Spatial characteristics of urban life resilience from the perspective of supply and demand: A case study of Nanjing, China

Abstract

The study of urban life resilience from the perspective of supply and demand and supported by spatial big data is an innovative attempt to investigate traditional related research topics, ideas and methods. On the basis of interpreting the connotation of resilience behind the main contradictions and urban transformation in China at present and introducing the perspective of supply and demand to shape the analysis framework of urban life resilience, this study takes Nanjing as a typical case to study the spatial characteristics of urban life resilience and proposes pertinent adjustment strategies with support from spatial big data. Results show the following. (1) Spatial differentiation among urban livelihood, activity and comprehensive life resilience is significant and presents a ‘centre-periphery’ spatial structure with different gradients that show increasing and decreasing trends. (2) Urban livelihood and activity resilience mainly show low-high spatial negative autocorrelation characteristics. Residents in central urban areas are more likely than others to pursue activity resilience, due to agglomeration, whereas residents in towns outside central urban areas are not greatly affected by urban life resilience due to the low level of population agglomeration. (3) The agglomeration characteristics of coupling coordination level are not significant as the distribution of low-level coupling coordination areas is mixed, with only the coupling coordination level of peripheral towns being slightly high. The strategy of improving urban life resilience should focus on priority, pertinence, cross-regional dynamic guidance, coordinated governance of related urban problems and the impact of new science and technology and urban development concepts.