Disaster Resilience Evaluation of Mountainous Rural Communities: A Case Study of Representative Villages in the Anning River Basin, Liangshan Prefecture

To enhance the scientific rigor and practical relevance of disaster resilience evaluation in mountainous rural communities, this study developed a multilevel assessment framework based on the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model by integrating the entropy method and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The framework comprised three dimensions (pressure, state, and response), nine elements, and 32 indicators tailored to the unique environmental and socioeconomic contexts of mountainous regions. Focusing on four representative communities (Taoyuan, Caogu, Niulang, and Qunying) in the Anning River Basin of Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, a combination of field surveys, GIS spatial analysis, and multi-source datasets were used to empirically evaluate community resilience. The key findings revealed the following: (1) The comprehensive resilience scores ranked Taoyuan > Niulang > Qunying > Caogu. Taoyuan's top performance stemmed from its designation as a national disaster prevention demonstration community featuring robust infrastructure and frequent emergency drills, whereas Caogu's lowest resilience resulted from its high-altitude topography, aging population, and inadequate infrastructure. (2) State resilience contributed most significantly to overall resilience (51.43%), with the building quality (C9) being the pivotal driver. Pressure resilience was predominantly influenced by the proximity to active faults (C2) and population exposure to geological hazards (C6), whereas response resilience relied on disaster-monitoring equipment (C26) and early warning efficiency (C27). (3) A synergistic optimization strategy was proposed, emphasizing risk zoning and engineering controls (pressure layer), housing retrofitting and social capital cultivation (state layer), and intelligent early warning systems integrated with indigenous knowledge (response layer). The study validates the applicability of the PSR model in mountainous rural contexts, highlighting a "state resilience dominance with response capacity gaps" pattern. Notably, communities with higher state resilience demonstrate stronger recovery capabilities despite elevated hazard pressures, underscoring the importance of robust infrastructure and social cohesion. Conversely, insufficient investment in monitoring technologies and external rescue coordination hinders response effectiveness in remote villages such as Caogu. The framework provides methodological support for tailored disaster-prevention planning, particularly in ethnic regions where traditional ecological knowledge complements modern governance. However, limitations include a focus on earthquakes and geological hazards, excluding concurrent multi-hazard scenarios (e.g., wildfires and pandemics), and a static assessment that overlooks temporal resilience dynamics. Future research should incorporate longitudinal monitoring and cross-scale interactions to refine the generalizability of the model. This study advances the theoretical integration of socioecological systems into resilience assessments and offers actionable insights for sustainable rural development in hazard-prone mountainous areas.