Coastal Cultural Ecosystem Services: A Bridge between the Natural Ecosystem and Social Ecosystem for Sustainable Development

Cultural Ecosystem Services (CESs), as non-material benefits and well-being provided by ecosystems to humans, possess the ability to bridge nature and human society and interpret their complex interrelationships. Coastal areas are regions with concentrated human activities, where coastal zones are often subject to human development, pollution, and degradation. Compared to other ecosystems, coastal ecosystems face greater pressures and threats, and the cultural services they provide are more vulnerable. Research on coastal ecosystem cultural services needs to consider ecosystem vulnerability and find ways to protect and restore ecosystem functions. Therefore, this paper explores the intrinsic logical system and feasibility of guiding natural resource management and enhancing human well-being through coastal CESs, discussing related research data acquisition, method analysis, and perceptual application. Based on this, this paper analyzes the development trends of coastal CESs in natural resource management and enhancing human well-being from aspects such as biodiversity, human–nature interaction processes, cultural heritage conservation, local economic development, and community management. Finally, it proposes advancing the in-depth research of coastal CESs from the perspectives of integrating multi-source data, interdisciplinary development, and incorporating CESs into policy making, providing theoretical support for the systematic study of rational resource utilization and sustainable ecosystem development.