A quadratic fuzzy relative evaluation approach for the high-quality development of marine economy

Abstract

The ocean plays a crucial role in human society’s survival and development. While China’s marine economy has grown rapidly in recent years, it has also led to serious problems inhibiting ecosystem sustainability. This paper proposes high-quality development of the marine economy and combines the improved entropy value method, fuzzy hierarchical analysis method (FAHP), and data envelopment analysis (DEA) method to establish a quadratic relative evaluation model. A two-layer comprehensive index framework with 19 indicators is built to measure various aspects of the marine economy, including innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing. Empirical analysis conducted on 11 coastal provinces in China using data mainly collected from the Chinese Statistical Yearbook reveals significant spatial patchiness in the high-quality development level of the marine economy. This discrepancy is largely due to differences in geographical locations, resources, and government policies. The study analyzes four benchmark provinces of high-quality development and summarizes their experiences. The paper concludes by providing suggestions and implications to support government decision-making.