The liveability of school-district housings within a 15-minute life circle: a case study of Hohhot in western China

Exploring the liveability of a community quantifies the residents' quality of life at the microscale, contributing to urban planning and management at the macro scale. However, the comprehensive assessment of school district housing's (SDH) liveability based on objective and subjective factors is still insufficient. This article evaluates the objective liveability based on point of interest (POI) data within a 15-minute life circle and measures the residents’ satisfaction according to questionnaire survey data. In addition, we measure the coupling coordination degree between objective liveability and residents’ satisfaction of SDH. The results show that SDHs with the highest objective liveability are aggregated in the junction of the four districts within a 15-minute walk or drive, but due to traffic jams, the number of SDHs with the highest objective liveability within a 15-minute drive is significantly fewer than that within a 15-minute walk. Most of SDHs with high residents’ satisfaction are new SDHs located in Xincheng District and Saihan District, and residents are not satisfied with the community infrastructure and housing conditions in old SDHs. The SDHs with good coordination are mostly located in Xincheng District and Saihan District, with better economic conditions. It is imperative to improve the objective liveability and residents’ satisfaction of SDHs in Huimin District and Yuquan District, with slow socio-economic development. This paper provides a guide for the government to build more community-friendly SDHs and livable cities.