Evaluation Method to Assess Coastal Ecology Level: A Case of a Typical Coast in Tianjin, China

Coastal zones are land-sea material and energy interaction areas that witness intense and frequent human activities. These areas have abundant resources, great development potential, and important ecological and social significance. However, the coasts have been damaged and hardened due to human activities’ long-term effects, causing many ecological and environmental problems. Thus, improving the ecological level of coastal zones is the key to effectively solving these problems. Based on the characteristics of each sub-part of the coast, this study summarizes a combination of various types of coastal ecological scenarios and establishes a complete set of coastal ecological level evaluation methods. Using nine typical coasts of three types in Tianjin as the research object, we obtained ecological information data using “the coastal cross-section survey method,” evaluated the ecological level and ecological index values of each sub-part, and provided the ecological rating for each section of the coast. The results of this study indicated that the ecological level of the living coast in all evaluated types of coast sections is generally high. The ecological levels of the Beitang coast section of Yongding New River and the western coast section of Nandi Coastal walkway Park are relatively excellent. The ecological level of the fishery coast is the second-highest; in particular, the level of the northern and eastern coast sections of Mapengkou are at a relatively general level. The overall ecological level of the general defense coast is poor. In summary, the evaluation method was effectively applied to assess the ecological level of each typical coast in Tianjin and provided a reference for the regional coastal ecological assessment method.