Social ecological system and vulnerability driving mechanism analysis

Abstract

The mutual infiltration and interaction between ecological and social economic elements makes the compound structure of social ecological system(SES). SES concept is a new way of thinking in ecological system analysis, which, based on the social-ecological-economic composite indicators, from the perspective of harmonious human-earth relationship and system integration methodology, analyzes and solves ecological and social economic problems,highlighting the integrity of ecological, social and economic system. And driving mechanism analysis of and comprehensive research on SES vulnerability has become the trend of vulnerability research. This paper(1)elaborates the plyability and variability of the threshold value,instability of succession and multiple balance states of S S, the initiative of political, economic and cultural elements, and the driving role of human activities in S S, and analyzes the attributes of S S, including resilience, adaptability, transformation, adaptive cycle and pathological dilemma, cross-scale interaction and panarchy phenomenon. (2)explores the driving mechanism of SES vulnerability, holding that SES vulnerability mainly includes three factors: risk (pressure), sensitivity and adaptability, of which,risk (pressure) is the power driving the system, constitute the SES vulnerability. (3) combining the Pressure-State-Response model(P-S-R) and Exposure-Sensitivity-Adaptability model, builds driving mechanism analysis model of SES vulnerability, where the system pressure, sensitivity and adaptability are respectively droven by lower-level driving factors: (1)Natural risk, planning goals and human disturbance compose risk (pressure) factors of SES vulnerability,which may be generated by disturbance from internal as well as external system, from the social economy as well as natural elements and maybe also from other different time-space scale system, representing the pressure the system exposes to,(2) The natural environment, economic structure, resources utilization, cultural awareness and historical vulnerability determine the sensitivity of S S, reflecting the inherent response characteristics when facing risks.(3)Environmental management and ecological efficiency, science&technology&education, happiness index and community organization affect SES's adaptability to disasters. At last the author discusses the related problems and points out the limitation of the analysis of driving mechanism of SES vulnerability, and puts forward the prospect of future research.