Study On Farmers' Vulnerability In The Debris Flow Threat Areas

The western mountainous area of China is located in the Tibetan Plateau and its influence zone.The geological environment in this region is complex and changeable,which makes geological disasters occur easily,occur frequently and do great harm.And debris flow is the typical representative of geological disasters.Debris flow is easy to cause casualties and house collapse,which seriously restricts the development of local economy and society.Therefore,how to reduce the vulnerability of debris flow hazard-affected body is an important issue in the current sustainable development of mountainous area.This study took the Anning River basin as the case study areas.Firstly,based on the domestic and foreign researches,the evaluation index system of farmers' vulnerability in the debris flow threat areas was constructed from the micro scale.Then considering the economic development level and present situation of debris flow of Liangshan Prefecture,we selected the survey villages.The questionnaire was designed based on the evaluation index system of farmers' vulnerability.We obtained the research data through household survey,and used function model to evaluate farmers' vulnerability,which could reveal the present situation of farmers' vulnerability in the debris flow threat areas.Finally,considering external environment and peasant internal factors,we used the hierarchical linear model to reveal the impact of environmental differences and farmers' characteristics on its vulnerability.According to the analysis,main conclusions are reached as follows:(1)Most farmers' vulnerability in the case study area is higher.If farmers suffer from debris flow,they will suffer serious losses,and they only have weak recovery ability,which has a strong negative impact on households' production and living conditions.The normal task of disaster risk reduction is still arduous.75% of the farmers is in the medium and high level of vulnerability,among whom,the number of farmers in the medium level of vulnerability is most.In terms of each dimension,48.37% of households belong to medium and high exposure,and 5.71% of households belong to high sensitivity,and 32.88% of households belong to low adaptability.From the average of vulnerability dimensions,exposure is at a high level,followed by adaptability,and finally sensitivity.(2)The vulnerability characteristics of different types of farmers are as follows:subsidized farmers have the highest vulnerability,followed by pure agricultural farmers and non-agricultural farmers,and part-time farmers have the lowest vulnerability.For different types of farmers,the order of their exposure characteristics is as follows: part-time farmers> non-agricultural farmers> pure agricultural farmers>subsidized farmers.The order of their sensitivity characteristics is as follows:subsidized farmers> pure agricultural farmers> part-time farmers> non-agricultural farmers.The order of their adaptability characteristics is as follows: subsidized farmers< pure agricultural farmers< non-agricultural farmers< part-time farmers.Subsidized farmers have the highest sensitivity and the lowest adaptability,resulting in their highest vulnerability.Pure agricultural farmers have the second highest sensitivity and the second lowest adaptability,leading to their the second highest vulnerability.Therefore,subsidized farmers and pure agricultural farmers are the object of disaster risk reduction need to pay special attention to.(3)There are significant differences in the farmers' adaptability and vulnerability under the different number of debris flow and different susceptibility of debris flow(P<0.05).The more debris flow,the better the farmers' adaptability,and the farmers' vulnerability is lower.The higher susceptibility of debris flow,the better the farmers' adaptability,and the farmers' vulnerability is lower.(4)The influencing factors of farmers' vulnerability have significant hierarchical characteristics.Since vulnerability is composed of three factors,namely exposure,sensitivity and adaptability,and the influencing factors of farmers' exposure and adaptability have obvious hierarchical characteristics,the differences of farmers' vulnerability are affected by factors of different scales.In terms of household scale,household income level,types of farmers,proportion of migrant workers and the age of householders significantly affected household exposure.The proportion of migrant workers,the participation of disaster reduction training,the number of channels for obtaining knowledge about debris flow,the number of relatives,types of farmers,the age and gender of householders directly affecte household adaptability.In terms of village level,altitude and the level of disaster management have significant impact on household exposure.The amount of threatened property in villages,minority differences of villages,economic level of villages,number of debris flow in villages can explain the spatial difference of farmers' adaptability.The influencing factors at the village level play a direct role and also play an indirect role by adjusting the factors of household scale.On the whole,peasant internal factors have have stronger explanatory power than the factors at the village level,which are the decisive factors to reduce farmers' vulnerability.(5)Regulation countermeasures about farmers' vulnerability should be considered three aspects: exposure,sensitivity and adaptability: the first is to reduce the exposure level of farmers,the second is to focus on farmers who are in high sensitivity level,and the last is to focus on improving the farmers' adaptability of debris flow.At the same time,regulation countermeasures should take the scale factors into considered.The first is to adopt different vulnerability reduction measures for different households,considering the differences between households;the second is to consider the geographical environment where farmers live,that is,farmers in different villages should carry out different disaster risk reduction.