Museum accessibility and equity in central Changsha: multimodal evidence from the 15-minute community life circle

Within the 15-Minute Community Life Circle framework, this study evaluates museum accessibility and distributional equity across walking, cycling, and transit in central Changsha. We cross-verified 32 museums from official directories and POI data, proxied supply with exhibition floor area, and built OD cost matrices from OSM. Accessibility under a 15-minute budget was measured with G2SFCA; overall and local equity were assessed using the Lorenz – Gini approach, LQ, and LISA. Findings indicate a “core concentration – corridor diffusion – peripheral decline” pattern, with point – axis coupling at bridgeheads and station areas and lower values on the periphery. Gini coefficients rank as walking 0.789, cycling 0.783, transit 0.749, suggesting transit disperses opportunities more widely under the same time budget. LQ reveals pronounced “core abundance – peripheral scarcity,” consistent with the spatial structure; LISA identifies HH clusters along the eastern north – south corridor, LL clusters on northwestern – southwestern edges, and HL/LH outliers near bridgeheads and stations. The study integrates multimodal accessibility and two-level equity diagnostics under a unified time scale, offering a comparable, transferable framework for cultural facility provision.