Uncovering the impact of urban functional zones on air quality in China

Yuan, Lulu; Han, Wenchao; Meng, Jiachen; Wang, Yang; Yu, Haojie; Li, Wenze

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10421-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10421-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10421-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 17

Research article

|

12 Sep 2025

Research article |

| 12 Sep 2025

Uncovering the impact of urban functional zones on air quality in China

Lulu Yuan, Wenchao Han, Jiachen Meng, Yang Wang, Haojie Yu, and Wenze Li

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Final revised paper (published on 12 Sep 2025)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 16 Dec 2024)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

CC1:
'Comment on egusphere-2024-3350', Hao Fan, 13 Jan 2025

1

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350-CC1
- AC4: 'Reply on CC1', Lulu Yuan, 14 May 2025
  
  Dear Editor and Reviewers,
  Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Uncovering the Impact of Urban Functional Zones on Air Quality in China”. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revisions are indicated within the text using track changes. All of the responses have been addressed in blue and revisions have been addressed in red as following file of response letter, and page numbers and line numbers in the response are based on the clean version. In the attached document, we include a point-by-point response to the comments.
  Thank you and best regards.
  Yours sincerely,
  Wenchao HAN & Yang WANG
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350-AC4
CC2:
'Comment on egusphere-2024-3350', Hao Fan, 13 Jan 2025

In this study, the concentration of air pollutants in different urban functional areas was counted by means of cartographic classification criteria. This novel idea is of great significance to the study of urban air pollution. In the future, the author can consider carrying out specific case studies for typical cities and expanding management experience.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350-CC2
- AC3: 'Reply on CC2', Lulu Yuan, 14 May 2025
  
  Dear Editor and Reviewers,
  Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Uncovering the Impact of Urban Functional Zones on Air Quality in China”. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revisions are indicated within the text using track changes. All of the responses have been addressed in blue and revisions have been addressed in red as following file of response letter, and page numbers and line numbers in the response are based on the clean version. In the attached document, we include a point-by-point response to the comments.
  Thank you and best regards.
  Yours sincerely,
  Wenchao HAN & Yang WANG
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350-AC3
RC1:
'Comment on egusphere-2024-3350', Anonymous Referee #1, 13 Feb 2025
This comprehensive spatiotemporal analysis of air quality across various urban functional zones in China is very meaningful. However, I feel like the authors are off topic. The authors' subsequent analysis did not focus on the data analysis of the division of different urban functional zones, especially the final conclusion did not emphasize the effects of which urban functional zones in which types of cities.
The main problems are as follows.
The annotation of references is not standardized, for example, “Zhang et al., 2022c” on line 26 should be “Zhang et al., 2022a”.

This translation of “the Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky Defense Battle” on line 117 and “Suzhou and Qingdao have the most residential zone sites,” on line 186, etc. is inappropriate, which is too Chinglish.

What is the meaning of this paragraph on line 117-121 in “2.1 Study area”? Why is it placed here?

The production of Figure 1 is not standardized. Because the latitude and longitude grid has already been marked in Figure 1, there is no need for a compass.

“2.3.1 Data preprocessing” should be placed in “2.2 Data sources”.

I haven't found any specific data analysis or research methods in “2.3 Data analysis methods”.

“3.4 Analysis of influencing factors” only includes three single factor analyses, which is too simple.

Overall, this manuscript contains too much data description and lacks data analysis, especially discussion.

When analyzing the impact of different urban functional zones on air quality, the authors overlooked the scale effect of different functional zones, especially the scale effect of various level cities.

“These findings indicate that, in the future, the Chinese government should curb ozone pollution, strengthen air pollution control in transportation zone, and formulate more scientific and accurate air pollution control policies based on the local situation of each city.” on line 18-21 is not the focus in “Abstract”, which doesn't need to be placed here.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350-RC1
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Lulu Yuan, 14 May 2025
  
  Dear Editor and Reviewers,
  Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Uncovering the Impact of Urban Functional Zones on Air Quality in China”. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revisions are indicated within the text using track changes. All of the responses have been addressed in blue and revisions have been addressed in red as following file of response letter, and page numbers and line numbers in the response are based on the clean version. In the attached document, we include a point-by-point response to the comments.
  Thank you and best regards.
  Yours sincerely,
  Wenchao HAN & Yang WANG
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350-AC2
RC2:
'Comment on egusphere-2024-3350', Anonymous Referee #2, 08 Apr 2025

Please see attached file for detailed comments. I am happy to provide more specific comments on a revised version of this manuscript through posting comments on the interactive copy.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350-RC2
- AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Lulu Yuan, 14 May 2025
  
  Dear Editor and Reviewers,
  Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Uncovering the Impact of Urban Functional Zones on Air Quality in China”. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revisions are indicated within the text using track changes. All of the responses have been addressed in blue and revisions have been addressed in red as following file of response letter, and page numbers and line numbers in the response are based on the clean version. In the attached document, we include a point-by-point response to the comments.
  Thank you and best regards.
  Yours sincerely,
  Wenchao HAN & Yang WANG
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350-AC1

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

AR by Lulu Yuan on behalf of the Authors (14 May 2025) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (10 Jul 2025) by Rob MacKenzie

AR by Lulu Yuan on behalf of the Authors (10 Jul 2025) Manuscript

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Short summary

This study utilizes multi-source data to reveal the impact of various urban functional zones in China on the spatial distribution of pollutants. The findings indicate that the residential and commercial zones see notable air quality gains, but the improvement of air quality in the transportation zone is the least considerable. Moreover, the industrial zone has the most seasonal air quality variation. Therefore, air pollution prevention policies should consider differences in functional zones.