Evaluation of the regeneration efficiency of old residential neighborhoods from the perspective of residents' satisfaction based on the superefficient BCC-DEA model

Old residential neighborhood regeneration is a crucial strategy for sustainable urban development. Based on the government's massive investment in financial, human resources, and time, old residential neighborhood regeneration is being conducted comprehensively in China. However, how efficient regeneration is remains unclear, as does whether the residents satisfied with the results. Existing studies do not address these issues. Residents' satisfaction is the ultimate pursuit of livelihood projects such as regenerating old residential neighborhoods. Therefore, this study uses the superefficiency BCC-DEA method to construct an evaluation model for regeneration efficiency and then constructs an evaluation index system based on residents' satisfaction output through the grounded theory. Taking the old residential neighborhoods in Xi'an as a case study, we found that the regeneration efficiency level is relatively good. However, the overall scale efficiency is decreasing, and significant room for improvement and optimization in regeneration efficiency remains. There is generally considerable redundancy in funding, staffing, and time investment in current regeneration projects, as well as insufficient output of residents' satisfaction with the regeneration of neighborhood environments, sustainable management mechanisms, and integrated community services. In subsequent regeneration projects, the government should appropriately downsize capital and staffing inputs in accordance with the characteristics and demands of the neighborhood, strengthen project management for more efficient implementation, adopt more flexible regeneration strategies to meet residents' diverse needs, pay more attention to sustainable development after regeneration, and optimize the regeneration efficiency of these neighborhoods by increasing the resource utilization rate and enhancing residents' satisfaction.