Monitoring and analysis of coastal reclamation from 1995–2015 in Tianjin Binhai New Area, China

Increasing coastal reclamation activities have been undertaken to solve the conflict between people and land resources, creating significant challenges for coordinating coastal reclamation, economic development and environmental protection. This paper analyzes the effects of coast reclamation on Gross Domestic Product growth and the quality of inshore seawater in the Tianjin Binhai New Area. Remote sensing and a Geographic Information System were used to extract the information of coastal reclamation. The correlation between the area of coastal reclamation, GDP growth and the quality of inshore seawater was analyzed and a decoupling elasticity model was used to explore trends in the relationship between economic development and coastal reclamation. Results showed that coastal reclamation activities played an important role in promoting economic development, but greatly damaged the ecological environment. Although the relationship between coastal reclamation and economic development has weakened during the last three periods, the influence on the environment will continue because of the cumulative effects of pollution. To maintain a balance between coastal reclamation, economic development and environmental protection, (1) coastal reclamation planning must address both economic and environmental outcomes; (2) environmental deficiencies from existing coastal reclamation projects must be rectified; and (3) the legal system regulating coastal reclamation needs to be refined and strengthened.