Spatiotemporal Evaluation of the Coupling Relationship between Public Service Facilities and Population: A Case Study of Wuhan Metropolitan Area, Central China

Metropolitan areas are important regions with a high concentration of population and public service facilities. The coupling coordination between public service facilities and population plays an important role in the sustainable development of economy and society. However, previous studies have focused on a few core cities, effectively identifying areas with weak coordination of public services and currently lacking corresponding information support and paradigms at the regional scale. Taking the Wuhan Metropolitan Area as an example, this paper strengthens the concern about the spatiality and locality of public service facilities in the region;, applies the improved CRITIC method and coupling coordination model to study the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of public service facilities at the county and grid levels by using multisource data, and evaluates the intercity differences and dynamic changes of coupling coordination relationships between public service facilities and population. The findings are as follows: (1) Wuhan was the core of public service facilities in the metropolitan area, and a continuous high-level coordinated distribution was gradually developed on the east-west axis from 2016 to 2022; (2) there were differences in the coupling coordination degree of different types of facilities, among which the imbalance between the supply and demand of elderly care facilities was obvious; and (3) the coupling coordination degree of facilities in the Wu-E-Huang-Huang core development area was relatively high. Finally, we summarize the development stages of the coupling coordination between the facilities and population in the Wuhan Metropolitan Area and obtain the typical development characteristics. The research results could provide scientific support for planning decisions.