Coupling Urban Shrinkage and Social–Ecological System Resilience: Feedback Mechanisms and Governance Strategies in China

Urban shrinkage has evolved from a localized phenomenon into a systemic challenge within China’s rapid urbanization, rendering traditional growth-oriented planning paradigms increasingly obsolete. However, existing research often treats shrinkage as either a passive outcome or an isolated shock, lacking a holistic perspective on how complex urban systems can adapt and reorganize under prolonged decline. This study constructs a coupling framework integrating urban shrinkage with Social–Ecological System (SES) resilience to bridge this theoretical gap. Drawing on a systematic literature review of 76 peer-reviewed articles following the PRISMA guidelines, we identify six core dimensions that drive this coupling. These dimensions consist of distinct physical and social elements. Our analysis reveals that the interactions between rigid physical environments and highly fluid social elements trigger nonlinear cascading feedback loops. While demographic contraction amplifies systemic risks, the subsequent structural release provides crucial spatial and institutional room for right-sizing. To translate these mechanisms into actionable governance strategies within the Chinese context, we propose a dual-track paradigm. Regionally, strategies emphasize collaborative risk monitoring, cross-boundary factor substitution, and industrial functional complementarity to mitigate vulnerability spillover. Locally, planning needs to pivot toward systemic downsizing and social empowerment, integrating proactive spatial reduction with agile service provision and community capacity-building. Ultimately, integrating structural reconfiguration with grassroots social learning enables shrinking cities to establish a new resilient equilibrium. While anchored in the Chinese context, this dual-track governance paradigm offers transferable insights for global shrinking cities seeking to overcome structural lock-in and foster adaptive SES resilience.