Regional Urban Resilience: Research Methodology and Empirical Analysis Based on the Perspectives of Density, Distance, and Division in the Yangtze River Delta

Abstract

The present study builds a regional urban resilience index model through ecological density, spatial distance, and social division based on the Density, Distance and Division (3D) theory of new economic geography. In total, 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta, China, were used as the research object, and the characteristics of the urban resilience index and the driving effect of factors were investigated. The results show that: (1) the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations are at the primary level of resilience, which presents a spatial development pattern of one core and two belts; (2) there is a significant positive correlation between external resistance and internal restoration, and the restoration lags behind the resistance in most cities because of the lack of internal density effects; and (3) the driving effects of ecological density, spatial distance, and social division elements on the urban resilience level are different at the regional and district scales. Ecological density and social division are stronger at the district scale, and the spatial distance is stronger at the regional scale.