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Evaluation of Sustainable Livelihoods in the Context of Disaster Vulnerability: A Case Study of Shenzha County in Tibet, China

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  • Yannan Zhao

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Jie Fan

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Bo Liang

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Lu Zhang

    (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    Department of the Human-Earth System and Regional Development, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China)

Abstract

The issue of achieving sustainable livelihoods (SL) is a persistent problem that has gained significant interest for all countries. Even though contexts of vulnerability have been highlighted to be critical to SL, the difference of SL under vulnerability contexts, particularly disaster, has been ignored. As one disaster-prone area, there is an urgent need to conduct studies on SL in Shenzha, within the context of the construction of a national park. This paper proposes to address this research gap by evaluating SL under various disaster contexts in Shenzha, China. According to the frequency of natural disasters, towns in Shenzha can be divided into three groups: Snowstorm and windstorm-dominated towns (SWT), mixed towns (MT) and drought-dominated towns (DT). The results showed that (1) a great disparity of SL can be observed among the three vulnerability groups. The scores of these SL were sorted into descending order as: DT > SWT > MT. (2) In detail, herdsmen in DT have a high value of SL because they have high livelihood assets, livelihood strategies and disaster management capabilities. (3) Herdsmen in SWT have high livelihood assets, particularly human and financial assets, and livelihood strategies. (4) The low livelihood assets and livelihood strategies have restricted the SL of herdsmen in MT. An analysis of SL under various disaster contexts helped to depict the characteristics of SL. Accordingly, targeted policies were developed for the development of SL under various disaster contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Yannan Zhao & Jie Fan & Bo Liang & Lu Zhang, 2019. "Evaluation of Sustainable Livelihoods in the Context of Disaster Vulnerability: A Case Study of Shenzha County in Tibet, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-16, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:10:p:2874-:d:232869
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