| Amidst the rapid socio-economic development and the overexploitation of coastal resources, the coastal ecosystem has faced mounting threats to its ecological security. This study aims to reveal the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and key influencing factors of coastal ecological security in Guangzhou, providing a scientific basis for coastal environmental protection and resource management. Based on the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework, the entropy weight method was employed to determine indicator weights, and a comprehensive evaluation system for coastal ecological security was constructed to quantitatively analyze the status of Guangzhou’s coastal ecological security over the past decade. The findings reveal that proactive environmental governance measures undertaken by the government have progressively improved the coastal ecological security in recent years. Nevertheless, intense resource exploitation associated with high population density and accelerated urbanization, together with upstream pollutant discharges causing seawater quality exceedances, continue to exert significant ecological pressures. Between 2022 and 2023, the comprehensive indicator weights of the pressure layer—dominated by factors such as population density and marine fishing—were overtaken by those of the response layer, primarily characterized by the proportion of energy conservation, environmental protection expenditures, and the volume of wastewater treatment. To further bolster coastal ecological security, it is recommended to implement graded control over coastal development intensity, promote integrated land-sea approaches to water environment management, and advance ecological restoration efforts. |
