The impact of adaptive management on community resilience in arid rural areas facing environmental change: An integrated analytical framework

Environmental variability poses a major risk to rural communities and farmers, particularly in dryland regions. Effective adaptive strategies must be implemented to promote the transformation, adaptation, and sustainable development of rural areas located in arid regions worldwide. The adaptive management of rural transformation can influence community resilience by changing the elemental structures of social–ecological systems. However, few studies have reported an assessment framework between system resilience and adaptive management. We developed an integrated analytical framework to fully estimate the impact of adaptation strategy implementation on different levels of community resilience, considering the differences between spatial geographic units and measuring changes in different temporal scales. We applied this framework to a case study of China’s Minqin Oasis, assessing the community resilience of rural areas facing environmental change. We found that (1) rural community resilience in Minqin Oasis has obvious spatial and temporal evolution characteristics, with the overall rural community resilience showing a decreasing trend over the past 30 years, while the spatial distribution of community resilience tended to be balanced for the period 2011–2017; (2) the main obstacles to the improvement of rural community resilience include wind and sand control, ecological water resources, economic levels, and the adjustment of the agricultural economic structure; and (3) Adaptation strategies based on the priority of ecological restoration and government-led mandatory policy are not conducive to the improvement of community resilience. This study provides a clear framework for linking adaptive management and community resilience assessment in the context of climate change or environmental risk. It also offers an effective means for policymakers to direct strategic resources to the geographic spaces where they are most required. Case-based research results provide an evaluation reference for the adaptive management of arid rural areas in the face of environmental change worldwide.