Housing and Rural Environment
Year:2011 | Volume:30 | Issue:135|Papers Count:7

The main objective of this paper is to reach a more or less clear image and perception of principles and rules of indigenous urban planning and design. On the one hand, Isfahan School in urban planning has been introduced, explained and extended as a symbol of indigenous urban planning and design owing to the clear and precise explanation of its content in the history of Iran's architecture and urbanism, and on the other hand, two movements of "New Urbanism" and "Urban Village" have been reviewed as an emblem of contemporary urban theories that originated from the concept of the sustainability. In each part, besides reviewing some of the most important references related to our subject, it is endeavored to represent, and if necessary, to compare a list of the most salient doctrines and principles of every school in a table form. In the final part, through a confrontation between doctrines extracted from Isfahan School in urban planning (indigenous doctrine) and distinguishing features of New Urbanism and Urban Village (universal characteristics), similarities and dissimilarities of them have been analyzed. Based on such comparison, proposed doctrines of this paper entitled as principles and rules of indigenous urban planning and design have been represented in the form of twenty subjects. Research findings reveal that there are few differences and a great deal of proximity between features of Isfahan School in urban planning and principles and rules of contemporary urban theories. In fact, the analytical comparison mostly shows the same tendency and scarcely discrepancies and lack of harmony between them. Albeit some of contrasts are seen in relation with subjects including "mode of transportation", "journey time", "compactness" and etc, taking a close look, indicates that roots of such contrasts is associated with lack of the simultaneity of them. In simple word, these contrasting examples have never been a serious concern in Isfahan School in urban planning due to circumstances of that period, that is, conditions of Iran in Safaviyeh era.In contrary, emerging a large quantity of proximity between contemporary urban theories and Isfahan School in urban planning indicates this fact that the essence of the sustainability is derived from the characteristics of traditional cities. These similarities are a pleasant context to extract principles and rules of indigenous urban planning and design, principles that revert to the inside and have signs of doctrines of Isfahan School in urban planning on the one hand, and look to outside and express signals of distinguishing features and components of contemporary urban theories on the other hand.

Nowadays energy conservation in all building sector is one of the basic requirements of the government. It has a dual importance in rural housing because of their shortage in energy sources and family budget in comparison with cities. Low level of life style in rural areas, being far from urban facilities, transportation problems, livelihood shortages and, make this necessity multiple. According to the research that had been carried out in "Housing Foundation of Islamic Revolution" by the name of "Energy Saving Methods in Rural Housing of Gilan Province", four climatic zones have been recognized. Shore and plane land zone with moderate and humid climate, High land zone with semi cold and humid climate, Humid Mountainous zone and semi arid mountainous zone with cold climate. In this research it was found that in old rural settlements of Gilan-there was no modem facilities in using mechanical systems, therefore special vernacular strategies for every climatic zone was performed in architecture to provide thermal comfort in building. Some similar local climatic strategies in different zones show that in spite of four climatic zones, there are three architectural zones in Gilan which are: shore / plane land zone, mountainous humid zone, mountainous semi arid zone. These strategies are based on design, materials and construction methods which are supporting thermal comfort inside the house in addition to guard the building from harmful climatic phenomena.Therefore, vernacular architecture of rural housing has provided energy conservation and preserving environment with the lowest use of fossil energy. These characteristics have made the rural architecture of this province an obvious example of sustainable architecture. According to the mentioned field study this article will introduce the climatic zones of Gilan and architectural strategies which have been used in vernacular rural housing in every architectural zone. Then according to this knowledge, the climatic architectural indicators for energy saving in rural housing will be provided for each recognized architectural zones. Research method in this study is based on two different data: 1- The meteorology data of 23 existed meteorology stations. in Gilan province.These data will give a prediction of the climatic condition of different parts of the region. The needed data are temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation, freezing days and etc.2- The information of the villages that are far from the meteorology stations. This information is gathered by field study which is used as a complementary for the station data to analyze local climatic conditions and to recognize the climatic zones. Field study data are climatic, geographic and cultural data of 139 selected villages that are gathered by the questionnaire and 80 villages that are gathered from library resources.Finally, climatic indicators are explored for designing low energy rural houses in each architectural zone. This information is provided in two main groups. The first one is the general subjects such as architectural space arrangement, shape and texture of the settlement, buildings' accumulation, neighborhood conditions, building characteristics, mass and void size and relationship. The other group is the secondary elements such as open, semi open and indoor space characteristics, opening and envelops materials and construction technology of the building.

House is one of the human fundamental needs that in terms of development and change in living level has different and various dimensions. In this case, house is the most skeletal element of village and it is a parcel of village total identity and yet it reveals functional accretion of village context consisting elements. Therefore, rural house building method helps to villages' classification based on social groups and assessment of their archaism and establishment time.Meanwhile, rural house form and function in the world is affected by different factors, which rather originate from natural, social, economical, and political properties of countries. In this relation, rural houses distribution method and dominant architecture of this phenomenon in rural regions affected by factors such as coordinated actions adjacency, irreconcilable actions differentiation, maximum use of natural environment properties, hierarchy preservation of actions and spaces. Meanwhile, in study of rural houses, some aspects could be considered, such as expanse and form of free space (i.e, court and garden space), house building method and used materials relation with environment, building position and its situation toward public lands (for example, pathways network), infrastructure and useful area based on residential areas, economical used space, stores area and similar cases, houses height or number of building floor, number of rooms and their function, parts with special function, construction method, and architecture. In this article, regarding research main path, means geographical analyses of rural house form and function in Miyanband Villages, some major objects are considered, such as rural house dominant types' recognition and its differences in geographical area of various regions, study of new rural houses function differences compared with previous rural houses function in the region, study of house events qualitative and quantitative changes in considered region. According to the last formal census, Miyanband Villages of Noor County includes 29 villages with population of 7805 in 1518 household. This population lives in 1557 housing unit.These houses have special diversity regarding geographical condition and economical-social structure and they were selected according to study objects and considering geographical properties of 6 villages and their houses dominant conditions were studied. According to region villages' sprawl, results of this study could be considered as a diagram of total region. In line with rural house form analysis and in order to reach to above objects, we have used descriptive analytical method in 2 forms of documents-library and field study (questionary, interview, and observation). Conclusions of this research show that geographical factors such as topography, wind direction, and other continental elements are very effective on house parameters such as infrastructure, houses settlement direction, roof cover type. Meanwhile, houses form and function indifferent geographical districts of study region has obvious differences with each other regarding proper communication network and distance from urban centers.

Rural settlements as the oldest kinds of human communities were established and developed in some spatial portions, with water and fertile soil available, following a change in living and livelihood style based on agriculture and related activities. The prevailing living style in these human centers represents their function in that region and it also influences their texture, physical state and the forms of rural houses. These villages to survive along with the execution of the reconstruction projects, they require to change the form, frame, physical state and the forms of houses.Occasionally these changes are not so compatible with the living style of these communities. In the applied study, we are to examine the impact of housing reconstruction upon the prevailing economic system for villages in central district of Mamsanni County, applying an analytical-descriptive approach and survey research. The population of the study is composed of small and large villages from which up to 24 villages were selected. The volume of the sample asked from in the study is 230 heads of rural families which have used the loan facilities for reconstruction by Housing Foundation of Islamic Revolution. To collect data, the literature and field survey study have been used. Finally, data have been analyzed by using SPSS to answer the posed question. The results indicate that the reconstruction of houses has improved the physical state of the villages along with preserving the beauty and the strength of the building.On the subsistence in the villages, it can be mentioned that about 75 percent of rural people abandoned their custom economic activities due to the incompatibility of some "plans" with the current economic activity in those villages. Therefore, although the housing reconstruction plans provided convenience and some welfare for people, but it has inappreciably changed the living condition and financial status in the rural areas. Who caused the destruction of the enternal structure and evolution of the village population should focus on its vital role and function.

Implementation of master Plan as an physical intervention, have been affected and changed the villages in different dimensions (environmental, socio - cultural, economic and political). However, policy makers are looking comprehensive effectiveness of this plan, today it has been noticed that the economic effectiveness has significant importance. This plan was started since 1989 by the government (Housing Foundation of Islamic Revolution).The approach of the master plan insisted to enhancing the quality of the physical and socio-economic structure of villages in the country, which this plan provide basis for provided rural development. In this regard, the government has implemented nearly 9, 912 plans (until 2010) in villages in the country. According to custodian's opinion, this project has significant effects on various aspects of rural community in particular the economic aspect. This article will examine the above view, by considering four major criteria which are selected for economic evaluation and are changes in land use, rural income status, investment and employment (these criteria are the most important to evaluate the economic situation). Also the sub-criteria are selected which are the price of land (inside and outside of the village), rate of income in three levels (high, middle and low income), investments in production and services, the status of migration to and from villages, and the percentage increase in the number of workshops with regard to production and services, also the share of workers in three economic sectors. Also in 363 sample villages, the evaluation were conducted and the hierarchical method was used for analyzing the data. The results are shown that implementation of master Plan was effected relatively desirable on employment development, investment, rural income and land use.

Every year millions of people in the world, following the implementation of development projects, are forced to be displaced and settling in the margin of the cities in the difficult conditions than before the resettlement. Present article, seeking an answer to the question of how to plan for involuntary resettlement in justly conditions, and, how to accomplish these plans.Michael M. Sernea, in his own "Model of Hazard and Reconstruction", declares that the basic questions on resettlement are circumstances of displacement and manner of it's prevention. According to him, eight hazards cause impoverishment. But it is possible, by planning, to reverse the process, and provide the condition of turning resettlement into rehabilitation. The impoverishment approach was exploited in the rehabilitation program in the area of Karoun3 dam which accomplished in two pre-programs of rehabilitation and re occupation. But the program, didn't accomplished. Studying of the accomplishment conditions of such programs in universal experiences, it became clear that, anthropologists and social scientists were the first who documented the impacts of impoverishment. Then, on the base of Sernea's approach, the "involuntary resettlement and rehabilitation" model was explained, and the next step, in order to make the model operative, training was along with high education and traineeship of skillful forces of local participators, with collaboration of World Bank Economic Development Institute, in countries interested in resolution of resettlement. The next necessity was essential attempt to compile policies, instructions and laws related to resettlement, which were suggested and done by state or social activators. As the final result, resettlement management, requires the national overall will and endeavor, and can't be succeeded through local tact and ability. Thus, must be constituted an authorized organization, with trans-sectoral jurisdiction and influence, and having certain specifications, at national level, and also leave the responsibility of plan preparation, through an essential and scientific process, to spatial planners.

Natural Disaster Risk and Crisis Management (NDRCM) is an important and multi-faceted process, therefore, public participation in any stage of the decision-making, implementation, supervision and evaluation levels can be of particular crucial in helping authorities to manage and reduce the risks. Taking an analytic perspective, this study sought to gain an understand factors and mechanisms affecting public participation at any of the aforementioned levels, on the one hand, and to provide guidelines on how to enhance public participation, on the other. Population in this study included 400 participants from Islamshahr county. Data collection method was survey-correlational, in nature. Results from Pearson Correlation Coefficient indicated that independent variables, i.e., Social Sympathy, Feelings of Inability, Intellectual Function, Level of Awareness (from a given event) and Socio - economic Status, were significantly related to the dependent variable, namely, cooperation in decreasing risks from natural disasters. Meanwhile, results of Multiple Regression Analysis and Pathway Analysis revealed that the independent variables of Social Sympathy, Socio-economic Status, Intellectual Function, Feelings of Inability and Level of Awareness (from a given event) influenced participation in reducing risks from natural disasters. Generally speaking, one can argue that providing public instruction programs at all social levels of Islamshahr county as well as at all stages of crisis management, including preparedness, risk reduction, reaction to risk, reconstruction, establishment of structured NGO groups, initiation of small local groups, public mobilization, charity organizations and establishment of small groups which call Local Crisis Management Groups, can not only actualize people's motivations and capacities, but also increase social sympathy among them, and hence improve public participation with regards to reduction of risks from natural disasters.