Haiyang Kaifa yu guanli (Nov 2023)
The Discussions and Analysis on Methods for the Integrated Assessment of Marine Eco-environmental Carrying Capacity in Coastal Areas
Abstract
As one of the important means to coordinate the relationship between the development and utilization activities of the coastal zone and the protection of the ecological environment, and to measure the sustainable development capacity of the coastal zone, the quantitative research of the comprehensive evaluation of marine eco-environment carrying capacity (MECC) of the is very important. This study reviews the existing problems in the current integrated assessment of MECC, compares and analyzes the commonly used methods for carrying capacity assessment, and selects a set of potential methods that is suitable for the integrated assessment of MECC in coastal areas according to the characteristics of coastal areas. On this basis, through the analysis of the results of the case application, the practicability and limitations of this set of methods is further discussed, and several improvement suggestions are proposed. The results show that: (1) in view of the complexity and uncertainty of the coastal ecosystem, some traditional and commonly used assessment methods of carrying capacity cannot be well applied to the integrated assessment of MECC in coastal areas; (2) by fully considering the interaction between human activities and the marine eco-environment, this set of potential methods proposed in this study can better support the establishment of the assessment index system, objectively give weight to each assessment index, and quantitatively analyze and evaluate the comprehensive MECC. And thus, it can provide a feasible approach for the integrated assessment of MECC as well as empirical references for ensuring a sustainable coastal development; (3) additionally, it still has several limitations, such as, mainly, the lack of authoritative and unified indicator systems, as well as specific rating standards. Therefore, future studies should focus on related methods for the establishment of assessment indicator system and the classification criteria for evaluation results, so as to improve the assessment system for MECC and thus apply it to a more scientific analysis of the MECC in coastal areas.
