Problems and countermeasures of coastline protection and utilization in China

The coastline serves as a space carrier of marine economic development in coastal areas, and is an important platform for protecting marine environments and maintaining ecological balance. The integral components of a natural coastline have important ecological functions. In addition to the excessive economic development in China's coastal areas since the 1990s, other problems have occurred such as: a sharp decrease in natural coast due to the artificialization of mainland coastline, inefficient utilization of coastline resources by unplanned projects, weak legal enforcement by an imperfect management system, and impaired coastal functional value. By analyzing problems arising from the protection and utilization of China's coastline in the past 30 years, this paper reviews the relevant policies and regulations in China's marine administration. These issues are approached from the perspectives of an ecosystem, refined management of marine resources, scientific planning and natural coastline protection. The results indicate an improvement in the ecological environment through the introduction of multiple management systems. For instance, the natural coastline of China is currently decreasing at a rate slower than in 2008, and has a stable retention rate. Additionally, the over-exploitation of coastline has been curbed with a scientific and rational allocation of coastline resources; ecological problems such as coastal erosion, beach and coastal wetland degradation have been improved. The introduction of relevant policies, including, “Regulations on the Management of Coastline Protection and Utilization” fundamentally changed the passive decentralized management model. An initial institutional system that is in line with the protection and utilization status of China's coastline has been formed. Simultaneously, all levels of China's marine management departments are exploring and improving the coastline management system. Ultimately, this will provide valuable experience and practice in the protection and utilization of coastline for coastal countries across the world.