Under the background of complex domestic and international environment and the trend of urban population agglomeration, the impact of population agglomeration on urban economic resilience is worthy of attention. This paper uses a sample of 284 cities in China to empirically analyze the impact of population agglomeration on urban economic resilience in the context of the 2008 international financial crisis with the help of spatial econometric models. The results are as follows. First, population agglomeration can enhance the city’s resistance to the economic crisis, is more conducive to improving the city’s economic recovery and adjustment ability, and has a positive spatial spillover effect on surrounding cities. Moreover, population agglomeration enhances the economic resilience of urban secondary and tertiary industries. Secondly, in the population agglomeration context, the situation of the labor force structure affects the resilience of the urban economy. In terms of the labor force’s age structure, the agglomeration of prime-age labor is more conducive to improving urban economic resilience than youth and old labor. In terms of labor quality structure, homogeneous human capital agglomeration enhances cities’ resistance to economic crisis, while heterogeneous human capital agglomeration enhances cities’ ability to recover and adjust their economy.

Cities are areas featuring a concentrated population and economy and are major sources of carbon emissions (CEs). The spatial differences and influential factors of urban carbon emissions (UCEs) need to be examined to reduce CEs and achieve the target of carbon neutrality. This paper selected 264 cities at the prefecture level in China from 2008 to 2018 as research objects. Their UCEs were calculated by the CE coefficient, and the spatial differences in them were analyzed using exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). The influential factors of UCEs were studied with Geodetector. The results are as follows: (1) The UCEs were increasing gradually. Cities with the highest CEs over the study period were located in the urban agglomerations of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and Chengdu–Chongqing. (2) The UCEs exhibited certain global and local spatial autocorrelations. (3) The industrial structure was the dominant factor influencing UCEs.

Existing research underscores the significance of block form in fostering urban vitality. However, there is a dearth of evidence on its influence on the catering industry’s vitality. Additionally, current studies investigating the correlation between block form and urban vitality have frequently neglected disparities among various types of blocks with dominant functions. We employ a multi-scale geographically weighted regression and a geographic detector to elucidate the effects of block form and the heterogeneity of blocks with dominant functions on the catering industry’s vitality. Our findings suggest that the suitable block form can mitigate the catering industry’s reliance on factors such as the regional population and public transportation infrastructure, to a certain degree. High-rise buildings and irregular block plans positively influence the catering industry’s vitality, while the effects of block area, building density, and functional density display considerable spatial heterogeneity. Commercial blocks are most influenced by block form, whereas public service blocks are least affected. The methodology of this study can be replicated globally to guide urban planners in judiciously allocating commercial facilities, based on the varying spatial form requirements of different blocks, thereby fostering a vibrant city.

Urban streets serve as essential spaces for commercial activities and social interaction, yet the mechanisms through which their landscape elements influence consumption vitality remain insufficiently explored. Focusing on Lixia District, Jinan, China, this study integrates street-view image semantic segmentation with machine learning techniques to capture the nonlinear interactions between streetscape features and consumption vitality, thereby establishing an analytical framework for examining their associations. The results show that: (1) pedestrian-friendly facilities are significantly associated with higher street-level consumption vitality, with benches and streetlights showing marked effects once their visual proportions exceed 10% and 12%, respectively; (2) the visual proportion of parking space becomes positively associated with consumption vitality when exceeding 0.15, whereas carriageway proportion shows an overall negative association; (3) the marginal effect of advertising density gradually diminishes, with billboard visibility ratios above 25% exhibiting saturated impacts; (4) when green-view visibility exceeds 30%, consumption vitality increases substantially, peaking within the 35–40% range; (5) potential synergies or trade-offs exist among streetscape elements—compared with individual factors, the combinations of benches and parking spaces, benches and billboards, as well as parking spaces and billboards, are associated with higher street-level consumption vitality. In contrast, combinations involving a larger sky view ratio are often linked to lower consumption vitality, suggesting that overly open spaces may weaken consumer attractiveness. This study not only extends the methodological toolkit for analyzing consumption vitality but also provides theoretical and practical guidance for the refined design and experiential construction of urban street environments.