ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.

Sec. Marine Pollution

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1610100

This article is part of the Research TopicStrategies for Remediating Marine and Coastal Pollution towards a Sustainable DevelopmentView all articles

A study of the Impact of Environmental Regulation on Land-Based Marine Pollution-Evidence from 11 Coastal Provinces in China

Provisionally accepted
Hui  WuHui Wu1*Zhou  XianlaiZhou Xianlai2Wang  YanfenWang Yanfen3
  • 1shanghai maritime university, Shanghai, China
  • 2Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 3Shangqiu Normal University, Shangqiu, Henan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Based on panel data on Land-Based Marine Pollution from 11 coastal provinces in China spanning 2012 to 2023, this study employs Fixed-Effects, Threshold Regression, and Mediation Models to investigate the impact of Environmental Regulation on Land-Based Marine Pollution. The results show that: (1) there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between Environmental Regulation and Land-Based Marine Pollution, where regulation beyond a certain threshold continuously reduces pollution levels; (2) threshold regression analysis reveals a single threshold effect in the negative impact of Environmental Regulation on the management of Land-Based Marine Pollution; (3) mediation analysis indicates that Green Technological Innovation and Industrial Structure play a mediating role between Environmental Regulation and pollution management. Specifically, Environmental Regulation reduces Land-Based Marine Pollution by promoting Green Innovation in enterprises and facilitating Industrial upgrading. To improve the management of Land-Based Marine Pollution in China, it is recommended to appropriately strengthen Environmental Regulation intensity and encourage enterprises to engage in Green Technological Innovation and Industrial restructuring, thus balancing environmental management with economic development and providing a scientific basis for pollution control.

Keywords: environmental regulation1, Land-Based Marine Pollution2, Marine Environmental Protection3, Synergistic Governance4, Green Technology Innovation5, Industrial Structure6

Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Xianlai and Yanfen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Hui Wu, shanghai maritime university, Shanghai, China

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