Development Of Marine Economy Research Articles

Digital Economy, Marine Industrial Structure Upgrading, and the High-Quality Development of Marine Economy Based on the Static and Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model

Achieving marine sustainable development goals requires improving the quality of the marine economy. In this study, we constructed a multi-dimensional evaluation index system to quantify the high-quality development of the marine economy (HDME) and digital economy for China’s 11 coastal regions between 2012 and 2020, and systematically explored the mechanisms between the digital economy, marine industrial structure upgrading, and high-quality development of the marine economy. We further empirically analyzed the influence of the digital economy and marine industrial structure upgrading on the HDME by using the static and dynamic spatial Durbin model and threshold model. We found that the digital economy improved the HDME of local and neighboring regions, and the sub-dimensional indicators had a significant heterogeneous effect. The marine industrial structure upgrading only positively affected the quality of the marine economy in neighboring areas. Furthermore, the digital economy and marine industrial structure upgrading also had synergistic effects on improving the marine economy, which mainly depended on digital infrastructure and digital industrialization. There also existed digital infrastructure and digital industrialization thresholds within marine industrial structure upgrading, affecting the HDME. Our results provide new insights for the green and sustainable development of the marine industry and marine economy from a broader technical perspective in the digital age. Governments should recognize the spatial spillover and synergistic effects of the digital economy and marine industrial structure between different regions and implement policies considering their impacts to achieve the marine sustainable development goals.

Study on Promoting Marine Economic Development with New Quality Productivity

With the rapid development of the global economy, the marine economy has become a new engine to promote global economic growth. The purpose of this article is to explore strategies for developing new, high-quality productivity that will support the marine economy’s quality development. New quality productivity refers to advanced productivity centered on scientific and technological innovation and characterized by high efficiency, intelligence, and green. The article describes the importance of the marine economy and its strategic position in national economic development. It proposes a strategy to promote the development of the marine economy with new quality productivity by analyzing the current challenges facing the development of the marine economy.

CAPACITY BUILDING FOR CIVIL SERVANTS AND STATE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONS OF VIETNAM'S SEAS AND ISLANDS

Vietnam's seas and islands greatly influence political and legal life for national, regional, and international development in history, present, and future. The article analyzes the need and importance of capacity building for civil servants and state management organizations on seas and islands in the context of developing the marine economy and protecting Vietnam's sea and island sovereignty. With a long coastline and a rich island system, Vietnam is facing many challenges from resource exploitation, and climate change to national security and defense issues. The article discusses the current status of the sea and island management capacity of civil servants, officials, and related organizations, including limitations in expertise, management skills, and the ability to respond to complex situations. The article also proposes strategic solutions to improve management capacity through training, professional development, enhanced international cooperation, and application of modern technology in sea and island management. The article emphasizes that improving the capacity of civil servants and state management organizations is the key to effectively implementing policies for sustainable marine economic development and protecting national maritime interests, making an important contribution to the comprehensive development of Vietnam.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0712/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The practice and innovation of compatible marine utilization models in China

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is essential for optimizing marine resources allocation and resolving conflicts in sea use, but it is challenged by the complex and multi-functional nature of maritime resources. This study utilizes participatory methods, inductive reasoning, and overlay analysis to explore both theoretical and practical aspects of compatible marine utilization models. The paper begins by clarifying the logic of compatible sea use through marine functional zoning and identifying its core characteristics: quantity, spatial conflict, and impacts on natural attributes. Building on China’s national territorial spatial planning reforms and practical experiences, the paper introduces three major categories of compatible marine use models: development sequencing compatibility, spatial coexistence compatibility, and functional synergy compatibility. A compatibility discrimination matrix is developed to assess these models across different marine functional areas. Combined with the compatibility discrimination results, taking the marine and coastal spatial planning of Yantai City in China as a case study, the paper analyzes the compatibility demands and planning strategies within various marine functional areas. Finally, it evaluates the risks associated with each compatibility model and proposes targeted control strategies tailored to the specific features of each model and characteristics of sea use activities. The research findings highlight the positive role of compatible sea use models in promoting marine economic development, enhancing spatial efficiency, and mitigating sea use conflicts. However, these models also present varying potential risks, necessitating differentiated control strategies aligned with legal frameworks and specific sea use activities. The study offers valuable insights for MSP and contributes to the efficient utilization of marine resources and the advancement of marine spatial governance.

A Dynamic Simulation and Evaluation of the Coupling Coordination Degree of the Marine Economy–Resource–Environment System in China

As the scale of the marine economy continues to expand, the problems of environmental pollution and the over-exploitation of marine resources have become increasingly severe. The purpose of this study is to realize the sustainable growth of the marine economy, the rational utilization of resources, and the coordinated development of environmental protection. Method: This research first adopts the system dynamics (SD) model. It then uses the entropy method to weigh the evaluation indicators and create a coupling coordination degree (CCD) assessment simulation of the marine economic–resource–ecological environment. We use the created SD model to build and simulate four standard scenarios: current, economic, resource, and environmental. Finally, we propose suitable recommendations for the long-term development of the marine economy based on the coordination evaluation results of the CCD model. Results: Results show the following: (1) In the immediate term, the economic scenario is poorly coordinated, whereas the environmental scenario is more effectively coordinated. However, in the long-term development process, the resource scenario is reasonably well coordinated. (2) Priority attention must be given to improving the energy mix and protecting the natural environment to promote the sustainable development of the marine economy. (3) To achieve a virtuous cycle between marine economic development and environmental protection, governments, businesses, and all sectors of society need to work together to formulate and implement relevant policies and initiatives.

High-quality marine economic development in China from the perspective of green total factor productivity growth: dynamic changes and improvement strategies

High-quality marine economic development (HMED) is regarded as a new development pattern of the marine economy in China. This paper aims to examine the dynamic changes and improvement strategies of HMED from the perspective of the green total factor productivity (GTFP) growth. First, the GTFP growth of the marine economy in China’s coastal regions for the period 2007–2020 is calculated using the bootstrapped Malmquist index. Second, the dynamic changes and spatial impacts of the GTFP growth are characterized using kernel density estimation (KDE). Moreover, a novel analytical framework to study the improvement strategies of the GTFP is developed. Within this framework, the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method is used to explore the paths to achieve HMED. The findings show that: (i) the GTFP growth for coastal regions shows significant fluctuations, suggesting that a stable pattern of marine economic development has yet to be established; (ii) the regional distribution of GTFP growth varies significantly, with provinces with fast GTFP growth gathering resources from neighboring provinces, resulting in a siphon effect; (iii) for coastal provinces that lack certain development conditions, the combined effect of other advantageous factors can be used to achieve HMED. Finally, this study presents policy recommendations for achieving HMED, which can provide insights into the design of China’s future marine economic policies.

Performance evaluation of marine ecological compensation in coastal cities of China via a novel two-stage bargaining game DEA with imprecise data

To alleviate the pressure of economic development on the marine environment, the Marine Ecological Compensation (MEC) has become a major policy tool for the Chinese government to reconcile the contradiction between economic development and the marine environment. In this paper, we propose a novel two-stage bargaining game data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate the performance of MEC under the cooperative structure. The proposed model considers the link between marine economic development (MED) and marine environmental protection (MEP). Meanwhile, the equivalent form, Nash equilibrium solution, sensitivity and stability of the model are as well documented to further analyze MED and MEP. Eventually, a case study of 30 coastal cities in China serves to verify the practicable effectiveness of the foregoing model combined with numerical simulation and support key insights as below: (i) According to the results evaluated by the decentralized DEA model, we find that if one party of MED and MEP takes priority, the efficiency score of the other party will be severely affected; (ii) the evaluation results of sensitivity and stability demonstrate that inputs and outputs have different impact degrees on the efficiency scores of MED and MEP, which provide directions for improving the efficiency of both systems; (iii) The proposed model addresses the limitation of the conventional two-stage DEA model that cannot handle uncertain variables, thus revealing the influence of uncertainty on MEC efficiency. The compelling evidence presented in the case study solidifies the effectiveness of the proposed model, establishing its promising prospects for application in evaluating the performance of DMUs with a two-stage structure.

Coordinated measurement of marine economy: High-quality and low-carbon development in China

The marine economy needs high-quality development, as severe greenhouse effect has become a global concern and carbon emission reduction has been an essential target of marine economy growth. However, a lack of synergistic research in the field of marine economy development and carbon emissions has hindered progress. This study explores the critical interactive relationship between the high-quality and low-carbon development in China's marine economy, aiming to foster green development in coastal urban agglomerations and enhance ecological security alongside economic growth. Despite the importance, comprehensive analysis across multiple dimensions of high-quality and low-carbon development of marine economy remains scarce. This paper establishes a systematic and scientific evaluation index system, utilizing text analysis technology and the Panel Vector Autoregression Model (PVAR) to quantitatively assess the complex system relationship between these dimensions. The results including: (1) The development of a 23 nodes tree structure through a bottom-up, multi-level coding method, effectively addressing the complexity of the current evaluation system for high-quality development of the marine economy. (2) Moran's I of subsystems are all negative, presenting an obvious high-low agglomeration characteristics. The discovery that intra-group differences exceed inter-group ones in marine economic development, indicates that the need for synergistic development among the provinces within marine economic circles. (3) The identification of significant bidirectional interactions between open and shared high-quality development and low-carbon development, with a notable lag effect in responses. The predominant role of innovation in all subsystems underscores the centrality of the marine innovation environment and factors as key drivers in the synergy of high-quality and low-carbon development in the marine economy.

DETERMINING SHALLOW WATER BATHYMETRY BY STEREO PHOTOGRAMMETRY TECHNIQUE USING WORLDVIEW-2 IMAGERY

Bathymetry in shallow-water areas plays an important role in marine environment management, marine economic resource development, and national defense and security. The echo sounding method is currently highly accurate; however, it has to deal with a variety of challenges as a result of the high cost, terrain influence, and meteorological conditions at sea. As remote sensing technology progresses, estimating bathymetry using satellite imagery will help lower measuring costs and expand monitoring coverage, particularly in shallow water, offshore areas, and difficult-to-access areas. In this article, the authors present a technique for determining bathymetry in shallow water regions by utilizing WorldView-2 stereoscopic images. The accuracy of stereoscopic depth measurement using WorldView-2 images is assessed by field depth measurement using the single-beam echo sounder. The study area is Nam Yet Island. The coefficient of determination (R2) between the two datasets (field measurement data and using satellite images) is 0.9. The stereoscopic satellite image method of depth measurement is highly accurate for regions with depths below 5 meters. The accuracy of the stereoscopic measurement decreases as the depth increases by more than 5 meters.

The Effects of Ocean Governance on Marine Economic Development from an Environmental Optimization Perspective

The oceans and seas are vital resources for human life and fundamental to global economic growth. With the expansion of globalization and increasing demand for resource exploitation, the ocean economy has emerged as a critical support for economic growth and a significant concern for many. However, the exploitation of marine resources often leads to ecological damage and environmental pollution, seriously threatening the long-term viability of the marine economy. Measures must be implemented to balance ecological protection and economic development for sustainable growth in the marine sector. This investigation synthesizes over a decade’s worth of data from various coastal cities, incorporating insights from national databases, international reports, and scholarly articles, resulting in an analysis of more than 500 data points. Through the application of a rigorous quantitative approach and a dual fixed-effect model, the study delves into the dynamics between ocean governance and economic development. By analyzing a broad and representative dataset, the research provides an exhaustive overview of global ocean governance frameworks and the current state of the marine economy. The statistical analyses unveil the complexity and diversity of factors influencing the development and governance of marine economies. This paper explores the interplay between marine economic development and ocean governance, evaluating the impact of governance on marine economic progression within the context of environmental optimization. Furthermore, it proposes policy interventions aimed at fostering the sustainable growth of marine economies, ensuring the conservation of marine ecosystems, and pursuing overarching long-term global growth ambitions.

Research on the impact of marine economic development in coastal areas on regional economic resilience: evidence from China

Marine economy is a valuable pillar for the development of coastal areas. It is of profound significance to explore the influence of marine economy development on economic resilience of coastal areas. This paper constructs an economic resilience assessment framework based on resistance, adaptability, and evolutionary power, adopts the entropy method to calculate the economic resilience development level in China’s coastal areas from 2006 to 2019, and examines in detail the driving factors affecting the economic resilience from the indicator level. Furthermore, panel regression models are used to explore the influence of marine economic development on the economic resilience of China’s coastal areas and its mechanism of action. The results show that: (1) China’s coastal areas have an overall trend of rising economic resilience. The spatiotemporal differentiation characteristics of different economic resilience factors are significant. (2) Factors such as regional economic scale, innovation input, industrial transformation, resident income, consumption scale, degree of marketization, and financial scale are key factors to enhance the economic system resilience of coastal areas. (3) There is a significant positive impact of the marine economy on the economic resilience of coastal areas, and this promotion effect is regulated and constrained by the level of diversification of marine industries and the level of concentration of marine industries. (4) Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are significant individual differences in the impact of Marine economy on economic resilience, and its marginal effect first increases and then decreases. The corresponding policy implications are further analyzed based on the research results.

Evaluation of marine economic development demonstration zone policy on marine industrial structure optimization: a case study of Zhejiang, China

The marine economic development demonstration zone (MEDDZ) is the regional marine functional policy that assumes the significant tasks of innovation in the system and mechanism of the marine economy, optimization of the marine industrial structures, and the construction of marine ecological civilization. This paper constructs a panel database of 11 coastal provinces in China from 2006 to 2019, takes the Zhejiang Marine Economy Development Demonstration Zone Plan officially approved by the State Council of China in 2011 as a quasi-natural experiment, applies the synthetic control method (SCM) to evaluate the effect of implementation of the MEDDZ policy on marine industrial structure optimization in Zhejiang. The results show that: (1) The MEDDZ policy significantly promotes the structure optimization of the marine industry in Zhejiang and the existence of the policy lag phenomenon. (2) Based on the results of the robustness tests, we find that the fitted path of policy effects is better when the time of MEDDZ implementation is adjusted to 2012. (3) Government financial support and marine cargo capacity play a role in implementing the MEDDZ policy, positively affecting and optimizing the coastal marine industry’s structure. Therefore, we make some suggestions from the perspectives of strengthening the policy implementation process, focusing on the policy lag phenomenon, and broadening funding sources, thus enriching theoretical research on policies in the field of the marine industry and providing practical references for the development of other coastal demonstration zones.

Hot spots, evolutionary trends, and future prospects for the sustainable development of the marine economy in the past 30 years: a comparative bibliometric analysis based on CiteSpace

How to assess the quality of sustainable development is an important issue for the marine economy. This study examined studies on sustainable development of marine economy over the past 30 years using core databases from China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Web of Science. This study introduced bibliometric analysis methods and CiteSpace software to track and comparatively analyze the hotspots of studies from 1994 to 2023. This study showed that (1) the research on sustainable development of the marine economy has achieved extensive results. Researchers have already collaborated with those in China. (2) Hotspots for Chinese research are mainly focused on building an indicator system of marine economy's sustainable development, realizing the path of sustainable development of regional marine economy, and planning the sustainable development goals of specific marine industries. In contrast, other countries focus on protecting marine ecology and identifying the path of sustainable development of the marine industry. (3) Strengthening exchange and cooperation between institutions and scholars from various countries, and further studies on the micro-paths of blue carbon sinks, marine ecological civilization and high-quality development, low-carbon development of marine industries will become new hotspots for research.

Research on the driving effect of marine economy on the high-quality development of regional economy – Evidence from China’s coastal areas

Exploring the driving effect of the marine economy on high-quality economic development can help improve the quality of national economic development and optimize the direction of marine economic development. Based on the data of China’s coastal areas from 2006 to 2019, this study adopts the entropy weight-TOPSIS method to comprehensively evaluate the level of marine economy and the high-quality economic development in coastal areas. Further, we use random forest regression and partial dependence plots to reveal the driving effect of the marine economy on the advancement of high-quality economic growth in China’s coastal areas. The results show that the driving effect of the marine economy on the high-quality development of coastal areas is affected by the moderating effect of the economic elements, and regions should choose their development paths according to the location of their elements in the optimal interval. Our research results can provide a scientific foundation for the formulation of differentiated economic high-quality development policies in China’s coastal areas.

Edge‐guided representation learning for underwater object detection

AbstractUnderwater object detection (UOD) is crucial for marine economic development, environmental protection, and the planet's sustainable development. The main challenges of this task arise from low‐contrast, small objects, and mimicry of aquatic organisms. The key to addressing these challenges is to focus the model on obtaining more discriminative information. The authors observe that the edges of underwater objects are highly unique and can be distinguished from low‐contrast or mimicry environments based on their edges. Motivated by this observation, an Edge‐guided Representation Learning Network, termed ERL‐Net is proposed, that aims to achieve discriminative representation learning and aggregation under the guidance of edge cues. Firstly, an edge‐guided attention module is introduced to model the explicit boundary information, which generates more discriminative features. Secondly, a hierarchical feature aggregation module is proposed to aggregate the multi‐scale discriminative features by regrouping them into three levels, effectively aggregating global and local information for locating and recognising underwater objects. Finally, a wide and asymmetric receptive field block is proposed to enable features to have a wider receptive field, allowing the model to focus on smaller object information. Comprehensive experiments on three challenging underwater datasets show that our method achieves superior performance on the UOD task.

Impact of marine industrial agglomeration on high-quality marine economic development: the mediating effect of knowledge spillover

Industrial agglomeration significantly influences economic development; however, its impact on high-quality economic growth within the marine industry remains understudied. We conducted a study using panel data from 11 coastal provinces in China (2008–2020) and used the entropy method to quantify high-quality marine economic development (HQMED). Our study meticulously examines the direct, mediating, and nonlinear effects of marine industrial agglomeration (MIA) on HQMED. The key findings include the following: (1) There is a steady HQMED growth and reduced interprovincial gaps. (2) MIA significantly enhances local HQMED and leads to positive spatial spillover to adjacent regions. (3) The analysis of the mediating effect highlights the pivotal role of knowledge spillover in MIA’s influence on HQMED. (4) Threshold analysis shows significant MIA effects on local and neighboring HQMED using knowledge spillover as a threshold variable. The study’s findings hold theoretical and practical significance and guide MIA’s role in fostering sustainable marine economic development in China.

Construction of copper-functionalized two-dimensional zeolitic imidazole framework-7 (ZIF-7) nanosheets for enhanced antibacterial and antibiofilm performance

Marine biological pollution restricts the sustainable development of marine economy. Cu2O stands as a predominant antifouling agent for developing marine resources engineering. However, the problems of easy aggregation, rapid failure, and explosive release of copper ions limit the practical application of Cu2O. In this work, a novel copper-functionalized two-dimensional zeolitic imidazolate framework-7 nanocomposites ZIF-7@Cu2O was successfully fabricated by in-situ growth methodology. The emergence of ZIF-7@Cu2O nanocomposites solves the above problems in the use of Cu2O. Due to the huge specific surface area of the 2D ZIF-7 nanosheets and the electrostatic interactions, the cubic Cu2O, with a diameter of 250 nm, can be uniformly and firmly anchored on the surface of 2D ZIF-7 nanosheets, thus effectively avoiding the rapid dissolution of cuprous oxide and reducing the release rate of copper ions. Antibacterial experiments demonstrate that, in comparison to ZIF-7, Cu2O, and ZIF-7/Cu2O (physical mixture of ZIF-7 and Cu2O), ZIF-7@Cu2O exhibits superior antibacterial properties with 99.99 % against E. coli and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 32 μg/mL. Furthermore, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) assay confirms ZIF-7@Cu2O could promote the generation of ROS. Antibiofilm formation results reveal that ZIF-7@Cu2O nanocomposites are effective in preventing biofilm formation of E. coli and P. aeruginosa at a low concentration (50 μg/mL). Finally, ZIF-7@Cu2O nanocomposites are employed as fillers to prepare ZIF-7@Cu2O/EP composite coating, the bactericidal kinetics and bacterial adherence on the coating surface are investigated. We believe this work could provide novel insights into the rational design of 2D ZIF-based material in the field of antifouling.

Research on the Development Path of Green Marine Economy in the Era of Ecological Civilization

This article explores the development path of the green marine economy in the era of ecological civilization. It highlights the importance of developing a green marine economy and how it has become a global consensus. The article suggests that China should take proactive measures to optimize its marine industrial structure, promote marine scientific and technological innovation, strengthen marine resource protection and environmental governance, and enhance the competitiveness of the marine economy. The ultimate objective is to achieve sustainable development of the ocean, expand the blue economic space, and accomplish the goal of green marine economic development.

Impact of the coupling relationship between marine industry and regional development on the marine economy

To investigate the relationship between the marine industry and regional development, and assess its impact on the marine economy. The study creates an evaluation index system for the coupling relationship between the marine economy and regional development. It applies coupling theory and combines the hierarchical analysis method with the entropy weight method to determine the weight of each index. By constructing the coupling degree and coupling coordination degree model, this paper quantitatively analyzes the coupling relationship and applies the coefficient of variation to assess the coordinated development differences between different regions. The study utilized data from the official China Marine Statistical Yearbook. The analysis revealed an upward trend in the coupling degree of the marine economy and regional development during the study period, increasing from 0.58 to 0.72. This indicated a significant strengthening of the interaction and synergistic development between the two. In typical coastal areas, the coupling degree increased from 0.62 to 0.78, indicating the significant contribution of the marine industry to the region's comprehensive economic development. The study proposes policy recommendations to enhance the adjustment of the marine industrial structure and technological innovation, promote inter-regional cooperation and resource sharing, and strengthen marine environmental protection and sustainable resource utilization. These measures aim to promote the development of the marine economy while safeguarding marine resources.

Where Is the Path to Sustainable Marine Development? Evaluation and Empirical Analysis of the Synergy between Marine Carrying Capacity and Marine Economy High-Quality Development

Enhancing the marine carrying capacity (MCC) is of important value in hastening the transformation of the marine economy and realising the marine economy high-quality development (MEHD). We explore the synergistic mechanism between the MCC and MEHD and its comprehensive indicator system, measure the synergistic relationship between China’s MCC and MEHD from 2006 to 2020 using the improved TOPSIS model and the composite system synergism model, and explore the influencing factors and their interactions using geographic probes. The research findings are (1) that China’s MCC and MEHD show a growing trend during the study period, in which marine green development is at a higher level and the cultivation of marine knowledge improves most significantly, but the general value of the MEHD is relatively low. (2) In terms of the synergistic relationship, the degree of ordering of the two shows a sustained rising trend, and the degree of ordering of the marine economy development as a whole is higher than the MCC; the degree of synergy is increasing, but the general value of synergistic development is low. (3) The main factors driving the MCC and MEHD are the marine consumption capacity, the marine opening, and the marine industrial structure; the explanatory power of most factor interactions tends to decrease, and the explanatory power of the interactions among the development of land-based economy, the marine industry structure, and the marine economy increase, and the impacts of the different factor interactions on the synergistic development are all greater than the factors. The influence of different factors on synergistic development is greater than the influence of each factor alone.