RESUMO
It is vital to explore whether the economic system adapts to the environmental system as the relationship between economy and environment becomes a gradually concerned problem. Tangshan, a typical resource-based city, was chosen to study the adaptabilities and performances of economic developments in response to environmental changes from 1992 to 2011. It was found that the economic-environmental adaptation curve of Tangshan City had an overall fluctuating and increasing tendency. The systematic adaptability kept advancing, reflecting Tangshan paid much attention to environmental development in addition to economic performances, and the two aspects became more and more coordinated. Filtering analysis of the adaptive curve with Eviews software revealed that the potential systematic coordinating index was rising continuously, however, the sum of resilience gap for 20 years was still negative, which implied that fundamental contradictions between high economic development and high energy consumption and high pollutant emission still existed. Carrying out adaptive researches not only helps people to adapt to climate changes better, but also has significances for economic and environmental coordination and sustainability research.