the manuscript. The authors open two sections of results, discussions and conclusions, respectively. Such structuring makes reading very confusing. Many of the results presented are generic, and the conclusions, well, simply don't exist.

3)      Authors need to better explore the cartographic products generated. All maps have low resolution and poorly designed figures. Subtitles with incompatible font size. Despite having the basic cartographic elements (scale, north, legend), the area represented is in "space". There are no references. What country? What ocean is nearby? The points marked in the map are of an incompatible size. Almost imperceptible. The tables, in most cases, are not referenced in the text. Table 4 talks about correlation analysis. However, correlations were made between which parameters?   

SPECIFIC COMMENTS:

ABSTRACT:

The abstract needs to be revised. There are repetitions of sentences that slow down reading the text.

Lines 11, 15, 20, and 25: There isn´t need to subdivide the abstract. The abstract is a text that must already contain all the elements mentioned (purpose, methods, results and conclusion).

Lines 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, and 27: The term "in Fujian Province" appears too repeatedly in the text. Better organize the structure of the abstract with other terms. Example: In the study area; At the locality; etc.

Keywords: The term is already in the title, Replace it with another.

INTRODUCTION

Line 43: The sentence start with "And now". The authors need delete this part.

Line 44: Review the context of the sentence.

Lines 46 and 47: Along the paragraph, the authors provide a historical review. However, suddenly a sentence referring to the United States appears. It's not clear whether the sentence refers to a historical rescue or to current times.

Lines 48 and 49: Until now, the authors were making a historical recovery about forest bathing in global terms. However, the authors use the term "our country", but so far they have not identified in the title or abstract, in which country Fujian Province is located.

Lines 64 to 66: Suggestion to start the sentence: At China, in 2019, the National Forestry ... The authors comment from different locations, but when they refer to the country where study was carried out, they don't refer to the country.

Lines 98 to 100: In this sentence , authors must indicate the goals of the study.

EXPERIMENTAL

Lines 102 to 104: Sentences unnecessary. Start explaining the methods.

Line 108: Where is Fujian Province? So far it hasn't been said.

Line 117: What formula? Authors need inform the equation number.

Lines 118 and 119: Repetition of words. Review the paragraph.

Line 121: What R value? Which equation does this reference?

Line 126: All equations need to be numbered.

Lines 128 and 133: Ok, this paragraph describe the equation parameters. However, before the equation, the authors still need whrite a paragraph explain what is the equation finality.

Line 134: All equations need to be numbered.

Lines 136 to 143: The same comment: Ok, this paragraph describe the equation parameters. However, before the equation, the authors still need whrite a paragraph explain what is the equation finality.

Line 144: All equations need to be numbered.

Lines 146 to 149: The same comment: Ok, this paragraph describe the equation parameters. However, before the equation, the authors still need whrite a paragraph explain what is the equation finality.

Line 150: Results and discussion

Lines 152 to 154: The subtopic 3.1 proposed an "Analysis of Geographical Spatial Structure". However, this analysis didn´t occur. The subtopic only describes an expectation of what will be done, and what the authors intend to analyze.

Lines 161 and 162 This sentence is unnecessary. In the manuscript, the authors do not present a map of the study area containing all locations. This sentence has no meaning in the text, the way it was presented. The authors could have mentioned the regions that were not studied in the introduction.

Lines 163 to 166: Table 1 is not referenced in the paragraph.

Line 169: What calculation? What equation?

Line 187: “in the article” - Delete that part.

Line 200 and 201: Why was a subtopic opened to insert a single sentence?

Line 202 to 204: This sentence is unnecessary.

Lines 238 to 242: Authors need to better explore statistical data.

Lines 249 to 251: Where is the statistical analysis that indicates this information?

Line 256: I think this paragraph can be combined with the previous one, as they both say the same information in different ways.

Lines 272 to 279: This paragraph has characteristics of "materials and methods".

Lines 280 to 282: What results? This is confusing!

Line 286: Correlations were made between which parameters?

Lines 289 to 295: This sentence has abstract characteristics.

Line 296: Conclusions

Lines 297 and 298: This sentece has already been mentioned in the paragraph above.

Lines 298 to 301: This sentence seems to me to be part of the methodological procedures.

Line 302: Unnecessary sentence.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Line 319: Why have two subtopics: empirical results, and results and discussion? Everything is result!

Line 320 to 322: Unnecessary sentence.

Lines 335 and 336: This sentence has become very generalized. What negative correlation (percentage)?

Line 337: important

Lines 343 and 344: This sentence has become very generalized. What negative correlation (percentage)?

 Lines 357 and 358: This sentence has become very generalized. What negative correlation (percentage)?

CONCLUSIONS

Lines 366 to 380: This excerpt is an insight to be placed in the end of the conclusions.

Lines 381 to 394: Where are the conclusions regarding the data in the manuscript? Here we only have a description of the theme. This is very similar to the general aspects of an introduction.

Lines 395 to 411: Where are the conclusions regarding the data in the manuscript?

FINAL COMMENTS

The manuscript presents several structural problems, and a deficiency in the treatment and discussion of data. The conclusions are poorly supported. I think that, as it was presented, extensive restructuring in the manuscript are required, so that itself can be published in Sustainability. Final decision: reject the manuscript at this stage.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Moderate editing of English language required.

Author Response

Dear reviewer:

Thank you for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. The yellow part that has been revised according to your comments. Revision notes, point-to-point,are given as follows:

We are very grateful to Reviewer for reviewing the paper so carefully. 

1.Thank you very much for your suggestions! Your advice has been incredibly helpful to us! All authors have now revised the details in the article.

（1）We have rewritten the abstract to highlight the key points more effectively.

（2）We apologize for not highlighting the countries in the article and only displaying regions. This was an oversight by the authors, and we have now made the necessary improvements and corrections.

（3）We have numbered all equations and provided explanations for why each equation is used.

  (4)   The authors have restructured the discussion and conclusion at the end of the article to highlight the research data and make it more easily understandable.

2.We apologize for the confusion generated by the previous version of the manuscript and sincerely hope that our logic is now easier to follow with this new version.

Due to formatting issues, many first-level headings were mistakenly converted into third-level headings, which resulted in confusion and difficulty in following the article's logic. We have made appropriate revisions and adjustments to streamline the article's logic.

3.Image issue: All the images created for this article are from within Fujian Province, China, so they do not highlight geographical features from other regions. Additionally, Figure 4 describes the local river system. The lack of clarity in the images is due to compression during the upload process, resulting in significant blurriness. We apologize for this and will provide the original, uncompressed images.

Finally, once again, we express our deepest gratitude for taking the time to review our paper amidst your busy schedule. Your insights are invaluable for enhancing the quality of our article. Thank you very much! Wishing you and your family a delightful life!

（Please refer to the attachment）

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors, 

This is a review of a manuscript titled: “Study on the Geographical and Spatial Characteristics of Health Resorts in Fujian Province” which presents an excellent panorama about the spatial distribution of the resorts. The article refers to important information about the antecedents referred to the forest bathing industry and tourism space. The article is well-written and minimal revisions are needed.

Line 18. Could you describe before table 2 the characteristics of a health and wellness base?

Page 6. Figure 2. Would it be possible to give colors to the figure?

3.9. Transportation factors. What are the main transports in the different provinces?

Table 4. I suggest including the columns about financial factors to dollars or include the conversion to have a wider understanding of this information.

Conclusions. This section needs to include some references that could refer to other people’s work. 

 Best regards,

Author Response

亲爱的审阅者：

Thank you for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. The red part that has been revised according to your comments. Revision notes, point-to-point,are given as follows:

We are very grateful to Reviewer for reviewing the paper so carefully. 

1.We have made the modification and included it in the "Introduction" section.

2.Thank you very much for your suggestion! This chart is intended to represent density, with darker colors indicating higher density. Black, being the darkest color, provides the most intuitive representation of density distribution. Therefore, the chart has not been colorized.

3.The authors intended to express "transportation convenience" in the text, as well as the impact of road accessibility on the distribution of forest health bases. We apologize for the misunderstanding and have already made the necessary corrections in the article!

4.Your suggestions have been extremely helpful! The modifications have already been made in the article!

5.The authors have revised the conclusion section of the article and restructured the paper accordingly. Thank you very much for your suggestions!

Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your invaluable suggestions! Your help has been immensely significant to us! Thank you very much! I wish you and your family a happy life!

（Please refer to the attachment）

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Hi there, I want to express my appreciation for the effort you put into creating the submitted manuscript. However, I was hoping to find more practical ways to study the health benefits of forest bathing, as well as a method to assess and compare different forest baths. If I were a tourist with limited time, I would be interested in knowing if there are any criteria to determine which forest bath is the best to experience. Thank you!

Hi there

I would like you just to have a quick review of the manuscript writing.

Author Response

亲爱的审阅者:

Thank you for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. The red part that has been revised according to your comments. Revision notes, point-to-point,are given as follows:

We are very grateful to Reviewer for reviewing the paper so carefully. 

Thank you very much for your suggestions! The focus of the article is on summarizing and analyzing the data from 80 provincial forest health bases in Fujian Province, China. Combining with the theoretical framework, it explores the distribution characteristics of forest health bases in Fujian Province and various factors that may influence them. "Forest bathing" is a part of forest health products, which is not elaborated in detail in this article. It may be due to the layout of the paper that you did not understand the central idea of the article. The authors apologize for this and have reorganized and made significant changes to the article!

Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your invaluable suggestions! Your help has been immensely significant to us! Thank you very much! I wish you and your family a happy life!

（Please refer to the attachment）

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors, congratulations!

Your manuscript showed significant improvements. I think that now, the subject sounds suitable for the Sustainability audience, and there is no critical conceptual mistake. However, minor corrections will still be necessary. The abstract still needs improvements. I suggest that authors use abstracts from other papers published in last Editions of Sustainability, as an example. The abstract must have a general context of the theme, briefly present the study area, the methodological steps, a summary of the results and a general conclusion. This is not done! These elements are inserted into separate sentences by the authors. Other minor notes are marked in the manuscript.

Regarding maps, the font size at legend is not suitable.I still consider the final maps to be inadequate. I suggest as an example, any of the maps models in figure 4 of the following paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2023.103016. However, I will leave that decision to accept this current maps at the manuscript, to the editors. Finally, congratulations the authors to accept and incorporated the suggestions! Certainly, with the appropriate adjustments, this manuscript will be a reference in the forest health resorts studies.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear reviewer:

      We sincerely appreciate your meticulous and patient review of our manuscript. All the authors are deeply grateful for your thorough examination. We apologize for any errors found in the article and have earnestly made the necessary revisions.

1.We have diligently revised the abstract section to make it more comprehensive and reader-friendly.

2.Regarding the images in the article, we carefully reviewed the literature you recommended. We highly appreciate your suggestions and the images depicted in the literature. However, the area described in our article is a province or city in China, which is not as extensive as the regions covered in the reference literature. Therefore, the images we have created only reflect the specific situation in this particular area. We believe this approach is more targeted. While the elements in the images may be relatively simple, they accurately convey the key information, which is our primary objective.

3.In our manuscript, we have revised all the details according to your feedback.

       Lastly, we sincerely thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to review our paper. All the authors are deeply grateful for your contributions to our article. We wish you and your family a happy and fulfilling life!

（Please refer to the attachment.）

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

"I would like you to help me as a tourist to find a recommendation in the conclusion section of your document as I was planning to visit a forest during my stay in China. Could you please suggest a criterion or set of criteria that I can use to select the best forest to visit among the others?"

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

亲爱的审阅者:

      We sincerely appreciate your meticulous and patient review of our manuscript. All the authors are deeply grateful for your thorough examination. We apologize for any errors found in the article and have earnestly made the necessary revisions.

1.We sincerely appreciate your suggestions. We have included the importance of water quality in the manuscript and cited the reference you recommended, which has been very helpful to us!

2.We have further optimized and revised the abstract of the article, making it easier for readers to comprehend the main points.

3.The main focus of this article is aimed at forest health resort developers. However, your suggestions are also very important. In response to your advice, we have added recommendations for different types of health resorts for travelers with different needs in the conclusion of the article!

4.If you have time, you are very welcome to come to China and experience the forest health culture. In China, the concept of "forest health" is still in the developmental stage and requires continuous exploration. Different forest health resorts have different types and evaluation levels. You can choose different types of forest health resorts according to your needs. If you don't have specific requirements, we recommend visiting cultural forest health tourism sites with Chinese cultural characteristics. This will allow you to experience forest therapy while learning about Chinese culture!

       Lastly, we sincerely thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to review our paper. All the authors are deeply grateful for your contributions to our article. We wish you and your family a happy and fulfilling life!

（Please refer to the attachment.）

Author Response File: Author Response.docx