Poverty alleviation resettlement (PAR) is China’s largest-ever resettlement program and one of China’s flagship poverty alleviation initiatives. Resorting to this state-led conversation and development program, the central and provincial governments aim to lift the poor out of the poverty trap and into sustainable livelihoods, by delivering improvements in housing conditions, infrastructure services, public amenities, and living standards. Taking Ankang as an example, this study examines the PAR from the perspective of vulnerability through a household survey conducted in Ankang prefecture of Shaanxi province, China. A total of six townships in Ankang are covered, with 657 valid questionnaires collected. This study shows that there is a difference in exposure, sensitivity, and the adaptive capacity of rural households with different relocation characteristics, hence generating different livelihood vulnerabilities. The PAR generally achieves the target of livelihood vulnerability reduction. Specifically, the project-induced relocation has a significant positive effect on vulnerability, but there is a significant negative correlation between livelihood vulnerability and relocation region, relocation time, and relocation subsidy. Challenges and problems remain to be addressed for the next phases of the PAR, including diminishing the financial burden on those relocated and providing free public transportation services, carrying out community-building programs and updating the household registration institution, balancing the redistribution and sharing of farmland, furnishing assistance measures for employment searches and training in specific skills, and creating an impartial project to safeguard the non-movers from the significant negative impacts on their physical and spiritual dimensions.

Based on survey data collected from five counties across southern Shaanxi, China, the present study employs a multinomial logistic model to explore the main factors related to the type of poverty of rural households, particularly focusing on the role of relocation time, reason for relocation, and type of relocation. The results showed that three types of poverty, “voluntary poverty”, “transient poverty”, and “chronic poverty”, are distinguished by combining income and consumption criteria. Moreover, relocation and settlement programs contribute to a certain degree to these three kinds of poverty, and the effects vary according to the relocation characteristics. Specifically, those relocated long-term were more likely to be trapped in “voluntary poverty” and “chronic poverty”, whereas those relocated short-term were less likely to fall into “voluntary poverty” and “transient poverty”. The poverty alleviation and disaster-related resettlers were less likely to be trapped in “chronic poverty”, whereas centralized resettlers were less likely to be trapped in “voluntary poverty” and “chronic poverty”. Additionally, demographic characteristics, capital endowment variables, and geographical features are all important factors affecting rural households’ type of poverty. This study can serve as a reference for further resettlement practice in China and other developing countries.

To reduce the threat of natural disasters, protect natural resources, and promote human wellbeing, Shaanxi Province, China has implemented the largest disaster resettlement project since 2011. It has moved 2.4 million people in three prefectures over 10 years. Using survey data from southern Shaanxi, China, this article measures sustainable household wellbeing (SHWB) and natural resource dependence in the context of disaster resettlement. It explores the differences in SHWB and natural resource dependence across different groups and relocation characteristics. To specifically analyze the effects of natural resource dependence on SHWB, ordinary least square (OLS) regression models were used to investigate their relationship. The results show that natural resource dependence shows significant positive correlation with SHWB. Meanwhile, the food dependence, energy dependence, and income dependence of relocated households show significant positive correlation with SHWB. Additionally, the SHWB of relocated households, voluntary relocation households, and centralized relocation households is significantly lower than local households, involuntary relocation households, and scattered relocation households. These findings have broader implications for rural communities in China and other developing countries, and are crucial for rural households to change the heavy dependence on natural resources and improve their wellbeing.

The government of China has implemented the Southern Shaanxi Disaster Resettlement program since 2011, which aims to address the problems of reduced livelihood resilience, increased livelihood risks, and single-risk management strategies caused by the frequent occurrence of natural disasters. This study considers the specific situation of disaster resettlement in Ankang Prefecture, southern Shaanxi Province, and draws on Quandt’s measurement idea to quantify livelihood resilience at the household scale in terms of five types of capital assets: natural, physical, human, financial, and social. A coarsened exact matching model was used to control confounding factors in the observational data to reduce sample selection bias, and then multinomial logit regression models were used to examine how livelihood resilience affects risk management strategies; moreover, the effects of different indicators of livelihood resilience, relocation characteristics, and follow-up support measures on risk management strategies were analyzed. Results show that livelihood resilience is higher among new-stage relocation, voluntary relocation, and centralized resettlement households, and working outside of the home accounts for the largest proportion of risk management strategies chosen by the sample households. In addition, livelihood resilience and its dimensions and indicators, relocation characteristics, and follow-up support measures have different impacts on risk management strategies. These results have considerable significance in guiding research on risk management strategies at the household scale and can serve as a reference for disaster resettlement in other developing nations and regions.

In order to alleviate ecological environmental degradation and to enhance sustainable rural household livelihoods, the Shaanxi government of China launched a disaster mitigation program: the disaster avoidance resettlement. Measuring household livelihood vulnerability and further assessing its influence, hold the key to strengthening livelihood adaptation in the context of disaster resettlement. Taking Ankang—in southern Shaanxi Province, China—as an example, this article explores the impact mechanism of household livelihood vulnerability on adaptation strategies through a multinominal logistic regression model in which 657 rural questionnaires were employed. In order to provide more integrated empirical evidence, we draw lessons from the livelihood of the previously proposed vulnerability framework, which has three dimensions: the degree of sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity. The adaptive strategies were divided into pure farming, non-agricultural, and diversified adaptation types according to the types of income sources. The results indicated that livelihood vulnerability varies with different resettlement characteristics. In terms of adaptive strategy types, the vulnerability of pure farming households was the largest. This article found that the relocated households who had a lower sensitivity preferred the non-farming livelihood adaptation strategy. Local households with a high adaptive ability preferred to implement diversified adaptation strategies. The weaker the social support network of the relocated households, the more likely they were to choose off-farm adaptation strategies. Our research results are robust and have broader implications in terms of promoting rural household diversifications of adaptation strategies and reducing livelihood vulnerability.

The largest disaster reduction and relocation project was conducted in Shaanxi Province, China, in an effort to reduce the threat of natural disasters and preserve the environment. Although the literature has attempted to assess the economic and ecological impacts of the project quantitatively, there is currently a dearth of research on the connection between resource dependence and adaptive capacity at the rural household levels. Using survey data from southern Shaanxi, China, this study evaluated and quantified natural resource dependence (NRD) and household adaptive capacity (HAC) in the context of disaster resettlement. Simultaneously, we explored the differences in NRD and HAC among various groups and relocation characteristics. An ordinary least squares regression model was used to specifically examine the relationship between them. The results indicated that, first, NRD was significantly and positively related to HAC. Second, the dependence of relocated households on energy, food, and income had a significantly positive correlation with HAC. Third, compared to local, involuntary, and scattered resettlement households, the HAC of relocated households, voluntary relocated households, and centralized resettlement households is substantially lower. The aforementioned findings have significant policy implications for rural China and other developing nations, as they can help reduce natural resource dependence and increase adaptive capacity.