Spatio-temporal Change and Carrying Capacity Evaluation of Human Coastal Utilization in Liaodong Bay, China from 1993 to 2015

Abstract

In China, promoting the development of coastal areas has been included in a series of national strategic development plans. At the same time, many marine environmental problems have been associated with the rapid development of coastal sea use. In order to quantify the impact of human activities on the coast, the characteristics of coastlines and near-shore sea use of Liaodong Bay, Northeast China, were first classified using multi-source, remotely sensed imagery using automatic or semi-automatic extraction methods for five periods between 1993 and 2015. Sea use dynamics and coastline dynamics resulting from human activates were analyzed. Results showed a significant trend of continuous growth in sea use and a progressive increase in the total length of artificial coastline, but a noticeable loss of natural coastline during the five periods. Reclaimed land and enclosed areas were the main types of sea use. Most coastal human activities were distributed in the northern part of the bay. In recent years, rapid industrialization and urbanization in China’s coastal areas have promoted large-scale land reclamation. Accordingly, the observed coastline changes during each period had a close relationship with coastal development and sea area utilization. Based on marine functional zoning (MFZ), the sea use carrying capacity was evaluated by means of indexes to describe human exploitation of the marine and coastal environments in the bay. This showed that the intensity of coastal utilization in Liaodong Bay has increased year-on-year. Sea use carrying capacity reached a ‘critically loaded’ state by 2008 and was ‘overloaded’ by 2015.