Selection and Application of Bohai Sea Environmental Governance Policy Instrumental: A Quantitative Analysis Based on Policy Text (1996–2022)

Abstract

The Bohai Sea is the only inland sea in China and serves as an important carrier for the Bohai Sea Economic Zone. However, it is also one of the areas with serious marine environmental pollution. This paper selects the policy text concerning Marine environmental pollution control issued by the central and local governments from 1996 to 2022 as the research object. Based on the three policy instruments of government environmental regulation, market incentive mechanisms and public participation, and using a content analysis method to encode and quantify the text content, it was found that the Bohai Sea marine environmental governance suffers from issues such as a singular concept of the use of policy instruments, imbalance in the proportion of their use, and insufficient supervision in the event of their use. Consequently, it is recommended to adopt diversified policy concepts, optimize the structure of policy instruments, and strengthen in-process supervision in the governance of the Bohai Sea marine environment.