Evaluation of the ecological sensitivity and security of tidal flats in Shanghai

As the data acquisition is difficult, not only the ecological sensitivity study of tidal flats is relatively less, moreover, ecological sensitivity analysis is rarely correlated with ecological safety evaluation, and the temporal and spatial correlation of adjacent mudflats is rarely focused on. In the present study, we build a new index system integrated biological, ecological process and development and utilization sensitivities, to evaluate the ecological sensitivity of the seven main tidal flats of Shanghai. Then, we associate ecological sensitivity with ecological security and construct an index system for evaluating their ecological security based on the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model, using the entropy method and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the weights. The results were as follows: (1) Chongming East beach and Jiuduansha are the highly ecologically sensitive type, Chongming North beach and Nanhui beach are the medium ecologically sensitive type, Hengsha and Changxing beaches are the relatively low ecological sensitive type, and the North beach along Hangzhou Bay is the low ecological sensitive type. The ecological security indices of these seven beaches from high to low are: Chongming East, Jiuduansha, Changxing, North beach along Hangzhou Bay, Hengsha, Chongming North and Nanhui. (2) There is a close relationship between the ecological sensitivity and ecological security index of the tidal flats. (3) There is the temporal and spatial relevance of adjacent tidal flats.