Urban spatial structure and ecological resilience in China

Abstract As urbanization accelerates and cities continuously expand and reshape their built environments, understanding the impact of urban spatial structure on ecological resilience has become increasingly crucial for promoting sustainable urban development. Based on grid population data and ecosystem-related data from 2007 to 2019 in Chinese prefecture-level cities, this study employs ESDA spatial exploratory analysis and entropy method to measure the degree of urban spatial structure and the level of ecological resilience. On this basis, the two-way fixed effects model, instrumental variables, and other methods are used to explore the impact of urban spatial structure on ecological resilience. We find that compact spatial structure is conducive to strengthening ecological resilience within cities. In other words, urban decentralization tends to weaken internal ecological resilience, and this effect is particularly pronounced in cities in central and western China, non-resource cities, and cities with high levels of digital development and infrastructure, and low levels of green innovation. Furthermore, mechanism tests reveal that improving climate suitability and promoting industrial sustainability are the influencing mechanisms. Finally, the study suggests that, in promoting urban construction, the government should thoroughly implement the concepts of ecological diversity protection and economic coordinated development, and reasonably plan urban spatial structure based on the current state of cities to improve the quality of living environments.