Constructing Sustainable Coastal Ecological Environment: A Hierarchical Structure for Sustainable Smart Ports

ABSTRACT Yang, Y.; Xue, X.; Gao, Y.; Zhang, H., and Du, X., 2020. Constructing sustainable coastal ecological environment: A hierarchical structure for sustainable smart ports. In: Zheng, C.W.; Wang, Q.; Zhan, C., and Yang, S.B. (eds.), Air-Sea Interaction and Coastal Environments of the Maritime and Polar Silk Roads. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 99, pp. 358–363. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The sustainable smart ports can effectively promote the interconnection of important nodes among the Maritime Silk Road, effectively prevent Maritime risks and reduce the pollution of coastal ecological environment. However, few studies have discussed smart port from a sustainable perspective, while lack a systematic integration framework to guide the development of sustainable smart ports. This paper draws on the triple bottom line theory and creatively proposes three new dimensions of smart society, smart economy and smart environment, then attempts to use the combination of fuzzy set theory, DEMATEL, and ISM to evaluate the causal relationship between attributes and explore the interrelationship between levels so that a multilevel hierarchical structure model is established. The research results show that policy support, integration, knowledge and skills are the most important factors in the sustainable smart ports which provide a theoretical guidance for building a sustainable coastal ecological environment.