Rural Housing Development Research Articles

Using fuzzy cognitive maps to develop policy strategies for the development of green rural housing: A case study in China

Under the strategy of rural revitalization, China has a considerable demand for building green rural housing. Thus, it is urgent to develop related policy strategies for green rural housing development. However, the issue of green rural housing development has been overlooked in recent studies. This research fills this gap by increasing our understanding of factors that hinder green rural housing development and identifying effective policy strategies via fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM). Firstly, 23 system variables were identified including 8 policy drivers, 12 system structure variables and 3 system outcome variables. Then, the causal-effect relationships among these variables were visualized. Secondly, a fuzzy inference simulation was conducted to explore the most effective policy strategies for green rural housing development. The results show that these factors inhibiting green rural housing development are interrelated, which form solid vicious cycles not only between economic factors, social factors and technological factors but also within these sub-aspect factors. Three policy mixes were identified as the most effective policy strategies: financial support and price support, infrastructure development and technology support, guiding information and certification and labelling. The results offer a valuable reference to policy-making on facilitating rural green housing development.

Sustainable Rural Housing Development in Sarawak: A Preliminary Conceptual Framework

Sustainability practices within rural area housing development is relatively scarce. This may be due to insufficient financial support and focus by the local authorities. Some of the rural areas in the largest state of Malaysia, namely, Sarawak, are facing serious housing issues with limited supply of electricity and water, which in turn, creates low standard of living. This seems to imply on the unsustainable housing development. This paper reviewed the international sustainable development approach and the sustainable practices in Malaysia, in housing development. The initial review identified 40 sustainability-related housing indicators, which revealed a potential research area to ascertain different housing indicators for improving the living standards of the rural residents in Sarawak. This research could help to provide a more sustainable housing environment to improve residents’ living standard, and possibly, to suggest a better efficient use of resources, that could help to improve the current government guidelines, for developing sustainable rural housing in Sarawak.

Research on the Sustainable Development of Rural Energy-saving Housing in Hebei Region

Rural housing construction has become a key target of reconstruction for the current ecological civilization construction for its lacking scientific and reasonable construction guidance, causing serious environmental pollution and waste of resources. The research object in this paper is the rural area of Hebei. The author proposes appropriate design strategies based on the local climate, environment, economic and technical conditions, and provides a reference for the sustainable development of rural energy-saving housing in Hebei.

Thinking of Country House Based on the Concept of Green Development: Take Nanyang, Henan as an example

With the introduction of a series of policies such as rural revitalization, beautiful rural areas, and a comprehensive well-off society, the concept of green development of rural housing has attracted widespread attention. The green development of rural houses can effectively slow down the speed of global climate warming, reduce environmental pollution, reduce energy consumption of buildings and achieve sustainable development of buildings. Based on a field survey in a village in Nanyang City, this article summarizes the current problems of rural housing development, and combines current green development concepts, local lifestyles and living habits, and puts forward some practical suggestions for rural construction and development; the green of rural housing Urbanization can better promote rural construction and provide relevant references for the long-term sustainable development of rural housing in the future.

Measuring the symbiotic development of rural housing and industry: A case study of Fuping County in the Taihang Mountains in China

Rural areas are in decline, globally, and their revitalization requires the symbiotic development of rural housing and industry. Whereas previous studies have examined the relationship between urban jobs and housing and rural population flows, a systematic examination of the relationship between rural housing and industry is lacking. In the Taihang Mountains in China, natural conditions and other factors have constrained symbiotic rural housing–industry development, leading to their separation in most areas. Consequently, a case study of Fuping County, in this region, was conducted to measure the rural housing–industry symbiotic level (HISL). The HISL was established through an assessment of population, land, and industry indicators that were used to construct an evaluation model. The spatial characteristics of HISL, population–land–industry interaction forces, and functional zones were analyzed to ascertain the causes of the rural housing–industry disjuncture. The results of the analysis indicated that the county’s overall HISL was low, with clear spatial east–west differences. The unbalanced development of the population–land–industry system and the interactions of its components have led to the emergence of three village types: population–land force leading (PLL), population–industry force leading (PIL), and land–industry force leading (LIL). Three functional zones relating to symbiotic rural housing–industry development were identified: key development, potential development, and steadily improving zones. The low level of population–industry coordination is a significant cause of the housing–industry disjuncture. The use of the above model for assessing the relationship between rural housing and industry can yield insights for promoting sustainable rural development and revitalization through geographical engineering.

Lessons Learned from Traditional Vietnam Northern Lowland Habitation

This paper presents the cultural behavior to Nature of traditional housing in Vietnam Northern low land area and the discussion around the following issues: Characteristic of climate in Vietnam Northern lowland area. Approaches to environmental sustainability and climate adaptation through the analysis of traditional housing in Vietnam Northern lowland area. Status and architectural trends of rural housing development in Northern lowland area today.

Editorial

Welcome to the second issue of the Journal of Construction Business and Management (JCBM) in 2017. The issue contains six articles that were written by authors based in the United Kingdom, South African and Nigerian universities. Altogether, twelve authors produced these papers aimed at strengthening the discourse in and enhancing construction business and management research. The themes covered are varied and related to management theory and practice in the construction industry. These papers fill critical gaps in the knowledge and practice of construction businesses and project management by exposing the reader to innovative technologies, safety interventions, human resource management strategies and advances in housing development. The first paper by Onugwa and Uduma-Olugu examines how Building Information Modelling (BIM) is improving collaboration among stakeholders in the construction industry. The paper establishes that a country has to adopt BIM to develop an internationally competitive construction sector. Paper two by Dosumu et al. seeks to understand the issue of continual poor project performance in the construction industry by investigating the frequent causes of errors in construction contract documents and suggests that all designs should go through a quality assurance process to prevent errors prevalent on construction contract documents and thereby improve project performance. Ogbu’s paper highlights the need for low-income housing end-users to make inputs at the design and planning stages of their buildings based on the findings that the perception of a building by its occupants, rather than the physical features of the building is the main driver of maintenance cost. Paper four by Oladokun and Komolafe establishes that rural factors were the primary drivers of the housing choice by rural dwellers and recommends the inclusion of cultural values of the people such as kinship and social relations into integrated approaches to rural housing development. Housing development is a National strategy of most African countries needs to be improved in rural areas. The paper by Ameh and Daniel suggests that although the due process is followed in recruitment processes, the selection of suitable candidates is often hampered by interferences and competitive work conditions. The authors propose different methods through which human resource management can be improved in Nigerian construction firms. The final paper by Okoro and Musonda establishes the underlying structures of safety performance measures related to construction workers' unhealthy and unsafe eating behaviour and provides useful evidence for the psychometric evaluation of construction workers' safety and behaviours on construction sites. I wish to thank all authors who submitted papers for consideration, members of the Editorial Board and Panel of Reviewers for their assistance, timeous feedback and comments that helped shape and improve the quality of the submitted manuscripts. Finally, we welcome your feedback and suggestions that will help improve the quality of the journal and maintain the integrity of our published findings.

Drivers of Rural Housing Development in Edo State, Nigeria

Rural housing development is pivotal to tackling housing deficit in Nigeria. This study examines the challenges on existing housing structure in Ebele community, Benin City, Nigeria. It inquires into the housing finance structure, factors influencing its housing development and the infrastructural needs in the housing sector. It samples 30 residents from each of the five villages in Ebele community of Edo State. Using frequency counts and mean values, the result revealed that a considerable gap exists on the housing performance. The challenges being faced were majorly infrastructural deficits and shortage of capital. Innovative housing finance strategies were essentially lacking. Cultural and ethnic factors, neighbourhood factors, and infrastructural factors were rated the top drivers of housing development in the area. The study concluded that while addressing the drivers of rural housing development and tackling the challenges thereof, it is important to take into consideration the cultural values of the people. An integrated approach to rural housing development could bring about the required balance in housing development in rural and urban areas.

Identifying priority areas for rural housing development using the participatory multi-criteria and contingent valuation methods in Alange reservoir area, Central Extremadura (Spain)

Reservoir areas in the Spanish urban fringe are under increasing pressure from construction sprawls, including illegal construction, human movement, and growing recreational and tourist awareness. Consequently, the conflict between rapid urban development and water body maintenance in such areas needs to be urgently addressed. This paper presents an integrated operational approach using a participatory multi-criteria evaluation method based on the understanding of all possible aspects and implications for a rural housing development in a case study compromising a reservoir area. This method was implemented for the case study area located in the mixed rural-urban fringe of Badajoz province, Spain. Priority criteria were investigated by analysing different dynamics which were modelled based on a literature review, expert discussion, internet-based public participation, and objective comparison. In addition, applying the participatory contingent valuation method to water visibility in the priority areas improves the integration of sustainable rural housing, to better balance tourism activity expansion and ecological conservation. This study identified and compared the various interests of public participants by analysing a priority map via a visibility valuation. The assessment results provide a new empirical and valuable management tool to evaluate the existing infrastructure and environment, and to predict their future improvements. It can be applied to other destinations. Thus, this model can be used to ensure sustainable rural housing development in reservoir areas, the main objective being to increase the quality of life for the reservoir's residents as well as tourist satisfaction.

Rural Housing Development: An Analytical Study

Rural Housing Development: An Analytical Study

Renting in Rural America

While the overwhelming majority of Americans are homeowners, there are more than 17 million people living in rental housing in small towns and rural places. Home to a wide variety of households, rental housing provides an essential shelter option that supports family well‐being as well as providing a substantial contribution to the rural economy. The purpose of this review was to highlight the importance of rental housing for the well‐being of rural families and the economic development of rural communities. I begin with an overview of housing in rural America emphasizing the availability, adequacy, and affordability of rural rental housing. Then, I explain who rents in rural America and the characteristics of rural rental households. Public policies and programs to address housing needs in rural areas are described in the next section. The fourth section focuses on barriers to rural rental housing development. I conclude by presenting theoretical explanations for the conditions of rural rental housing and provide suggestions for research.

Gentrification and Segregated Wealth in Rural America: Home Value Sorting in Destination Counties

The term “gentrification” carries conflicting popular connotations, conjuring images of both revitalization and displacement. Despite a rich critical literature from urban social scientists, gentrification as it relates to rural housing and rural development is a similarly conflicted term. With the frequent conflation of rural gentrification and economic improvement, researchers and policy-makers alike need more nuanced techniques for identifying how the process distributes costs and benefits across households. This paper operationalizes rural gentrification as a specific demographic pattern of household migration, termed the “Rural Gentrification Score,” and maps its footprint between 1980 and 2000 in 25 US states. It then uses census data to better understand the impacts of rural gentrification on home values in rural counties, interrogating the popular notion that homeowners benefit from gentrification. Using comparative analyses, two related hypotheses about rural gentrification and inequality are explored: (1) that gentrified rural counties were susceptible to greater home value segregation and (2) that over time gentrification’s spread culminated in greater homogeneity of home values. Results support each of these hypotheses and point to nuances in the relationship between population turnover, inequality, and socioeconomic context. Most notably the findings highlight a spatial and temporal pattern of widening wealth inequality in gentrifying rural counties.

Enhancing sustainability of rural adobe houses of hills by addition of vernacular fiber reinforcement

Abstract Adobe is a commonly used building material in rural houses of district Hamirpur of the North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Adobe is a sustainable material but has limitations of building smaller room sizes and requires frequent maintenance which is not suitable for modern lifestyle. These become main reasons for rejection of adobe as a building material. Initial investigation comprising of water content analysis, specific gravity analysis, grain size analysis, plastic limit and liquid limit analysis, maximum dry density check reveals that soil is sand clay and its low compressive strength shall be increased for enhancing its sustainability. For this purpose, stabilization with natural fibers of Pinus roxburghii and Grewia optiva in 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2% proportions is proposed. Total 360 cubical and cylindrical shaped samples of both stabilized and unstabilized compositions were prepared and tested in a laboratory according to Indian standards. Unconfined compressive strength tests and maximum Stress Carrying Capacity tests were conducted after 07 days, 14 days, 28 days, 56 days and 90 days of casting. Results reveal that compressive strength of soil increases by 131–145% with addition of fiber P. roxburghii and 225–235% with addition of fiber G. optiva for cubical and cylindrical samples respectively. Increased compressive strength also results in a reduced thickness of traditional mud walls thereby increasing internal room size which would suit to changed modern lifestyle requirements. Enhanced properties of adobe will result in wider acceptance of adobe as a building material that will make development of rural housing more sustainable on a wider scale.

Energy and environment in Chinese rural buildings: Situations, challenges, and intervention strategies

A large-scale national survey of energy consumption and indoor environmental quality of rural housing was conducted in China. Its purpose was to obtain fundamental data and to analyze key problems related to the homes of approximately 600 million rural people. The survey results indicate that the total annual household energy consumption in rural China reached 317 million tons of standard coal equivalent (tce) (9.3 × 109 GJ), in the forms of 192 million tons of raw coal (4.0 × 109 GJ), 5.9 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (0.3 × 109 MJ), 132 billion kWh of electricity (1.4 × 109 GJ), and 219 million tons of raw biomass (3.6 × 109 GJ). There is an upward trend in the use of coal for space heating and cooking, which is a significant source of air pollution. The pilot study of a program to provide passive energy savings in northern rural China was also conducted. Based on the results of actual demonstration projects, feasible intervention strategies for sustainable development in rural China are proposed, with the goal of achieving “zero coal villages”. Projections show that achieving “zero coal villages” nationwide could provide huge and permanent benefits both to China and to the rest of the world. The results obtained from this study could also provide guidance for development of rural housing in other countries, particularly in the developing world.

‘Spatial anarchy’ versus ‘spatial apartheid’: rural housing ironies in Ireland and England

Rural planning and housing have provoked challenging debates in Ireland and England through periods of economic growth and, more recently, crisis and austerity. In this paper, we comparatively review an extensive literature in both countries relating to the formation of their planning systems and cultural predispositions surrounding rural housing development. We highlight that in both cases selective constructions of rurality have shaped policy discourses surrounding rural housing provision that aimed to implement policies prioritising homeownership in Ireland, and environmental conservation in England. Both selective ruralities, however, have produced compromised outcomes, discussed here as ‘spatial anarchy’ and ‘spatial apartheid’ respectively.

Architecture and rural planning: ‘Claiming the vernacular’

In this paper, drawing on qualitative interviews with a small number of Irish architects, we explore the discourses that architects use to produce the rural social world and the vernacular. The academic literature has explored discursive representations of rurality as well as power relations of various stakeholders in the rural housing policy arena (planners, lobby groups, local communities); however, there has been very little research on how the rural is constructed in architectural practice as well as how these representations compare with equivalent planning and housing policy discourses. The Republic of Ireland offers a fascinating case for exploring discourses around rurality and housing development, due to the country's relatively permissive planning policy and impressive rural housing output during the boom period. Our analysis suggests that the concept of vernacular might offer a new opportunity for communicating a common vision, culture and practice regarding rural housing development amongst rural housing agents. In this context, discourses of the vernacular are explored, which demonstrate its neo-endogenous attributes, in describing not only traditional aesthetics and local material, but also collaborative action and governance.

예비 수요자 주택선호특성을 고려한 유형별 고령자주택 개발방안에 관한 연구 -수도권을 중심으로-

산업화와 도시화를 경험한 사회는 인구통계학적변화를 경험하고 있다. 이러한 변화는 세계적으로 고령화 인구를 점차 증가시키고 있으며, 이러한 현상이 세계적으로 확산되고 있다. 한국도 2000년에 고령화 사회에 접어 들어들었으며, 2018년에는 고령 사회가 직면할 것으로 예상된다. 따라서 이러한 현상에 대비한 고령자주택의 개발 등의 노인의 라이프 생활을 고려한 주택개발이 강조되고 있다. 본 연구의 목적은 고령자 주택에 입주하기 원하는 예비 수요자의 특성에 따른 결정요인을 분석하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 이를 바탕으로 본 연구에서는 유형별로 보다 세분화하여 이항 로지스틱 회귀분석을 통한 고령자 주택의 선택의사에 미치는 영향요인을 세분화 하였다. 이를 통해 개선방안 및 시사점을 도출하였는데 이에 대한 시사점으로, 첫째, 고령자주택은 개발 유형별로 선호하는 특성이 상이하게 도출됨을 알 수 있었다. 둘째, 개인특성에 따른 지표가 가장 많은 부분을 차지하고 있어 고령자주택의 수요조사가 우선적으로 시도되어야 함을 알 수 있었다. 셋째, 도심형 고령자주택 개발 시 원활한 개발을 위해 지자체 차원의 지가를 고려한 토지확보 방안이 필요하다. 넷째, 교외형 고령자주택 개발 시 경기도권에 수요층이 자연스럽게 고령자주택으로 입주하고 생활할 수 있도록 근교에 생활환경기반을 마련해야 할 것이다. 마지막으로 전원형 고령자주택 개발 시 다양한 생산, 여가 등의 프로그램의 도입되어야 할 것으로 판단된다. The society experiencing the industrialization and urbanization has got over the socio-demographic change. these changes make the number of the population around the world, and this phenomenon is flowing into the whole country. Korea has became a Aging Society since 2000 and will be turned into the aged society by the 2018. therefore, the importance of preparing elderly living life such as silver town is getting emphasized. the purpose of this study is aimed at analyzing the decision elements of the preliminary demanders' intention who selecting Elderly Housing. Based on this study, it was broken down by the type much more. Binary Logistic Regression Analysis of Factors affecting the Elderly housing choices were subdivided. Through this process, improvement and the implications of this study was derived. this study deducts 3 kinds of implications. First, the preference for the development of elderly housing are different with each type of characteristics. Second, the indicators along with the individual characteristics account for the most part of the surface. so the specific investigation for the demand must be required to check the indicators. Third, when it comes to development of urban elderly housing, it requires to have a part of a local government plans securing the land. Fourth, when it comes to development of suburb elderly housing, it is required to arrange the living environment around the suburbs to let user classes living in Gyeonggi-do flow into elderly housing and live their new-life in the suburbs. Finally, when it comes to development of rural elderly housing, a variety of production, leisure and other programs should be made and put into there.

Low carbon rural housing provision in China: Participation and decision making

Under the national strategy of ‘building a new socialist countryside’, concentrated rural housing is increasing in some rural regions in China. In this research we use three case studies to analyze decision making on concentrated rural housing and the potential for future low carbon rural housing. The empirical results show that concentrated rural housing can improve both the energy efficiency of houses and the living conditions of households, compared to traditional stand-alone modes of housing. Providers are the major decision makers with regard to the kind of materials, technologies and energy networks applied in rural housing development. Local governments, private property developers and local (energy) authorities in principle have the power to select and apply low carbon alternatives. The involvement of Chinese householders in concentrated housing project turns out to be low or non-existent. The introduction of market incentives, stricter building regulations, better decision making processes and communication with householders are relevant social factors for improving low carbon housing provision in rural China.

주거환경개선을 위한 농촌주택 리모델링 성능평가지표 설정에 관한 연구

National Academy of Agricultural Science, RDAABSTRACT : Living environments in rural area have become deteriorated rapidly. Increase of aging population, decline in agricultural income, polarization of wealth in rural community due to rural returners have caused severe decline and imbalance of living environments in rural area. Responding to this circumstances, governments currently develop projects for improving living environments focusing on individual housing which were excluded from governmental supports because those had been regarded as private property. Nevertheless, there are still some gaps and problems in evaluating the quality of living environment and suggesting effective solutions. It would be because standards and guidelines of the projects have been based on urban housing system. In order to support the implementation of the projects, this research has developed an index for evaluating and monitoring the quality of living environments in rural area. By applying Delphi method, the index has been created in four categories of ‘security’, ‘convenience’, ‘comfortability’, and ‘durability’ ‘Security’ consists of structural safety, crime, disaster, accident prevention. ‘Convenience’ includes three divisions of living, traffic, farm working. ‘Comfortability’ is divided into sanitation, indoor environments, and aesthetic appreciation. Lastly, ‘durability’ has four divisions of energy conservation, environmental friendliness, efficiency, and economics. Each sub-division also has different items from three to twelves. In the case of an index for performance evaluation, items have been derived from energy conservation(6-items), and environmental friendliness(7-items). Items developed as an index for evaluating rural living environments in this research might be good background information for remodeling project in rural housing development. Key words : Remodeling in Rural Housing, Evaluation Index, Residential Environment Improvement

농촌 친환경 주거 개발을 위한 이엉지붕 열환경 특성 분석 -신석기시대 이엉지붕 움집을 대상으로-

Due to the development of civilization, the humans is privileged the rich of technologies for housing thermal environment. But, this kind of technological development caused enough trouble of energy excessive consumption. For solve this problem, many researchers strive to exploit the low energy sustainable techniques. For such a reason, the eco-friendly techniques of vernacular house are resurfacing. These traditional techniques are applied to a development of eco-friendly modern housing. They are no longer recognized as outdated products. On this context, this study proposes an scientific analysis on the thermal environment characteristics of Neolithic thatched-roof dugout hut(Um house). So far the several studies have been carried out in viewpoint of the history and structural compositions of the Um house which has been used as the normal housing for about 1000 years in the Neolithic era, however the thermal characteristics analysis of the Um house has never been studied. Um house is not a housing which has been composed by the scientific analysis or architectural design technology, but evolved empirically over a long period. This study on the thermal environment characteristics of Um house would provide basic information for the development of korean eco-friendly rural housing by korean climate characteristics. In this study, the thermal environmental characteristics of the Um house in the Neolithic era was analysed experimentally. The results of this study could be summarized as follows: 1. When the solar insolation and the ambient temperature in the daytime were <TEX>$420W/m^2$</TEX> and <TEX>$17^{\circ}C$</TEX> respectively, the surface temperature of the Um house roof covered with the rice straw was <TEX>$37^{\circ}C$</TEX> and that in the roof <TEX>$32^{\circ}C$</TEX>, and in the conditions above the air temperature in the room was <TEX>$15^{\circ}C$</TEX>. 2. When the ambient relative humidity was 40%, that in the room of the Um house 50%, and at the ambient relative humidity of 90~100%, that in the room was 60%. 3. Through the experimental analysis, it was verified that the enthalpy and relative humidity is in an inverse relationship. 4. In general the comfort degree in the living space is changed with the seasonal climate, also in this study, the comfort degree in the room of the Um house in October and November was higher than that in May and June.