Investigating into the Coupling and Coordination Relationship between Urban Resilience and Urbanization: A Case Study of Hunan Province, China

Abstract

In the context of accelerated urbanization, constructing resilient cities is an effective approach to tackling risks, such as extreme weather, and various urban challenges. The coupling and coordinated development of urbanization and urban resilience is a prominent embodiment of urban sustainable development and high-quality development capacity. In this study, Hunan Province, China, which is frequently affected by various disasters, is selected as a representative for examining the coupling and coordination relationship between urban resilience and urbanization level. The panel data are adopted to construct a dual-system evaluation framework integrating urban resilience and urbanization level based on the entropy weight-coefficient of variation (CV)-CRITIC method. The coupling coordination degree of this dual-system evaluation framework is calculated with the coupling model in physics and GM (1, 1) grey prediction model. Additionally, the spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of the coupling coordination degree are investigated and analyzed by ArcGIS and Geoda software. The following are indicated from the results: (1) The resilience of all cities is related to their geographical location and is characterized by a decrease from east to west; in addition, the resilience level of most cities presents a downward trend with time. (2) The urbanization level of most cities develops stably with time, but there is a growing gap in the urbanization level between regions. (3) There is a strong correlation between urban resilience and urbanization level in all cities; the unbalanced coupling and coordinated development emerge, specifically manifested by the polarization phenomenon. Eventually, a circle-difference spatial distribution pattern that starts from the central urban agglomeration and gradually decreases to the periphery is formed. (4) The prediction results of the coupling coordination degree suggest that there is an increasingly distinct polarization trend for the coupling and coordinated development between cities, and it is necessary to pay attention to those cities with a declined predicted value. (5) There is a significant positive spatial autocorrelation and agglomeration effects in the distribution of the coupling coordination degree of all cities, and the correlation is getting stronger with each passing year; the correlation mode is mainly characterized by homogeneity and supplemented by heterogeneity. Finally, several suggestions are proposed in this paper, in an attempt to lead the coordinated development of regions by novel urbanization and thus promote the sustainable development of cities. The methods and insights adopted in this study contribute to investigating the relationship between urban resilience and urbanization in China and other regions worldwide.