Abstract: Based on the standards of regional ecosystem health, including vigor, organizational structure, resilience, ecological function, and public health, and in considering of anthropogenic pressure and response countermeasures, an index system for the ecosystem health assessment of the economic zone on the west side of the Taiwan Strait (Haixi Zone) was built, and, aiming at the characteristics of nature and humanity of regional ecosystem health, the weights of the indices were given by analytic hierarchy process and mean square difference method. Fuzzy comprehensive assessment was utilized to establish the ecosystem health assessment model of Haixi Zone. The assessment showed that in 2008, the ecosystem health state of Haixi Zone was superior, and the anthropogenic pressure was relatively gentle. Overall, the regional ecosystem health status was good, but had spatial difference. Owing to the restriction of response countermeasures such as fixed assets investment and education expenditure. The regional ecosystem health status of Longyan, Quanzhou, Wenzhou, Chaozhou and Jieyang was worse than the health state of these cities in 2008. The overall ecosystem health status of the Zone in 2000 and 2008 was better than that in 1992, and the main driving factors were mainly economic vigor, organizational structure, human health, population pressure, and investment. However, the overall ecosystem health status of Haixi Zone in 2008 was worse than that in 2000, due to the expansion of built-up land, the decrease in natural landscape, and the enhancement of human disturbances.

Key words: regional ecology, ecosystem health, fuzzy comprehensive assessment, mean square difference method, economic zone on the west side of the Taiwan Strait