Redefining pastoral vulnerability: A validated framework for livelihood assessment in climate-stressed dry rangelands

Pastoral livelihoods in arid rangelands are increasingly exposed to complex, multidimensional vulnerabilities driven by ecological stressors, institutional constraints, and infrastructural limitations. This study presents a validated, indicator-based framework for assessing livelihood vulnerability, developed to capture both shared and context-specific stress dynamics in dryland pastoral systems. The framework integrates data from 196 households across five counties in Iran's Yazd–Ardakan Plain, encompassing nine components and 47 sub-components, including newly introduced and modified indicators tailored to pastoral realities. Results highlight Food Security, Livelihood Strategies, and Water Security as dominant vulnerability dimensions, with spatial patterns revealing compounded stress in some counties and relative resilience in others. The component-level heatmap enables diagnostic insights into resource-dependent pressures, while socio-demographic indicators remain comparatively stable. Beyond its regional application, the framework's modular structure and indicator logic support scalability and transferability to other climate-stressed pastoral contexts. By aligning ecological and socio-economic dimensions, this tool offers a robust basis for adaptive management, targeted interventions, and multi-scalar policy design in vulnerable rangeland systems.