Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Climate risks are intensifying across China, yet whether the country’s growing portfolio of adaptation policies is sufficiently equipped to address a diverse and spatially uneven hazard landscape remains understudied. This study develops a risk-informed framework that combines a synthesis of multi-hazard climate risks with a systematic evaluation of 19 national-level adaptation policies issued between 2007 and 2024. Policy quality is measured using an extended Preston framework comprising 19 processes across four sequential stages: objective setting, capacity and resource assessment, decision-making, and implementation and evaluation. Overall, the policies achieve 37.4% of the maximum assessment score, revealing substantial room for improvement in translating policy ambition into operational readiness. Objective setting is the strongest stage, reaching approximately 70% of its maximum score, whereas capacity and resource assessment and decision-making reach only 15% and 36%, respectively. Mann--Kendall trend analysis detects a statistically significant improvement in policy quality after 2015, coinciding with China’s enhanced engagement with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015--2030. These findings underscore the urgency of strengthening resource and capacity foundations and embedding adaptive decision-making procedures within China’s evolving climate adaptation governance architecture. The framework also offers a transferable approach for evaluating adaptation policy portfolios in other national contexts.</p>