A New Method for the Quantitative Evaluation of Shallow Coastal Environments Using the ^|^ldquo;Ocean Health Index^|^rdquo;

Abstract

Valuing coastal ecosystem service is important for disentangling the complex human society-ecosystem relationships and incorporating the value into public decision-making processes. We developed a new evaluation method to comprehensively and concisely quantify the current status and likely future of shallow coastal environments by an ocean health index (OHI) score. We evaluated the environmental condition of four intertidal flats located in Tokyo Bay using OHI. Our method can provide a tool to explicitly show the strengths and limitations of each coastal ecosystem functioning.