Exploring the spatio-temporal evolution of economic resilience in Chinese cities during the COVID-19 crisis

Fully understanding the spatio-temporal evolution of economic resilience is key to formulating policy responses to major public health events. In particular, whether developed cities in economically-populated regions remain in an unprecedented position in terms of resilience. Based on economic resilience measured from undesired economic output, the economic resilience of Chinese cities in 2020 was analyzed using GIS to characterize the spatio-temporal evolution of globality and local interactions. The results show: compared to financial crisis, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy was all-encompassing; There were different trends in the four economic regions; The overall economic resilience had a stable local spatial structure and local spatial dependence, in contrast to the less developed cities in the interior which had a dynamic local spatial structure; The spatial distribution of economic resilience showed a trend towards agglomeration and an evolution from southeast-northwest to northeast-southwest pattern; The weighted average centers moved from the northwest to the southeast. Our findings provide a more comprehensive picture of the spatial and temporal evolution of economic resilience in Chinese cities in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as supporting further researches that can inform territorial spatial planning in sustainable development strategies.