Optimizing Locations of Primary Schools in Rural Areas of China

Scientific location selection of schools is an important way to optimize the allocation of educational resources, improve the efficiency of operating schools, and realize the balanced development of education, especially in rural areas. Many studies have considered the location of schools, but most have omitted the impact of transportation network conditions and the time cost differences caused by different travel speeds under different road conditions. The object of this study is to minimize the total transportation costs for students, construction costs for new schools, and the construction and upgrading costs for roads on a traffic network with travel time uncertainty indicated by different travel time scenarios. A mixed-integer programming model for this problem was proposed. Furthermore, a hybrid simulated annealing algorithm was used to solve the problem. Finally, a practical case study was used to illustrate the application of the proposed mathematical model. The results showed that the traffic network has an important influence on the optimization location of rural schools, and the improvement of traffic network conditions can greatly reduce the time required for students to travel to school.