Bridging planned and autonomous adaptation for flood resilience in multi-ethnic communities along China's Tea-Horse Road

As climate change impacts are intensifying, flood adaptation increasingly relies on the interaction between planned and autonomous adaptation, yet empirical evidence on such interaction remains limited. This study draws on fieldwork and policy document analysis to examine how planned and autonomous adaptation interact across different flood adaptation stages in multi-ethnic rural communities along the Tea-Horse Road in southwest China. The findings reveal mixed adaptation, in which planned and autonomous measures coordinate in resource allocation, labor mobilization, and institutional arrangements, thereby supporting community resilience. However, this interaction remains loosely integrated, with limited collaboration between community and governmental actors. Governance is dominated by planned adaptation, which often overlooks local ecological norms, cultural preferences, and knowledge systems, undermining communities’ self-reliant resilience and causing maladaptation. Such maladaptation is rooted in structural imbalances reinforced by historical inertia and path dependence. The study conceptualizes adaptation as a cross-scale process and argues that strengthening mixed adaptation requires redefining criteria for successful adaptation, recognizing the value of autonomous adaptation, and establishing regular negotiation mechanisms. Drawing on empirical evidence from rural China, the study provides theoretical insights into early forms of mixed adaptation with policy-relevant implications for community resilience in the Global South.