Modelling of the environmental sustainability assessment index for inhabited islands

Inhabited islands are valuable resources for marine development and management, especially for ecotourism and marine tourism development. However, the rapid rise of modern urbanization has led to the gradual deterioration of the ecological environment of the islands with inhabitants. Pursuing the development of economic growth while paying attention to ecological and environmental protection has become a paradigm for scientific development in a friendly coexistence between people and the environment. Therefore, the establishment of an environmentally sustainable development evaluation system for inhabited islands can guide and lead the high-quality and green development of islands. Through research on inhabited islands, this article proposes two basic attributes, industrial ecological sustainability and cultural ecological sustainability, as key indicators for the evaluation of sustainable development of inhabited islands. This article uses hierarchical analysis and Delphi process to construct the secondary index system of industrial ecology and cultural ecology. Judgment matrix and Delphi process are used to determine the weights of secondary indicators and construct a detailed data collection, assignment and standardization method. The comprehensive evaluation index is also used to assess the comprehensive development level of inhabited islands, and the coupling degree and coordination degree models are introduced to construct an environmentally sustainable development evaluation system. Finally, validity of the index system is tested through the empirical test of seven inhabited islands in Wenzhou Dongtou area to further improve the index system. The evaluation system can not only promote the research paradigm of social and ecological environment sustainability assessment of inhabited islands, but also widely guide and apply to the green protection and development of more inhabited islands.