Abstract: The ecosystem of the Yangtze estuarycoastal zone is considered as consisted of four subsystems: society, economic development, natural environment and natural hazard. An integrated indicator system based on these four subsystems has been set up in the present study. Based on Entropy theory, the Information Entropy model (IEM) was established to calculate the weight of every index. The authors established Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) evaluation model to evaluate the ecological environmental quality of Shanghai coastal zone. At last, the coastal zones of Baoshan, Pudong, Nanhui, Fengxian, Jinshan and Chongming (in the Yangtze Estuary) were selected to compare the spatiotemporal change and to classify the characteristics of ecological environmental quality from 1999 to 2003. The ecological environmental quality in Baoshan coastal zone was worse than other coastal zones during this period, but from 2001 to 2003, the ecological environmental quality was in the medium range. The ecological environment quality in Pudong, Fengxian, Nanhui and Jinshan coastal zones were among the medium level from 1999 to 2003 year. The quality in Chongming Island was in a better situation in 1999 and 2000, but from 2001 to 2003 year it became in the medium.

Key words: ecological environment, evaluation index, Grey Relational Model, coastal zone, the Yangtze Estuary