As urbanization accelerates and cities continuously expand and reshape their built environments, understanding the impact of urban spatial structure on ecological resilience has become increasingly crucial for promoting sustainable urban development. Based on grid population data and ecosystem-related data from 2007 to 2019 in Chinese prefecture-level cities, this study employs ESDA spatial exploratory analysis and entropy method to measure the degree of urban spatial structure and the level of ecological resilience. On this basis, the two-way fixed effects model, instrumental variables, and other methods are used to explore the impact of urban spatial structure on ecological resilience. We find that compact spatial structure is conducive to strengthening ecological resilience within cities. In other words, urban decentralization tends to weaken internal ecological resilience, and this effect is particularly pronounced in cities in central and western China, non-resource cities, and cities with high levels of digital development and infrastructure, and low levels of green innovation. Furthermore, mechanism tests reveal that improving climate suitability and promoting industrial sustainability are the influencing mechanisms. Finally, the study suggests that, in promoting urban construction, the government should thoroughly implement the concepts of ecological diversity protection and economic coordinated development, and reasonably plan urban spatial structure based on the current state of cities to improve the quality of living environments.

Amid shifting geopolitical dynamics and accelerated energy transition, enhancing energy system resilience (ESR) has become a key strategy for achieving energy security during transition and turbulent times. Previous studies have primarily explored ESR from engineering and technological perspectives, overlooking the impact of natural resource dependence (NRD) on ESR. Using provincial data from China spanning 2004 to 2020, this study measures NRD and ESR by the mining employment proportion and the entropy weight TOPSIS method, respectively, and then empirically analyzes their relationship by utilizing two-way fixed effect OLS model. The results are as follows: (i) Consistent with the central argument of the “resource curse” hypothesis, NRD can directly weaken ESR; for every 1% increase in NRD, ESR decreases by an average of 0.4982%. (ii) NRD can indirectly weaken ESR by intensifying climate change and relaxing environmental regulation. (iii) The weakening effect is particularly pronounced in non-municipal regions and areas characterized by high innovation levels and advanced digital development. Drawing on these research findings, this paper proposes policy recommendations for different types of regions. These include management and environmental regulation of fossil energy extraction and energy transition subsidy optimization, to promote regional sustainable development.