A Spatial Equilibrium Evaluation of Primary Education Services Based on Living Circle Models: A Case Study within the City of Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China

An Huang, Yueqing Xu (), Yibin Zhang, Longhui Lu, Chao Liu, Piling Sun and Qingguo Liu
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An Huang: School of Public Administration, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China
Yueqing Xu: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Yibin Zhang: School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Longhui Lu: Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
Chao Liu: College of Public Administration, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Piling Sun: School of Geography and Tourism, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276800, China
Qingguo Liu: School of Geography and Tourism, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276800, China

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Primary education services are a key component of public infrastructure. These services exert significant impacts on public activity, sustainability, and healthy socio-economic development. This research applies the concept of a ‘living circle’ in order to evaluate the spatial equilibrium of education services in existing primary schools. This has enabled equilibrium planning schemes to be proposed for primary schools as well as the promotion and construction of livable and defensible living spaces. This area remains a key issue, however, one that urgently needs to be addressed in terms of the layout of public infrastructural services to facilitate livable living space construction. Thus, from the perspective of livable and defensible living space construction, the aim of this study was to construct a primary education equalization assessment method based on the walking living circle method. An equilibrium index was also designed based on the number of primary school students; this was then combined with the standard construction of new primary schools to optimize the spatial equilibrium of these education services. The city of Zhangjiakou City was then used as a case study; the spatial equilibrium of primary education services was evaluated across four living circle scenarios (i.e., 15 min, 20 min, 25 min, and 30 min). Results reveal that the city of Zhangjiakou currently offers dramatically spatially negative non-equilibrium primary education services (i.e., supply < demand) across four living circle scenarios, but most notably in rural areas away from urban areas and towns, especially in the counties of Shangyi, Chicheng, Chongli, Kangbao, and Guyuan. It is interesting to note that all living circle scenarios could enable positive non-equilibrium primary education services (i.e., supply > demand), mainly within the urban districts of Qiaodong, Xuanhua, Qiaoxi, Wanquan, and Xiahuayuan. It is also clear that equilibrium living circles are distributed across all counties. A spatial optimization proposal for primary school services should therefore be presented that alleviates the issues inherent to non-equilibrium primary education services. The results of this study offer a number of suggestions for education service optimization across the city of Zhangjiakou as well as for other cities in China. We also provide further scientific foundations for research on livable space and defensible unit construction as well as the spatial equilibrium evaluation of other public infrastructural service facilities

Keywords: primary education services; spatial equilibrium evaluation; living circle; GIS; Zhangjiakou City (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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