GIS-based health assessment of the marine ecosystem in Laizhou Bay, China

According to 2014-2016 monitoring data, an assessment index system including water quality, depositional environment and ecosystem was built to evaluate the health statue of marine ecosystem in the Laizhou Bay using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. The results, spatialized in ArcGIS software, show: while the comprehensive ecological health index is 0.62, the ecological environmental quality in the Laizhou Bay is in a sub-healthy state; the unhealthy area is mainly concentrated in southwestern inshore region, and impacted by serious environmental problems, such as water eutrophication and heavy metal pollution; the northwestern and southeastern inshore regions are in a sub-healthy state, while the eastern inshore and northern areas are in the healthiest state. The land-based pollutants that discharge into the sea may be the leading factors that are causing ecological environment deterioration in the Laizhou Bay, and the reclamation work ongoing around the port has exacerbated the ecological risk.