Spatial-Temporal Variation Characteristics and Obstacle Factors of Resilience in Border Cities of Northeast China

Abstract

The study of border resilience is an effective means to analyze the development status of border cities. This study constructs a border city resilience assessment framework, measures the urban resilience level of 13 prefecture-level administrative regions in China’s northeastern border region from 2010 to 2019, reveals their temporal and spatial differentiation characteristics, analyzes the main obstacles, and proposes development strategies. This study reveals the following: (1) The overall resilience of the northeast border cities is at a medium level, and differences between regions and cities are large. (2) The resilience of the northeast border cities increased rapidly between 2010 and 2015, especially in the western area; the improvement effect was poor between 2015 and 2019, and except for the increased resilience of individual cities in the eastern area, the development of other cities was slow and some even declined. (3) At the city scale, the development potential, economic structure, residents’ security, and environmental governance capabilities are the main factors restricting improvement in the basic resilience of the northeast border cities. Insufficient national policy support and the poor development of neighboring countries have become obstacles to cities’ exclusive resilience.