The housing loss assessment of rural villages caused by earthquake disaster in Yunnan Province

Based on the assessment report of destructive housings caused by more than 20 earthquakes occurred in Yunnan Province in 1990~2004, the vulnerability models of 4 types housings of rural residents in Yunnan Province are setup. The scenario earthquake disaster loss model is used to simulate the housing loss if the historical earthquakes that occurred since A.D. 886 in Yunnan Province reoccur in 2002. The analyses show the simulation deviation of the usual earthquakes is less than 30% and the method is of high practicality. Meanwhile, the simulation result of 398 historical earthquakes in Yunnan Province shows that the annual economic loss caused by the earthquakes is about RMB 410 million Yuan that accounts for 0.18% of GDP of Yunnan Province for the year. Because the per capita living area and the price of the housing increases year by year, if the historical destructive earthquake reoc- curs today, the loss of Yunnan Province will be greater than in those years.

Urban Utopia and Building Experimentations： The Rural Villages of the Sicilian Latifundium

The colonization of Sicilian latifundium was an attempt of regeneration of the rural areas. It was carried out by Benito Mussolini, called II Duce, who governed Italy by a regime with an absolute and conservative approach for 20 years since 1922. According to this plan, there were some rural villages （with a school, a church, a police station and a doctor＇s surgery） and a number of rural homes, spread in the landscape, that formed one of the most important achievements of the agrarian reform in Italy. The author has been conducting scientific research on this topic for several years. He started with the archive ＂Ente per la Colonizzazione del Latifondo Siciliano＂ （now called Ente Sviluppo Agricolo） to review the original designs and contracts with companies, ledgers and other administrative documents. Lately, he has been reviewing the personal archives of designers involved in the building program, where he has found original drawings, letters, sketches, etc.. He has also conducted some architectonic and technical surveys of the sites. We have to consider that nowadays the mentioned rural villages are a strategic resource for the development of the neighboring areas, as it may become a network for the sustainable tourism and the promotion of the local agro food specialties. On this purpose, the local authority is going to promote some plans for the requalification of these sites. The particular achievement of this article is to show a number of possibilities for the reuse of these places.

Hybrid PV/Wind/Diesel Based Distributed Generation for an Off-Grid Rural Village in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has a tremendous resource potential of renewable energy especially solar and the wind. Therefore, utilization of these resources has a special rule for the remote areas where access to the electrical grid or secure power supply is a dream for most of the people. This paper presents a feasibility and usefulness of hybrid power generation based on PV/wind/diesel generator for an off-grid rural village that feeds the load at a rate of average 7.9 kWh/day with 1.32 kW peak load. GsT （geospatial toolkit） is used to obtain the solar and wind data of the site. Windographer software is used to analyze the wind resource data of the site. HOMER Pro software package is used to select the suitable and reliable hybrid generation system and calculate the optimal capacities and costs of the components. Through the study, it is found that this state of the art adaptation could provide vast opportunities for off-grid rural communities such as in Afghanistan where enough high penetration of renewable energy is available.

Analysis of Types and Changes of Village-level Economy in Rural Gongyi City, Henan Province Since 1990

Based on the research on the rural living standard in China in terms of annual net income per capita, we de-fine six types of village-level economy, i.e. "to be extremely poor", "to make a basic living", "to dress warmly and eat one's fill", "to try to enrich (to disengage poverty)", "to be well-off" and "to be affluent". The data of average annual net income of all the 292 villages between 1990 and 2004 in rural Gongyi City, Henan Province were collected, veri-fied and classified. By using standard deviation, coefficient of variation and regression analysis, it is found that the Gongyi's rural economy has boosted up remarkably from the relative-poverty and absolute-poverty stages in 1990 to the well-off in 2004. However, the absolute differences between villages present a trend of enlargement, while the rela-tive differences fluctuating. On the other hand, spatial analysis of village-level economy shows that most villages with relatively high economic development level were located along national expressway and most villages with abso-lute-poverty lay in remote mountainous areas in 1990. Since the 1990s, the rapid urbanization and industrialization have had strongly positive effects on rural economic growth. Initial economic foundation, natural resources and tradi-tional techniques also contribute to village economy. From the perspective of geography, villages with location advan-tages, such as near urban center or industrial parks, have more chances for their economic development and the "core-periphery" economic structure has been presented in the process of rural development.

Analysis of the Changes in Rural Chinese Family Structure since Reform and Opening Up

This article uses data from censuses since 1982 to reveal changes in the family structure of rural China since the launch of reform and opening up and against the backdrop of institutional relocation,social transformation and an aging population.Since the advent of reform and opening up,rural family structure and its changes can be divided into two phases.Before the 1990 s,the household contract responsibility system was implemented,labor in rural villages was still mainly engaged in farming,and the number of nuclear families remained stable with a steady rise.After the 1990 s,as reform progress deepened,substantial numbers of young and middle-aged laborers in rural villages began to relocate into non-farming sectors and aging in rural villages rose.As those born in the early days of the family planning policy gradually matured,family structure was directly affected and changed in new ways and forms not seen before.Vocational divisions of labor among the parents of young families and married offspring emerged and the significance of cooperation for family economy and daily life between parents and offspring rose in importance.Also,the prevalence of immediate families with three generations climbed while the standard nuclear families declined,the ratio of middle-aged couples with young children that worked outside the home increased,the function of middle-aged and senior parents in the upbringing of infants and children enhanced,and the commonness of incomplete family types such as only grandparents with grandchildren increased.During this phase,the number of seniors living alone surged to the point of becoming a matter worthy of attention.

Particulate Matter Exposure of Rural Interior Communities as Observed by the First Tribal Air Quality Network in the Yukon Flat

A tribal-owned network of aerosol monitors and meteorological stations was installed at Ts’aahudaaneekk’onh Denh (Beaver), Gwichyaa Zheh (Fort Yukon), Jalgiitsik (Chalkyitsik), and Danzhit Khànlaii (Circle) in the Yukon Flats, Alaska. Surface inversions occurred under calm wind conditions due to radiative cooling. In May, local emissions governed air quality with worst conditions related to road and river dust. As the warm season progressed, worst air quality was due to transport of pollutants from upwind wildfires. During situations without smoke or when smoke existed at layers above the surface inversion, concentrations of particulate matter of less than 2.5 micrometer in diameter or less (PM2.5) were explainable by the local emissions;24-h means remained below 25 μg·m-3. Absorption of solar radiation in the smoke layer and upward scattering enhanced stability and fostered the persistence of the surface inversions. During smoke episodes without the presence of a surface inversion, daily mean concentrations exceeded 35 μg·m-3 often for several consecutive days, at all sites. Then concentrations temporally reached levels considered unhealthy.

Enterprising Rural Woman Improves Life of Village

IN the countryside it is said if children are capable they must have a good mother. Dong Cuiyun is a shining example of this traditional belief. At 52, Dong, an ordinary rural woman, is neither tall nor especially slender, but her rosy cheeks and broad forehead speak of her energy and openness. Her husband died and left her with three children under 10 years old. But thanks