AbstractUrban resilience is a new path for the sustainable development of cities in the future. However, recognizing and quantifying urban resilience is still in the conceptual and exploratory stage. In this study, we present a “scale-density-morphology” resilience framework as well as an index model to investigate the evolution of urban resilience based on theories of landscape ecology and evolutionary resilience. We find that spatial development is a major factor affecting scale resilience; population distribution is significantly related to density resilience; urban growth boundaries and ecological infrastructure are factors for optimizing morphology resilience; and an excellent balance of “scale-density-morphology” fosters the development of resilient urban areas. We give large cities recommendations for developing resilience, including—preventing urban sprawl and controlling the scale of construction land, reducing population and building density to promote low-carbon green production and lifestyles, strengthening ecological networks, and controlling urban growth boundaries, etc. This study hopes to provide a scientifically based spatial guide that could implement resilient urban planning and could serve as a case study for quantitative research on urban resilience.;Highlights•The relationship between urban resilience development and sustainability is presented as crucial for planning.•A research framework of urban resilience is constructed based on three dimensions–scale, density, and morphology.•A method for spatially quantifying urban resilience on a grid scale is proposed.•Quantitative attribute analysis of resilience using landscape patterns is reported.•The spatiotemporal evolution of urban resilience in Shenyang is investigated.