The Ocean Economic Statistical System of China and Understanding of the Blue Economy

The ocean and its resources are increasingly seen as indispensable in addressing the multiple challenges the planet is facing in the decades to come. It has never been easy to quantify this particular sector of the economy, in any country, given the lack of a detailed, centralized data base with adequate specifics covering the necessary sectors, this article aims to compare the existing ocean economy statistical systems, especially Asia-Pacific, American and European countries, in order to overcome the deficiencies with regard to the diversity of definitions and statistical representations of ocean sectors, establish the standard statistical system and compile data for the global ocean economy. This research article is available in Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics: https://cbe.miis.edu/joce/vol2/iss2/10


INTRODUCTION
The 21 st century is the century of the ocean and blue civilization.Economic globalization is increasingly pushing inland economies to move toward the ocean economy.Exploration and protection of ocean resources play an important role in sustainable development.The ocean covers 71 percent of the Earth's surface and As Kildow and McIlgorm (2010) point out, different countries define or delimit ocean activities and industries in distinct manners.
It should be noted here that several studies have been conducted that attempt to establish internationally compatible and consistent data for the ocean economy.Juan C. Surís-Regueiro et al. (2013) sets out a specific proposal for the definition and characterization of marine sectors and economic activities within the EU (Surís-Regueiro, Garza-Gil and Varela-Lafuente, 2013).This may very well be the first study in the ocean economy research field that aims at establishing internationally comparable ocean economy data, although it focuses only on the EU level.The EU Interreg IV (Priority 1) project Marnet (Marine Atlantic Regions Network) brought together eight partners across the five European Atlantic Arc countries-France, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom (UK).A primary aim of the project was to develop a framework for the collection of marine socio-economic data across the participating countries (Foley et al., 2014).
This study is concerned with establishing a practical methodology on compiling ocean economy data.In order to quantify the contribution of ocean sectors at the national and international levels consistently, three goals need to be achieved:  A clear-cut, internationally applicable definition.While there is large overlap in the various national definitions of the ocean sector in different countries /regions, there are gray areas that need to be resolved;  The establishment of statistical classification framework of the ocean economy industrially and geographically.There is a need to identify the scope and coverage of ocean economic activities that should be included and to define transaction boundaries in operational terms;  Standardization of statistical indicators.In order to enhance the value of data, there is a need to establish a unified statistical indicator framework, to compile the data of the ocean economy globally and benefit stakeholders and decisionmakers.
In this context, this study aims to establish a standard statistical framework to evaluate the ocean economy of different countries, serving to clarify the definition and classification of ocean economic activities, and guide in the compilation and analysis of data, and planning the management and development of the marine sector, allowing the comparison of the estimated results, both over time as well as among the different sectors of activity, countries and regions.Since the non-market value of the ocean economy has not been estimated in all countries (Park and Kildow, 2014), this paper will focus on the market value of the ocean economy.Given that the establishment of a statistical system for the ocean economy is a large, systematic project, it should be done gradually.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
In order to establish the statistical framework for the global ocean economy and quantify the value of the ocean economy, first we need a clear definition of the ocean economy and related concepts.From my point of view, uniform definitions of at least four basic concepts are needed: ocean economy, ocean industry, ocean-related industry and coastal economy.

Ocean Economy
Various studies conducted by different countries (or studies) in this world have defined the ocean economy (see Table 1).Although these definitions vary greatly, they can generally be divided into three categories, as seen below.

Emphasize Using the Sea as an Input (Directly or Indirectly)
In this category, 4 countries (U.S., Ireland, Australia and Canada) and 1 study (Surís-Regueiro, J. C et al, 2013) are involved.One of the most notable definitions was given by Colgan (2007).In this analysis, Colgan emphasized that the concept of the ocean economy derives from the ocean (or Great Lakes) being a direct or indirect input to the economic activity.Most importantly, Colgan (2007) pointed out that the ocean economy is partly defined by industry and partly by geographic location.Based on this definition, there may be one exception to the rule: ship & boat building.In the construction of one ship or boat, one need not consider ocean resources as direct or indirect input.

Emphasize Activities Taking Place in the Sea
3 countries (U.K., New Zealand and South Korea) and 1 study (conducted by Park and Kildow) are involved in this category.One of the most significant features of definitions in this category is that they all emphasize where the economic activities take place; specifically, those that take place in or on the ocean belong to the ocean economy.Park and Kildow (2014) collected definitions of main countries, analyzed the similarities and differences among different definitions, and concluded that the ocean economy can be defined as the economic activities that take place in the ocean, receive outputs from the ocean, and provide goods and services to the ocean.Nonetheless, using these definitions, we might not obtain the whole picture of the ocean economy, because they do not consider all the indirect impacts of the ocean.

Emphasizing the Way that Humans Interact with the Oceans
In this category, China, Japan and Canada are involved.These countries define ocean activities from the angle of ocean-human interaction.In this case, ocean economy activities are defined widely.They range from developing and utilizing the ocean to protecting the ocean, and from individual to industrial to administrative uses.Compared to the other two categories, this category may fail to highlight the key industries of ocean economy.However, it does include all of the ocean activities.
The ocean economy therefore, as defined by China's State Oceanic Administration's Industrial Classification for Ocean Industries and Their Related Activities, is the summation of both ocean and ocean related industrial activities that are aimed at developing, utilizing or protecting the ocean.
Figure 1 depicts the relationship among ocean economy concepts in China.China's ocean economy concept includes three layers of content.The core layer represents 12 major ocean industries, which are outlined in Table 1.They are the major ocean activities that use ocean resources as key inputs or which provide goods and services that are directly used in the marine environment.The support layer represents the scientific, research, education and ocean management service sectors that provide key information to the core layer industries.The activities of the support layer provide the platform for the sustainable development of the major ocean industries.The outer layer represents the ocean-related enterprises which have a technical and economic link with the major marine industries.

Industry
In conclusion, having compared the three categories of definitions, we find the third, which emphasizes human interaction with the ocean, to be the most appropriate because, first of all, it can include all kinds of ocean activities.Second, we could make the definition more specific by distinguishing among ocean industries and ocean-related industries.We could give ocean economy the definition as China's ocean economy, is summation of both ocean and ocean related industrial activities that are aimed at developing, utilizing and protecting the ocean.

Country Definition
a. Emphasize using the sea as an input (directly or indirectly) U.S. The ocean economy consists of all economic activity that derives all or part of its inputs from the ocean or Great Lakes (Colgan, 2007) Ireland Economic activity which directly or indirectly uses the sea as an input (Vega, Corless and Hynes, 2013).

Australia
Ocean-based activity (Is the ocean resource the main input?Is access to the ocean a significant factor in the activity?)(Allen Consulting, 2004) Surís-Regueiro, J.

C et al(2013)
Assumes that an economic activity forms a part of the marine economy when the ocean and its resources constitute either directly or indirectly an input of the goods and/or services necessary to develop that activity (Surís-Regueiro, Garza-Gil and Varela-Lafuente, 2013).
b. Emphasize activities that take place in the sea U.K.
Those activities which involve working on or in the sea.Also, those activities that are involved in the production of goods or the provision of services that will directly contribute to activities on or in the sea (Pugh, D. and the Crown Estate, 2008).

New Zealand
The economic activity that takes place in, or uses the marine environment, or produces goods and services necessary for those activities, or makes a direct contribution to the national economy (Statistics New Zealand-Environmental Statistics, 2003).

South Korea
The economic activity that takes place in the ocean, which also includes the economic activity, which puts the goods and services into ocean activity and uses the ocean resources as an input (Hwang et al., 2011).
Park Kwang Seo and Kildow Judith

T. (2014)
Ocean economy can be defined as the economic activities that take place in the ocean, receive outputs from the ocean, and provide goods and services to the ocean.In other words, ocean economy can be defined as the economic activities that directly or indirectly take place in the ocean and use outputs from the ocean,

Definition
while incorporating goods and services into the ocean's economic activities (Park and Kildow, 2014).
c. Emphasizing the way that human beings interact with the oceans China Summation of both ocean and ocean related industrial activities that are aimed at developing, utilizing and protecting the ocean (Zhao, Hynes and He, 2014).

Canada 1
The marine economy includes those individual, industrial and administrative activities dependent on or related to the ocean (Gardner Pinfold, 2014).

Japan
Industry exclusively responsible for the development, use and conservation of the ocean (Nomura Research Institute, 2009).

Ocean Industry and Ocean-related Industries
Both China and Canada divide the ocean economy into two parts.In China's case the whole ocean economy is divided into ocean industry and ocean-related industry.In Canada's case, it is divided into primary marine activities and secondary marine activities.Although the two countries don't give the two parts the same name, both of them divide the ocean economy according to a nearly identical standard.
In order to standardize the ocean economy data collected throughout the country, China's State Oceanic Administration released a document defining the statistical standard for Industrial Classification for Ocean Industries and Their Related Activities GB/T 20794-2006.This document sought to establish a statistical standard for ocean economy data collecting across all regions in China.The ocean industrial classifications within this document divided the marine sector into two parts: ocean industries and ocean-related industries.
 Ocean industries: these represent the core of the ocean economy and indicate industries involved in the production or supply of service for developing, utilizing and/or protecting the ocean.In China's case, this part of the ocean economy includes major marine industries such as offshore oil and gas, marine mining, marine salt manufacturing, the marine chemical industry, marine biomedicine, marine electric power generation, seawater utilization, marine shipbuilding, marine engineering and construction, marine communications and transportation, coastal tourism, marine scientific research, and education.
 Ocean-related industries refer to the enterprises that form a technical and economic link with the major marine industries.These industries are defined as suppliers and customers of the ocean industries; they produce inputs for the latter or use outputs from the latter in the production process.Some of these activities are not necessarily performed at sea or even in coastal zones.These industries include agriculture and mangrove forestry (which for example provide feed for marine use and that in turn use sea water to irrigate certain species of plants cultivated on Chinese wetlands), marine equipment manufacturing, ocean-related building and installation, marine wholesale and retail services, etc.
In Canada's case, ocean activities in the private and public sectors are identified as either primary or secondary according to their relative economic importance and the state of knowledge about the activity.Primary marine activities represent the core of the marine economy: industries deriving their economic rationale in a direct way from their extractive or non-extractive use of marine resources.Such activities include fishing, offshore oil and gas, ship and boat building and repair, water transportation, and marine construction.It also includes federal and provincial departments and agencies with management and administrative responsibilities over ocean uses.
Secondary marine activities may be industries in their own right or form part of a broader industry grouping.Though their contribution to the economy may be accounted for as indirect impacts by an economic model (input-output model), they are singled out for attention in this study in order to shed more light on the nature and scope of the activity and the linkages with other sectors of the economy.
It should be noted that in China's case the input-output model is also applied in order to quantify ocean-related industries, a methodology also employed by the NOEP.Fewer differences exist in China and Canada's definitions of the ocean and oceanrelated industry.Therefore, this study considers China's definitions of ocean industry and ocean-related industry the most appropriate one for the global economy.Subcategories of ocean industry and ocean-related industry will be discussed in the third section.

Coastal Economy
The costal economy is another basic concept for the ocean economy.NOEP actually made the first effort to define and measure the coastal economy.Furthermore, the NOEP differentiates between oceanic economics and coastal economics.The two are closely related, but respond to different concepts.According to Colgan (2007), the coastal economy consists of all economic activity in the coastal region, and thus represents total employment, wages, and output in each of the geographies defined as part of the coastal economy.
Based on the NOEP definition, defining the "coastal region" is the key to quantifying the coastal economy.A coastal region is the transition zone between land and sea.It can refer to the belt area extending a certain distance out to sea and, conversely, inland.Defining and classifying the coastal region will be discussed in the fourth section.

INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION FRAMEWORK
Since the ocean economy is composed of ocean industry and ocean related industry, the industrial classification of the ocean economy could be done through the industrial classification of ocean industries and ocean-related industries.Regarding the coastal economy, there is no need to classify any related industries, given that all the economic activities in the coastal region belong to the coastal economy.As this is the very beginning of establishing the statistical system for the global ocean economy, it is crucial to start with common ocean industries and make them comparable across ocean economic sectors and industries in different countries.
In this section, we review recent studies related to ocean economy classification and then discuss Chinese ocean industrial classification.The final section gives a practical industrial classification for the global ocean economy based on ISIC (International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, Rev.4)

A Review of Previous Research on Industrial Classification of the Ocean Economy
In recent years, ocean economic accounting studies have been carried out in many countries all over the word, where ocean sectors are defined in different ways and ocean data is collected based on different standards.Table 2 shows the main countries that have conducted ocean economy studies.In NOEP's studies (Colgan 2003, Colgan 2007and Colgan 2013), the data set defines the "ocean economy" through a combination of industry and geographic location features to measure 21separate industries across six sectors, at the national, state, and county levels.Colgan (2003 and2007) also affirmed that the estimation of economic activity linked to the ocean is inherently limited due to limited data availability, conceptual difficulties and the need to make some subjective choices concerning what to include and what to exclude.The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) released a series of reports (2002, 2003 and 2009) to analyze the economic impact of marine related activities in Canada.The recent analysis (Gardner Pinfold, 2009) covers 7 sectors including offshore oil &gas, marine transportation, tourism and recreation, seafood, manufacturing and construction, national defense, public sector and research.Among the 27 Member States of the European Union, 22 have a coast and two thirds of the European borders are set by the sea.In Europe, these types of studies have been carried out in some coastal countries as well.It should also be noted that the ocean sectors are defined in different ways.In the U.K., Pugh and the Crown Estate (2008) researched ocean economic accounting.In it he studied 18 different ocean sectors that involve working in or on the sea, and also those relating to the production of goods or provision of services that directly contribute to activities carried out in or on the sea.In Spain's case, Innovamar defines the marine sector as a group of economic activities that do not have an official definition, but is made up of companies whose activities have a direct relationship with the sea and others with a close relationship with the sea.Fernández-Macho et al (2015) propose a theoretical structure for the maritime economy and then collects and classifies comparable and reliable maritime socio-economic indicators, focusing on the Spanish part of the European Atlantic Arc.The aforementioned researchers would go on to identify nine marine sectors of the marine economy.
Table 3 shows similarities and differences between the industrial classification of China's ocean economy and that of other countries.This study finds that major ocean countries classify the ocean economy in disparate ways.Whereas the different classifications of ocean industries agree on marine fishery, offshore oil and gas industry, ship building industry, marine construction industry, marine transportation, and coastal tourism, the rest of the Marine industry national statistical condition is not unified.Six countries (Canada, U.K., France, Spain, South Korea and China) consider marine research and education as a separate industry for ocean economy.Four countries (U.K., France South Korea and China) take marine renewable energy into account.
Marine renewable energy industry is an emerging ocean industry, which in some sense represents the future of ocean economy.Generally, there are eight industries that different countries have in common.
There are many difficulties incomparable statistical ocean economy analysis of different countries.However, it is crucial to establish a recognized classification standard for all countries.To that end, we have compiled

Chinese Classification of Ocean Economy Industries
The Chinese government set about launching and gradually improving ocean economic statistics from the 1990s, becoming increasingly institutionalized, standardized and regulated in data government (Song, He, and McIlgorm, 2013).With the aim of providing marine policy makers in China with marine activity statistics, the Ocean Economy Accounting System (OEAS) of China was established in 2006 (He, 2006).In order to standardize the ocean economy data collected across the whole country, China's State Oceanic Administration released a document in 2006 defining the statistical standard for Industrial Classification for Ocean Industries and Their Related Activities (GB/T 20794-2006).This document sought to establish a statistical standard for ocean economy data collecting across all regions in China.This standard assigns unique two-, three-and four-digit codes to each industry, see Table 4.The whole ocean economy is divided in 28 two-digit codes, 106 three-digit codes and 390 four-digit codes.It should be noted that navy activities are not included in this standard.shipbuilding, the marine chemical industry, marine biomedicine, marine engineering, marine electric power, the seawater utilization industry, marine communications and transportation and coastal tourism.The definitions of these industries in China are presented in Table 5.
Table5.Classification and Definitions of Major Ocean Industries

Ocean Sector Definition
Marine Fishery Includes mariculture, marine fishing, marine fishery service industry and marine aquatic processing, etc.
Offshore Oil and Gas Refers to production activities of exploring, exploiting, transporting and processing raw oil and natural gas in the ocean.Industry

Ocean Mining Industry
Includes the activities of extracting and dressing beach placers, beach soil chloride and sand, submarine geothermal energy, and coal mining and deep-sea mining, etc.

Marine Salt Industry
Refers to the activity of producing salt products with sodium chloride as the main component by utilizing seawater, including salt extracting and processing.

Shipbuilding Industry
Refers to the activity of building ocean vessels, offshore fixed and floating equipment with metals or non-metals as main materials as well as repairing and dismantling ocean vessels.

Industry
Includes the activities related to the production of chemical products derived from sea salt, seawater, sea algal and marine petroleum chemical industries.

Marine Biomedicine
Refers to the production, processing and manufacturing activities of marine based medicines and marine healthcare products by using organisms as raw materials (or by extracting these organism's useful components).

Marine Engineering and Building Industry
Refers to the construction of architecture projects and their preparations in the sea, at the sea bottom and seacoast for such uses as marine production, transportation, recreation, protection, etc., including construction of seaports, coastal power stations, coastal dykes, marine tunnels and bridges, land terminals of offshore oil and gas fields as well as building of processing facilities, and installation of submarine pipelines and equipment, but not the projects of house building and renovation.Based on the relationship between ocean sectors and input-output sectors as presented in table 4, the ocean industries I-O table can be carried out by aggregating corresponding I-O sectors both in rows and columns.

Practical Classification
Based on the above analysis, ocean nations should have a practical industrial classification.Why not take "what we have in common" as the starting point of international ocean economy statistical classification?In other words, we should establish eight ocean industries as the international statistical classification and try to provide these industries with unified definitions.
In order to define these industries, we should make sure that definitions of these industries are based on the same classification.Accordingly, this study uses ISIC as the basis of classification and definition.
Since the adoption of the original version of ISIC in 1948, the majority of countries around the world have used ISIC as their national activity classification or have developed national classifications derived from ISIC.ISIC has therefore provided guidance to countries in developing national activity classifications and has become an important tool for statistical data on economic activities at the international level.Generally, the major ocean sectors and industries in China were defined based on the statistical classification of CCSNEI (Classification and Code Standard of National Economy Industry), which is quite similar to the NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System).The US NOEP extracts their ocean economy data based on NAICS.In NOEP's case, the statistical data is compiled from official US statistical surveys and sources, where economic activities are usually identified both by the codes that correspond with the SIC (Standard Industrial Classification System) as well as with the NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System).The NAICS divides the different economic activities into smaller groups than the SIC, which makes it possible to identify the marine economy's activities more precisely and obtain more detailed information about them.Similarly, in Europe, the relevant institutes in France, Britain and Ireland collect ocean economic statistics based on the NACE (Classification of Economic Activities of the European Communities) coding system 2 .Business activities in the Australian (and New Zealand) statistical systems follow international standards when defining an industry and these are set out in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC).But all these national or regional industrial classifications have corresponding connections with ISIC.
In defining the different industrial sectors in the ocean economy, the primary concern is to establish the classification based on the commonalities of different countries in order to produce internationally comparable data.Basic industries should include:  Fishing/aquaculture  Marine transportation  Marine tourism  Offshore oil and gas 2 Indeed an EU INTERREG funded project is currently underway along the Atlantic periphery of Europe (MARNET) that is attempting to map the value of the Atlantic marine economy through the development of reliable and comparable socio economic data across the coastal member states of Portugal, Spain, France, Britain and Ireland (see http://www.marnetproject.eu/for further information).

 Marine renewable energy  Marine research and education
The corresponding four-digit codes of these eight industries are presented in Table 7 (next page).The industries are then divided further into both fully-and partially-ocean activities as presented.This study identified eight marine sectors comprising a total of 46ISIC codes.The data collected is at the ISIC four-digit level and shown in Table 7, in which "F" stands for "fully" and "P" stands for "partially".In the latter case, proxies need to be used to identify the maritime share.It should be noted that the seaward boundaries of the coastal states are relatively uniform.The seaward boundary of the Great Lake States is the U.S. -Canada international boundary, and for all other states it is the 3 nautical mile territorial sea mark, except for Florida (boundary in Gulf of Mexico), Puerto Rico, and Texas with its seaward boundary at three marine leagues from the coastal line.
South Africa: In 2009, South Africa released South Africa's Integrated Coastal Management Act (Integrated Coastal Management Act of the Republic of South Africa, 2009), the first chapter of which defines coastal zones as such: the area comprising coastal public property, the coastal protection zone, coastal access land and coastal protected areas, the seashore, coastal waters and the exclusive economic zone, and includes any aspect of the environment on, in or under above such an area.
Eurostat: European NUTS 3 Coastal Region is defined as a standard statistical region where at least half of the population is within 50 km of the shoreline.The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) was established by Eurostat more than 30 years ago in order to provide a single uniform breakdown of territorial units for the production of regional statistics for the European Union.At the NUTS 3 level most of the landmass of Ireland and Britain is defined as coastal which is a very broad definition.
World Bank: In 1996, World Bank defined the coastal zone as "the interface where the land meets the ocean, encompassing shoreline environments as well as adjacent coastal waters.Its components can include river deltas, coastal plains, wetlands, beaches and dunes, reefs, mangrove forests, lagoons, other coastal features." Mediterranean ICZM Protocol: In 2008, the coastal zone was defined by Mediterranean ICZM Protocol as "the geomorphologic area either side of the seashore in which the interaction between the marine and land parts occurs in the form of complex ecological and resource system and resource systems made up of biotic and abiotic components coexisting and interacting with human communities and relevant socio-economic activities."Generally, there is relatively little controversy concerning the seaside boundary of a coastal zone.In most countries the seaward limit is written into law as the maximum reach of that country's jurisdiction (Hynes and Farrelly, 2012).In China's case, this might be the territorial sea limit of 12 nautical miles or the 200 nautical mile EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) or perhaps the continental shelf defined by the People's Republic of China.
One suitable approach for compiling the socio-economic data is used by National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP) in the US.According to Colgan (2007), the definition of Coastal Economy of NOEP relies on a tiered approach of geography extending inland from the shorelines of the ocean or Great Lakes.These tiers are based on definitions of zip code and county boundaries starting with the shore-line and proceeding inland.Six categories have been defined: (1) near-shore; (2) shore-adjacent coastal zone county; (3) non-shore-adjacent coastal zone county; (4) non-coastal zone watershed county; (5) coastal watershed county; and (6) inland county.In this case, coastal zone counties consist of shore-adjacent and non-shore adjacent counties.A shore-adjacent county is a county touched in whole or in part by a state's coastal zone for purposes of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 and as defined by that state and which is adjacent to an ocean, Great Lake, or included river or bay.A none-shoreadjacent coastal zone county is a county touched in whole or in part by a state's coastal zone for purposes of the Coastal Zone Act of 1972, as defined by that state and which is not adjacent to an ocean, Great Lake, or included river or bay.Therefore, the coastal economy as an NOEP statistical region is generally based on the definition of coastal zone for purposes of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 as defined by that state and which is adjacent to an ocean, Great Lake, or included river or bay, as previously mentioned.
Ireland also serves as a practical example for the development of socio-economic statistics in coastal zones.Following the approach of the NOEP framework, based on different administrative and political jurisdictions, Hynes and Farrelly (2012) defined Ireland's coastal region as three geographical scales extending inland from the shorelines of the oceans and seas surrounding the Republic of Ireland.The definitions of the alternative tiers are based on electoral districts, county boundaries and EU NUTS3 regions.Thus, we see shoreline electoral districts: establishments or populations located in an electoral district(ED) that is immediately adjacent to an ocean or sea, including estuaries and bays.Of the 3400 EDs in the country, 628 are shoreline electoral districts.There are also coastal counties: establishments or populations located in a county that has a shoreline of any length adjacent to an ocean or sea, including estuaries and bays.15of the 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland are coastal counties.
European NUTS3 Coastal Region: a standard statistical region (EU NUTS3level), where at least half of the population is within 50km of the shoreline.This is the Eurostat definition of a coastal region and in the Irish case would include 7 of the 8 NUTS3 regions in Ireland, the Border, the West, Dublin, the Mid-East, the Mid-West, the South-East and the South-West.Only the four counties of the Midlands NUT3 region are excluded from this definition.

Practical Geographical Classification Using China as an Example
In China, there are numerous definitions of the term coastal region or zone in the literature that one might use in examining the socio-economic characteristics of the country's coastal regions.In the 1980s, China carried out a comprehensive survey of the national coastal zone and tideland resources, which specified the range of the survey work as extending landward from the shoreline 10km, extending to the sea to 15m isobaths (SOA, 1988).This scope is generally considered as the definition of China's coastal line in several kinds of ocean related literature.However, this survey was just a natural resource survey, rather than a socio-economic survey, and it is very difficult to gather information about the coastal economy and society using such a definition, given that data cannot be extracted from central databases based on a subjective distance from a shoreline inland boundary definition.
In terms of socio-economic statistics of coastal zones, any region-specific socioeconomic statistics are generally collected based on administratively defined jurisdictions; therefore, based on the above analysis, the administration's boundary should play an important role in defining the standard statistical region of the ocean economy.The precise delimitation of coastal zones depends directly on the question posed initially.The limits should therefore extend into the sea and land just as far as required by the objectives of the management plan (UNESCO, 1997).This paper is attempts to define the coastal region and its associated economic activities in such a manner that coastal socio-economic data may be compiled from a range of already existing statistical portals available at a national and regional level.Following the above discussion and the spatial approach of the NOEP framework, the definition of coastal region and coastal economy is drawn up on the basis of a tiered geographical approach extending inland from the shorelines of the oceans and seas surrounding the oceanic nations.
In China, coastal regions are critical components of the country's "economic engine".In the 30 years following reform and the opening-up of its borders in 1979, China's economy has developed at a remarkable rate.China has become one of the world's major economic powers.Also during this time, the coastal region of China has become one of the most economically developed and most densely populated areas in the world.Coastal regions, which account for 20% of China's land area, hold 40% of the population and account for 60% of China's GDP.From 2010 on, a new round of coastal economic development started with the introduction of coastal economic zone initiatives.These development strategies for the marine economy in the coastal areas were approved by the central government.Additionally, the central government has also updated separate development plans in all 11 coastal provinces.
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China stipulates that 1) the administrative areas in China be divided in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government; 2) provinces and autonomous regions be divided into autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties and cities; 3) autonomous prefectures be divided into counties, autonomous counties and cities; 4) counties and autonomous counties be divided into townships, nationality townships and towns; 5) municipalities and large cities be divided into districts and counties; and 6) the state establish, when necessary, special administrative regions.
The statistical classification structure of coastal areas in China includes three levels of administration: provincial administration areas, city administration areas and county administration area.Each of these three layers covers the entire shore line.
Province-level administration area: coastal region.Coastal regions represent the coastal province (or autonomous region or municipality) touched in whole or in part by shore-line, including sea area and islands under its jurisdiction.The coastal province is the largest layer of the ocean economy.
City-level administration area: coastal city.Coastal cities represent the coastal city touched in whole or in part by shore-line, including sea area and islands under its jurisdiction.
County-level administration area: coastal county.Coastal counties represent coastal counties touched in whole or in part by shore-line, including sea area and islands under its jurisdiction.China has 237 coastal counties, including 64 counties, 64 county-level cities and 117 districts.
Table 8 represents the classification structure of China's coastal line, based on the above classification.The coastal region of Guangdong has the most coastal cities and coastal counties, followed by Shandong Province.It should be noted that Guangdong and Shandong also have the highest gross regional product in China.Examples of difficulties that can arise when trying to complete marine economic accounts include incomplete data on marine sectors, marine activities being part of statistical classes which also include non-marine businesses, indicators of marine activity being available at the country level but not at the local level and the issues surrounding the confidentiality of certain marine activities either for reasons of national security (in the case of defense).Furthermore, there can be commercially sensitive shipbuilding, maintenance and repair, marine renewable energy, marine research and education).Each one of these industries can be linked to one or more economic activities from the statistical nomenclature of ISIC Rev.4 economic activities on a four-digit level.This paper also reviews previous research on geographical classification throughout the world and identifies that the statistical classification structure of the coastal areas in China includes three levels of administration: province, city and county.
This study also identifies six indicators as basic indicators for the global ocean economy: value added, employment, taxation revenue, export revenue, wages and number of establishments.The conclusions of this study allow us to deepen our understanding of the global ocean economy and can serve as a basis for designing effective strategies that address the real concerns facing the world today.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Relationship among concepts of ocean economy sections 2 and 3 have laid out respective ocean economy indicators.The dataset is supposed to be comprised of business indicators, physical indicators and social indicators.Business indicators include data on turnover, value added, employment, exports and number of enterprises.The physical indicators vary by sector.The physical indicators can be used to give further information on a sector.Given the differences among the government databases of ocean nations, initial collection of global ocean economy data should focus on easily obtained indicators.This study identifies six indicators as basic indicators for the global ocean economy. Value added  Employment (including self-employment)  Taxation revenue  Export revenue  Wages  Number of establishments

Table 1 .
Ocean Economy Definitions of Different Countries (or studies)

Table 2 .
Classification and Definition of Major Ocean Industries

Table 3 .
Ocean Economy Classifications across Nine Maritime Nations

Table 4 .
The Basic Structure of Chinese Classification of Ocean Economy Industries Published by Digital Commons @ Center for the Blue Economy, 2016

Table 7 .
ISIC Codes Identified for the Data Collection Framework Divided into Aggregate example, Delaware, Hawaii, etc.; (2) Natural boundaries: for example, Indiana's coastal zone is based on the watershed boundaries within coastal townships and the counties of Lake County and Porter County.(3) Administrative boundaries: for example, Washington's coastal zone is the 15 coastal counties that front saltwater; (4)

Table 8 .
Classification Structure of China's Coastal Zone According to Foley, Naomi S. et al (2014), indicators should ideally be representative, quantifiable, comparable, reliable, adaptable and relevant.The studies mentioned in