From gravity to resistance: An enhancing framework for urban agglomeration economic resilience from a point-axis-network perspective

• An urban agglomeration economic resilience (UAER) enhancing framework was constructed from the "point-axis-network" perspective. • A method for describing potential economic connections based on minimum economic resistance is proposed. • Improving regional economic resilience (RER) requires attention to the threshold effect between it and influencing factors. • At the county level, weak potential economic ties exist both between different administrative regions and within the same administrative region. • The improvement of RER and the enhancement of potential economic connections between regions help to improve the economic network structure resilience (ENSR) indirectly. Enhancing urban agglomeration economic resilience (UAER) strengthens urban economic systems' ability to cope with risks. Declining global economic flow costs have blurred regional boundaries and increased cities' exposure to external shocks from distant regions. Current research on UAER has focused on regional economic resilience (RER) within individual cities, neglecting their collective capacity to address shared risks. This study proposes a UAER enhancing framework based on the point-axis-network perspective, aiming to simultaneously improve RER and economic network structural resilience (ENSR). In addition, to enhance the practical significance of economic axes, a novel method is introduced to construct potential economic connections between regions based on minimum economic resistance. The empirical study of the Central Yunnan Urban Agglomeration (CYUA) demonstrates that indirectly improving ENSR by optimizing RER and economic connections is feasible. Improving the RER of economic sources should focus on the threshold effect of influencing factors. High average economic resistance along economic axes is observed not only across administrative boundaries but also within individual administrative units. Therefore, breaking administrative boundaries to explore regional economic connections is essential. From a network perspective, identifying node destruction thresholds that significantly impact network stability under different risk scenarios will help governments create targeted emergency strategies.