Does collaborative governance of natural disasters in urban agglomerations enhance urban resilience? Evidence from China

Against the backdrop of intensifying global climate change and rapid urbanization, the transboundary characteristics of natural disasters are becoming increasingly prominent, and thus collaborative governance of natural disasters in urban agglomerations has been crucial for disaster management, providing a new perspective for boosting urban resilience. While scholars have individually examined both the collaborative governance of natural disasters in urban agglomerations and urban resilience, their interaction is less explored. Based on the panel data of 275 cities in China from 2011 to 2021, this paper first employs the entropy method to assess urban resilience from five dimensions: economic, social, ecological, infrastructure and institutional. Then this study empirically explores the effect and mechanism of collaborative governance of natural disasters in urban agglomerations on urban resilience using the difference-in-differences (DID) model. The results indicate that collaborative governance of natural disasters in urban agglomerations can significantly improve urban resilience, and this conclusion remains valid after several robustness tests. Besides directly affecting urban resilience, it also indirectly boosts urban resilience by raising government security attention and urban innovation ability. Furthermore, its effect on enhancing urban resilience is more pronounced in China’s eastern region and larger cities. These findings can provide important implications for policy-makers in promoting urban resilience through collaborative governance of natural disasters in urban agglomerations.