Evaluation of the sustainable development of an island “Blue Economy”: A case study of Hainan, China

Abstract

The full social and economic development of coastal areas has made the “blue economy” especially important, but at the same time the resources and environment of coastal and offshore areas also face significant pressure. Therefore, the international community has made tremendous efforts to implement sustainable development in the blue economy, and a consensus has been basically reached, though more effort is still needed to evaluate the success of this drive to sustainability. This paper investigates China’s Hainan Island based on the driver–pressure–state–impact–response (DPSIR) framework, uses a grey correlation analysis and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solutions (TOPSIS) methods, and conducts a coupling coordination analysis to study the sustainable development capacity of the island’s blue economy. The results show a clear downward trend in sustainable development capability of the blue economy since 2010, as well as a decline in the degree of coupling coordination since 2009.