Spatial-temporal analysis of community resilience to multi-hazards in the Anning River basin, Southwest China

Abstract

Multi-hazards stress is an important factor that hinders social and economic development in disaster-prone areas. Assessing and improving community resilience has become an effective strategy for reducing the impacts of natural hazards and enhancing adaptive risk management. This study developed a novel framework for community resilience assessments based on five dimensions: original condition before hazard (OC), coping capability (CC), adaptative capability (AC), hazard loss (HL), and hazard exposure (HE). The Anning River basin in Southwest China was chosen as the study area to describe the spatial-temporal changes of community resilience to multi-hazards (including landslides, rock falls and debris flows), as well as to identify its critical influencing factors. The results showed that the model can accurately evaluate the changing trends of community resilience. Community resilience in the Anning River basin fluctuated greatly over the past 15 years, with significant increasing trends during 2000–2002, 2004–2011, and 2012–2014. Community resilience was significantly positively correlated with OC, CC, and AC, and negatively correlated with HL and HE. Comparing influencing factors in typical counties, public infrastructure investment, availability of television services, labor employment, medical condition and Engel coefficient are the most common key factors that influenced community resilience. Methods to improve community resilience in different regions were suggested based on these findings.