Abstract
The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes conserving marine resources, making sustainable ocean economies a global priority. Coastal cities, critical hubs for marine-terrestrial systems, face dual pressures: driving growth and managing climate risks. This research examines how urban environmental resilience facilitates the sustainable marine economic development of coastal cities. Using data from 51 Chinese coastal cities spanning 2007 to 2022, the research constructs multidimensional indices for Marine Economy- Society Comprehensive Benefit Index and Environmental Resilience. To analyze the relationships, a two-way fixed-effects model is utilized. The analysis reveals that environmental resilience enhances the sustainable marine economic development, and with the mediating role of Foreign Direct Investment. Results demonstrate a nonlinear threshold effect: resilience significantly boosts sustainability in medium-resilience cities but yields diminishing returns in high-resilience regions. Regional heterogeneity is evident, with southern cities benefiting more due to export-oriented economies and disaster exposure, while northern cities face structural constraints. By integrating environmental and sustainable metrics, this research offers new insights into the resilience- sustainability linkages, enriches coastal studies with threshold and mediation frameworks, and provides actionable foundations for policymakers to tailor development strategies to local capacities.
NETL
NSTL
Elsevier