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<p>Urban climate resilience has become central to climate adaptation and sustainable urban development. Artificial intelligence (AI) may support resilience-building by improving information processing, innovation capacity, and urban governance. However, large-scale empirical evidence remains limited. This study uses China’s National New Generation Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Development Pilot Zones (AIP) as a quasi-natural experiment to examine whether AI-oriented policy interventions are associated with improvements in urban climate resilience (CR). Based on panel data from 274 Chinese cities from 2015 to 2023, we construct a multidimensional CR index and apply a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) framework. The results suggest that AIP designation is associated with a statistically significant increase in urban CR under the DID framework. This finding remains stable across robustness checks, including alternative weighting methods, propensity score matching DID, placebo tests, and additional specifications. Mechanism-consistent evidence points to three innovation-related channels: innovation scale, innovation quality, and innovation structure. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the estimated association is more pronounced in inland and non-resource-based cities. These findings provide context-specific evidence from China on the relationship between AI-oriented digital policy and urban climate resilience, and offer insights for cities pursuing digital transformation and climate-adaptation agendas.</p>

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AI pilot zones and urban climate resilience: evidence from China

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月7日

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  • Lei Li,
  • Yifan Zheng,
  • Shaojun Ma,
  • Zijian Guo,
  • Jian Zuo,
  • Michael Goodsite

摘要

Urban climate resilience has become central to climate adaptation and sustainable urban development. Artificial intelligence (AI) may support resilience-building by improving information processing, innovation capacity, and urban governance. However, large-scale empirical evidence remains limited. This study uses China’s National New Generation Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Development Pilot Zones (AIP) as a quasi-natural experiment to examine whether AI-oriented policy interventions are associated with improvements in urban climate resilience (CR). Based on panel data from 274 Chinese cities from 2015 to 2023, we construct a multidimensional CR index and apply a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) framework. The results suggest that AIP designation is associated with a statistically significant increase in urban CR under the DID framework. This finding remains stable across robustness checks, including alternative weighting methods, propensity score matching DID, placebo tests, and additional specifications. Mechanism-consistent evidence points to three innovation-related channels: innovation scale, innovation quality, and innovation structure. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the estimated association is more pronounced in inland and non-resource-based cities. These findings provide context-specific evidence from China on the relationship between AI-oriented digital policy and urban climate resilience, and offer insights for cities pursuing digital transformation and climate-adaptation agendas.