IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i9p4057-d1646863.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal Prioritization Model for School Closure Decisions Considering Educational Accessibility in Shrinking Regions

Author

Listed:
  • Solhee Kim

    (Department of Smart Farm, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, Joenbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Republic of Korea
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Taegon Kim

    (Department of Smart Farm, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, Joenbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Republic of Korea
    Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju 54896, Republic of Korea
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Jeongbae Jeon

    (Spatial Information Research Institute, Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation, Jeonju 55365, Republic of Korea)

Abstract

The consolidation and closure of small schools in rural areas has not only worsened the educational environment but also risked accelerating the socioeconomic decline of rural communities. This study examines how elementary school closures affect educational accessibility and seeks to optimize closure prioritization through a fairness-oriented approach. An optimal prioritization model, developed using the p-median algorithm, was applied to simulate and assess changes in commuting conditions and spatial equity. Using a case study of a South Korean county, we demonstrate the model’s ability to minimize disparities in urban and rural commuting environments while ensuring a balanced and fair decision-making process for school closures. This approach highlights a viable pathway to equitable educational infrastructure planning in regions facing demographic decline.

Suggested Citation

  • Solhee Kim & Taegon Kim & Jeongbae Jeon, 2025. "Optimal Prioritization Model for School Closure Decisions Considering Educational Accessibility in Shrinking Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:9:p:4057-:d:1646863
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/4057/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/4057/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zang, Yuzhu & Liu, Yansui & Yang, Yuanyuan & Woods, Michael & Fois, Francesca, 2020. "Rural decline or restructuring? Implications for sustainability transitions in rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    2. S. L. Hakimi, 1964. "Optimum Locations of Switching Centers and the Absolute Centers and Medians of a Graph," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 12(3), pages 450-459, June.
    3. Mladenovic, Nenad & Brimberg, Jack & Hansen, Pierre & Moreno-Perez, Jose A., 2007. "The p-median problem: A survey of metaheuristic approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(3), pages 927-939, June.
    4. Hanley, Paul F., 2007. "Transportation cost changes with statewide school district consolidation," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 163-179, June.
    5. Viccaro, Mauro & Romano, Severino & Prete, Carmelina & Cozzi, Mario, 2021. "Rural planning? An integrated dynamic model for assessing quality of life at a local scale," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael Brusco & J Dennis Cradit & Douglas Steinley, 2021. "A comparison of 71 binary similarity coefficients: The effect of base rates," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-19, April.
    2. Kenneth Carling & Mengjie Han & Johan Håkansson, 2012. "Does Euclidean distance work well when the p-median model is applied in rural areas?," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 201(1), pages 83-97, December.
    3. Tao Zhuolin & Zheng Qingjing & Kong Hui, 2018. "A Modified Gravity p-Median Model for Optimizing Facility Locations," Journal of Systems Science and Information, De Gruyter, vol. 6(5), pages 421-434, October.
    4. Amir Hossein Sadeghi & Ziyuan Sun & Amirreza Sahebi-Fakhrabad & Hamid Arzani & Robert Handfield, 2023. "A Mixed-Integer Linear Formulation for a Dynamic Modified Stochastic p-Median Problem in a Competitive Supply Chain Network Design," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-24, March.
    5. Michael Brusco & Douglas Steinley, 2015. "Affinity Propagation and Uncapacitated Facility Location Problems," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 32(3), pages 443-480, October.
    6. Aleksandra Tešin & Aleksandra S. Dragin & Maja Mijatov Ladičorbić & Tamara Jovanović & Zrinka Zadel & Tamara Surla & Kristina Košić & Juan Manuel Amezcua-Ogáyar & Alberto Calahorro-López & Boris Kuzma, 2024. "Quality of Life and Attachments to Rural Settlements: The Basis for Regeneration and Socio-Economic Sustainability," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, August.
    7. Snežana Tadić & Mladen Krstić & Željko Stević & Miloš Veljović, 2023. "Locating Collection and Delivery Points Using the p -Median Location Problem," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Deli Liu & Keqi Wang, 2023. "Research on the Siting of Rural Public Cultural Space Based on the Path-Clustering Algorithm: A Case Study of Yumin Township, Yushu City, Jilin Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-20, January.
    9. İbrahim Miraç Eligüzel & Eren Özceylan & Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber, 2023. "Location-allocation analysis of humanitarian distribution plans: a case of United Nations Humanitarian Response Depots," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 324(1), pages 825-854, May.
    10. Alcaraz, Javier & Landete, Mercedes & Monge, Juan F., 2012. "Design and analysis of hybrid metaheuristics for the Reliability p-Median Problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 222(1), pages 54-64.
    11. Vladimir Marianov & Daniel Serra, 2009. "Median problems in networks," Economics Working Papers 1151, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    12. Duran-Mateluna, Cristian & Ales, Zacharie & Elloumi, Sourour, 2023. "An efficient benders decomposition for the p-median problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 84-96.
    13. Bader F. AlBdaiwi & Diptesh Ghosh & Boris Goldengorin, 2011. "Data aggregation for p-median problems," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 348-363, April.
    14. Sergio García & Martine Labbé & Alfredo Marín, 2011. "Solving Large p -Median Problems with a Radius Formulation," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 546-556, November.
    15. Colmenar, J. Manuel & Greistorfer, Peter & Martí, Rafael & Duarte, Abraham, 2016. "Advanced Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure for the Obnoxious p-Median problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(2), pages 432-442.
    16. Antiopi Panteli & Basilis Boutsinas & Ioannis Giannikos, 2021. "On solving the multiple p-median problem based on biclustering," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 775-799, March.
    17. Alfandari, Laurent, 2004. "Choice Rules with Size Constraints for Multiple Criteria Decision Making," ESSEC Working Papers DR 04002, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    18. James F. Campbell & Morton E. O'Kelly, 2012. "Twenty-Five Years of Hub Location Research," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(2), pages 153-169, May.
    19. S Salhi & A Al-Khedhairi, 2010. "Integrating heuristic information into exact methods: The case of the vertex p-centre problem," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(11), pages 1619-1631, November.
    20. M Horn, 1996. "Analysis and Computational Schemes for p-Median Heuristics," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 28(9), pages 1699-1708, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:9:p:4057-:d:1646863. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.