Mechanism and Measurement of Coordinated Development in the Mariculture Ecological–Economic–Social Complex System: A Case Study of China

The coordinated development of a complex system refers to the harmonious and coherent evolution of its subsystems. From the perspective of the coordinated development of ecological–economic–social complex systems, this paper analyzes the coordinated development mechanism (CDM) of the mariculture ecological–economic–social (MEES) complex system, constructs a coordinated development evaluation indicator system for the MEES complex system, and adopts the comprehensive evaluation model and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model to empirically analyze the coordinated development level of the MEES complex system in China from 2009 to 2020. The results show that the comprehensive development level of China’s MEES complex system has improved significantly during this period, with the comprehensive development index increasing from 0.25 in 2009 to 0.76 in 2020, transitioning from a poor to an excellent status. Simultaneously, the CCD of the system increased progressively, experiencing phases of near dissonance, barely coupling coordination, primary coordination, and intermediate coordination, before finally reaching a stage of good coordination. Based on these findings, we further discuss and propose countermeasures to promote the coordinated development of China’s MEES complex system.