Abstract Extreme temperature shocks driven by global climate change pose a huge challenge to the sustainable development of global urban systems. The resilience of coastal cities to such shocks directly determines the country’s overall capacity for long-term climate change adaptation. Based on the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework, this study constructed a multilevel evaluation index system for coastal urban resilience and measured the resilience level of China’s coastal cities using the entropy weight method. We employed China’s high-resolution gridded meteorological data from 2007 to 2020, constructed a panel fixed effects model with multiple temperature bins to identify the nonlinear impact of temperature shocks on coastal urban resilience, and explored its underlying transmission mechanisms through dimensionality decomposition of the PSR framework. The main findings are as follows: First, during the study period, the resilience of China’s coastal cities exhibits a significant long-term upward trend, with continuously enhanced overall adaptive capacity and shock resistance, but it remains sensitive to short-term systemic shocks. Second, temperature shocks induce significant nonlinear and asymmetric effects on coastal urban resilience. Sustained moderately high temperature in the (25 °C, 30 °C] interval has a significantly negative impact on urban resilience at the 1% statistical level, while extreme high temperature (> 30 °C) has a statistically insignificant impact. In contrast, extreme low temperature intervals (− 10 °C, − 5 °C] and ≤ 10 °C show stronger negative shocks, with the absolute value of the effect significantly larger than that of moderately high temperature, forming a key weak link in climate risk prevention and control for China’s coastal cities. Furthermore, temperature shocks affect coastal urban resilience through differentiated transmission paths: Moderately high temperature undermines resilience through simultaneous negative effects on the PSR dimensions. The adverse impact of moderate warming is mainly concentrated in the pressure dimension, while extreme low temperature exerts a more extensive and intense destructive effect through the whole chain of the three PSR subsystems. Finally, a series of robustness tests, including excluding specific temperature bins, narrowing the sample period, and removing special year observations, consistently confirmed the high stability and reliability of the baseline results. This study enriches the theoretical and empirical research on extreme climate and urban climate resilience. It provides a scientific basis for formulating differentiated climate adaptation policies for China’s coastal cities and improving their spatial resilience. Furthermore, it offers valuable insights for global coastal regions to advance sustainable urban development amid climate change.
Abstract Indonesia is an archipelagic country that relies heavily on maritime transportation. Among its five main islands, Java serves as a central hub for this transportation. As maritime transportation has developed, land use in coastal areas has changed, transforming intact vegetation into settlements and other uses. This vessel traffic, combined with land use changes, may impact water quality and macrobenthic communities. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of land use and vessel traffic on water quality and macrobenthic communities, particularly in eastern East Java. This area experiences considerable vessel traffic from Kalimantan, Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands, and Papua. Simultaneously, its coastal areas have been transformed from intact vegetation into fishponds and settlements. Fifteen sites were selected for this study, with five sites representing each land use type. The results indicate decreasing water dissolved oxygen and pH levels and increasing temperature along the gradient from vegetated areas to fishponds and urban developments. Likewise, macrobenthic biomass declined along this gradient. Vessel traffic also contributed to the reduction in macrobenthic abundance. This study enhances our understanding of the relationships among land use, vessel traffic, and macrobenthic communities, highlighting the importance of coastal management that regulates coastal development and limits land use conversion and vessel traffic.
Coastal urban communities are increasingly affected by climate change-induced stressors which interact with poverty, informal housing, and fragile service systems to shape women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). However, these outcomes remain largely under examined in climate adaptation and resilience research in Ghana. A cross-sectional survey of 387 women aged 18–35 years in coastal communities was conducted in the Effutu Municipality of Ghana. Six climate-related stressors (excessive heat, flooding, income loss, food insecurity, disruption of sexual and reproductive health services, and displacement) were examined in relation to four domains of SRHR (reproductive autonomy and fertility control, maternal health and service continuity, sexual safety and privacy, and psychosocial and bodily wellbeing). Multivariate logistic regression models were employed to assess association, adjusting for relevant sociodemographic factors. The findings show that economic and service-related stressors were the strongest predictors of SRHR disruptions. Loss of income (OR = 1.88; 95
The degradation of coastal blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) is progressing rapidly, raising environmental concerns. The sustainable restoration of BCE faces formidable challenges, mainly due to the uncertainties of blue carbon benefits and the inadequacy of existing government incentives. This study proposes ‘carrot-and-stick’ incentive schemes through an evolutionary game approach grounded in the blueprint of eco-environment-oriented development (EOD). Given enterprises’ bounded rationality, this study reshapes their decision-making by applying the framing effect theory. Further, the optimal implementation timing of the incentive schemes was explored by embedding the Lotka–Volterra model into the evolutionary game model. Through empirical simulation of the EOD case in China, the study reveals that the ecological restoration of BCE proceeds through three stages: The initial, middle, and mature stages. The findings suggest that the government adopt phased incentive measures, starting with ‘more subsidies and fewer penalties’ in the initial stage and transition to ‘fewer subsidies and more penalties’ in the middle stage. Finally, they should implement ‘moderate levels of both subsidies and penalties’ before eventually phasing out the incentives. Furthermore, the rising quantity and price of blue carbon, along with a positive information frame, drive enterprises’ participation in ecological restoration. Moreover, China should formulate stage-based ‘carrot-and-stick’ incentives, accelerate the development of the blue carbon market, and flexibly regulate the information frame. This study provides reference values for policy and strategy formulation to promote the development of BCE ecological restoration.
Abstract Managing plastic waste is an increasing challenge for small-island tourism destinations because of limited infrastructure, rising tourist activities, and vulnerable marine ecosystems. This study focuses on plastic as the most persistent and environmentally harmful waste component, aiming to develop and validate a community-based, multi-stakeholder plastic waste management framework for Sabang Island, Indonesia. A sequential mixed-methods approach was used, combining surveys (n > 450), in-depth interviews (25 key informants), focus group discussions (6 sessions), and direct observations over three months. Quantitative analysis with IBM’s Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) assessed stakeholder perceptions and priorities regarding plastic waste management, while qualitative data provided contextual insights. The results show that 42% of respondents rated current plastic waste conditions as very poor and 31% as poor. Tourism activities, local businesses, and inadequate infrastructure were identified as the main sources of plastic waste. Key barriers include limited infrastructure (85%), lack of awareness (78%), financial constraints (72%), and weak stakeholder coordination (73%). Despite these obstacles, stakeholders strongly supported plastic waste separation (95%), education campaigns (92%), and recycling initiatives (90%). These findings not only demonstrate significant community readiness but also highlight systemic and governance challenges that need to be addressed. The study offers an empirically grounded and replicable community-based plastic waste management framework to promote sustainable tourism in small island settings.
Energy poverty remains a critical challenge in Africa, particularly in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) subregion, where reliance on hydropower, fossil fuels, and limited solar photovoltaic capacity fails to meet the rapidly increasing energy demands of urban and industrial centers. This paper investigates the potential of marine renewable energy (MRE) as a sustainable approach to the GoG’s energy deficit, emphasizing the importance of transnational cooperation among the region’s coastal states. Drawing on comparative and empirical methods, the study examines successful European models of MRE development, focusing on the North Sea and Baltic Sea macro-regions, to identify lessons that can be adapted to the GoG context. The findings indicate that coordinated regional efforts to harness offshore wind, wave, tidal, and floating solar energy—when tailored to local geography and climate—can significantly enhance energy security, reduce costs, and drive the blue economy. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for strengthening subregional collaboration, fostering technology transfer, and aligning initiatives with international frameworks to accelerate the development and deployment of sustainable ocean energy in the GoG.
Abstract Oil spills pose severe threats to marine ecosystems. Insufficient attention has been paid to the hydrocarbon components and sulfur, nitrogen, silicon, and metal elements in these oil spills, despite the significant environmental risks. This study investigated the weathering behavior of these elements in Omani crude oil, gasoline with a research octane number of 95 (GB 17930; hereafter 95 RON gasoline), and China Grade 0 automotive diesel fuel (GB 19147; hereafter grade 0 diesel) using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), while concurrently evaluating the stability ratio of the non-aromatics to total aromatics (NA/TA) via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with normalization. The results demonstrated that the density increased across all three oils during weathering, with 95 RON gasoline showing the largest increase (12.44% with artificial seawater by day 7), followed by Omani crude oil (4.94%), and grade 0 diesel (0.34%). The presence of artificial seawater significantly accelerated the density changes through emulsification effects. The sulfur content in Omani crude oil increased by 35.59% in the presence of artificial seawater, whereas that of 95 RON gasoline decreased by 32.99% without seawater but showed complex fluctuations with seawater. In contrast, grade 0 diesel remained stable throughout weathering (6.45% increase with seawater), attributed to the predominance of heavy sulfur compounds. The nitrogen content of Omani crude oil increased by 15.74% with artificial seawater, compared to a substantial increase of 131.91% for 95 RON gasoline. The nitrogen content of grade 0 diesel fluctuated minimally owing to the stable carbazole compounds. The NA/TA ratio indicated weathering stability for crude oil (1.82–2.03) and gasoline (0.12–0.20 after day 3), establishing this metric as a reliable diagnostic indicator for identifying the type of oil spill, with a simpler sample preparation and shorter analysis time compared to traditional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) methods. Among the other elements, the content of the metalloid silicon decreased rapidly on day 1 and stabilized thereafter. Calcium was detected at the highest concentration, and its relative concentration gradually increased with weathering. The concentration of vanadium in gasoline and diesel increased with the weathering time, whereas the chromium content of gasoline decreased, contrasting with the patterns for crude oil, owing to the refining processes. Correlation analysis revealed that the calcium content was positively correlated with the density, Sulfur (S), Nitrogen (N), NA/TA, and multiple metal elements in crude oil, whereas the vanadium content was negatively correlated with the density and several metals. These findings provide critical data for environmental remediation strategies and for enhancing oil spill traceability identification systems by incorporating non-hydrocarbon components as complementary diagnostic indicators.
Sea level rise exacerbates flood risk for coastal communities globally. Multiple studies have shown that significant property values are already at risk this century, especially in high-emission scenarios. Thus, sea level rise poses major challenges that cannot be effectively addressed by many existing flood risk management methods. Some challenges include managing uncertainties, time dependence, and the interplay between mean sea level rise and extremes. Here, these components are integrated into a joint probabilistic framework, with the novelty of the approach being the direct connection of these factors to economic risk. The resulting framework provides a probabilistic assessment of flooding loss conditioned on user-defined emission scenario probabilities. The framework fits well as a tool for risk assessment, uncertainty quantification, and decision support. A major takeaway is that the risk increase accelerates with warming. Another takeaway is that the objectivity of flood risk assessments decreases significantly with increasing assessment length, with flood risk becoming more dependent on mean sea level change. The framework requires only readily available data and an open source model, enabling better-informed risk assessments through improved data utilization. The framework is validated using data from Kalmar city, one of Sweden’s oldest cities, located in the south and known for its rich cultural heritage.
Seafloor microtopography, resulting from interactions between water flow and sediment, exhibits distinctive ripple patterns. Accurately predicting the geometry of these ripples is crucial for simulating the dynamics of the bottom boundary layer and sediment transport. This study introduces a seafloor microtopography observation system using profiling sonar technology. A set of methods and procedures are proposed for processing point cloud data related to seafloor microtopography, ultimately constructing a high-precision three-dimensional model. An experiment of dynamic changes in the microtopography of a sandy seabed utilizing this system and model was conducted within an indoor water tank. A suspended mud layer was identified at the seabed bottom, and changes in sand ripples were observed. The ripples formed during this experiment exhibited characteristics of symmetrical sinusoidal patterns with a ripple height less than 2 mm and a steepness not exceeding 0.1. The relationship between ripple height (H) and wavelength (L) followed the equation H = 0.00158L0.0743. The impact of waves on seafloor microtopography is primarily manifested in two aspects. First, under wave action, sediment particles on a flat seabed or ripples with a height below 1.5 mm underwent movement or suspension, potentially leading to an increase in ripple scale or erosion and the disappearance of ripples. Second, ripples with a height exceeding 1.5 mm were dominated by wave-induced erosion, preventing the formation of larger-scale ripples. These findings provide guidance for the identification of marine microtopographic features and changes in the marine environment.
Distance is crucial to inbound tourism for islands that depend heavily on external connectivity. While the concept of distance has expanded into a multidimensional construct, its complex dynamic effects across multiple dimensions remain underexplored, particularly in island contexts. This study investigates how multidimensional distance influences inbound tourism volume (ITV) to Hainan Island, China. We innovatively integrate the cultural, administrative, geographic, and economic distance framework with the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag model. Using panel data from 22 countries covering 2008–2023, we estimate short-run dynamics and long-run effects. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity: Cultural distance exerts a significant positive long-run effect, indicating cultural novelty attracts international tourists. Conversely, economic, administrative, and geographic distances show significant inhibitory effects, reflecting persistent market, institutional, and spatial barriers. Short-run effects broadly mirror long-run dynamics, with ITV showing path dependence. This study introduces an integrated framework for island tourism research and provides a policy matrix for destination management.
As part of the plan to implement China’s maritime power strategy and advance its Belt and Road Initiative, the development of a Global Maritime Dispute Resolution Center (GMDRC) in Qingdao has attracted increasing attention from scholars and policymakers. This study examines Qingdao to assess the conditions, challenges, and development prospects for building a GMDRC within China’s evolving maritime governance framework. Drawing on a problem-oriented and functional analytical approach, the paper analyzes Qingdao’s institutional foundations, maritime legal service capacity, and participation in global maritime governance. At the same time, it identifies key structural challenges in high-end legal services, foreign-related legal talent, and the integration of dispute resolution mechanisms. The findings suggest that, although it possesses significant economic and institutional advantages, Qingdao’s development as a GMDRC is still constrained by structural and professional factors. At the same time, the analysis highlights potential development pathways focused on strengthening institutional coordination, enhancing professional legal service capacity, and integrating dispute resolution mechanisms in line with international practice. By situating Qingdao’s experience within a comparative and institutional context, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the conditions under which emerging maritime cities may enhance their role in global maritime dispute resolution.
Investment decisions in the marine economy are highly sensitive to policy-driven uncertainty because marine-related projects are typically capital-intensive, long-lasting, and partially irreversible. Using a panel of China’s A-share listed firms in the marine sector from 2014 to 2023, this study examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on corporate investment behavior, as measured by investment expenditure and investment efficiency, and analyzes whether this relationship is moderated by investment irreversibility and financial frictions. Panel regression results show that higher EPU notably lowers investment expenditure and efficiency, indicating that policy uncertainty discourages capital formation and weakens resource allocation in marine-related industries. Moderation analyses further show that investment irreversibility reduces EPU’s negative effects on both investment expenditure and efficiency, consistent with the idea that firms with more irreversible capital exhibit more stable investment trajectories. In contrast, financial frictions proxied by leverage intensify the EPU’s negative impact on investment expenditure while partially reducing the adverse effect on investment efficiency. This suggests that debt pressure discourages marginal or inefficient projects during uncertain times. Overall, this study enhances our understanding of how policy uncertainty reshapes firms’ capital allocation in the marine economy and offers practical insights for policymakers and corporate decision-makers seeking to stabilize investment and improve its quality under uncertain policy environments.
Coastal bays face both acute environmental pressures and institutional fragmentation, yet just how effective cross-departmental collaboration can emerge in what remain strongly hierarchical systems remains insufficiently understood. This article analyzes China’s Bay Chief System through the study of Lingshan Bay in Qingdao, which has undergone a widely recognized transformation from a heavily polluted problem bay to a national Beautiful Bay. We develop the concept of a responsibility community and situate it within a framework of authoritarian collaborative governance, arguing that hierarchical authority, resources, and legitimacy can be coupled institutionally to catalyse and sustain collaboration in a state-centric context. Empirically, the study draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted between 2022 and 2025, including semistructured interviews with officials and local stakeholders, the examination of policy and administrative documents, and field observation. Using within-case process tracing and thematic coding, we identify four mechanisms through which the Bay Chief System operates: High-level drive, horizontal integration, vertical integration, and social embedding. These mechanisms link institutional design features, such as nondelegable responsibility for the Bay Chiefs, Bay Chief Offices, data platforms, and participation arrangements, to changes in coordination practices and ecological outcomes. The analysis shows that hierarchy can function as a catalyst for collaboration when it establishes clear centers of responsibility, is backed by appropriate organizational and financial resources and is reinforced by performance-based legitimacy, but this study also highlights vulnerabilities related to leadership dependence, metric-based distortions, and restricted civic participation. The study concludes by specifying the scope conditions under which the responsibility community model is likely to be effective and discusses its implications and limits for the design of cross-jurisdictional environmental governance in China and beyond.
As the International Maritime Organization (IMO) continues to tighten its emission regulations to control shipping-related pollution, forecasting ship pollutant emission intensity has become an essential prerequisite for evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation measures and ensuring industry compliance. This study aims to identify an optimal model for maritime emission forecasting by comparing the performance of multiple predictive models. Moreover, in conjunction with IMO’s emission-reduction targets, this work aims to evaluate the effectiveness of current reduction policies. Using daily time-series data, the performances of the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average with exogenous factors (SARIMAX) model, the Prophet model, the long short-term memory (LSTM) network, and the Holt–Winters model in forecasting ship emission data are compared. The findings indicate the following: (1) The LSTM model exhibits broad applicability in forecasting shipping emissions; (2) shipping-related CO₂ emissions are expected to reach 549 million tons by 2030; and (3) under the dual regulatory framework of the Energy Efficiency Design Index and Carbon Intensity Indicator, the shipping industry is expected to successfully pass its first temporal checkpoint.
Water quality criteria (WQC) serve as the scientific foundation for protecting aquatic ecosystems and informing regulatory standards. Over the past decade, China has shifted from relying on foreign benchmarks to developing a more ecologically and regionally relevant WQC framework. This study reviews the technical framework, methodological advances, and current research on the development of marine WQC in China, focusing particularly on metals. In line with the marine technical guidelines from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE, HJ 1260–2022), China has officially adopted the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) approach as the national standard for criteria development. Key steps in the progress—including scoping, data acquisition, toxicity data preprocessing, model fitting, and criterion calculation—are detailed. Recent studies on lead (Pb), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), and nanosized metals demonstrate rapid methodological refinement, integrating international models such as the SSD, biotic ligand model (BLM), and multiple linear regression (MLR) with datasets from native species and local water chemistries. However, challenges such as limited chronic and early-life toxicity data for ecologically critical taxa, incomplete integration of toxicity-modifying factors (TMFs), and insufficient validation across diverse ecosystems remain. Future WQC development in China should be structured around three core elements: (1) Expanding chronic toxicity datasets for representative resident species and sensitive life stages; (2) incorporating TMF normalization using empirical and mechanistic approaches to generate chemistry-aware criteria; and (3) validating laboratory benchmarks under field-realistic conditions, supported by a curated national toxicity database. These advancements will enable China to produce WQC that are scientifically defensible, nationally applicable, and regionally adaptable, providing a robust foundation for sustainable aquatic management in an era of accelerating environmental changes.
Using a genealogical approach, this study examines the core dilemmas and paradigm reconstruction in global ocean governance theory amid technological change. It argues that the Western theoretical spectrum, represented by realism, liberalism, and constructivism, exhibits a structural crisis of explanation when confronting systemic risks catalyzed by disruptive technologies, due to its inherent epistemological and normative limitations. This theoretical vacuum creates a historical opening for the potential emergence of complementary and competing frameworks. Against this backdrop, the study elaborates on the Chinese proposal of a Maritime Community with a Shared Future and its core principles. It positions this concept as a systematic paradigmatic innovation that seeks to transcend current Western dilemmas by integrating their insights into a new philosophical foundation. By examining three practical pathways—global legislation, regional cooperation, and technology governance—the applicability and effectiveness of the framework are validated, highlighting the role of Chinese mid-range theories as important cognitive tools for navigating governance complexity. It concludes that the genealogical value of a Maritime Community with a Shared Future lies in providing a new benchmark for evaluating state conduct and steering global ocean institutions toward a more just and sustainable future.
Through continuous practical exploration and optimization, the marine environmental governance system has become increasingly refined, embodying the concepts of stable structure, effective organization, and value-added efficiency. Marine environmental governance is gradually shifting toward collaborative governance, in which multiple stakeholders and complex interest relationships interact within governance actions. In response, this study employs a case study approach and in-depth interviews, drawing on collaborative governance theory and participation ladder theory, and integrates the practical experience of marine environmental governance in Qingdao City to construct a ‘structure–process’ analytical framework. The research finds that, based on the case of fishermen’s participation in green tide cleanup in Qingdao, their current involvement in marine environmental governance displays characteristics of institutionalization, digitalization, and organizational structuring. In practice, local governments mobilize societal participation through an administrative contracting system embedded in a bureaucratic hierarchy. Through empirical examination of structural and procedural dimensions, and by identifying pathways to strengthen multi-stakeholder participation, this study contributes to the formation of governance synergy, the enhancement of governance efficiency, and the advancement of a fully inclusive marine environmental governance system. It thus holds significant theoretical and practical implications for improving the effectiveness of marine environmental governance.
Marine ecosystem services (MES) provide food, a comfortable environment, and recreational value to humans, but they are increasingly being degraded by human overexploitation and utilization. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a critical means of safeguarding ecosystem services. Based on the logical relationship between the ecosystem service value of MPAs and ecological protection compensation, this study calculates the ecosystem service value of the provincial seal nature reserve in China’s Miaodao Islands and analyzes the compositional characteristics and spatiotemporal changes of this value, from which a scientifically grounded ecological compensation standard is established. This article highlights that, within MPAs, the proportion of material ecological products capable of achieving market value transformation remains relatively low. Conversely, the value of regulating, supporting, and underdeveloped cultural services—those yet to undergo market value realization—constitutes a comparatively higher proportion. Therefore, the establishment of MPAs can affect the composition of ecosystem service values in the region, thereby threatening the equal development rights of various stakeholders. This study concludes that when the level of economic development remains constant, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), the greater the value of ecosystem services that cannot be converted into market value, the higher the priority for ecological protection compensation. Consequently, there is a greater demand for and a higher amount of ecological compensation. The main contribution of this research is the establishment of a strong correlation between the benefits of ecological protection and the entities responsible for compensating for ecological protection.
Marine new-quality productivity is the key driver of China’s high-quality marine economic growth. Based on the three-dimensional reconfiguration of ‘knowledgeable laborers, intelligent labor materials, and high-valued labor objects’, this study defines its core connotation. We selected 11 coastal province-level regions in China from 2010 to 2023 to assess the development level of marine new-quality productivity and examined its spatiotemporal evolution from an economic geography perspective. The main findings are as follows: First, during the study period, the marine new-quality productivity in China’s coastal areas remained in nascent stages of development but with a steady upward trend. The development levels of all components also maintained positive growth. Furthermore, the spatial pattern of ‘eastern marine economic circle > northern marine economic circle > southern marine economic circle’ remains largely stable, while regional imbalances are still prominent. Finally, the development of marine new-quality productivity is a slow process with a strong and stable level distribution, which tends to transfer upward. The Chinese case study offers valuable insights into the development of marine economies in other regions worldwide.
International submarine cables support vital global interests, carrying huge volumes of international communications traffic, and states are becoming increasingly reliant on them. Against a backdrop of escalating international competition, both traditional and non-traditional security risks to these cables have increased markedly. Conversely, the relevant legal framework remains underdeveloped and inadequate to address the risks of willful or culpably negligent damage to international submarine cables located in exclusive economic zones, on the continental shelf, and on the high seas. This study analyzes the two main categories of perpetrators of willful or culpably negligent damage to submarine cables—states or state-sponsored actors and non-state actors—and the associated challenges to international law. It examines the deficiencies in the relevant international law across three dimensions: Jurisdiction, standards for establishing offenses, and liability for compensation. Building on this analysis, the study proposes avenues for refining the corresponding international legal regulations in three key areas: Improving jurisdictional models, clarifying the definition of offenses and their constituent elements and standards, and establishing victim complaint channels.
