Housing In Urban Areas Research Articles

Performance of Prefabricated Large Panel Reinforced Concrete Buildings in the November 2019 Albania Earthquake

ABSTRACT The paper discusses the performance of prefabricated reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, known as large-panel buildings (LPE), that were affected by the November 26, 2019 Durrës, Albania earthquake (M 6.4). This was a common typology for multi-family housing in urban areas of Albania and neighbouring countries, e.g. ex-Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria, in the period from 1960 to 1990. The paper outlines the key structural and seismic features of LPE buildings in Albania and presents observations from a field survey of selected buildings at eight different localities within the earthquake-affected area. A new post-earthquake damage classification for LPE buildings has been proposed.

العوامل العمرانية المؤثرة في کفاءة استخدام الموارد المائية في مناطق اسکان التجمعات العمرانية Urban Factors Influencing the Efficient Use of Water Resources in Urban Communities' Housing Areas

يتم في هذا البحث دراسة مفهوم التجمعات العمرانية المستدامة، ورکائزها الأساسية والترکيز على المبادئ الأساسية لاستدامة المياه في التجمعات العمرانية المستدامة حيث توصلت الدراسات السابقة الى المبادئ الرئيسية لاستدامة الموارد المائية في العمران وهي مرونة التعامل مع الموارد المائية، وجودة الموارد المائية، واخيرا مبدأ کفاءة استخدام الموارد المائية، والذي يرکز البحث عليه من خلال دراسة تجارب بعض الدول المختلفة في الظروف البيئية والمناخية وتوافر الموارد المائية في تحقيق کفاءة استخدام الموارد المائية في مناطق اسکان التجمعات العمرانية وهي الهند، والإمارات، واستراليا، فبالرغم من اختلاف خصائصها الا انها تتفق في الهدف، وهو تحقيق اقصى استغلال ممکن للموارد المائية من خلال العناصر العمرانية. وتم دراسة تأثير بعض العوامل العمرانية مثل الکثافة العمرانية، وتوزيع استعمالات الأراضي، والاشتراطات البنائية بالمناطق السکنية على کفاءة استخدام المياه في مناطق إسکان التجمعات العمرانية، ومن دراسة هذه التأثيرات توصل البحث الى تحديد العلاقة بين اهم هذه العوامل العمرانية، وکفاءة استخدام الموارد المائية، وبالتالي خلصت النتائج الى مجموعة من التوصيات التي يجب مراعاتها عند تخطيط المناطق السکنية، لتحقيق کفاءة استخدام المياه في العمران. Resiliency, Quality and Efficiency are the most important principles of water sustainability in urban Communities, and the research focuses on water use efficiency. The efficiency of using the water resources in the urban communities' housing areas is largely affected by some urban factors such as: distribution of land uses, urban density, construction conditions and infrastructure network. The research pinpoints the relationship between different urban factors of the housing areas in urban communities and the efficiency of using the water resources, through the analysis of the experiences in three different countries, namely India, UAE, and Australia. Consequently, the results concluded recommendations that must be considered when planning residential areas, to achieve water use efficiency in urban areas.

Has the monetary resettlement compensation policy hindered the two-way flow of resources between urban and rural areas?

The reasonable two-way flow of resources between urban and rural areas underlies the processes of urban-rural transformation and rural revitalization in China. The monetary resettlement compensation policy has been formulated to promote this two-way flow through market-oriented measures. This study extends the Theory of Planned Behavior by enhancing the variable of monetary resettlement compensation factor to analyze the behavioral tendencies of house purchase intention of relocated households in Zhejiang Province, China. An empirical analysis through PLS-SEM was conducted on the results obtained from 271 survey responses, and eight hypotheses were verified using SmartPLS 3. The results demonstrate that the monetary resettlement compensation policy may facilitate relocated households’ purchase of houses in urban areas, which is indicative of compensation flowing back from the rural to urban areas through the house purchase behavior. Furthermore, a study on the possible gap between relocated households’ purchase intention and their actual purchase behavior shows that the intention is aligned with actual action. The monetary resettlement compensation policy has thus failed and even hindered the achievement of a reasonable two-way flow of resources between urban and rural areas.

Assessment of Heavy Metal Contamination in Sediments in Sungai Pinang River Basin

A study was conducted to analyse the type and concentration of heavy metals found present in sediments samples in the Sungai Pinang river basin, Penang. River sediment samples were collected at both upstream and downstream along the main river channel of Sungai Pinang and its five tributaries including Sungai Air Terjun, Sungai Air Hitam, Sungai Air Putih, Sungai Dondang and Sungai Jelutong. A total of 19 sampling points were selected throughout the entire catchment area where nine points located at the main river of Sungai Pinang and the other 10 points located at the downstream and upstream of each tributaries. A total of 97 samples were obtained four times from January to February. Two types of analysis were applied to measure the heavy metal concentrations namely X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). For the XRF test, the selected compounds analysis containing heavy metals that was carried out were K2O, Na2O, CaO, MgO, MnO, Fe2O3, Al2O3, TiO2 and SiO2 while for the ICP-OES, specific heavy metals analysis were determined to test the presence of As, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Mg, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn. The highest concentration of K2O, Fe2O3, Al2O3 and SiO2 at the main river were 2.80%, 3.39%, 18.52%, and 74.18% respectively. The highest concentration of Ca, Cr, Zn, Mg and Fe recorded at main river are 35.9576, 17.0469, 5.8392, 39.5626 and 199.914mg/kg respectively. SAH (DS) has the highest percentage of SiO2 with the value of 93.44% followed by Al2O3 with value of 6.75% at SAT(DS) and K2O at SD (US) with the value of 3.06%. The highest concentration of Fe, Ca, Mg and Pb are 56.4778 mg/kg at SAT (US), 34.8247 mg/kg at SJ (US), 3.3633mg/kg at SD (US) and 7.1662mg/kg at SAT (US). It can be concluded, the pollutants in the sediments of Sungai Pinang are contributed by the urban housing area, commercial and agricultural area.

Genius loci of shop houses in urban area: A case study in urban secondary cities in Sumatera Utara

Generally, Shop houses in urban area appear dominantly, because it is very rational in term of economic and financial such as “cost and benefit analysis”, is that absolutely right? These believed is a kind of simplification of the main issues in term of modernist and materialistic philosophy, since the local culture and the local architecture has been totally denied. A number of method has been applied to found and to identified local urban vernacular architecture. One among them is research on shop houses which socially adaptable with individual life of modern society but also accommodate the social aspect of local traditional life. This research basically is using qualitative method and focused on genius loci in shop houses in urban secondary cities in Sumatera Utara, where local culture and local architecture is still dominant. In this research Brastagi city in Karo regency will be posed as a study case. There is the main hypothesis on the spread of shop houses into the urban secondary urban cities because the shop houses have the great potential to make an adaptation with local culture and local architecture. In fact, the problems in this study is very wide, consequently, although research focused on architecture, other discipline has to be discussed namely philosophy and anthropology. With these method, the research revealing why the local peoples can adapt themselves socially and culturally with the shop houses. A number of research has focused on genius loci by using qualitative methods in order to find genius loci in architecture of Urban Shop Houses in Karo.

Static Structural and Dynamic Properties Examination of Savonius VAWT Blades Made of Aluminum using Ansys

This paper studies the potential for installing roof-mounted Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) systems on house roofs with the goal of maximizing the efficiency and reducing the cost and weight of the turbine. The efficiency of the wind turbine depends on the material, shape and angle of the blade. So material of the turbine blade is an important factor in the design of wind turbine. Most of the wind turbine blades are made of mild steel and stainless steel which has more density. It has huge weight, more high corrosion and less fatigue strength. The steel can be replaced by aluminum material to reduce the weight, to improve corrosion resistance, to make them more affordable, efficient, durable and sustainable. In this paper, Aluminum material was used to design savonius wind blades of 1 m height and 0.5 m chord length with 4 different arc radii. CAD modeling software Solid Works was used to model wind blade and static structural and modal analysis of the Aluminum blade was done by using ANSYS Workbench software. This size of turbine can be most suitable for small houses in urban areas to produce electricity.

Examination of Structural and Dynamic Properties for Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Blade Made of Stainless Steel using Ansys

This paper studies the potential for installing savonius type Vertical Axis Wind Turbine systems with the goal of maximizing the efficiency and reducing the cost. The wind turbine efficiency depends on the material of the blade, angle of the blade and shape of the blade. So material of the wind turbine blade plays an important role in the design of wind turbine. In this paper, Stainless Steel is used to design savonius wind blades of 1 m height and 0.5 m chord length with 4 different arc radii. For this purpose, CAD modeling software Solid Works is used to model savonius wind blade and static structural and modal analysis of the Stainless Steel blade is done by using ANSYS Workbench software. Static structural analysis is used to determine stress, strain, deformation and displacement under static loading condition. The response of structure for dynamic loading is determined by modal analysis. It is used to determine the natural frequency and mode shape of vibration of any structure. This wind turbine is suitable to install in small houses in urban areas.

Perancangan Jaringan Fiber to the Home (FTTH) pada Perumahan di Daerah Urban (Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Network Design at Housing in Urban Areas)

The evolution of communication network comes from the need for users to stay connected anytime and anywhere. Modernization of the network continues to be done to increase bandwidth capacity in order to obtain an increase in multimedia services, especially in urban areas. Of various transmission media, optical fiber is the best choice to support reliable communication networks. One of the optical fiber communication technologies is Fiber to the Home (FTTH). This study proposes FTTH network design with Gigabit Capable Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology aimed at housing in urban areas. The design uses aerial and duct-aerial cabling systems. The design analysis is carried out based on the parameters of the link power budget, rise time, Bit Error Rate (BER), components and costs required. The value of the power budget link for the uplink and downlink are -22.792 dBm and -23.120 dBm. The rise time value for uplink and downlink are 0.256 ns and 0.258 ns, while the BER value is 14.628 x 10-12. The calculation results show that the design meets the required parameters, hence, the proposed network can be implemented. For the cost components required by the aerial system, it is 11.56% less than of the ductaerial sistem.

Place attachment and linguistic variation: A quantitative analysis of language and local attachment in a rural village and an urban social housing area

AbstractThis article presents the results of a quantitative analysis of language variation and place attachment in two different places in Denmark—a rural, mono-ethnic village where traditional dialect is still used in everyday practices, and a multiethnic suburban social housing district where speakers use features associated with regional dialect and multiethnic youth styles. It is argued that variationist sociolinguistics, dialect research, as well as sociolinguistics that foregrounds situated interaction analysis need to develop methodologies that include and combine information about speakers’ individual mobility histories, local practices, and future orientations in relation to language use and place. For this purpose, this study employs a quantified measure, anindex of local attachment, of speakers’ attachment to their local area. The index is calculated on the basis of insights from ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, and is compared to the variation of three linguistic variables in each location. Results show differences between the two places, the rural and the urban communities, as well as between individuals that can be explained by differences in place affordances, life histories, and future orientation. (Place, local attachment, mobility, dialect, multiethnic speech style, quantitative analysis)*

Evaluation of construction, marketing and management in housing delivery by a private developer: evidence from Papua New Guinea

Providing quality, affordable and adequate housing in urban areas has been a long-standing challenge for the governments of most developing countries. This paper reports on a study of the activities of a private developer in the construction, management and marketing of houses in the vicinity of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. It also describes the challenges faced by the developer, the coping strategy employed and a potential strategy that can be used to promote private sector participation in housing delivery. The data were obtained from face-to-face in-depth interviews that involved the directors of Edai Town Development Limited (ETDL) and were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results revealed that ETDL has an effective development framework and that it had built 144 houses. The sales price of the houses ranges from 294,800 PNG Kina (89,333 US$) to 803,000 PNG Kina (243,333 US$). However, low-income households might find it difficult to afford the houses. The results also revealed that ETDL had established different types of basic infrastructures and had introduced an infrastructure maintenance strategy. Some of the challenges faced by ETDL include the high cost of building materials, shortages of land with proper titles and skilled labour and lack of trunk infrastructure. The coping strategy used by ETDL included providing and managing the infrastructure in its housing estate, training workers on the job and the constructing house types that are in high demand. To promote private sector participation in the delivery of housing, the government should provide trunk infrastructures where they are lacking. The government should encourage small and medium enterprises to produce materials for constructing houses by providing them with opportunities to access loan facilities and training. More vocational schools should be established for training people in professions such as bricklaying and carpentry. The findings can assist urban development managers and policy-makers in developing a strategy for increasing the supply of private sector housing.

Main features of house-like apartments

House-like apartments are intended as a compromise between the opposing aspirations of the modern city dweller ? to live in a quiet family home in greenery in the suburbs and to live in a dense, bustling and vibrant city. These are apartments in multifamily housing buildings that have some features of single-family houses in order to increase the comfort of life, the feeling of dwelling in a family home and generally to improve the quality of housing in urban areas. This paper first deals with a comparative analysis of the features of family houses and apartments by certain criteria in order to determine what makes houses better than apartments, ie. to define what are the features of family houses that make this type of housing higher quality and more attractive and can be applied to apartments. Then, an overview of some realized contemporary housing schemes with apartments having the characteristics of houses was given. Finally, features of house-like apartments were identified, their detailed analysis with illustrations through appropriate examples was provided and the importance of their application was explained.

A Mathematical Approach to Analyse Factors Influencing Adoption of Solar Based Power Production in Residential Buildings in Tamilnadu State of India

The objective of this research paper is to find out the important factors influencing the adoption of solar photo voltaic system for individual households and to find out if there is any difference in the adoption of solar photo voltaic system (SPVS) among the households with differing income levels, and their place of residence namely rural and urban place. Further, TOPSIS is applied for ranking the groups of households based on the influencing factors. Data was collected from respondents in rural and urban areas, living in own and rented houses. Respondents also represented various income strata. It is found that people with higher income levels are generally more open to the idea of adopting SPVS and people living in rented houses are less likely to adopt SPVS compared to those living in own houses whether in urban or rural areas. The outcome of TOPSIS shows that the respondents with high income, residing in their own houses in urban areas are ranked first in the willingness to adopt SPVS.

Detecting Informal Settlement Development In Penjaringan Sub-District, North Jakarta, Indonesia

Housing in urban areas has increased dramatically along with massive population growth and increasing urbanization flow. The pace of urbanization, according to the Indonesia Population Projection 2010 - 2035, Statistics Indonesia (2013) in the next 25 years will increase by an average of 72.5%. One of the urban problems by that circumstance is informal settlement. Jakarta government has created a policy about Kampung and Community arrangement implementation in Jakarta particularly for specific district. This research will concern the district in Penjaringan-North Jakarta with the main purpose of spatial analysis changing of informal settlements in 2013, 2016, and 2018, and an explanation of alteration the number of informal settlements by interview. The research used a qualitative approach. An overview of the fieldwork and interview process is included in relation to the discussions of reliability and validity. The quantitative process will be used by ArcGIS application with informal settlement. Satellite imagery is used to support this research. The images used include Spot 6 and Spot 7 imagery with three different years namely 2013, 2016, and 2018. The findings indicate that informal settlement has evolved gradually with major changes in North Jakarta.

Evaluating the Nexus between Housing and Energy Sectors: The Comparison of Urban, Peri-Urban and Rural Housing Areas in Zhuhai, China

China has developed several housing policy reforms and has, in recent years, progressed further on developing policies to promote green strategies and energy-saving plans. The urban housing has much benefited from such reforms and plans, while rural housing has experienced minimal change in the past few decades. As a result, this study aims to identify and explore these differences, challenges, and implications that exist between three areas of urban, peri-urban, and rural in a particular case study in China. For this study, selected residential areas in the City of Zhuhai and its peri-urban and rural areas are selected as case studies. A questionnaire survey is conducted to analyze energy and housing conditions across the more prosperous urban, the dynamic and transitory peri-urban, and the less prosperous rural areas. The case studies are analyzed as comparative examples in a hot and humid sub-tropical area of Southern China. The study compares energy and housing conditions and argues potential possibilities and challenges for the future development of housing policy reforms that are the result of current housing development patterns and green strategy situation in China.

Addressing the Affordable Housing Challenges for Urban Poor in Pakistan

The rapid growth of urbanization has resulted in tremendous pressure on housing in urban areas, particularly for middle- and lower-income groups. The formal sector has been unable to cater to the affordable housing demand, particularly for urban poor. Islamabad is the planned city and capital of Pakistan; its development started in 1960. A number of squatter settlements have emerged in this planned city which are increasing with the passage of time. The government of Pakistan, realizing the gravity of the problem, started various programs and approached at different times to address this issue. This paper discusses various international and national approaches in this context. Squatter settlements in Islamabad have been visited, and field data were collected through a survey from France Colony Sector F-7/4, Islamabad and recommendations have been suggested in the light of international practices.

The quest for affordable owner-occupied housing in Germany

Purpose Even though housing prices in Germany are low by international standards, housing in urban areas has become less affordable. Since 2018, certain families aspiring to become homeowners may apply for a capital subsidy (Baukindergeld) that contributes to their down-payment. This paper analyzes whether this subsidy is an appropriate policy instrument to achieve the desired goals. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents an equilibrium model with two types of households (low- and high-income) and two types of houses (low- and high-quality) to examine equilibrium prices before and after the introduction of a subsidy. Findings This subsidy not only makes owning less affordable for the lower-income household but also increases the prices of more expensive houses that are not within reach of lower-income households. Research limitations/implications Because this policy has just come into effect in 2018 and no data are available yet, the implications of the model are yet to be tested. Practical implications The implications of the subsidy run counter to its intentions as house prices will rise even further. Other policies or fewer regulations for new construction may be more effective. Social implications An instrument aiming to relieve financially weaker families, this subsidy will increase prices for all house types, assuming continuing supply shortages observed in the German urban housing markets. Originality/value This is the first paper on Germany’s new homeownership subsidy. The model is general enough to be used with any explicit demand and supply functions and is thus applicable to other markets with low supply elasticities.

Termite (Isoptera) survey in urban area in Northern of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil

Most pest termites in urban areas in Brazil are exotic species, but native species are becoming an increasing problem. This study aimed to identify termite species infesting trees and houses in urban areas of Campos dos Goytacazes, in the north of Rio de Janeiro State. Trees in the streets of sixteen neighborhoods were inspected for termites. Inspections and interviews were also conducted to verify the occurrence of termites in houses. Termites were recorded in 17 % of the 1,307 trees surveyed. Coptotermes gestroi was the most frequent species (51% of infested trees), Nasutitermes corniger and Microcerotermes strunckii were present in 38 % and 14 % of infested trees, respectively, and Microcerotermes arboreus was the least common (1 %). Different termite species coexisted in 14 % of the infested trees (n = 31). Termite infestations were recorded in 26% of the surveyed households (n = 1,020). Four species were identified as causing damage: Cryptotermes brevis, C. gestroi, N. corniger, and M. strunckii. The most common species was C. brevis, affecting 133 residences (51 %). C. gestroi and N. corniger were less frequent, but they were responsible for more structural damage than C. brevis, which mainly attacked furniture.

An analysis on housing affordability in Malaysian housing markets and the home buyers’ preference

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the housing preference and housing affordability in Malaysian housing markets. There is a lack of research on the gap between supply and demand of houses in this market. Urbanization has increased the demand of houses in urban areas. However, the high demand in residential units increases the housing price which causes the affordability level dropped. Besides, the residences that provided by developers do not meet the expectation of the home buyers. There are three attributes that examined in this research to understand the home buyers’ preference. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides quantitative analysis on the housing affordability and the home buyers’ preference. This paper presents the results on the home buyers’ housing affordability and buying preference on houses. In addition, the study further confirmed the significant relationship between monthly income and type of preferred house, as well as monthly income and range of housing affordability using cross-tabulation analysis. Findings The findings indicated that the housing price in the current market is not affordable by most of the homebuyers and there are certain attributes that important to home buyers which should not be neglected. Research limitations/implications This paper helps to shed light on the planning of Malaysian housing policy especially on the issue of providing affordable housing in urban areas. Practical implications Policymakers shall consider the elements of economics, social acceptance and feasibility of Malaysian housing policies to achieve sustainability in Malaysian housing markets. With the current government’s move to promote housing affordability amongst B40 income groups, local government and housing developers should work together in addressing housing demand in accordance to states and ensure that there is a more targeted housing policy. Social implications With the detailed analysis on the home buyers’ preference, it helps to promote sustainable housing developments in meeting basic housing needs and preference. Originality/value This is the first study to examine relationship between Malaysian housing affordability with monthly income and type of preferred house. In the meantime, the housing affordability is compared with mean housing price and type of perceived affordable house. The paper presented homebuyer’s preference in housing for the consideration of government and housing developers in providing affordable housing.

Economic transition and private-sector labor: Evidence from urban China

This paper studies the transition of labor from the state sector to the infant private sector in urban China. We examine the impact of the first wave of housing reforms, which untied access to housing in urban areas from working for the state sector. We find that the reform significantly increased private housing ownership and private-sector employment, and reduced private-sector wages. The housing reform had no effect on unemployment or self-employment.

Analysis Reducing Slum Settlement by Road Improvement (A Case Study: Jawa Lama Village Village, Lhokseumawe, Aceh-Indonesia)

a slum will cause many problems for many cities. The urbanization factor is one of the causes of slums due to the limited urban housing area. In general, there are seven slum indicators that can determine the quality of residential areas, one of which is physical infrastructure. Infrastructure conditions are interrelated with residential development. This study analyzes seven indicators of slums in Jawa Lama Village, Lhokseumawe, Aceh-Indonesia. In this study, the research team used data surveys with field tracking and field documentation from city roads. Documented data includes field photos and regional mapping that shows the location of the study. Data that has been collected can be used to determine urban facilities and infrastructure that are very influential for slums in the study area.