Study on the Interaction Mechanism Between Urbanization and Ecological Resilience—The Case of Urban Agglomeration on the North Slope of Tianshan Mountain

Although it promotes national economic development, urbanization causes regional ecosystems to suffer from disturbances and impacts that cannot be completely avoided. Ecosystems urgently need to improve their resilience; however, existing studies lack an analysis of the interaction between urbanization and ecological resilience. In this study, the interaction between urbanization and ecological resilience is investigated, taking the urban agglomeration on the north slope of Tianshan Mountain (UANST) as a study area and using the entropy value method to construct an urbanization evaluation system. Based on land use change data, an ecological resilience evaluation model is constructed using the InVSET model, the landscape pattern index, and the unit area value equivalent factor method. The degree of coupling and coordination of the interaction coupling between urbanization and ecological resilience are measured for the years 1990–2020, and their internal action mechanisms are analyzed. The results show that (1) with the development of urbanization, ecological resilience shows a decreasing and then increasing double “U”-shaped change characteristic. (2) The coupling degree of urbanization and ecological resilience in the UANST increased from 0.6888 to 0.9485, and the coordination degree increased from 0.3367 to 0.4410. (3) There are three types of coupling coordination: basic coordination, basic dysfunction, and serious dysfunction. Basic coordination is mainly distributed in the central part of the urban agglomeration, and basic dysfunction and serious dysfunction are mainly concentrated on the east and west sides; the overall trend is to shift from dysfunction to coordination. (4) Economic urbanization plays a driving role, and population urbanization, spatial urbanization, and social urbanization have an inhibitory role in the degree of coupling coordination; base quality and structural stability have a driving role in the degree of coupling coordination, while ecological services have an inhibitory role; and the population density, the proportion of built-up area to the total land area of the city, and the value of ecosystem services have a stronger influence on the level of coupling coordination.