Evaluation and formation mechanism of rural social vulnerability under natural hazard: A case study of the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

Global environmental change has posed serious threats and challenges to human survival and sustainable development, especially for mountainous communities with fragile ecological environments, weak infrastructure, and underdeveloped economic development. Reducing rural social vulnerability has become an important way to promote global rural revitalization and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, current research has mostly focused on social vulnerability assessment, with few revealing its formation mechanism. Based on the collected survey data of 240 households, this paper selected Zhouqu county as a case, which located in the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and constructed theoretical framework and hypothesis model of social vulnerability from three dimensions: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptability. On the basis of analyzing the characteristics of social vulnerability, we used structural equation model to further explore its formation mechanism. The result shows that the mean value of social vulnerability index of farmers under natural hazards is 0.442, and nearly 30% of the surveyed farmers have high social vulnerability. There are significant differences in social vulnerability among households in different communities, different economic levels and different livelihood styles. Natural hazards have a double-edged sword effect on the rural social system. They can not only directly aggravate social vulnerability by weakening household natural capital, physical capital, financial capital and psychological capital, but also indirectly stimulate the vitality of social capital, integrate human capital and social resource to reduce social vulnerability. Finally, we put forward effective countermeasures to reduce the rural social vulnerability. Our study aimed to providing theoretical reference for developing countries to formulate risk management policies and disaster prevention and mitigation planning in mountain areas.