Residential Housing Research Articles

Ground Investigations and Detection and Monitoring of Landslides Using SAR Interferometry in Gangtok, Sikkim Himalaya

The Himalayan state of Sikkim is prone to some of the world’s largest landslides, which have caused catastrophic damage to lives, properties, and infrastructures in the region. The settlements along the steep valley sides are particularly subject to frequent rainfall-triggered landslide events during the monsoon season. The region has also experienced smaller rock slope failures (RSF) after the 2011 Sikkim earthquake. The surface displacement field is a critical observable for determining landslide depth and constraining failure mechanisms to develop effective mitigation techniques that minimise landslide damage. In the present study, the persistent scatterers InSAR (PSI) method is employed to process the series of Sentinel 1-A/B synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images acquired between 2015 and 2021 along ascending and descending orbits for the selected areas in Gangtok, Sikkim, to detect potentially active, landslide-prone areas. InSAR-derived ground surface displacements and their spatio-temporal evolutions are combined with field investigations to better understand the state of activity and landslide risk assessment. Field investigations confirm the ongoing ground surface displacements revealed by the InSAR results. Some urban areas have been completely abandoned due to the structural damage to residential housing, schools, and office buildings caused by displacement. This paper relates the geotechnical investigations carried out on the ground to the data obtained through interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), focusing on the triggering mechanisms. A strong correlation between seasonal rainfall and landslide acceleration, as well as predisposing geological-structural setting, suggest a causative mechanism of the landslides.

When do homeowners feel the same as renters? Housing price appreciation and subjective well-being in South Korea

Are homeowners happier if housing prices increase? While many studies have examined homeownership and subjective well-being, the effect of changes in local housing prices on subjective well-being has been less studied. We argue that a change in local housing prices has divergent effects on the subjective well-being of homeowners versus renters, and these effects vary with the housing market cycle. Using data on the annual change in the average transaction price for residential housing in local districts of Seoul, South Korea from 2008 to 2018, we find that homeowners have higher subjective well-being than renters, and the gap between homeowners and renters grows as housing prices increase, mainly because renters become less happy while homeowners' happiness varies with overall housing market conditions in their city. Homeowners' subjective well-being increases only when housing prices go up in their own neighborhood while the citywide housing market remains stable. During an escalating housing market, increasing prices make both homeowners and renters less happy.

Incentive‐based demand response program with self‐reported baseline supported by blockchain technology

AbstractThis research presents a decentralised incentive‐based demand response (DR) program using blockchain technology. Consumers self‐report baseline to the system operator (SO), the smart contract confirms the validity of the data to execute transactions and finally the validators record the information on the blockchain network. During the DR event, a set of consumers are randomly selected to deliver the required load reduction. The signalled consumer who delivers the load reduction is rewarded, and the non‐called consumers who diverge from their reported baseline are penalised. The randomness of choosing the consumers and penalty function restrict the baseline inflation. Here, we create a blockchain network and deploy a smart contract on the Ethereum build platform. A DR event scenario is adopted with residential houses data sets, all consumers report their baseline information to the SO through the Internet and smart meter. The SO calls four users to deliver the essential load reduction according to the probability of choosing a consumer. The smart contract verifies the received information to start transaction execution. We use proof of authority mechanism to select validation nodes from the participants using voting system. They validate each block before adding it to the blockchain. Last, the monetary transactions settle in participants' wallets. Our results confirm that decentralised systems like blockchain can significantly improve transparency, openness, and customer participation in the DR program. Also contributes to the security and privacy of user information with a minimal investment in new infrastructure.

Thermal Comfort in a Residential House in Kampala

Global warming and climate change has been a challenge in the last decades. Buildings are major contributors to energy consumption. This is due to the rise in human comfort needs and services. The residential sector consumes a significant amount of energy worldwide. A NZEB strategy emphasizes closing the gap between energy demand and renewable energy supply. Despite some of the roles that NZEBs significantly contribute to smart cities on the energy efficiency, the potential contribution of NZEB to the residential sector of Uganda has not been documented in literature. The objective of this study was to develop a thermal comfort model in a residential house through an envelope design. CBE tool was used and results indicate; PMV with elevated air speed of residential houses during resting hours in Kampala; at night: -0.75. DBT as 24.1°C, PPD as 17%, the Cooling effect as 2.7°C and SET = 26.3°C. The study realized factors to be considered while building like; air temperature, average radiant temperature, air speed, air humidity. The model developed in this study enables a building to heat up during cold hours and cool down during hot hours by the help of the water pool collected during rainy days. This water cools down the house during the day time while absorbing heat that can be released during the night hours that are somehow cold in Kampala. However, if this isn’t considered, then heat pumps have to be employed to pump heat into rooms to reduce heating in rooms. Recommendations should be put in raising thick walls and ceilings to maintain building temperatures.

Seismic isolation effect of rubber-sand mixture cushion under different site classes based on a simplified analysis model

The use of rubber-sand mixture (RSM) cushion in geotechnical seismic isolation (GSI) systems is an emerging technique for protecting buildings in earthquake-prone areas. The advantage is that RSM with high shear resistance and low shear modulus improves the foundation soil, allowing seismic energy to be partially dissipated in the cushion before it is transmitted to the structure. However, the isolation effect of the RSM cushion considering site classification has not been recognized due to the complexity of the problem. In this paper, a simplified analysis model is established to study the seismic performance of the RSM cushion, in which 195 ground motion records are obtained from different site conditions according to the Code for Seismic Design of Buildings GB50011-2010, reflecting the influence of site classification. By using the developed theoretical analysis method, the seismic isolation effect of the RSM cushion under different site classes is investigated. The key influencing factors to be considered include the cushion thickness, base pressure and seismic excitation intensity. The results show that: 1) The isolation effect of the underlying RSM cushion on the superstructure is affected by site classification. The harder the site, or more specifically, the shorter the predominant period of the site, the better the isolation effect of the RSM cushion. 2) For the same site classification, the isolation effect increases with increasing cushion thickness, base pressure and seismic excitation intensity. In particular, the robustness of the seismic performance of the RSM cushion deteriorates upon reaching a cushion thickness of 500 mm, and this deterioration in robustness is independent of site classification. Overall, the present study is the first systematic analysis of the effects of ground motion on GSI systems with RSM as the core under different site classes, and the research findings are of great significance for the low-cost seismic design of residential houses in developing countries.

Prosumer-centric demand side management for minimizing electricity bills in a DC residential PV-battery system: An Australian household case study

Technological advancements lead to the development of a home energy management system (HEMS) to perform demand side management (DSM) in residential houses. The current study proposes a DSM strategy to minimize electricity bills in a DC residential house considering the predictions of electrical load consumption and solar photovoltaic (PV) power based on long short-term memory networks. A simulation study compares the proposed DSM strategy against four alternate scenarios, the result shows that the proposed DSM strategy has the lowest annual energy cost increment (5.81%) compared to the benchmark scenario where it is assumed to have the ideal predictions of the load consumption and solar PV power. It also shows that the predictions of the load consumption and solar PV power are essential for economically sensible DSM, however further analysis reveals that the prediction errors do not correlate with the differences in daily energy costs (or daily peak powers) resulting from the proposed DSM strategy and benchmark scenario. Finally, the proposed DSM strategy is experimentally validated on a small-scale hardware-in-the-loop test platform to demonstrate the feasibility of its practical implementation in a HEMS.

A Relationship among Interest Rate, Inflation, Population and House Price Index

The Financial Stability Review Second Half 2021 of Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) has reported that the number of unsold houses in Malaysia remained elevated at 180,702 units in the third quarter of 2021 (Q3’21). This has attracted the researcher to explore more on House Price Index (HPI) in Malaysia. HPI measures volatility prices of residential housing in Malaysia over time. The objective of this study is to identify whether there is a relationship among interest rate, inflation rate, population, and house price index in Malaysia by using STATA software. The annual time series data spanning from 2003 to 2021 is used to achieve the objective of this research. The analysis of such times series data was made through the Johansen Test and it was discovered that all explanatory variables were related to HPI in a long run; in which it is negatively related to interest rate, inflation rate and population. However, when the Granger Causality Test was applied to the same time series data, HPI was found to be affected by both the interest and the inflation. Population, on the other hand, does not influence HPI in the short run dynamics. Therefore, it is concluded that most variables used in the study are significant in determining HPI. It is recommended that more independent variables such as real GDP per capita, real domestic credit, construction costs and land supply that can influence HPI should be added for future studies .

Meeting the nutrition and physical activity needs of young people in residential out-of-home care

Summary Health outcomes for young people living in residential out-of-home care are poor. There has been increased emphasis on the need to prioritize preventative support and upskill residential care workers to better meet young people's health needs. The aim of this study was to examine the food quality and physical activity environment in residential care houses in Victoria, Australia prior to staff undertaking Healthy Eating, Active Living Matters (HEAL) training; 102 residential care houses participated. House representatives completed an online survey exploring: (1) physical activity equipment and engagement and (2) weekly food budget and expenditure. Findings The average weekly food expenditure per household was $318.98 (SD = $106.51), with variation between different sized households. The majority (61%) of houses’ weekly food expenditure was spent on ultra-processed food products that are ready to eat with no/little preparation, in comparison to 36% spent on unprocessed foods (fresh fruit and vegetables). The majority of houses reported having two types of equipment. Young people were not often engaged in physical and/or recreational activities in their community. Application Residential care houses in Victoria require additional supports to ensure that young people are supported to eat well and be active at home and in the community. HEALing Matters aims to provide this, by offering professional development for residential carers to better facilitate engagement in physical activity and healthy eating among the young people in their care. If successful, HEALing Matters may provide an effective pathway to improved health and wellbeing outcomes for young people in residential care.

COCKROACHES AS VECTORS OF PARASITES OF MEDICAL IMPORTANCE; Reports from Six states in Nigeria

Background cockroaches are not associated with diseases as noted with mosquitoes and fleas (by direct transmission); however, they harbour pathogens (typically those causing gastroenteritis) which are indiscriminately deposited on foods and equipment as the cockroaches comes in contact with them. Methods This report reveals an association of cockroaches with 13 bacteria species, 7 fungal species and 18 soil transmitted helminths all of which are medically important and have been implicated in many gastro-intestinal disorders. Entamoeba species, Balantidium coli, hookworm and Ascaris lumbricoides have been reported to cause chronic diarrhea, liver complications and stunted growth in the affected people. Pathogen were independently isolat¬ed from the alimentary canal and body surface of cockroaches collected from toilets, residential houses, hostels, kitchens, living rooms, wardrobes and health facilities at six different states in Nigeria. Results This affirms that cockroaches constitute a serious public health threat in Nigeria. This study emphasizes the need to raise awareness on safeguarding food sources from being contaminated by cockroaches, as it may lead to the mechanical transmission of parasite-related morbidities. Conclusion Proper personal hygiene and environmental sanitation is strongly recommended since cockroaches only thrive in filthy environments. Periodic fumigation of hospitals and hostels is also imperative to reduce risks of nosocomial infections.

RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY MANAGER AND LEGAL ASPECTS OF CHANGING THE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY MANAGER

The residential house management institute consists of a complex design involving legal entities such as apartment owners who own a certain number of alleged parts of the residential house, land owner, residential house manager, different service providers, engineering providers etc., which leads to responsibilities imposed by law on the parties concerned, the rights and rights that need to be respected.

Dampak Negatif Proyek Pembangunan Rumah Tinggal Terhadap Bangunan di Sekitarnya – Studi Kasus di Surabaya

The need for housing in a metropolitan city such as Surabaya will increase with time. These needs can be met by building new houses or renovating. Sometimes the construction and renovation of houses will more or less have an environmental impact on the surrounding buildings. The case study in this paper aims to increase public awareness of the impact of construction project on the surrounding buildings. The case study was conducted by doing field observations on the location of a residential house construction which had an impact on the adjacent houses, located on the right and left side. It was obtained that the damage to the adjacent houses was caused by the demolition of the old building, the addition of loads, and the process of compaction of the backfill. Repair and strengthening of buildings must be carried out to restore the function of the building and prevent further damage. Unfortunately, repairing the building requires significant additional costs and causes the construction time to be longer.

Evaluation on present situations of safety on thermal environment in residential houses in Japanese winter season using BEST-H program

In this paper, the present situations on the safety of thermal environment in residential houses in winter season were evaluated by using the BEST-H program, a computation tool for analysing the thermal load in residential houses. In this analysis, the climate conditions for each primary division area in Japan were imposed to the input conditions for the thermal load computations. We also evaluated the safety of thermal environment with the hazard rate for both the cardiac and the brain diseases from the combination between the computational results using the BEST-H program and the several statistical data. Through the investigations, the following two findings were obtained: (1) the proposed method was validated for the evaluation of the safety on the thermal environment in the residential houses in winter season by comparing the computational results with the statistical data from the Population Survey Report in Japan.: (2) More houses with suitable insulation performance should be established in the western area and northern part of the Kanto area in Japan. The near future direction of our study is to evaluate variable countermeasures, such as one-room insulation.

Benchmarking The Use of Shaking Table for Simulating the Earthquake Performance of Typical Residential Houses for Disaster Risk Reduction

This study presents a review focused on the role of earthquake shaking table simulation in understanding the potential risk of confined masonry structures of residential houses. Understanding the potential risk leads to mitigating earthquake hazard risk of the typical confined masonry structures of residential houses. The primary objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of earthquake shaking table simulations in evaluating and mitigating earthquake hazard risk for confined masonry structures, particularly for the typical residential houses in the most rural areas in Indonesia. By exploring the existing research and case studies, this research seeks to identify critical factors influencing the performance and resilience of confined masonry structures during seismic events. Thorough literature reviews of different research papers on the earthquake simulation test on confined masonry were carried out. The studies include the loading models, the type of construction models, and the boundaries of the simulations. This understanding will facilitate identifying potential areas for improving designs, constructions, and retrofitting practices specifically targeted at enhancing seismic resilience in low-income communities. The outcomes will facilitate evidence-based decision-making, leading to enhanced seismic stability and safer residential buildings in these developing areas where confined masonry houses are more needed and vulnerable. Finally, the work of this study can assist in preparing the most appropriate specimen model of masonry structures, which are intended to undergo testing in the earthquake shaking table facility at the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center (TDMRC) of Syiah Kuala University (USK).

THE EFFECT OF THERMAL COMFORT ON THE HEALTH OF OCCUPANTS AT CITRA GRAHA HOUSING

Humans mostly spend much time indoors, which is residential houses, so it is necessary to pay attention to thermal comfort because thermal comfort is closely related to health. Simple residential houses have the potential to cause thermal discomfort because simple houses are synonymous with dense settlements where building density is affected by the distance between buildings, building height, and building dimensions which will affect wind speed, temperature, and humidity. Thermal comfort is not only influenced by environmental aspects but also by one's condition. Although thermal comfort generally does not cause serious illness, it can significantly impact a person's quality of life and performance level. This study aims to analyze the thermal comfort in modest housing and the effect of thermal comfort on the health of the occupants. This research uses mixed methods, qualitative and quantitative, with data collection through direct field observation, simulation using Sefaira software and distribution questionnaires. The sample is a simple housing that is densely populated, namely Citra Graha Housing. Citra Graha Residential Housing residents feel thermal discomfort and depend on artificial ventilation in their homes. The results of this study indicate that the thermal comfort conditions of Citra Graha Housing do not meet ASHRAE 55 standards with relatively warm room conditions and tend to be hot throughout the day. Citra Graha housing already uses a type of opening that follows the Minister of Health Decree No.1077/MENKES/PER/V/2011 standard. Regarding the effect of thermal comfort on health, the variable thermal comfort partially does not affect health. Meanwhile, it simultaneously influences thermal comfort with a percentage of 54.7%

Field Survey of Indoor Microplastic in Four Regions of Japan

In recent years, the plastics pollution of 5mm or less size (microplastics) in marine ecosystems has been a global issue. The presence of microplastics (microfibers) is also a major concern in indoor environments of the residetial house. Many sources of microplastics in the marine environment also exist in the indoor environment. In the modern age where we spend most of our time indoors, the indoor environment is related to the health of residents, so it is important to investigate the presence and contamination status of microplastics in the indoor environment. There is limited the number of studies on microplastics in the indoor environment. In our previous studies have confirmed the presence of microplastics in indoor environments Kanto area including Tokyo of Japanese residential houses. The purpose of this study is to investigate the concentration of indoor microplastics in four regions; Kanto area including Tokyo, Chubu area, Tohoku area, and Kansai area. We focused on the indoor microplastics in settled dust on the floor of residential houses, and the survey was conducted on the 16 residential houses. Micro-Fourier transform infrared (µ-FT-IR) spectrophotometry was used for the qualitative analysis of microplastics. The detected components in the settled dust were cellulose, polyamide (PA), polyacrylamide (PAM), polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polyethylene (PEs), polyester (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl acetate (PVAL).

Environmental Parasitic Disease Affecting the Health Status in Rwanda

The analysis gleaned from Rwanda’s history following the 1994 genocide to the post-war aftermath has provided the ability to examine the improvements in life expectancy, health care, and social disparities within this country. The following paper describes Rwanda’s environmental and social health determinants, examines health literacy, and evaluates the inequalities within this country. Understanding the multiple influences surrounding the ecological living conditions that lead to tungiasis was pursued to reduce the prevalence of the parasitic disease. Policies should be established to enhance better environmental living conditions so Rwandan citizens can overcome several health barriers. Low socioeconomic status is associated with impoverished housing conditions and unhygienic living environments. Poor housing conditions, elevated indoor relative humidity levels, and unhygienic living environments expose Rwandan citizens to bacterial, viral, and parasitic risks. Therefore, examinations of peer-reviewed scholarly articles assist with determining the efforts used through governmental policies and programs to reduce health disparities in Rwanda. Finally, developing policies can help reduce exposure to a prevalent parasitic disease affecting many Rwandan individuals. Rwanda has many obstacles to reducing exposure to tungiasis, like managing healthy living environments, large city populations, access to quality sanitation systems, contaminated water, and funding for improved water treatment. Approximately 23% of the participants in three primary schools acquired tungiasis by walking barefoot in the sand, with unclean feet, in poor living environments, with elevated relative humidity levels, and in impoverished housing with dirt floors [5 & 12]. Aligned with overcoming Rwandans' barriers, tungiasis can be reduced and eliminated through paved concrete floors in residential housing, controlling indoor atmospheric conditions, education on tungiasis, knowledge of proper hygiene, environmental remedies, social policy reformation, and cultural modifications. In conclusion, goals should be established to create social change to protect at-risk Rwandan citizens from exposure to Tungiasis, especially school children.

Forensic medical characteristic of hanging incidents among juvenile

Was to conduct the epidemiological analysis of juveniles' deaths by hanging, registered in the Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise, Moscow for 2017-2021 years. The number of incidents equal 61 was revealed (2.65% of whole hanging incidents for the researched period). The amount of hanging deaths among juveniles and their percent in the total quantity of deaths from this type of strangulated asphyxia increased in 2017, 2018 and 2019 years to 8 (1.6%), 15 (3.1%) and 18 (3.6%) incidents respectively; decreased in 2020 year to 7 (1.7%) incidents and increased again in 2021 year to 13 (3.0%) incidents. Juveniles died by hanging were mostly male (73.8%) aged from 15 to 18 years (63.9%). The median age for girls was 16 years (IQR 15.0-16.75) and for boys 15 years (IQR 13.0-16.5). Most of juveniles' corps were found in their place of residence: in apartments or residential houses (the whole number was 49 or 80.4%). Generally, juvenile hanging occurred between November and January (36.1% of all incidents) and in April (11.5%); less frequently were in February (1.6%), June and July (9.8%). Alcohol was found in blood of 18.2% juveniles aged from 15 to 18.

Does concrete modular system add value in residential buildings - Case study and qualitative evaluation

The concept of modularity has been widely accepted in production environment. However, its adoption in the construction sector is still limited. The research aims to address what are the main (sub) challenges in adopting concrete modularity concept in residential housing. The study collected possible challenges from previous studies, and asked expert respondents to perform AHP-pair wise comparison. It also used parameters from two case projects of a two-storey housing to examine the time and cost implications for modular concrete construction. The results shown the 'high upfront investment cost', 'lack of interest from consumers', 'no/lack of guidelines and regulation in design', 'lack of suppliers/products' and 'complexity to integrate with onsite structure' as the top five sub-challenges. From the project case 4% cost increase and 25% time saving can be expected from modular concrete adoption to a two-storey housing project.

Energy consumption characteristics in residential houses in Danang, Vietnam

Residential energy consumption has been increasing significantly in Danang, Vietnam, in recent years due to improvement in living standards. In order to plan housing energy conservation measures, it is necessary to clarify housing information, people's lifestyles, energy consumption style and usage of energy equipment. The purpose of this study is to clarify the energy consumption characteristics for further energy simulation analysis in the next step. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey of 300 households in Son Tra district, Danang was conducted in March 2022. The power consumption data during 2019 - 2021 were obtained through the local Department of Electricity (EVN). An analysis was performed on the information collected to provide insight into the current energy usage in Son Tra. The results showed that the main factors of household that effect the energy consumption were number of air conditionners, outdoor temperature, number of storeys and family size. Through this study, basic documents for energy saving measures and policy making have been obtained; Energy saving measures will be considered through simulation in the near future as the next step.

Priority-based Residential Demand Response for Alleviating Crowding in Distribution Systems

The dynamic pricing environment offers flexibility to the consumers to reschedule their switching appliances. Though the dynamic pricing environment results in several benefits to the utilities and consumers, it also poses some challenges. The crowding among residential customers is one of such challenges. The scheduling of loads at low-cost intervals causes crowding among residential customers, which leads to a fall in voltage of the distribution system below its prescribed limits. In order to prevent crowding phenomena, this paper proposes a priority-based demand response program for local energy communities. In the program, past contributions made by residential houses and demand are considered as essential parameters while calculating the priority factor. The non-linear programming (NLP) model proposed in this study seeks to reschedule loads at low-cost intervals to alleviate crowding phenomena. Since the NLP model does not guarantee global optima due to its non-convex nature, a second-order cone programming model is proposed, which captures power flow characteristics and guarantees global optimum. The proposed formulation is solved using General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) software and is tested on a 12.66 kV IEEE 33-bus distribution system, which demonstrates its applicability and efficacy.