Digital-Green Integration as a Catalyst for Urban Ecological Resilience: Evidence from Chinese Provinces

Abstract

China’s smart-city and green-transition policies have made digital-green integration an important pathway for improving urban ecological resilience. This study examines whether digital-green integration enhances urban ecological resilience, through which channels this effect occurs, and under what regional conditions it becomes more pronounced. The analysis uses a balanced panel of 510 observations for 30 Chinese provincial-level regions from 2005 to 2021, compiled from national and provincial statistical yearbooks. An indicator system encompassing resistance, recovery, and renewal is used to assess urban ecological resilience, and the composite index is calculated using the entropy-weighting method. Digital–green integration is captured by a coupling coordination index linking digital infrastructure with green finance. Its effect is estimated within a two-way fixed-effects framework, with additional tests used to assess the robustness of the findings and explore the underlying mechanisms, moderating conditions, and regional differences. The results show that: (1) digital–green integration significantly enhances urban ecological resilience, with its effect concentrated primarily in the recovery dimension; (2) industrial-structure upgrading and improvements in energy efficiency serve as important transmission channels, while better traffic infrastructure further strengthens this positive relationship; and (3) the effect is more pronounced in provinces with lower levels of urbanization and stronger environmental regulation. Governments should promote digital-green integration to support industrial-structure upgrading and energy-efficiency improvement, thereby strengthening cities’ capacity to recover from ecological shocks. Greater support should be directed to less urbanized regions, while areas with weaker environmental regulation should improve disclosure, verification, and enforcement. Future research could employ city-level data and spatial econometric models to examine the magnitude, geographic reach, and transmission mechanisms of cross-regional spillovers.