The basic science region of marine management boundary lines among different provinces within the extent at least of the territorial sea is of great means to promote the sustainable growth of China's marine economy. There are 11 provinces along the coastal regions of the Chinese Mainland, and the scientific division of marine management boundaries among different provinces within the extents of the territorial sea is of great importance in promoting the sustainability of China's marine economy. We conducted a case study of maritime boundary demarcation between Jiangsu and Shandong Provinces, and a fuzzy evaluation index system with 14 indices in three subsets was developed to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of maritime boundary delimitation, determine the optimal scheme, and address shortages in the current evaluation indicators and evaluation methods. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the entropy weight method were used to calculate the combined weights of indices. Three maritime border delimitation schemes, namely, the historical boundary delimitation scheme, angle bisector delimitation scheme, and equidistance delimitation scheme, were evaluated using the comprehensive evaluation indices. Results show that the equidistance delimitation scheme is relatively superior to the two other schemes. The evaluation index is 0.504761, and the evaluation grade is “good.” The second best delimitation scheme is the angle bisector. The grade is “moderate,” and the evaluation index is 0.361641. The most ineffective boundary delimitation scheme is the historical one. The grade is “bad,” and the evaluation index is 0.135345. More consideration should be given to people's livelihoods and the safeguarding of national marine rights and interests in the late optimization of maritime boundary delimitation schemes. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation technique based on AHP-entropy weight can help decision-makers choose the optimum scheme by providing a quantitative top-down sequence of schemes in terms of quality and solving estimate difficulties in maritime boundary delimitation schemes. As a result, it has a wide range of applications.
The ocean is the largest reservoir on Earth. With the scarcity of water resources, the destruction of the benign cycle of the marine ecosystem would seriously impact people’s quality of life and health. Oyster reefs, the world’s most endangered marine ecosystems, have been recognized as a global issue due to their numerous essential ecological functions and provision of various ecosystem services. As a result, interest in oyster reef research has been steadily increasing worldwide in recent decades. The goal of this study is to assess the knowledge structure, development trends, research hotspots, and frontier predictions of the global oyster reef research field. Based on 1051 articles selected from the Web of Science Core Collection from 1981 to 2022, this paper conducted a visual analysis of oyster reef ecosystems conservation, restoration, and management. Specifically, it examined research output characteristics, research cooperation networks, highly cited papers and core journals, and keywords. Results indicate a steady rise in research interest in oyster reefs over the past 40 years, with notable acceleration after 2014. Authoritative experts and high-impact organizations were also identified. This paper outlines habitat conservation and restoration, ecosystem services, and the impacts of climate change as the primary research hotspots and frontiers. This paper provides valuable guidance for scholars and regulators concerned about oyster reef conservation to conduct research on oyster reefs.
China is rich in oyster resources and has a long history of oyster aquaculture. Various forms of oyster aquaculture coexist in the coastal regions of China, which are dominated by raft aquaculture and long-line aquaculture. The objective of this study is to assess the environmental sustainability of the oyster aquaculture systems located in Jiantiao Bay, Zhejiang province, China. Emergy synthesis is used in the study to quantify the contributions of the natural and economic inputs to the oyster aquaculture systems, in order to better understand the sustainability. The results show that the raft oyster aquaculture system was high in emergy inputs and yield per unit area, whereas the long-line oyster aquaculture system was low in emergy inputs and yield per unit area. However, the transformities of the oysters from the raft oyster aquaculture system and the long-line aquaculture were similar, reflecting that both systems had a similar efficiency in using natural and economic resources. The oyster aquaculture systems had a different impact on the environment as inferred from the emergy indicators. The higher emergy yield ratio and low emergy loading ratio in the long-line oyster aquaculture system suggest that the system could gain more net benefit, and had a lower impact on the surrounding environment, than raft oyster aquaculture system, and can been considered to be more sustainable. Nevertheless, oyster aquaculture was a labor-intensive process and relied highly on purchased resources, such as labor and construction materials. If the construction materials could be used for a longer time, the oyster aquaculture systems might be more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
The manuscript adopts the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the methodologies and critical factors influencing the site selection for offshore photovoltaic (PV) projects. The study innovatively proposes a three-stage site selection method model of “exclusion–optimization–correction” and a four-dimensional factor framework, which encompasses “technology, economy, environment, and policy.” The study underscores the pivotal roles of solar radiation, water depth, and grid connection conditions in site selection, while also highlighting the “veto” impact of military exclusion zones and ecological redlines. Additionally, it identifies the challenges associated with data acquisition and standardization in site selection, advocates for the establishment of standardized assessment procedures, and offers theoretical underpinnings and decision-making guidance for the rational site selection of offshore PV projects.
The scarcity of land resources has become a bottleneck restricting the development of photovoltaic (PV) energy, and it is imperative to expand PV layout into the ocean. However, existing studies lack a refined site selection framework for large-scale sea areas. This study takes the Northwest Pacific coastal waters as the research area and constructs a three-stage evaluation framework for the suitability of offshore PV site selection, which includes “resource potential–spatial exclusion–multi-criteria assessment”. The results show that the theoretical power generation potential is generally “higher in the south and lower in the north”, with some deviations in local areas due to differences in temperature and wind speed. Only 4.3% of the sea area is feasible for development. The high-suitability areas are concentrated in the southeast coast of Vietnam and the northwest side of Taiwan Island. The South China Sea has superior development potential, while the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea are relatively less suitable. This study generates the first offshore PV site selection map covering the research area, providing a scientific basis for the formulation of differentiated development strategies for regional offshore PV. It has important practical value for promoting the sustainable development of blue energy.
8 February 2025 in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment