Resident Satisfaction-Based Evaluation Framework and Policy Optimization for Small-Town Infrastructure: Evidence from Wuhan, China

This study evaluates resident satisfaction with small-town infrastructure and generates a policy-ready ranking of improvement priorities using a modified importance–performance analysis (IPA) that infers indicator importance statistically rather than from self-reported scores. We surveyed small towns in the new districts of Wuhan, China, and developed a resident satisfaction-based evaluation framework spanning road and transport, basic living facilities, public services, public activity space, and townscape and character. We assessed reliability in SPSS, estimated implicit importance via partial correlations with overall satisfaction, and mapped indicators into quadrants to set priorities. Results indicate that overall performance is perceived as generally good, yet road and transport and townscape and character consistently emerge as high importance/low satisfaction domains, and there was notable variation across towns. The framework offers a replicable, user-centered diagnostic that turns resident feedback into a ranked set of priority indicators to guide targeted investment and operations, with transferability to comparable regions.