The establishment of marine economy sustainable development index and its empirical research:a case study in Shanghai

With the constant marine exploitation and the worsening marine environment,it is crucial to evaluate the capability of the sustainable development of marine economy.However,few studies havebeenconductedtoestablish an index to describe the level of the sustainable development of marine economy.The purpose of this paper isto propose an index about the sustainable development of marine economy,namely MESDI.Four categories of indicators were used to establishthe sustainable development indicator system:regional development,marine economy,marine resources and environment,and marine talent and technology.A combination of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and grey correlation analysis (GRA) was applied in the weighting of the indicators.In addition,a case study was carried out to show how the MESDI was established and applied in Shanghai.The MESDI can be used to measure the level of the sustainable development of marine economy and to make longitudinal or horizontal comparison ofdifferent countries or areas.The results of the study may be useful todecision-makers.