关键词: 城市边缘区, 失地农民, 适应性, 适应能力, 熵权TOPSIS法, 西安

Abstract:

Research on adaptation in the context of global change (e.g., climate change, natural disaster, and ecological system) has received broad attention, however, relatively few attempts have been made to assess the effects of social and human variation on adaptation. With China’s rapid urbanization, many farmers in urban fringe areas lost their farmland and had to adjust their livelihood so as to adapt social and spatial change. Thus, the adaptation of these land-lost farmers has become an important social issue in China. This article applies the adaptation analytical framework to the case of land-lost farmers in the urban fringe of Xi'an, and defines the concept and adaptation framework of land-lost farmers. Based on the conception and analytical framework, we developed an indicator system to evaluate adaptive capacity from five dimensions including cognitive capacity, buffering capacity, learning capacity, transformative capacity and management capacity. Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative analyses, we combined data from in-person interviews with household surveys in 2015. Based on the way of livelihood and employment, five types of adaptation strategies for land-lost households were classified: short-term employment, rents from commercial house, self-employment, regular earnings and social security from government. The approach of TOPSIS was used to assess adaptive capacity for different types of land-lost households. The result shows that the value of adaptive capacity for type of self-employment is the highest, and the type of social security from government is the lowest. In order to find out which factors limit the adaptive capacity, an obstacle degree model was introduced in this study. Vocational skills training, income diversity index, satisfaction of social security system, occupational stability and government support are major factors that influence the adaptive capacity of land-lost farmers. Eventually, the paper presents the measures and proposals about adaptive management from aspects of land-lost farmers, community and government. Our findings highlight the need for land-lost farmers to improve their vocational skills, and enhance transformative capacity to non-agricultural industries and urban society. And the community support system should also be brought into full play in promoting adaptation. Simultaneously, local governments should make corresponding management measures to different types of land-lost farmers, such as employment training, improvement of social security system, acceleration of population urbanization and so on. The conclusions in this paper could provide some empirical guidance for coordinating the relationship between human and environment and improving adaptive capacity of land-lost farmers.

Key words: urban fringe, land-lost farmers, adaptation, adaptive capacity, entropy-TOPSIS method, Xi'an