Selection and Application of Bohai Sea Environmental Governance Policy Instrumental: A Quantitative Analysis Based on Policy Text (1996–2022)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors do not have any references in the introduction, although they are quoting the Ministry of Natural Resources. 

The authors use 7 figures and 4 tables to explain their findings. 

Being an analysis of former studies the article should have more references. 

In the final part, they should have a distinct part of limitations and future research. 

 

Minor editing of the English language required

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

 

 

Thank you so much for the valuable advice.

Point 1: 

The authors do not have any references in the introduction, although they are quoting the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Response 1:

According to the recommendations, the introduction has been modified and relevant literature added.The specific contents are as follows:The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made the strategic deployment of "developing the marine economy, protecting the marine ecological environment, and accelerating the construction of a maritime power".The construction of ecological civilization is also an important part of China's overall ecological civilization construction，The Party and the government are paying increasing attention to marine environmental matters^[1].Bohai Sea is the only inland sea in China and an important carrier of the Bohai Rim Economic Circle, but due to the long-term disorderly development of the Bohai Sea and the fragile ecological environment, the Bohai Sea environmental pollution is serious.Since the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment issued Agenda 21 of China’s Oceans in 1996, in the face of increasing pollution of the Bohai Sea, governments at all levels have issued a series of policies and regulations, providing an important regulatory basis for the protection of the marine environment of the Bohai Sea. In 2018, China issued the Announcement on the State of China's Marine Ecological Environment, which proposed to "further strengthen the ecological environment protection work in the Bohai Sea".With the continuous advancement of Bohai marine environmental policy, defects such as inefficient policy implementation, uneven use of policy instruments, and high government burden costs have gradually emerged. Marine environmental policy making in the Bohai Sea is facing enormous challenges.In the context mentioned above, it is of great practical significance to conduct research on policy instruments for achieving marine environmental governance goals. Previous scholars' research on marine environmental policies tended to discuss how to achieve coordinated policy implementation and optimize marine environmental governance through the development history, content structure, and policy means^[2][3].

Point 2:

Being an analysis of former studies the article should have more references.

Response 2:

According to the suggestion, the article adds relevant literature in the text section to ensure the accuracy and credibility of the article. The added references are as follows:Command-control instruments have the advantages of being mandatory, immediate, and cost-effective, but their disadvantage is a lack of flexibility. They can be compared to setting a clear lower limit for environmental protection, which may undermine incentives for technological innovation in environmental protection by enterprises^[28].Compared with command and control measures, the greatest feature of this mechanism is its ability to promote innovation and diffusion of pollution prevention and control technologies, and overall formation of a low-cost and high-efficiency system for pollution prevention and control^[30].

Point 3: 

In the final part, they should have a distinct part of limitations and future research.

Response 3:

According to the recommendations, the limitations of the study have been added at the end of the article, revised as follows: This paper is the starting point of the Bohai marine environmental policy research, in order to provide a basis for more in-depth policy research and put forward feasible countermeasures and suggestions for improving the use of marine environmental policy instruments. The paper also has its limitations, that is, it does not introduce other relevant participants in the process of Bohai marine environmental governance, the research methods are relatively simple, and the follow-up research will introduce social participation into the public participation module to analyze the specific impact of society on the governance of the Bohai marine environment, and continue to deepen the research on the Bohai marine environment, and provide ideas for the Bohai environmental governance with more in-depth research methods.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Title

­The title should better reflect the research findings; this title seems to be inadequate in capturing the complexity of the content presented in the article. Instead, align the content with the title in the article.

 

Abstract 

­-The number of words in the abstract should not exceed 200 words.

­-The abstract must be written clearly and structured with the following sections: background, methods, results, and conclusion.

­-The abstract does not clearly reflect the process undertaken in the research to achieve the presented results.

 

Introduction

-­The introduction should include relevant previous research to demonstrate the gap/contribution that the upcoming research will make to the existing researches. 

­-Provide references that serve as the basis for the importance of conducting your research. Create a narrative specific to the research topic, yet understandable in a general context.

­-Explain each research problem more clearly in the first paragraph of the introduction, then align them with the research objectives

­-Cite and review previous research before delving into the proposed research problem, thus providing a more elaborate introduction.

­-At the end of the introduction, describe the expected research outcomes that align with the identified research gap and objectives. 

Sub-heading 2: Modelling of Marine Policy Environments

­-Make sure the description of Figure 1 is not on a separate page from the image.

­-The content in this section is not clear enough. If the desired modeling focus is a three-dimensional model, then the narrative in that paragraph should be more focused. Write the issues briefly and then elaborate on the components in the model you propose.

­-The issues mentioned in this section still lack sufficient references. The raised issues should not only highlight the shortcomings of the current model but also serve as the basis for the conducted development or comparison between the current state and the desired state. 

­-Make sure that no part of the table is separated onto different pages

­-The model you proposed shows novelty. However, the interconnection of dimensions in the model is not something new. It needs to be supported by previous research to demonstrate specific contributions to the developed model. 

­-Each dimension should ideally review the environmental policies that have been implemented, to make collaboration between dimensions essential in the three-dimensional model.

 

Sub-heading 3: Policy Text Selection and Coding

­-Explain the technique of policy sampling and the considerations used. Also, specifically elaborate on the scope of the policy in question.

-­Explain the statistical testing of validity and reliability in this section, the data used, and a comprehensive interpretation of the results in relation to the further analysis you conducted.

-­The policy content that you used as a sample has not been clearly presented in this section or the preceding sections. What gaps emerge from all the policies that you have reviewed?

­-What analysis is generated from policy coding and its relevance to the research question? It should be included in this section to go beyond merely describing the statistics of policy coding.  

 

Sub-heading 4: Three-Dimensional Policy Framework Analysis

­-The explanation for each dimension should not only reiterate the existing problem conditions but also demonstrate how the modeling in this dimension can be applied to address the issues/inefficiencies that occur

 

Conclusion

­-The concluding section should present implications for real-world conditions and future developments concisely. 

-­It is typically brief, ensuring that the research implications are clear and easily discernible. 

­-The conclusion should not be a mere summary of the study but a focus on its contributions or significance. 

 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

 

 

Thank you so much for the valuable advice.

Point 1: 

The title should better reflect the research findings; this title seems to be inadequate in capturing the complexity of the content presented in the article. Instead, align the content with the title in the article.

Response 1:

Following the advice, the title shows the use of policy instruments and the content presented in this paper, namely the quantitative analysis of the Bohai marine environment. The revised title reads:Selection and Application of Bohai Sea Environmental Governance Policy Instrumental:A Quantitative Analysis Based on Policy Text(1996-2022)

Point 2:

-The number of words in the abstract should not exceed 200 words.

-The abstract must be written clearly and structured with the following sections: background, methods, results, and conclusion.

-The abstract does not clearly reflect the process undertaken in the research to achieve the presented results.

Response 2:

Based on the recommendations, we further revised the content of the abstract, including the background, methodology and conclusions, and kept the word count to 200 words. The amendments are as follows:The Bohai Sea is the only inland sea in China and serves as an important carrier for the Bohai Sea Economic Zone. However, it is also one of the areas with serious marine environmental pollution. This paper selects the policy text concerning Marine environmental pollution control issued by the central and local governments from 1996 to 2022 as the research object. Based on the three policy instruments of government environmental regulation, market incentive mechanism and public participation and using content analysis method to encode and quantify the text content,it is find that the Bohai Sea marine environmental governance suffers from issues such as single concept of use of policy instruments, imbalance in the proportion of use, and insufficient supervision in the event, Consequently, it is recommended to adopt a diversified policy concepts, optimize the structure of policy instruments, and strengthen in-process supervision in the governance of the Bohai Sea marine environment.

Point 3:

-The introduction should include relevant previous research to demonstrate the gap/contribution that the upcoming research will make to the existing researches.

-Explain each research problem more clearly in the first paragraph of the introduction, then align them with the research objectives

-Cite and review previous research before delving into the proposed research problem, thus providing a more elaborate introduction.

-At the end of the introduction, describe the expected research outcomes that align with the identified research gap and objectives.

Response 3:

In accordance with the guidance,modifications have been made to the introductory section:

(1) At the first section of the Introduction,Research questions were added as well as to the literature.The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made the strategic deployment of "developing the marine economy, protecting the marine ecological environment, and accelerating the construction of a maritime power".The construction of ecological civilization is also an important part of China's overall ecological civilization construction，The Party and the government are paying increasing attention to marine environmental matters.Bohai Sea is the only inland sea in China and an important carrier of the Bohai Rim Economic Circle, but due to the long-term disorderly development of the Bohai Sea and the fragile ecological environment, the Bohai Sea environmental pollution is serious.Since the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment issued Agenda 21 of China’s Oceans in 1996, in the face of increasing pollution of the Bohai Sea, governments at all levels have issued a series of policies and regulations, providing an important regulatory basis for the protection of the marine environment of the Bohai Sea. In 2018, China issued the Announcement on the State of China's Marine Ecological Environment, which proposed to "further strengthen the ecological environment protection work in the Bohai Sea".With the continuous advancement of Bohai marine environmental policy, defects such as inefficient policy implementation, uneven use of policy instruments, and high government burden costs have gradually emerged. Marine environmental policy making in the Bohai Sea is facing enormous challenges.In the context mentioned above, it is of great practical significance to conduct research on policy instruments for achieving marine environmental governance goals. Previous scholars' research on marine environmental policies tended to discuss how to achieve coordinated policy implementation and optimize marine environmental governance through the development history, content structure, and policy means.

(2) At the second section of the Introduction, Added research gaps as well as expected results：This study takes a different approach by using content analysis to analyze the marine environmental policies formed in the Bohai Sea from 1996 to 2022, aiming to explain the following questions:what are the characteristics of the Bohai marine environmental policy? What are the laws of implementation and development? How to further optimize the Bohai marine environmental policy?This paper aims to optimize the policy system for the Bohai Sea marine environment, promote improvements and innovations in policy decision-making mechanisms, and provide new references for ecological civilization construction and the formulation of marine environmental protection policies.

Point 4:

-The content in this section is not clear enough. If the desired modeling focus is a three-dimensional model, then the narrative in that paragraph should be more focused. Write the issues briefly and then elaborate on the components in the model you propose.

-The issues mentioned in this section still lack sufficient references. The raised issues should not only highlight the shortcomings of the current model but also serve as the basis for the conducted development or comparison between the current state and the desired state.

Response 4：

• According to the proposal, the formation in the model has been elaborated in detail.details are as follows：The X-axis represents policy instruments, that is, the types of instruments mainly involved in the governance of the Bohai marine environment, including command and control, market deriven and public participation. The Y axis represents policy control, that is, the stage of marine environment governance controlling the Bohai Sea, which is divided into premilinary control, concurrent control and feedback control; The Z-axis represents the policy time, which is divided into three stages according to the different national goals of Bohai marine governance, namely the policy initiation stage, the policy development stage and the policy optimization stage. By objectively linking the relationship between policies, the model is more suitable for the environmental analysis of Bohai Sea marine policy.

(2)According to the recommendations, some of the shortcomings of the model and related references are added in this section. The model related deficiencies and references are as follows: Command-control instruments have the advantages of being mandatory, immediate, and cost-effective, but their disadvantage is a lack of flexibility. They can be compared to setting a clear lower limit for environmental protection, which may undermine incentives for technological innovation in environmental protection by enterprises^[28].Compared with command and control measures, the greatest feature of this mechanism is its ability to promote innovation and diffusion of pollution prevention and control technologies, and overall formation of a low-cost and high-efficiency system for pollution prevention and control^[30]. Public participation policy instruments may not have binding force, but it can reduce the cost of monitoring and controlling marine environment. It can also guide and incentivize enterprises to engage in environmental protection efforts.

Point 5:

-Explain the technique of policy sampling and the considerations used. Also, specifically elaborate on the scope of the policy in question.

-Explain the statistical testing of validity and reliability in this section, the data used, and a comprehensive interpretation of the results in relation to the further analysis you conducted.

-The policy content that you used as a sample has not been clearly presented in this section or the preceding sections. What gaps emerge from all the policies that you have reviewed?

-What analysis is generated from policy coding and its relevance to the research question? It should be included in this section to go beyond merely describing the statistics of policy coding.

Response 5：

(1) This section explains the required precautions before encoding, as follows:In order to ensure the scientific nature of the policy sample,this samples of marine environmental policies selected in this paper are all derived from publicly available data, and the policies issued by the State Council, ministries and commissions, and local governments and departments that are closely related to the Bohai marine environment are used as analysis samples. Due to the large number of policies and the existence of policy documents that are ineffective for policy tool analysis, this paper has carried out identification and screening of policy text samples.

(2) According to the recommendations, this section specifically explains the reliability and validity. The revised article is as follows:

The internal consistency coefficient is used to measure the consistency level among multiple measurement indicators of the same concept. If the internal consistency coefficient is greater than 0.7, it indicates that the reliability of the scale is high. In this study, SPSS software was used to conduct a reliability test on 85 texts related to the Bohai Sea marine environmental policy. The results showed that the coding reliability was 0.824 and the validity was 0.719, indicating good reliability and validity. Therefore, it can be concluded that the coding analysis of this file has high internal consistency and no significant differences. This suggests that the text used in this study about the Bohai Sea marine environmental policy is reliable and the coding of this text is credible.

(3) The sample content used is added in this section, and the policy conditions used are stated. The modified contents are as follows:In order to ensure the scientific nature of the policy sample,this samples of marine environmental policies selected in this paper are all derived from publicly available data, and the policies issued by the State Council, ministries and commissions, and local governments and departments that are closely related to the Bohai marine environment are used as analysis samples. Due to the large number of policies and the existence of policy documents that are ineffective for policy tool analysis, this paper has carried out identification and screening of policy text samples.  In order to ensure the accuracy and representativeness of policy selection, the types of selected policy texts are mainly opinions, decisions, regulations, methods, programs and notices. A total of 85 effective policy documents related to the Bohai Sea marine environment issued from 1996 to 2022 were collected through the identification and screening of policy analysis samples.

(4) After coding, the coding content is analyzed. The specific content is as follows:

Point 6:From the statistical results of the Bohai marine environmental policy lnstrument project (Table 4), it can be seen that 85 Bohai marine environmental governance policies take into account the use of command-control, market-driven and public participation policy instruments. The content involves the government, enterprises and the public, providing multi-faceted incentives and regulations for the governance of the Bohai marine environment. From the perspective of the proportion of use of the three types of policy instruments, the Bohai marine environmental governance was mainly compulsory, accounting for 67.5%, while the other two types of policy tools accounted for 16.5% and 16% respectively, showing no obvious preference for use.

Point 6:

-The explanation for each dimension should not only reiterate the existing problem conditions but also demonstrate how the modeling in this dimension can be applied to address the issues/inefficiencies that occur.

Response 6:

Using this dimension to solve the relevant problems,At the end of the paragraphwe have made relevant supplements in this section, specifically as follows:From this, we can draw enlightenment, that is, in the management of the Bohai marine environment, the government needs to make rational use of policy means, increase the frequency of use of policy instruments in advance and during control, timely control the total amount of pollution, and improve the efficiency of governance.

Point 7:

-The concluding section should present implications for real-world conditions and future developments concisely.

-It is typically brief, ensuring that the research implications are clear and easily discernible.

-The conclusion should not be a mere summary of the study but a focus on its contributions or significance.

Response 7:

With the relevant recommendations provided, we adjusted the final recommendations and conclusions to add significance and limitations for future studies. The modified content is as below:

Through the analysis of the marine environmental problems in the Bohai Sea, the following suggestions can be drawn: Firstly,promote the diversification of policy philosophy.Transform the policy philosophy, open the policy system, achieve the singleness of policy makers, and diversify the policy implementers. That is, transformed the mode from command-controlled type to the guided governance. Mobilize and give play to the subjective initiative of environmental stakeholders, and guide them to actively participate in environmental protection and take measures conducive to environmental protection through encouraging and incentive’s means, so as to form a situation in which governments, enterprises and the public interact and participate together. Secondly, optimize the structure of policy instruments.Reform the government, governance model, optimize marine environmental policies, coordinate internal government conflicts to improve implementation efficiency, reduce the inefficient use of mandatory policies. Take market-oriented policy instruments as the breakthrough point, strengthen policy pull, explore marine ecological compensation mechanisms, and develop a green marine ecological economy and promote the transformation and upgrading of the marine economy. With public participation policy instruments as the starting point, broaden the channels for public participation in the governance of the Bohai Sea marine environment. Finally,strengthen concurrent supervision of marine environmental management. Promote the construction and implementation of the Bohai marine supervision system, improving supervision work and implementing corresponding warning mechanisms,to ensure effective connection before, during, and post-control, we need to establish a sound accountability system for marine environmental management.

This paper is the starting point of the Bohai marine environmental policy research, in order to provide a basis for more in-depth policy research and put forward feasible countermeasures and suggestions for improving the use of marine environmental policy instruments. The paper also has its limitations, that is, it does not introduce other relevant participants in the process of Bohai marine environmental governance, the research methods are relatively simple, and the follow-up research will introduce social participation into the public participation module to analyze the specific impact of society on the governance of the Bohai marine environment, and continue to deepen the research on the Bohai marine environment, and provide ideas for the Bohai environmental governance with more in-depth research methods.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

1. Line 9-11, we propose to explain how to optimize.

2. Line 13-17, there is no need to comment on the quality of the article in the Abstract.

3. In Abstract, it is recommended to clarify the results instead of writing textbooks. Abstracts must be rewritten.

4. Line 31-35, is it possible to provide only Bohai information?

5. The starting point in 1996 was very good. In terms of background, but there seems to be no message from the later years, which is insufficient. It is recommended to add.

6. Line 41-47, this paragraph seems to be the motivation. But we do not see the particularity and importance of the marine environment policy in the Bohai Sea.

7. Line 55-57, it is recommended to clearly define and explain, and to cite appropriate literature.

8. Line 57, What is “It”?

9. Line61-62, what are the different criteria? What are the different classifications of policy instruments? It is recommended to be clear.

10. Line 55-72, it is suggested to sort out the definition. Suggestions to improve this section.

11. Citing scholars, there are many different formats in the paper, it is recommended to follow the journal format.

12. About Section 1.2. Marine Environmental Policy Research, the authors seem to only care about marine environmental pollution.

13. Line 111, the organic integration?

14. About Section 1. Literature Review, the Literature Review covers some references, however does not introduce the scientific problem. How will this study contribute beyond the current literature?

15. In Figure 1, this is the innovation and highlights.

16. Line 219-221, and and publicity and?

17. Regarding Section 3.2, we believe that the reliability and validity of text coding is important. It is recommended to pay attention to the failed part to avoid errors.

18. Line 278-281, Is there a causal relationship between the meaning of the previous paragraph and the latter paragraph? It is recommended to clarify the causal relationship. and cite literature.

19.Line 305-307, what is Based on the basic policy instrument dimension, the marine environment control dimension is introduced, the suggestion is clear.

20. Line 318, Sae?

21. Line 316-318, we do not understand the meaning of this.

22. Line 319-320, how to deduce this?

23. Line 339, we do not understand the meaning of figure text.

24. Line 343-347, we cannot understand the meaning of this paragraph from the picture. Please clarify.

25. Line 338, it is suggested to explain the meaning of x-axis variables. Please clarify.

26. Line 360-363, we cannot understand the meaning of this paragraph from the picture. Please clarify.

27. Line 369, we don't understand the meaning of figure text.

28. Line 368, we don't understand the meaning of figure. The meaning of the x-axis variable should be an interval variable. Why is it a continuous straight line? What is the meaning of the y-axis variable? How to map the y-axis variable and the x-axis variable? Why is there a broken line in the relationship line of command control?

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 3 Comments

 

 

Thank you so much for the valuable advice.

Point 1:

Line 9-11, we propose to explain how to optimize.

In Abstract, it is recommended to clarify the results instead of writing textbooks. Abstracts must be rewritten.

Response 1:

Following the advice, The abstract content is written again, and the revised content is as follows:The Bohai Sea is the only inland sea in China and serves as an important carrier for the Bohai Sea Economic Zone. However, it is also one of the areas with serious marine environmental pollution. This paper selects the policy text concerning Marine environmental pollution control issued by the central and local governments from 1996 to 2022 as the research object. Based on the three policy instruments of government environmental regulation, market incentive mechanism and public participation and using content analysis method to encode and quantify the text content,it is find that the Bohai Sea marine environmental governance suffers from issues such as single concept of use of policy instruments, imbalance in the proportion of use, and insufficient supervision in the event, Consequently, it is recommended to adopt a diversified policy concepts, optimize the structure of policy instruments, and strengthen in-process supervision in the governance of the Bohai Sea marine environment.

Point 2:

Line 31-35, is it possible to provide only Bohai information?

The starting point in 1996 was very good. In terms of background, but there seems to be no message from the later years, which is insufficient. It is recommended to add.

Line 41-47, this paragraph seems to be the motivation. But we do not see the particularity and importance of the marine environment policy in the Bohai Sea.

Response 2:

According to the proposal, the introduction has been modified, and the specific modifications are as follows:The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made the strategic deployment of "developing the marine economy, protecting the marine ecological environment, and accelerating the construction of a maritime power".The construction of ecological civilization is also an important part of China's overall ecological civilization construction，The Party and the government are paying increasing attention to marine environmental matters[1].Bohai Sea is the only inland sea in China and an important carrier of the Bohai Rim Economic Circle, but due to the long-term disorderly development of the Bohai Sea and the fragile ecological environment, the Bohai Sea environmental pollution is serious.Since the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment issued Agenda 21 of China’s Oceans in 1996, in the face of increasing pollution of the Bohai Sea, governments at all levels have issued a series of policies and regulations, providing an important regulatory basis for the protection of the marine environment of the Bohai Sea. In 2018, China issued the Announcement on the State of China's Marine Ecological Environment, which proposed to "further strengthen the ecological environment protection work in the Bohai Sea".With the continuous advancement of Bohai marine environmental policy, defects such as inefficient policy implementation, uneven use of policy instruments, and high government burden costs have gradually emerged. Marine environmental policy making in the Bohai Sea is facing enormous challenges.In the context mentioned above, it is of great practical significance to conduct research on policy instruments for achieving marine environmental governance goals. Previous scholars' research on marine environmental policies tended to discuss how to achieve coordinated policy implementation and optimize marine environmental governance through the development history, content structure, and policy means^[2][3].

This study takes a different approach by using content analysis to analyze the marine environmental policies formed in the Bohai Sea from 1996 to 2022, aiming to explain the following questions:what are the characteristics of the Bohai marine environmental policy? What are the laws of implementation and development? How to further optimize the Bohai marine environmental policy?This paper aims to optimize the policy system for the Bohai Sea marine environment, promote improvements and innovations in policy decision-making mechanisms, and provide new references for ecological civilization construction and the formulation of marine environmental protection policies.

Point 3:

Line 57, What is “It”?

Response 3:

Thank you very much for your correction. It refers to policy instruments in this paragraph. There was a writing mistake in this place, which has been modified so far. The specific modifications are as follows:Policy instruments refer to the specific methods and approaches adopted by government departments to address social public issues or achieve specific policy objectives during the formulation and implementation of policies. It is the medium between policy aims and policy outcomes, and it is also the means for governments to implement policies.

Point 4:

Line61-62, what are the different criteria? What are the different classifications of policy instruments? It is recommended to be clear.

Line 55-72, it is suggested to sort out the definition. Suggestions to improve this section.

Response 4：

According to the recommendations, the definition was reorganized and revised as follows:Policy instruments refer to the specific methods and approaches adopted by government departments to address social public issues or achieve specific policy objectives during the formulation and implementation of policies. It is the medium between policy aims and policy outcomes, and it is also the means for governments to implement policies. Since the 1950s, the prominent environmental issues have driven countries and people to urgently seek various policy instruments in an attempt to prevent the global deterioration of the environment.From a historical perspective, environmental policy instruments have undergone three stages of evolution.The first stage is the phase of command and control, the second stage is the phase of economic measures, and the third stage is the phase of cooperation and participation^[4]. In various environmental policy literature, different scholars have proposed different ways to classify environmental policy instruments. According to the differences in the use of policies. Gu et al. divided policy instruments into regulatory policy instruments, driven policy instruments and information transmission policy instruments^[5]. Xiao et al. have made a local division of policy instruments, arguing that ecological and environmental policy instruments have experienced the development and evolution of command-control instruments, marketing-driven policy instruments, voluntary environmental agreement instruments, and information disclosure instruments based on public participation^[6]. Policy instruments are the product of a government’s learning stage to respond to specific problems that arise over time and adapt to changing conditions^[7]. The selection and design of policy instruments is a key link for the government to achieve policy goals and a medium for effective policy implementation. Without the scientific selection and application of policy instruments, it will be difficult to achieve policy goals, and the failure of marine environmental governance policies will become inevitable^[8].

Point 5:

About Section 1. Literature Review, the Literature Review covers some references, however does not introduce the scientific problem. How will this study contribute beyond the current literature?

Response 5：

This section through the narrative of references, explains the policy instruments and the development of Marine environmental policy, in the last part of this section, this paper summarizes some of the shortcomings of the references, and on the basis of their want to study and can avoid some of the previous research methods. The specific contents are as follows:A review of existing research results can be seen that with the continuous advancement of China’s maritime power strategy, marine environmental issues have become more epochal and important, and the study of marine environmental policies is of great practical significance. However, China’s attention to marine protection started late. The research on marine pollution showed fragmented characteristics, and the research content was mostly theoretical discussion. In addition, China’s marine environmental policy research has the characteristics of discontinuity and generalization, and lacks the overall analysis and interpretation of specific policy content from an overall perspective.

The research contributions of this paper are: (1) Based on the theory of policy instruments, a three-dimensional model of “policy instruments-policy control-policy time” was constructed, and the time and stage differences of marine environmental policies in the Bohai Sea were analyzed in depth, so that the research was scientific. (2) Using content analysis method to quantify the Bohai marine environmental policy text. By analyzing the current policy structure and law of Bohai Sea, we can identify policy shortcomings and clarify the characteristics of policy evolution, so as to make policy research more targeted and practical.

Point 6:

Regarding Section 3.2, we believe that the reliability and validity of text coding is important. It is recommended to pay attention to the failed part to avoid errors.

Response 6:

According to the proposal, before the table describing the reliability and validity, this paper gives a detailed description of the validity content. The modified and added content is as follows:The internal consistency coefficient is used to measure the consistency level among multiple measurement indicators of the same concept. If the internal consistency coefficient is greater than 0.7, it indicates that the reliability of the scale is high. In this study, SPSS software was used to conduct a reliability test on 85 texts related to the Bohai Sea marine environmental policy. The results showed that the coding reliability was 0.824 and the validity was 0.719, indicating good reliability and validity. Therefore, it can be concluded that the coding analysis of this file has high internal consistency and no significant differences. This suggests that the text used in this study about the Bohai Sea marine environmental policy is reliable and the coding of this text is credible.

Point 7:

Line 278-281, Is there a causal relationship between the meaning of the previous paragraph and the latter paragraph? It is recommended to clarify the causal relationship.

Response 7:

Thank you for your question, this paragraph is designed to smoothly lead to the following table, play a certain excessive effect. In order to more clearly express the content of the form, a brief description of the content is made at the end of the form, and the modified content is as follows:From the statistical results of the Bohai marine environmental policy lnstrument project (Table 4), it can be seen that 85 Bohai marine environmental governance policies take into account the use of command-control, market-driven and public participation policy instruments. The content involves the government, enterprises and the public, providing multi-faceted incentives and regulations for the governance of the Bohai marine environment. From the perspective of the proportion of use of the three types of policy instruments, the Bohai marine environmental governance was mainly compulsory, accounting for 67.5%, while the other two types of policy instrumentals accounted for 16.5% and 16% respectively, showing no obvious preference for use.

Point 8: 

Line 305-307, what is Based on the basic policy instrument dimension, the marine environment control dimension is introduced, the suggestion is clear.

Response 8:

This paragraph mainly describes the three types of policy instrumentals, respectively is command control, market incentive and public participation, and through three types of policy instrumentals in the Marine environment governance proportion analysis of the government in the Marine environment governance use of policy instrumentals, and the need to improve in the future governance. The paper ends with a brief supplement to the government's needed improvements in the future. The supplements are as follows: It can be concluded that the government should create a relatively relaxed governance environment, expand the market and public participation in the governance of the Bohai marine environment, and give play to the role of other market players in the governance of the marine environment.

Point 9:

Line 316-318, we do not understand the meaning of this.

Response 9:

This graph represents the statistics of the number of three policy instrumentals, namely command control, market derive, and public participation, used in different policy control (premilinary control, concurrent control, and feedback control).

Point 10:

Line 319-320, how to deduce this?

Response 10:

The 400 marine policy documents covered the whole stage of marine environmental governance, including preliminary control (41.5%), concurrent control (37.25%) and feed back control (21.25%). Here 400 refers to the number of uses of policy instrumentals using Nvivo software to sort out 85 documents on Bohai Marine environment policy. In different control stages, the number of the three policy instrumentals is different, so statistics are made on the use of policy instrumentals in different stages.

Point 11:

Line 339, we do not understand the meaning of figure text.

Response 11:

This graph shows the different stages of governance of the marine environment and the frequency with which policy instrumentals are used. The governance of the marine environment is divided into three stages: the pre-control stage, that is, the preventive measures taken by the government before the marine environment has caused pollution. The concurrent stage means that when the marine environment is being polluted, the policy and relevant marine environmental actors take measures to prevent its continuous deterioration. The feedback stage refers to the remedial measures taken by the government and relevant environmental subjects after the marine environment is polluted. In these three stages, the number of policy instrumentals used by governments and relevant marine environmental actors is different, and the figure above shows the relevant statistics on the number of policy instrumentals used in different stages in the three stages.

Point 12:

Line 343-347, we cannot understand the meaning of this paragraph from the picture. Please clarify.

 Line 338, it is suggested to explain the meaning of x-axis variables. Please clarify.

Response 12:

This paragraph explains the three provinces and one municipality surrounding the Bohai Sea and the number of policy instrymentals used by the central government to manage the Bohai marine environment from 1996 to 2022. It is a simple explanation of the following figure.

Because the Bohai Sea is China's inland sea, surrounded by provinces and cities on three sides, the governance of the Bohai marine environment is mainly these three provinces and one city and the central government, so by counting the number of documents issued by different provinces on the governance of the Bohai Sea and the number of policy instrumentals, they can reflect the importance they attach to the governance of the Bohai Sea. The three provinces and one city are Hebei Province, Shandong Province, Liaoning Province and Tianjin City. So the X-axis represents the central government and the three provinces and one city.

Point 13:

Line 360-363, we cannot understand the meaning of this paragraph from the picture. Please clarify.

Line 369, we don't understand the meaning of figure text.

Response 13:

Before 2008, the central government did not pay enough attention to marine environmental governance, so the number of relevant policy documents on marine environmental governance was not enough. The general governance policy of local governments is consistent with that of the central government, so the central government's attitude towards the governance of the marine environment directly affects the governance attitude of local governments. After 2008, the pollution of the marine environment has become more and more serious, the central government has paid more and more attention to the governance of the marine environment, and the number of policy documents on marine environmental governance has increased. Therefore, it can be said that the government's behavioral logic of formulating and implementing marine environmental policies is directly affected by the policy concept and is a direct and concrete expression of its policy philosophy.

Point 14:

Line 368, we don't understand the meaning of figure. The meaning of the x-axis variable should be an interval variable. Why is it a continuous straight line? What is the meaning of the y-axis variable? How to map the y-axis variable and the x-axis variable? Why is there a broken line in the relationship line of command control?

Response 14:

What this chart is trying to express is the number of documents published at different stages of the process of policy instruments. As can be seen from the graph, the number of policies has increased over time. Among them, the X-axis represents the different policy stages, and the Y-axis represents the frequency of use of policy instrumentals.The polyline in the line segment relationship appears because from 2008 to 2017, the central and local governments realized the crisis of marine environmental governance and the importance of marine environmental protection, so they issued a large number of documents related to marine environmental protection and used a large number of policy instrumentals to govern and protect the marine environment of the Bohai Sea, which caused a surge in the number of policy documents during this period.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Short description: Paper presents the optimization research of Bohai Marine Environmental Policy based on the perspective of policy instruments. Briefly, this paper constructs a three-dimensional framework of “policy instruments-policy control-policy time” for the Bohai Sea marine environment. In the paper content analysis method was used to quantify the marine environmental policies of the Bohai Sea from 1996 to 2022 and analyze the evolution of space-time dimensions, in order to provide a theoretical reference for the optimization of marine policy in the Bohai Sea.

General remarks: The paper is written extensively, but it provides all the necessary information to understand what the authors were doing. Minor refinements are needed, which are given in the text below. The English language needs some minor corrections.

Specific remarks:

Key words - add "Bohain Sea"

Introduction section starts with no. 1.

Please put appropriate reference for statements in Introduction section.

Please put Figure of location of the Bohain Sea in Introduction section.

Row 105 - Please mention also EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Row 161 - Please put reference number for Chen et al.

Row 255 - Please put/mention all 85 documents related to Bohain Sea as Appenix in the paper.

Row 262 - Please put reference for Nvivo 11.

Suggestion to put Table 2 as an Appendix in the paper.

On Figure 3 all "percentages" are not visible.

Row 432 - Please put reference for the statement/sentence.

Minor editing of English language required.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 4 Comments

 

 

Thank you so much for the valuable advice.

Point 1: 

Key words - add "Bohain Sea"

Response 1:

As suggested, Bohai has been added as the key words.

Point 2:

Please put appropriate reference for statements in Introduction section.

Response 2:

As suggested, the introductory section has been modified and references have been added to the introductory section. The revised content reads as follows:

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made the strategic deployment of "developing the marine economy, protecting the marine ecological environment, and accelerating the construction of a maritime power".The construction of ecological civilization is also an important part of China's overall ecological civilization construction，The Party and the government are paying increasing attention to marine environmental matters^[1].Bohai Sea is the only inland sea in China and an important carrier of the Bohai Rim Economic Circle, but due to the long-term disorderly development of the Bohai Sea and the fragile ecological environment, the Bohai Sea environmental pollution is serious.Since the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment issued Agenda 21 of China’s Oceans in 1996, in the face of increasing pollution of the Bohai Sea, governments at all levels have issued a series of policies and regulations, providing an important regulatory basis for the protection of the marine environment of the Bohai Sea. In 2018, China issued the Announcement on the State of China's Marine Ecological Environment, which proposed to "further strengthen the ecological environment protection work in the Bohai Sea".With the continuous advancement of Bohai marine environmental policy, defects such as inefficient policy implementation, uneven use of policy instruments, and high government burden costs have gradually emerged. Marine environmental policy making in the Bohai Sea is facing enormous challenges.In the context mentioned above, it is of great practical significance to conduct research on policy instruments for achieving marine environmental governance goals. Previous scholars' research on marine environmental policies tended to discuss how to achieve coordinated policy implementation and optimize marine environmental governance through the development history, content structure, and policy means^[2][3].

This study takes a different approach by using content analysis to analyze the marine environmental policies formed in the Bohai Sea from 1996 to 2022, aiming to explain the following questions:what are the characteristics of the Bohai marine environmental policy? What are the laws of implementation and development? How to further optimize the Bohai marine environmental policy?This paper aims to optimize the policy system for the Bohai Sea marine environment, promote improvements and innovations in policy decision-making mechanisms, and provide new references for ecological civilization construction and the formulation of marine environmental protection policies.

Point 3:

Please put Figure of location of the Bohain Sea in Introduction section.

Response 3:

According to the suggestion, pictures of Bohai Sea have been added after the introduction, as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

Point 4:

Row 105 - Please mention also EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Response 4：

In accordance with the proposal, the Marine Framework Directive for the European Union has been added and integrated with the following text, with the following modifications: In 2008, the European Commission adopted the "EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive", which was the world's first comprehensive management strategy of marine environment aiming to achieve a good environmental status of the oceans. It employed advanced ecosystem-based approaches to incentivize collective action among member states. Furthermore， the European Commission has presented a green paper on the EU future ocean policy, identifying the need for an EU sustainable development and ocean management policy.

Point 5:

Row 255 - Please put/mention all 85 documents related to Bohain Sea as Appenix in the paper.

Suggestion to put Table 2 as an Appendix in the paper.On Figure 3 all "percentages" are not visible.

Response 5：

Appendices have been added at the end of the paper，On Figure 3 all "percentages" are not visible.Because the 85 documents overlapped with Table 2, we consolidated 85 documents with Table 2 into a single table as follows:

Number	Year	Policy
1	1996	China's Ocean Agenda 21
2	2000	Opinions on Banning the Sale and Use of Phosphorus-containing Detergents in the Bohai Sea Area of Our Province
3	2000	Communiqué on the State of the Environment in China (Summary)
4	2001	Bohai Blue Sea Action Plan
5	2004	Outline of the National Marine Economic Development Plan
7	2004	Measures for the management of environmental functional areas in coastal waters
6	2004	Circular of the State Council on Several Issues on Further Strengthening Marine Management
9	2005	Interim Regulations on the Administration of the Use of Maritime Area Funds
8	2005	Decision of the State Council on implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development and strengthening environmental protection
10	2006	Bohai Environmental Protection Specification Development and Reform Commission solicited comments online
11	2008	National Environmental Protection "Eleventh Five-Year Plan"
12	2009	Bohai Environmental Protection Master Plan (2008-2020)
13	2009	Outline of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" Blue Sea Action Plan for coastal provinces
14	2009	Notice on the establishment of the "Bohai Sea
15	2010	Shandong Province Interim Measures for the Management of Marine Ecological Damage Compensation Fees and Loss Compensation Fees
16	2010	Twelfth Five-Year Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pollution in Coastal Waters
17	2011	Notice on issues related to environmental protection management of offshore oil exploration and development in the Bohai Sea Area
18	2011	Opinions of the State Council on strengthening key work on environmental protection
19	2012	The "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" for the development of the national marine economy
20	2012	Several Opinions on the Establishment of the Bohai Marine Ecological Redline System
21	2013	Delineation plan of Bohai Marine Ecological Redline Area in Shandong Province
22	2014	The Beihai Branch of the State Oceanic Administration took measures to address the long-standing environmental problems in the Bohai Sea
23	2015	Interim Measures for the Administration of Pollution Discharge Permits in Liaoning Province
24	2015	Water pollution prevention and control action plan
25	2016	Work plan for water pollution prevention and control in Hebei Province
26	2016	Hebei Province Measures for the Administration of Pollution Discharge Permits that Meet the Standards
27	2016	Liaoning Province ecological environment monitoring network construction work plan
28	2016	Thirteenth Five-Year Plan ecological environmental protection plan
29	2016	Notice of the State Council on the issuance of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" ecological environmental protection plan
30	2017	Notice of the implementation plan of the permit system for controlling pollutant discharge in Liaoning Province
31	2017	Opinions on further strengthening the protection of the Bohai ecological environment
32	2017	Notice of the State Oceanic Administration on Further Strengthening the Protection of the Bohai Sea Ecological Environment
33	2017	Suggestions on Protecting the Coastline Resources of Liaoning Province and Returning the People's Sea-friendly Space replied to the opinions
34	2017	Opinions on the pilot work of the bay chief system
35	2017	Regulations of Liaoning Province on Marine Environmental Protection
36	2018	Technical guidelines for controlling the total amount of pollutant discharge in key sea areas
37	2018	Opinions on taking the lead in establishing and implementing a total pollution discharge control system in key sea areas such as the Bohai Sea
38	2018	Regulations on preventing pollution from coastal engineering construction projects from damaging the marine environment
39	2018	Implementation plan of marine ecological environmental protection in Tianjin
40	2018	Implementation opinions of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on promoting the high-quality development of the marine economy
41	2018	Tianjin Bohai Comprehensive Management Three-Year Operational Plan (2018-2020)
42	2018	Notice of the 2018-2020 operational plan for Binzhou City to fight the comprehensive management of the environment in the Bohai region
43	2018	Notice of the Action Plan for the Comprehensive Management of the Bohai Sea
44	2018	Action Plan for Comprehensive Management of the Bohai Sea
45	2018	Liaoning Province strengthens the protection of coastal wetlands and strictly controls the implementation plan for land reclamation
46	2019	Notice on the work plan of the special action plan for the investigation and rectification of the sewage outlet in the Bohai area of Yantai City
47	2019	Notice of the Office of the People's Government of Wafangdian City on printing and distributing the implementation plan for the comprehensive management of the Bohai Sea in Wafangdian City
48	2019	Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Management of the Bohai Sea in Liaoning Province
49	2019	Notice on doing a good job in the comprehensive improvement of the environment of the Bohai fishing port and the prevention and control of pollution by fishing vessels
50	2019	Suggestions on pollution of Dongying Bohai Sea and rivers entering the sea
51	2019	Notice of the Department of Ecology and Environment of Liaoning Province on further doing a good job in self-monitoring and information disclosure of key pollutant discharging units
52	2019	Liaoning Province Measures for the Supervision and Management of Pollutant Discharge Outlets into the Sea
53	2019	Issued a notice on the work plan for Wafangdian City to remove illegal construction within 500 meters of the landward side of the coastline in accordance with the law
54	2019	Huludao Bohai Marine Garbage Pollution Prevention and Control Work Plan
55	2020	Shandong Province has fully implemented the bay chief system work plan
56	2020	Notice on the clean-up and rectification of pollution discharge permits for fixed pollution sources and the issuance and registration of pollution discharge permits in 2020
57	2020	Overall Work Plan for Comprehensive Management and Ecological Restoration of the Liaohe River Basin
58	2020	Implementation plan for the construction of modern environmental governance system in Liaoning Province
59	2020	Measures for the supervision and management of social ecological environment monitoring institutions in Liaoning Province
60	2020	Liaoning Provincial Measures for the Administration of Enterprise Environmental Credit Assessment
61	2020	Measures for the Management of Marine Ecological Compensation in Hebei Province
62	2020	Shandong Provincial Environmental Protection Department's discretionary standards for administrative penalties
63	2020	Liaoning Province Implements the Central Ecological Environmental Protection Inspector's 'Looking Back' and Bohai Ecological Protection and Restoration Special Inspector Feedback Rectification Plan
64	2020	Regulations of Dalian Marine Environmental Protection
65	2021	Measures for Environmental Credit Assessment of Enterprises in Shandong Province
66	2021	Regulations on the lead sealing procedures for ship sewage discharge equipment in the Bohai Sea area
67	2021	Implementation Plan for Deepening the Comprehensive Management of the Bohai Sea (Liaoning Section)
68	2021	Notice on the issuance of the main points of the province's bay chief system in 2021 and the guidance on pollution remediation in three provincial-level bays
69	2021	Hebei Province Enterprise Ecological Environment Credit Management Measures
70	2021	Liaoning Coastal Economic Belt High-quality Development Plan
71	2021	Guiding Opinions on Deepening Law-Based Administration in the Field of Ecology and Environment and Continuously Strengthening the Management of Pollution According to Law
72	2021	Opinions on the Implementation of Three Lines and One Single" Ecological Environment Zoning Management and Control
73	2021	Liaodong Bay Bay Chief System Implementation Plan
74	2021	Yantai City sewage outlet management measures
75	2022	Yingkou City's West Urban Area sewage outlet "one mouth, one policy" rectification implementation plan
76	2022	14th Five-Year Plan for Marine Ecological Environmental Protection of Hebei Province
77	2022	Notice on the issuance of the Action Plan for Comprehensive Management of Key Sea Areas
78	2022	Implementation Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Discharge Outlets into Rivers and Seas
79	2022	Tianjin Municipal Measures for the Management of Positive List of Ecological Environment Supervision and Law Enforcement
80	2022	Pollution Discharge Permit Enforcement Checklist
81	2022	Three-year action plan for marine resources management in Hebei Province
82	2022	Measures for the Evaluation and Categorical Supervision of Enterprise Environmental Credit in Tianjin
83	2022	Donggang City sewage outlet investigation and rectification special action plan
84	2022	Tianjin Municipal Measures for the Control of Total Pollutant Discharge
85	2022	The situation, challenges and countermeasures of ecological protection in the Bohai Sea

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

In the revised version, we have seen the author's efforts to explain and respond to reviewer comments, and make a meaningful correction. For our concerns, we can see that most of them have a new addition and improvement.