ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Social Inclusion in Cities
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainability Management of Cities Through Circular Economy and Community Development: A Global PerspectiveView all articles
Computational Sustainability in Rural Home-Based Healthcare: Circular Resource Routing and Community-Embedded Service Management in China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shanghai Institute of Tourism, Shanghai, China
- 2Yibin Vocational and Technical College, Yibin, China
- 3Sichuan Polytechnic University, Deyang, China
- 4Huachiew Chalermprakiet University, Bang Phli District, Thailand
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Ensuring sustainable and equitable home-based healthcare in rural areas requires service systems that balance efficiency, fairness, and responsible resource use. This study develops a computational sustainability framework for optimizing multi-cycle routing and scheduling of nursing staff in rural China. We formulate a bi-objective model that minimizes operational costs—interpreted as reducing redundant travel, energy use, and resource waste—and maximizes equitable service accessibility for older adults. A service-time–prioritized greedy algorithm, a customized genetic algorithm, and a tabu search procedure are applied to generate and refine routing solutions. Using publicly available datasets, the algorithms are benchmarked against classical and random heuristics, demonstrating 10–15% cost reductions and significant improvements in equity as measured by a modified Gini coefficient. Beyond technical performance, the framework embeds principles of circular resource management, community-oriented service design, and collaborative local governance. By supporting fair allocation of limited personnel and enabling data-driven decisions for planners, the model contributes to sustainability goals in rural healthcare systems and aligns with SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). The findings provide a scalable decision-support tool for governments, healthcare institutions, and communities seeking to strengthen resilient, low-resource home healthcare delivery within circular and inclusive sustainability strategies.The framework supports collaborative sustainability management across local governments, healthcare institutions, and community organizations.
Keywords: Circularresource flows, Community-embedded care, Computational sustainability, Home-based healthcare, rural aging, Service equity, Vehicle routing problem
Received: 24 Jul 2025; Accepted: 10 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Tian, Yu, LI and Bai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Huan Yu
PENG LI
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