Effects of natural disasters on livelihood resilience of rural residents in Sichuan

Abstract

Measuring livelihood resilience is a difficult task, and practical methods to measure livelihood resilience are needed. We use the structural dynamics to describe the changes in livelihood resilience of Sichuan rural residents from quadruple dimensions: livelihood quality, livelihood promotion, livelihood provision and disaster stress. Results show that (i) the livelihood resilience of rural residents is significantly positively correlated with the livelihood quality, livelihood promotion and livelihood provision, but substantially negatively correlated with the disaster stress. The livelihood resilience is dominated by both livelihood provision and livelihood promotion. (ii) the effect of different natural disasters on the livelihood resilience varies. The contribution rates of earthquake, flood and drought to livelihood resilience are −0.5%, −0.3% and −0.1%, respectively. The clear understanding of the vulnerable targets such as the poor, agricultural sector, disaster-prone hilly and mountainous areas in Sichuan Province can help limit a disaster's adverse impact on livelihood; (iii) developing incentives to motivate healthcare professionals to retain in rural areas, increasing the scale operations in the education and health sectors, promoting the equitable access to farmland and the economic viability of local farms have to be important part of livelihood resilience improvement.