Structure Of Rural Areas Research Articles

Misplaced resource: The transformation of straw from valued resource to waste in North China

Abstract In recent years, because of the increasingly rapid pace of large-scale urbanisation and industrialisation in China, the energy structure of rural areas has radically changed. Bio-fuel, i.e., specifically straw, which was commonly used in traditional farming, has been replaced by fossil fuels due to their higher heating value; likewise, artificial feed and fertilisers are now widely utilised instead of straw. These transformations have brought about a radical change in rural energy patterns. One result is a large amount of surplus straw, which today is often burnt in order to clear the fields for the next crop, leading to a pervasive air pollution problem that affects both cities and countryside.

Vulnerability Assessment of Rural Settlements Versus Earthquake by Approach to Crisis Management in Fars Province

Extended abstract 1. INTRODUCTION Iran is located in the active region of the world in terms of seismicity and according to the scientific documentation information and observations of the twentieth century is considered the riskiest region of the world by powerful earthquake. As a widely-accepted fact that “earthquake does not kill people but the buildings do” we know the overwhelming relevance of this fact. Majority of deaths and injuries in earthquake incidence occur because of the collision and collapse of buildings and other human made structures resulting in the loss of lives, property and social disruption. Therefore, in order to reduce risk, crisis management should go towards to the standardization of building materials, increasing reliability and safety in new construction, guiding urbanization system and development of urban and rural settlements. In this case, the rural communities are very important. 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The vulnerability is a conception that occur according to the physical and natural characteristics of phenomena against natural and unnatural disasters. Determining the amount of vulnerability internal elements of risk of environment is of the requirements to determine risk. One of the most important parts of human life is residential buildings. Vulnerability of buildings is physical vulnerability and the damage to human lives and health is human vulnerability. There are many aspects of vulnerability, arising from various physical, social, economic, and environmental factors. According to research topics, the study approach is physical. Thus, according to this approach and crisis management approach vulnerability assessment of rural housing was done against earthquake. 3. METHODOLOGY The research method is descriptive and analytical. For data collection, library and documentary method were used, and data that we required were collected by using census data library data, Internet and etc. in this study, statistical population consisted of all rurals in Fars province. Also, analysis unit was the county of Fars. To create a database and mapping, Geographic information system software and Excel were used. In fact, for integration of information, layers in GIS and spatial analysis were used overlay layers and analytic hierarchy process methods. Also, for seismic hazard zonation and creating layers, inverse distance weighted interpolation method (IDW) and proximity function were used. 4. DISCUSSION About 2026 earthquake happened in Fars province that most earthquakes occurred with 8.3 of magnitude on the Richter scale that frequency of them was 110. In fact, given the frequency of earthquakes, most of them are less than 4 on the Richter scale. Also, according to the region that earthquake happened, the largest earthquake occurred in the Lar county (358 cases). Historical Earthquake Survey shows that most destructive earthquakes occurred in Larestan in the past. Generally, the most earthquakes occurred in Lar, Kazeroun, Jahrom, Qyr & karzyn, Nourabad and Firozabad. Hazard zonation was done using earthquakes, faults and lithology and Fars province was divided into five zones. Then, population, housing and infrastructure of rural settlements were evaluated in these zones. The greatest number of settlements (2,700 settlements rural of 3,273) and more than 290,000 housing of total of 346,814 are in high and too high-risk areas in Fars province. Generally, 47 percent of the total of rural housing have an area less than 100 square meters, 90% of them are non-resistant structures and 6. 91% of them are over 35 years old. These information show necessity of reconstruction, improvements and retrofitting of structures in rural areas. 5. CONCLUSION The results of this study, same as other studies that were done in other provinces indicate non-resistant and outwear of rural housing. More than 85 percent of the province's areas and more than 85 percent of the rural settlements, the population, housing and infrastructures of them are located in areas with high risk of earthquakes. In fact, most of the rural population in Fars province have lived in areas that not only are disposable the serious risk of earthquakes, but also these residential buildings are non-resistant and outwear. Even if the earthquake does not cause deaths and casualties by itself, these causes will provide by non-resistant and outwear buildings and collapses from these structures. Some of the recommendations of this study are: Putting retrofitting as the most important part of the construction in the high risk areas. Presentation government facilities, loans and non-cash contributions for the reconstruction, improvements and retrofitting housing, and creating the crisis management centers in rural areas in each county.

Family structures and women’s status in rural areas of Xining, China: A family image study in the villages of Qinghai province

ABSTRACTAlthough China's economy has experienced the dynamics of change in recent decades, gender inequality is still persistent, especially in rural areas. The present study aims to depict family structures in rural areas in Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, and to investigate the status of women in these. Qualitative and semi-quantitative methods were used. Fifty-five married women from three villages of Xining participated in the investigation. A family image test (FIT) and semi-structured interviews were used to gather information on family structures and women’s status in the household. Results indicated that typical patriarchal families were prevalent in rural areas of Xining. Women, especially the young married young ones, were marginalized and were at the bottom of the family hierarchy.

Društvene promene i ljudske potrebe u ruralnim područjima

Rural areas are specific environment for lives and work of people. Agricultural population who which are predominantly inhabited in rural areas, represents a significant part of the overall population in the Republic of Serbia. Social changes on a global scale have been transferred to rural areas. Changes in social structures in rural areas are evident from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Observed by social changes, development of society, process of globalization followed the change in human needs in rural areas where the focus is on labor. Human needs are diversified over time and in rural areas there are distinction between the two before and today. With development of society there was modernization of the village on the one hand, and on the other hand there is a noticeable phenomenon of devastation of many rural areas. A large number of villages remain without the human population, while in contrast, some villages turn into urban environments according to their living conditions. Significant changes will be taking place in rural areas.

FEATURES OF APPLYING ROBOTIC SYSTEMS IN CROP PRODUCTION

The paper offers the analysis of applying robotic systems in agriculture of Russia. A specific character of agriculture, a low level of technical and technological, information and communications, and staff potentials of mediumand small-sized Russian agricultural enterprises explain the slow pace of introduction of agricultural robots. Weather conditions, agrolandscape zoning, seasonal character of work and other specific features of crop production impose restrictions on the development of robotic systems. The existing engineering tools are characterized by a low level of development of speech understanding technologies; they require the creation of modern power sources, bionic systems, as well as the use of microrobots. There are a number of problems to be solved: to provide RD to create the normative and methodical base for conducting measurements, tests and monitoring, robot quality and safety assessment; to upgrade and re-equip enterprises producing agricultural machinery; to increase competence of the staff and population in using information and communication technologies and robotic systems; to decrease cost prices for machinery; to create a modern information and communication structure in rural areas; to develop an advanced technology and machinery system with regard to agrolandscape zoning and robot application. Experience of industrially advanced countries in robotics has shown that this process could not pass without government support.

MFIs Commercialization New Opportunity to Sustainable Profit

Microloan determines the methods, that create opportunities to offer micro loans to very poor families in order to help them realize their productive activities and offer them the possibility to develop small businesses. Microfinance is not limited to offer small loans to the poor, but also a wide range of financial services to all of which are excluded from the classic financial system. The Albanian financial sector is not only dominated from the commercial banks, but also from a high number of non commercial financial institutions (16 commercial banks, 27 noncommercial banks, 1 representative of foreign banks, 397 exchange offices, 111 credit union associations and 2 credit union association.) (Bank of Albania, 2015). Microfinance institutions cover especially rural and sub urban areas focusing their services in areas, where financial services lack. Particularly in rural areas is proven that these financial institutions have helped farmers to overcome the emergency phase and, subsequently, have spurred development, creating some of the first financial structures in rural areas, as well as enabling villages to manage loans and other development projects. (Salko D., 2000). The article purpose is related to the future of the microfinance system in the country as a necessity for them to have more consolidated structure in terms of legal framework (transforming them into commercial banks) and the possibility to offer lower interest rate for the offered services. If the first structure is linked to the core changes of these institutions and the second is offering a strategy for market adjustment strategy. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n3s1p451

Play employment potential in the system to ensure balanced development of rural areas

Existing today demographic situation, rural employment, labor productivity and wages in the agricultural sector of Ukraine. It was established that the population of Ukraine, including rural population, is characterized by a tendency to decrease, which is due to negative population growth and migration and negatively affects the reproduction of labor potential of agricultural enterprises; continues the process of dying villages, progressing decay of social infrastructure in rural areas. Decreased number of employees of the agricultural sector, primarily because of a lack of motivation to work in the countryside. Wages of workers of the agricultural sector is the lowest among all types of economic activity remains relatively high unemployment rate, which, moreover, continues to increase, the level of productivity increases due to extensive factors, that is not conducive to the efficiency of agricultural production. Proposed to develop a unified concept of balanced development of rural areas of Ukraine, which would be based on Strategies intelligent and balanced development, promoting social activity, launched by the European Union, and included: supporting employment in rural areas and the preservation of social structures in rural areas; improve the rural economy and support diversification; consideration of the structural diversity of agricultural systems, improving conditions for small enterprises and the development of local markets; introduction to rural areas of urban standards of quality of life.

Idea and practice of inclusive farming

Inclusive farming (INCLUFAR) - Transfer of concepts, experiences, skills, and training tools for social farming and eco-social inclusion is an innovation transfer project within the Lifelong Learning Leonardo da Vinci funding scheme of the EU. The results were gathered during the project period from October 2013 until September 2015. Why INCLUFAR? First, Finland signed the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and is presently adjusting the legislation accordingly. Second, the results of the public consultation on the review of the EU-policy on organic agriculture conducted by the directorate general for agriculture and rural development in 2013 shows that economic and social dimension have the highest priority. Third, social farming and green care enterprises put the multifunctionality demand of policy makers into practice. Because green care enterprises emerged in the past decade rapidly, there is a lack of qualified staff specialised on both agriculture and social work related professions. The results of the past EU funded green care projects SoFar, DIANA, MAIE, and others reflect this fact addressing development of appropriate VET curricula as a concern. INCLUFAR meets the need for appropriate curricula suitable for social farming and green care enterprises which link care for both, individuals with special needs and for nature in organic farms. IN-CLUFAR transferred a new on-farm developed curriculum and the gathered experiences with it to green care enterprises and to related institutions following the principal of inclusion. As a result better labour opportunities emerge, fostering rural economic development. Exploiting the specific agricultural work and life-setting may improve social welfare structure in rural areas. Outcomes of the project are: 1. The INCLUFAR handbook, providing background knowledge of and concepts for inclusive farming. 2. The INCLUFAR curriculum, available in all partner country languages. 3. An occupational profile to meet the practical steps implementing the INCLUFAR idea. The skills gathered in the partner countries through coaching team visits to Austria, Bulgaria, Esto-nia, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, and Turkey contributed to improve the quality of work on farm as well as on the rural area and its different professions (farmers, gardeners, handicrafts, nurses, social workers, civil servants, students, scientists, decision makers of public authorities, etc.). The term inclusion, as a central concern in the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities was also applied to improve the cultural landscape and its biotopes. Thus, the project contributed to improve and support the training path aims of creating a greater awareness of social and ecological inclusion.1

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF INVESTMENT IN AIC

Introduction. Agricultural sector in Ukraine is becoming more and more attractive to investors. Ukraine has favorable climatic conditions and geographical location, the availability of agricultural lands, so it is able to increase the volumes of agricultural production. To create a stable and reliable AIC operation large investment in physical infrastructure and not less investment to solve urgent problems of social development are required. The aim of the study is to determine characteristics of investment in agricultural enterprises, to identify the main problems and prospects of attracting investment in agriculture. Problem. In modern conditions of the development of agriculture in Ukraine there are problems of technical and technological backwardness of agriculture from developed countries due to low incomes of agricultural producers for modernization, limited access of agricultural producers to the market in the conditions of its infrastructure imperfection and the increasing monopolization of retailers and slow pace of social development of rural areas. The main material. Enhancing of investment is not only a basic condition for the way out of a deep agricultural crisis, but also becomes a crucial determinant of its further development. That is, successful AIC Серія: Економічні науки Випуск 40. Частина ІV 113 development requires not only reforming of social structure in rural areas through institutional reforms that was a priority in initial period of agrarian reform, but also attracting of large investment in agricultural sector. The creation of preconditions for a massive influx of investment in agriculture must become an essential element of the strategy of the state agrarian policy today. First, it is necessary to provide the formation of a favorable, economically equivalent market environment at national level, in which the economy is susceptible to investment and in entities investment opportunities for capital recovery and its extension through their own and attracted funds including foreign capital are appearing and expanding. Results and discussion. To ensure the development of agricultural sector an effective organizational and economic mechanism based on a combination of government regulation and market self-regulation, balanced pricing, financial and credit policies, intensification of investment and innovation are needed. For the lack of financial resources it is necessary to find additional sources of funding. Conclusions and recommendations. The availability of rapid, reliable and accurate information formed by different types of accounting – financial, administrative, tax one – is an important direction that improves the efficiency of innovation and investment in agriculture. Thus, in the conditions of integration into the world economic relations there is a need to choose priority directions of the development of agricultural sector. In this regard it is necessary to correct the measures of internal agro-food policy of our country, including in the first place the intensification of innovation and investment activities of agricultural sector

Structural Path Analysis of Fossil Fuel Based CO2 Emissions: A Case Study for China.

Environmentally extended input-output analysis (EEIOA) has long been used to quantify global and regional environmental impacts and to clarify emission transfers. Structural path analysis (SPA), a technique based on EEIOA, is especially useful for measuring significant flows in this environmental-economic system. This paper constructs an imports-adjusted single-region input-output (SRIO) model considering only domestic final use elements, and it uses the SPA technique to highlight crucial routes along the production chain in both final use and sectoral perspectives. The results indicate that future mitigation policies on household consumption should change direct energy use structures in rural areas, cut unreasonable demand for power and chemical products, and focus on urban areas due to their consistently higher magnitudes than rural areas in the structural routes. Impacts originating from government spending should be tackled by managing onsite energy use in 3 major service sectors and promoting cleaner fuels and energy-saving techniques in the transport sector. Policies on investment should concentrate on sectoral interrelationships along the production chain by setting up standards to regulate upstream industries, especially for the services, construction and equipment manufacturing sectors, which have high demand pulling effects. Apart from the similar methods above, mitigating policies in exports should also consider improving embodied technology and quality in manufactured products to achieve sustainable development. Additionally, detailed sectoral results in the coal extraction industry highlight the onsite energy use management in large domestic companies, emphasize energy structure rearrangement, and indicate resources and energy safety issues. Conclusions based on the construction and public administration sectors reveal that future mitigation in secondary and tertiary industries should be combined with upstream emission intensive industries in a systematic viewpoint to achieve sustainable development. Overall, SPA is a useful tool in empirical studies, and it can be used to analyze national environmental impacts and guide future mitigation policies.

Methods of Effective Governance of Territorial Transformations in Russian Federation

Considerable territorial differentiation existing in Russia today contributes to both federal and regional economic slowdown. Alongside with that, gaining control over the process of territorial differentiation at the micro-level in order to reduce disparity among rural municipalities and to ensure their sustainable development, is considerably hindered, taking into account the gap between the tasks local self-governing bodies have to accomplish and the financial resources at their disposal. Territorial transformation of municipal entities (regional rural settlements) may become one of the possible solutions to the problem. That would make it possible to optimize local administrative machineries, to reduce imbalance and disparity in economic development of rural municipalities and to channel the funds released towards the vital problems of local significance. However, the problem of preliminary comparison of socio-economic development rates of municipal entities within a region, which is required for further successful implementation of strategies of rural territorial transformations, still remains unsolved, since currently no generally acknowledged and scientifically based specific methods for that purpose are available. As the result of the theoretical and practical research work carried out by the author, the article presents the territorial transformation procedure algorithm and proposes the model to evaluate synergistic effect of the activities intended to foster optimization of territorial structure of rural areas. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s2p350

Full-Size Seismic Experiment Analysis on the Timber Structure in Rural Areas

Timber structure seismic analysis is an important problem in structure design and safety of building. In this paper, full-size pseudo-static tests of two single-storey and single bay timber frame with and without infilled wall were carried out. Failure process, failure form and deformation capacity were investigated. The test results indicate that the timber frame has better capability of dissipation of seismic energy. The infilled wall can increase the seismic ability of the whole timber frame structure. There is a good collaborative mechanism between the infilled wall and frame under some construction measures.

The Enclosure Structure Energy Saving Technology Research of Rural House in Southern Henan Province

Withthe acceleration of the new rural construction, meanwhile, the problem ofbuilding energy consumption is increasingly protruding. As the most importantpart of rural residential construction of retaining structures and its thermalwill play a decisive role on heat preservation andheat insulation of the residence. Therefore, it is imperative to study ruralresidential technology retaining structure in southern Henan province, which toimprove energy consumption structure in rural areas and to improve the ruralresidential energy-saving.

A study on the thermal insulation performance through the analysis in the Lightweight wooden structure of rural areas - Cased of Inje-gun in Kangwondo, Korea -

A study on the thermal insulation performance through the analysis in the Lightweight wooden structure of rural areas - Cased of Inje-gun in Kangwondo, Korea -

The Promotion of Youth Work through Policies in the Context of South Africa

There is substantial evidence to support the premise that the promotion of youth work through national youth policies can be an effective tool in developing the rural communities in South Africa. The paper was conducted to promote youth work in rural areas. The aim of the study was to determine methods and support mechanisms to promote youth work and reach out to the youth in rural areas. A qualitative research approach was adopted to explore some of the challenges faced by the youth structures in rural areas. A sample of participants was randomly selected to participate in this study. The paper proposes a number of methods to assist and promote youth work in order to develop the rural communities. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1063

Spatial determinants of abandonment of large-scale arable lands and managed grasslands in Slovakia during the periods of post-socialist transition and European Union accession

Agricultural land abandonment represents one of the most significant processes affecting today's European landscapes. This process occurs more intensively in the post-socialist Central and Eastern European countries, where the adoption of a market-oriented economy after the era of socialism and the implementation of EU policies were the greatest challenges of recent decades. In this article, we analyse the spatial determinants of abandonment of large-scale arable lands and grasslands in two time periods: the transition period (1990–2000) and the EU accession period (2000–2006). The analyses were performed on a country-wide and region-specific scale. The abandoned fields were identified based on CORINE land cover change analyses, then the role of morphometric, biophysical, distance and demographic variables was analysed with the use of logistic regression estimations and AUC (Area Under Curve) statistics. Similar to other studies from post-socialist countries we observed much higher rates of abandonment during the transition period. The abandonment was more likely to occur on fields with lower soil quality located on less accessible areas close to non-farmed land. Particularly in the transition period we found that the abandonment was largely influenced by the migration and changes of population structure in rural areas. Fewer determinants played a role during the EU accession period compared to the transition period. The dominance of abandonment in the mountainous region and changes in the determinants underline the importance of topographic disaggregation in the region-based modelling of agricultural land-use change.

Permitting best use of wind resource for small wind-turbines in rural New Zealand: A micro-scale CFD examination

To maximize uptake of micro renewable-energy generation, specifically small wind-turbines, it is crucial to permit for tower heights which allow maximum utilization of the available wind resource. Within New Zealand, municipal governments have authority to place limitations on the height of built structures in rural areas, including wind turbines.Numerical simulations using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are used to examine the effects of simple house shapes and heights on the characteristics of the air flow reaching wind turbines. Within New Zealand, municipal governments have authority to place limitations on the height of built structures in rural areas, including wind turbines. However at present they have insufficient information to understand which height limitations may decrease wind-resource utilisation by small wind-turbines installed in these areas. This research finds that current permitted structure heights are not sufficiently high, necessitating either lengthy planning consent processes or acceptance of sub-optimal turbine output. Municipal councils in New Zealand could reduce barriers to small wind-turbine installations by considering taller towers, in the 15–20m range, acceptable. This 15–20m range is transferrable to all rural areas, in other developed or developing countries, where a lone small turbine or small number of small wind-turbines are being considered for installation near dwellings.

A methodology for assessing poverty in Moldavia (Romania)

Community poverty, analyzed as the sum of several types of social and territorial deprivation, is the geographical expression of various processes and phenomena, commonly the object of sociological and economic studies. In this paper we performed a statistical compaction of a series of synthetic indicators, generating an indicator called the index of community development. The statistical validation of these results is accompanied by a spatial validation, which identifi es the legitimate social structures in rural areas, emphasizing that obtaining valid results in the implementation of territorial development strategies depends more on the consistency of the scientifi c methods used to interpret statistical analysis.

Finite Element Analysis of Seismic Resistance of Masonry Structure in Rural China

Buildings with masonry structures in rural areas of China have been the most severely damaged ones in earthquake disasters. This paper has analyzed the failure characteristics of rural masonry buildings in earthquake by summarizing the existing researches of the seismic resistance of masonry structures in rural areas, with its focus on the research of the intensity from VI to X. The constitutive relation model of damage developed by Yang Weizhong is used for the seismic analysis of rural masonry structures in combination with the failure criteria for masonry structures. The finite element software ANSYS is applied for the simulation and the results show that the damage of China's rural masonry structures regularly tends to weaken from the bottom to the top, with the seismic capacity of horizontal walls superior to longitudinal walls. As for vertical walls, due to their weak capacity, damage immediately occurs to them even in medium intensity earthquakes.

Land- und Ernährungswirtschaft in ländlichen Regionen

Agriculture in rural areas – a comparative analysis using network and cluster concepts. The article analyses the existence of cluster structures in rural areas of Lower Saxony. By comparing two areas that differ with regard to their agricultural structures and key aspects of production as well as by combining different concepts for identifying clusters, new insights into cluster structures in rural areas could be derived. It is shown that in both areas agriculture and food production are of aboveaverage importance. Whereas some authors argue that rural regions per se represent clusters of agriculture and food production, we propose a more differentiated perspective based on in-depth analyses of cluster structures in rural areas. In order to prove the existence of cluster structures in both research areas, two different approaches were used: a top-down approach measuring regional concentration of industries and a survey-based bottom-up methodology focusing on network relationships and information exchange between network actors. It is shown that both areas do not have all characteristics typical for clusters. Nonetheless, both approaches show that the region of Weser-Ems, characterized by intensive livestock production, complies better with cluster criteria than northeast Lower Saxony which is dominated by arable farming. We conclude that more clear-cut criteria for identifying cluster structures in rural areas would be helpful, not at least for political decision-making processes addressing structural policy for rural areas in which agriculture and its supply chain partners play an important economic role for the local economy due to a lack of economic alternatives.