| Sustainable livelihood is one of the important and frontier fields in the study of sustainable development.Since the concept of Sustainable Development was put forward in the 1980 s,the international community has made a series of unprecedented cooperation among nations to promote the practice of global sustainable development.The United Nations has formulated two different agendas regarding sustainable development goals,which were the “UN Millennium Development Goals” and the “UN 2030 Agenda”.The international community has realized that the sustainable development is the ideal way of future development mode for human society;however the promotion of sustainable development is extremely difficult because of the imbalances in global development.Moreover,there are still 2 billion people still unable to make a living,in that case,poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods play an important role in the achievement of sustainable development.Sustainable development cannot be achieved without solving the problem of sustainable livelihood of the poor,therefore,the study of sustainable livelihood contribute significantly to the sustainable development.This paper demonstrates the international and national sustainable livelihood research regarding evolution trend,research themes,subject classification,competitive situation and academic impact through the most systematic bibliometric and knowledge graph analysis so far.The Koshi River basin(KRB)is a typical area for the study of sustainable livelihood.The KRB is a significant and representative trans-boundary river basin within the Hindu Kush Himalayas(HKH),which flows in China,Nepal and India.The HKH region is an important part of South Asia and the formation of this region is the mutual effect of multiple layers of earth system,which is very sensitive to the influence of global environmental change.KRB is a classic traditional agricultural region,and its socio-economic development and infrastructures are relatively backward and underdeveloped.Mountain communities are confronted with limited livelihood options due to the fragility of their mountainous settings and mountain ecosystem.For communities living in the basin,subsistence agriculture is the main livelihood option,coupled with the low quality of the labor force,which result in a low living standard.The KRB is an ideal research locale for conducting the livelihood researches,a great deal of attentions have been given by Nepal and international anti-poverty organizations at present to this area.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to carry out research on sustainable livelihood in the KRB.In this paper,we present an in-depth analysis and elaboration regarding sustainable livelihoods.It is a significant scientific issue to study sustainable livelihood in the KRB based on the livelihood capital evaluation,especially the identification and evaluation of ley livelihood capital.This research is part of a regional cooperation project that jointly funded and carried out by the Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)and The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD).The research area for this thesis is the KRB in China and Nepal.Based on the preliminary study of climatic,ecological and human environment,social economic and livelihoods of the watershed,the paper focuses on the assessment of livelihood sustainability,evaluation of the key livelihood capital and policy formulation in order to deeply observe and study the key factors restricting the sustainable development of the KRB,as well as to propose livelihood adaptation strategies.Through the establishment of livelihood sustainability,livelihood capital index system,this paper conducts integrated evaluation of capital sustainability and its influencing factors from the macro(country scale),meso(household scale)and micro(individual scale)perspective respectively,at the same time,reveals the spatial distribution and structural characteristics of livelihood capital on above three scales.The results indicate that:(1)The current situation of residents' livelihoods in the KRB is underdeveloped and laggard,moreover,5 major livelihood capitals are deficient to varying degrees,and the livelihood of farmers is unsustainable.(2)It is an undeniable fact that the livelihood capital vary from household to household,especially the households within the Koshi River Bain in Nepal,which are affected by the climate change.As a result,their livelihood capital and livelihood sustainability is jointly affected by multiple factors such as adaptability,climate change and locations.(3)There is ample evidence that gender inequality is widespread within the basin,and livelihood sustainability and livelihood capitals are vary among gender groups.(4)Based on the integrated evaluation of three dimensions of sustainability with respect to the five livelihood capitals and its influence factors,the paper defines the concept of "key livelihood capital".Moreover,the paper identifies and evaluates the key livelihood capital and its influence factors by adopting the DEMATEL method.Consequently,the most critical and influential livelihood capital has been identified.(5)The evaluation of livelihood capitals and key livelihood capital are the pivotal scientific basis for the establishment and design of livelihood policy and regulations.This paper analyzes the national conditions of the two countries,and puts forward some policy suggestions on sustainable livelihood for the county,family and gender on the basis of previous analysis.According to the above contents,the main innovative achievements of this research include:(1)This paper reveals the development trend and characteristics of sustainable livelihood research comprehensively and quantitatively by adopting bibliometrics and knowledge mapping approach.The third chapter maps and evaluates all the relevant SL literature indexed by SCI-E,SCI(internationally)and CNKI(nationally)for the purpose of identifying international and national research progress,development trends,hot topics,social networks,scientific impacts,which is the most advanced scientometrics research on sustainable livelihood in China.It provides scientific reference for the future researches and grasps the international frontier trend in the field of sustainable livelihood.(2)Construction of evaluation framework for livelihood capital in the KRB.Three dimensions of livelihood capital evaluation enrich and deepen the theory of sustainable development of cross-border watershed livelihood.(3)This paper expands the concept and connotation of livelihood capita,at the same time,puts forwards the concept of “key livelihood capital” innovatively.Author innovatively defines the concept of “key livelihood capital” and carries out quantitative evaluation of key livelihood capitals.The research carries out the integrality evaluation of key livelihood capital and its influencing factor based on the analysis of three dimensions,and concludes the importance of livelihood capital and its influencing factors in three dimensions respectively.Besides,the research throw lights on highly targeted sustainable livelihood policy recommendations for three dimensions(regional,household and sexual)of the river basin based on the quantitative evaluation and analysis of livelihood capital,the characteristics of watershed. |
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