Vulnerability of rural household livelihood to climate variability and adaptive strategies in landslide-threatened western mountainous regions of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

Abstract

Few studies have addressed rural households’ livelihood vulnerability index (HLVI) in areas threatened by geological hazards, particularly China’s mountainous regions, or the impact of community adaptive capacity on HLVI. Using household data from the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, this study accounts for community adaptive capacity and constructs an evaluation index system. Shocks of climate change, considerable expenditure to rural households, and the households’ sensitivity and adaptive capacity to shocks are explored, resulting in the following findings: (1) In villages where landslides have occurred, rural households’ exposure dimension and sensitivity dimension scores are relatively high, indicating that high vulnerability is accompanied by high sensitivity. (2) Rural household livelihood capital and strategies are always key means of resisting external shocks: vulnerable groups resist external shocks primarily with the help of social capital and community adaptive capacity, whereas invulnerable groups primarily cope by means of human capital and community adaptive capacity. (3) Community adaptive capacity can effectively weaken the impact of external shocks on HLVI, whereas lack of nature and financial capital, as well as a relatively singular livelihood strategy, are not conducive to rural households’ resistance to external shocks.