Sustainable development in marine economy: Assessing carrying capacity of Shandong province in China

The sustainable development of the marine economy has drawn increasing attention from all the countries of the world. This paper proposes a marine ecological carrying capacity framework that uses the AHP-entropy based TOPSIS method to carry out a multi-angle evaluation of marine ecological carrying capacity. Using the data from Shandong province in China between 2008 and 2017, the dynamic analysis is undertaken. The results showed that the carrying capacity in Shandong province presented a varying trend between 2008 and 2017. Specifically, it declined from 2008 to 2012, with the index value falling from 0.52 to 0.34. From 2013, the carrying capacity gradually increased; nonetheless, the overall value was still at a low level before 2015. The marine ecological carrying capacity increased rapidly in the last two years and reached its optimum (0.53) in 2017. Further investigation found that population growth, increased number of tourists, and industrial pollution were the leading causes of declining carrying capacity. These findings provide valuable insights into the study of carrying capacity and policy implications for achieving sustainable development in the marine sector.