Coupling dynamics of urban flood resilience in china from 2012 to 2022: A network-based approach

Abstract

Urban flooding presents a significant challenge in Chinese cities, necessitating a deeper understanding of the coupling effects of China's urban flood resilience for effective resilience planning. This study introduces a four-component Environment-Institution-Infrastructure-Agent (EIFA) framework and utilizes an updated correlation network approach to analyze the temporal variation of coupling effects of urban flood resilience across 639 Chinese cities from 2012 to 2022. The findings indicate a decline in synergy and increased tradeoffs, primarily due to intensified competition within and between institutional and infrastructural sectors, marginal impacts of infrastructure investments, and socially excessive infrastructure. The study also highlights the agent component's strong internal and inter-component coupling effects, implying the effectiveness of China's people-centered resilience strategies, though risks of decoupling remain. Additionally, it notes a good match between societal urban flood resilience and natural flood risks, while natural vegetation loss due to urban expansion is noteworthy. The study further suggests that refining agent-focused deposit and insurance policies could coordinatively enhance urban flood resilience, as these elements are hubs within the network. The updated network-based framework and its findings offer insights for informing and optimizing urban flood resilience planning in China.