How can climate adaptation policy enhance urban climate resilience? Empirical evidence from China

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0335736 November 6, 2025 8 / 21 indicators to measure it. With stabilization, coordination, and transformation capacity as the core elements, the system comprises 26 indicators, as shown in Table 1. In the indicator system, Stabilization reflects a city’s ability to defend and recover from climate disasters, using three dimensions: meteorological disaster warning, emergency response, and economic support [60,61]. Based on the fact that urban weather warning means and the number of people covered by them are the primary reflection of the early warning capacity and its scope of benefits; the adequacy of human resources and public health facilities to carry out rescue often determines the response capacity of a city when it encounters a climate disaster emergency; urban economic strength and financial strength of the government are the key forces to ensure that the city can restore stable operation quickly from a climate event. So, we have selected 11 representative indicators to reflect the stabilization capacity. Coordination reflects the ability of cities to reconcile economic growth with the response to climate change, using water security and carbon-neutral construction [20,62]. Reservoir construction, universal water supply, and sewage treatment levels are important measures to ensure urban production and life and to cope with climate change; increasing public green areas is conducive to attracting industrial investment and reducing

carbon emissions. So, we have selected five representative indicators to reflect the coordination ability. Transformation reflects the evolutionary ability to reshape the architecture of urban systems and transform organizational functions [63–65]. The modernization level of urban infrastructure, scientific and technological progress, industrial structure Table 1. The indicator system for urban climate resilience measurement. Target Dimension 1 Dimension 2 Indicators Urban climate resilience Stability Meteorological warning Population coverage of television programs [15,16] Number of cell phone subscribers [15,16] Internet broadband access subscribers [53] Emergency response Density of drainage pipes [17] Number of employees in public administration and social organizations [4,17] Urban road space per capita [5,8] Gas penetration rate [5,8] Number of beds in health facilities per 10,000 population [4] Health personnel per 10,000 population [4] Economic support GDP per capita [19,54] Local general public budget expenditure [19,54] Coordination Water security Water supply penetration [55] Number of reservoirs [55] Sewage treatment rate [55] Carbon neutrality Green space per capita in parks [56] Greening coverage in built-up areas [56] Transformation Infrastructure Length of drainage pipes in built-up areas [17–19] Investment in fixed assets for public infrastructure construction [17–19] Number of Internet broadband access ports [53] Length of long-distance fiber-optic cable lines [17–19] Technological innovation Green patent applications [31,42]

General public budget expenditure on science and technology as a share of GDP [15,31,42] Employment in scientific research and technical services [15,31,42] Structural adjustment Industrial structure rationalization [57] Industrial structure advancement [58] Low-carbon energy consumption structure [59] https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0335736.t001