Frequent drought disaster has been the crucial meteorological factor limiting the agricultural development and eco-environmental construction in the northwest area of China. Based on the household question-naire

the resilience of social-ecological system to droughtin Yuzhong County

Gansu Province was studied by integrating statistical approaches and GIS. Water-sensitive factors were selected in view of society

economy

and ecology so as to build social-ecological systems. The resilience of the systems was then calculated at the household level under arid environment according to the modified conceptual model of fragility degree. Results indicate that the resilience of Yuzhong County depends on the interactions between internal factors (social

economical

and ecological) and external factors (drought). Population quantity

soil moisture

and soil nutrients are the common water-sensitive factors to the household social-ecological systems in the three regions

whereas others belong to local villages.