How digitalisation enhances urban resilience: empirical evidence from China

Utilising digitalisation to strengthen urban resilience is a viable strategy for sustainable urban development. Based on the data of 11 provinces in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China, the entropy method and the fixed effect model were adopted to explore the impact of digitalisation on urban resilience. The results indicate that: (1) the digital development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is unbalanced, with economic digitalisation being the highest, followed by social digitalisation, and government digitalisation being the lowest. Meanwhile, the spatial heterogeneity of digitalisation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is significant, decreasing from east to west. (2) The digital development significantly improves the urban resilience of provinces in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Economic digitalisation enhances urban resilience by developing high-tech industries and promoting the transformation of traditional industries. Social digitalisation enhances urban resilience by relying on the popularisation of the internet to improve the efficiency of information transmission. Government digitalisation enhances urban resilience by optimising business processes, information processing and collaborative modes. (3) The impact of economic digitisation and social digitalisation on urban resilience in the Yangtze River Economic Belt presents regional heterogeneity, while the impact of government digitalisation on urban resilience shows regional convergence.