Zhao, W.; Zhao. G.; Yang, J.; Xu, M., and Kou, J., 2020. Assessment of the ecological security of the coastal zone of the Guangdong/Hong Kong/Macao greater bay area. In: Jung, H.-S.; Lee, S.; Ryu, J.-H., and Cui, T. (eds.), Advances in Geospatial Research of Coastal Environments. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 102, pp. 287-295. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

With the impact of global climate change and the acceleration of urbanization, the coastal zone of the Guangdong/Hong Kong/Macao Greater Bay area (GBA) faces the pressures of biodiversity reduction, loss of coastal wetlands, eutrophication of coastal waters and frequent marine pollution events, all of which affect the ecology of this environment and threaten high-quality development of the GBA coastal zone. This study looked at the coastal zones adjacent to nine cities in the GBA, and analyzed the temporal and spatial changes in key ecological and environmental factors using remote sensing, field observations and data collection. A pressure-state-response model was used to build coastal zone ecological security evaluation indexes. The resulting assessments based on the ecological security index of each administrative region in the GBA were used to evaluate their ecological security status, diagnose their existing problems and analyze the causes in each of them. The results showed that the state grade of the GBA coastal zone follows a V-shape, with the eastern and western parts in better ecological condition than the central part. With regard to the current management of the coastal ecological environment, this paper suggests six future policies for improvements to coastal protection in an effort to promote high-quality development in GBA coastal zones, including strengthening top-level planning, optimizing port design and strengthening supervision.