An Improved Framework of Marine Major Function-Oriented Zoning in Advancing Ecosystem-Based Management

Abstract

Planning and zoning of marine areas is a common practice worldwide. In China, marine major function-oriented zoning (MMFOZ) is an effective geographical method for ensuring sustainable marine resource and ecosystems development; however, ecosystem-based management (EBM) has neither been considered in MMFOZ research nor in practice. Thus, the current MMFOZ evaluation system does not consider integration between the terrestrial and marine components, and the administrative boundaries are adopted as those of research areas and spatial zoning units. Here, an improved MMFOZ framework is presented through an ecosystem-based delimitation of the research area and subregions and a novel indicator system integrating land- and sea-based impacts, to assess and discriminate MMFOZ. A bay ecosystem and nearby land catchment units were selected as the research object. The results revealed two marine optimized development zones, one marine significant development zone, and six marine restricted development zones were divided, with areas of 358.11 km2 (24.63% of the total zoning area), 605.95 km2 (41.69%), and 489.54 km2 (33.68%), respectively. The improved MMFOZ framework coupled with EBM effectively addressed the limitations of marine spatial planning (MSP), while providing a new practical tool for a novel paradigm of sea governance based on an EBM–MSP coupling framework.