A multiscale assessment of general resilience capacity in China’s coastal social-ecological systems: a national baseline and nested diagnosis in Rongcheng

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Introduction Coastal social-ecological systems face climate change, resource exploitation, and fragmented governance. Hazard-specific assessments cannot fully represent their capacity to cope with uncertain disturbances, while connections between nationally consistent screening and fine-scale local diagnosis remain limited. Methods Drawing on general resilience theory, we developed a three-tier, ten-attribute framework linking a national baseline with a nested assessment in Rongcheng. Coastal land and marine subsystems were evaluated using a nominal 2025 temporal window that incorporated the closest reliable products for slowly updated variables. The analysis included indicator standardization, scale-specific weighting, composite assessment, Jenks natural breaks classification, and spatial autocorrelation analysis. Results The mean general resilience capacity indices were 0.359 for national coastal land and 0.470 for national coastal waters. Low and relatively low classes accounted for 39.75% of national coastal land, whereas moderate and relatively high classes accounted for 65.48% of national coastal waters. In Rongcheng, moderate and relatively low classes jointly represented 68.30% of coastal land. Relatively low and relatively high classes accounted for 56.33% of coastal waters, with a coefficient of variation of 0.282, indicating pronounced intra-bay heterogeneity. Discussion The national assessment provides a consistent baseline for broad-scale screening, whereas the Rongcheng assessment identifies bay- and shoreline-scale units for future field verification. Because the assessments differ in indicators, weights, and spatial supports, their results should be interpreted within their respective scales rather than compared directly. Scale-matched monitoring and governance feedback can connect national screening with local diagnosis.