A Case Study in Xianning to Evaluate the Livability of Small and Medium-Sized Cities

In order to build livable cities as well as improving the living standard of local citizens, this paper evaluates and compares the livability of all the counties in Xianning based on the theoretical analysis of livable city and fifteen selected secondary indicators from four aspects of economic prosperity, excellent surroundings, plentiful natural resource and living conveniency by applying the qualitative and quantitative methods. According to the results, Xianning is overall a livable city where the livability of Xianning district ranks the first, the second is Chibi and Jiayu, followed by Tongcheng, Chongyang and Tongshan. Last of all, this paper proposes some solutions to improve the livabilty in Xianning, which also provide references for making Xianning a livable city.