This study addresses a critical research gap by identifying vulnerability determinants for rapidly expanding cities facing seismic risks. It establishes Lanzhou New Area—a strategic Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) hub experiencing accelerated urbanization—as an empirical case study. We develop a multidimensional resilience assessment framework to evaluate infrastructure, socioeconomic, institutional, and ecological preparedness for seismic disasters. Through entropy-weighted TOPSIS analysis integrated with scenario modeling, we quantify systemic vulnerabilities, revealing critical deficiencies in lifeline seismic redundancy and emergency responsiveness. Our findings demonstrate significant spatial heterogeneity in dynamic resilience performance, with pronounced fragility observed within high-density urban clusters and industrial parks under higher intensity seismicity. The research advances resilience benchmarking theory by demonstrating how evidence-based identification of vulnerability “key issues” enables targeted disaster risk mitigation. Beyond providing Lanzhou-specific spatial prioritization for resilience optimization, this methodology offers globally transferable approaches for enhancing catastrophe resilience in rapidly developing urban regions through strategic resource allocation.