Understanding resilience from the perspective of social-ecological system coupling: Dynamic evolution, nonlinear changes and influencing factors

With the scientific introduction of the concepts of adaptation, vulnerability and resilience, studying the parallel concepts of risk assessment and resilience monitoring is of great relevance to policy making. The key to ensuring the success of resilience building lies in accurately grasping the spatial temporal pattern and evolution of resilience, deeply understanding the social-ecological factors that promote resilience, and acutely analyzing the linkage mechanisms and feedback processes within the social-ecological system (SES). However, little is known about the progress and differences in resilience building in karst regions, and important questions regarding the relationship and interaction between Social resilience (SR) and Ecological resilience (ER) remain unexplored. To bridge this critical gap, this study evaluated ER from the perspective of ecosystem services and ecological threshold balance, evaluated SR based on the resilience criteria developed by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and constructed a social-ecological resilience coupling framework. Taking typical karst mountainous areas as research cases, 88 counties in Guizhou Province were selected for resilience assessment and coupling analysis through coupling coordination models, geographic detectors, and geographic weighted regression models. This provides insights into the nonlinear relationship between SR and ER and the dynamic evolution and influencing mechanisms of coupling coordination degree of social resilience and ecological resilience (CCD SER ). There were significant differences in the relationship between SR and ER, showing nonlinear characteristics of change. The key driving factors and spatial driving effects affecting CCD SER were identified, and resilience strategies suitable for a win-win situation between karst ecological restoration and economic development were proposed, which will help SES develop in a more sustainable direction.