ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Affairs and Policy
This article is part of the Research TopicChallenges and Solutions in Forecasting and Decision-Making in Marine Economy and Management, Volume IIView all 17 articles
A Seashore Vitality Assessment Framework for Blue Economy Growth Evaluation in Coastal Cities: The Case of Wuyuan Bay, Xiamen
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
- 2Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, China
- 3Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen, China
- 4Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China
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The "blue economy" is an invaluable part in the pursuit of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG14), with China's active engagement holding significant implications for global marine governance. However, a quantitative, regionally scaled "bottom-up" assessment framework for blue economy growth and actionable implementation strategies remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap by first utilizing a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis to identify the marine development direction of Wuyuan Bay. Subsequently, a novel Seashore Vitality Assessment (SVA) framework, integrated with the Gray Relation Analysis (GRA) method, is constructed to inform Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) for sustainable development. Applied to the typical case of Wuyuan Bay, this framework effectively measures the blue economy growth level of coastal zones. The SVA results unveil that economic vitality, particularly in sea areas, is the primary factor limiting blue economy growth, highlighting MSP as the most effective pathway for enhancement, tailored by distinct seashore types. The derived marine development direction for Wuyuan Bay is "ecology + tourism + sports", leading to four comprehensive MSP strategies. This study contributes by filling a critical research gap in city vitality assessment within marine and coastal zones, emphasizing the integrated land-sea interface and the spillover effects of marine influences. The framework's simplicity and effectiveness offer a valuable reference for other regions in formulating blue economy growth plans and fostering multi-stakeholder benefits. Future research should deepen data analysis through longitudinal datasets and advanced statistical modeling, systematically incorporate cultural vitality metrics using diverse data sources including statistical yearbooks and web search indices, and consider the effectiveness evaluation and adaptive regulatory schemes for MSP.
Keywords: blue economy, Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), Seashore Vibrancy/Vitality, Gray relation analysis, sustainable development
Received: 27 Jul 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Huang, Xue, Lin, Zhang, Xu and Song. 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:
Faming Huang, huangfaming@tio.org.cn
Xiongzhi Xue, xzxue@xmu.edu.cn
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