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.

Because of the particularity of energy being non-renewable, the development of energy-intensive cities must consider its follow-up development issues in advance, especially for newly developed energy-intensive cities like Songyuan in the midwest of Jilin Province. It is necessary to summarize the experience from other energy-intensive cities and recognize the problems existing in its own development, so that the development of the city will not perish due to the exhaustion of energy. At present, the sustainable development of energy-intensive cities is the focus of attention at home and abroad. Energy-intensive cities have made great contributions to the national and regional economy but also paid a considerable price. Making the city continue to prosper and develop steadily without causing the city to decline due to the exhaustion of energy is the main problem facing the country, the government, and experts and scholars. Taking Songyuan City in Northeast China as an example, this paper adopts a combination of breakthroughs from the surface and breakthroughs, supplemented by theoretical analysis and empirical evaluation, and uses mathematical model simulation and expert consultation and decision-making methods. Starting from the theoretical height of man-land harmony and sustainable development, we construct an evaluation model of rural development status in energy-enriched poverty-stricken areas, evaluate the evolution trend of rural development status, and propose leading models and development strategies for rural transformation and development in energy-enriched poverty-stricken areas. It provides theoretical reference and decision-making basis for the sustainable development of rural Songyuan City.