Planning, Housing and Infrastructure for Smart Villages

Some 7.3 billion people currently live on the planet. Of these, 3.4 billion live in rural areas. In just a few regions—Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa—less than 50 per cent of poverty is now located in rural areas. But for the rest of the world's regions between 55 per cent and 80 per cent of the poor continue to live in the countryside. Progress is being made, but much of the knowhow needed is not disseminated outside of a small coterie of professionals who work in the area. With urban development attracting a great deal of attention lately, poorer rural areas deserve the same and new knowledge for empowerment of rural communities is urgently needed.

This book provides an overview of current thinking and practices that have emerged over the last thirty years for uplifting rural communities in developing economies. Drawing on a body of knowledge across a spectrum of relevant disciplines, this book provides a range of innovative ideas for rural planning, housing and infrastructure development.

Governments in many emerging economies, where rural poverty is often most acute, have attempted to improve livelihoods. Approaches and techniques that have been used for urban development are often not applicable to rural communities. Studies show that money allocated for rural development is often not effectively spent due to distance, lack of infrastructure, lack of education, poverty and other factors. Meanwhile, the gap in development between the city and country continues to grow, sometimes leading to social and political instability, in both developing and developed countries. This book seeks to provide a guidebook for meeting such challenges.

The three authors, all coming from different academic and professional backgrounds, have a deep interest in improving rural environments and the lives of their inhabitants. They have come together here to present a distinctive body of knowledge across a range of interrelated topics associated with rural development. Through in-depth enquiry of global practices and thinking about rural development, and selected case studies, the authors argue that careful consideration must be given to incorporating issues of resilience, resourcefulness and the involvement of communities at grassroots levels in realising the transformation of rural settlements into Smart Villages.

Hemanta Doloi is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr Doloi is the founding director of the Smart Villages Lab (SVL) that focuses on the data-driven research in the area of critical need "‘rural development" under the auspice of the Smart Villages program. He is the lead investigator of the Smart Villages Project sponsored by the Government of Assam, India, for developing solutions on affordable housing and infrastructure systems, generating new theories for education and governance and empowering rural communities. His research has been centred on conceptual and empirical enquiries, the areas of project management, infrastructure planning and policy and construction economics and management, and published in a range of high quality journals. Hemanta won the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyor’s Infinite Value Award in teaching and research – recognising the excellence of scholarships impacting wider community in the profession. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Project Management and the editorial review board of the Built Environment Project and Asset Management journal.

Ray Green is a Professor in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr Green's research is multidisciplinary in nature and includes exploration of evidence-based approaches for sustainable land development and conservation. He is the author of Coastal Towns in Transition (2010), co-author of The Green City: Sustainable Homes, Sustainable Suburbs (2005) and co-editor of Towards Low Carbon Cities in China (2015). His research has also been published in a range of landscape architecture, architecture, urban planning and environmental psychology journals. He has been the recipient of several large research grants, including from the Australian Research Council and the Land and Water Australia Research and Development Corporation. He is currently a chief investigator on a project exploring the notion of "smart villages". Prior to focusing on research, he spent 12 years in professional land planning and design practice, with projects in the Americas, Asia and Australia. He is also a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Sally Donovan is a research fellow with the Smart Villages Lab in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr Donovan has over ten years’ experience researching environmental management and environmental policy development. Prior to her appointment at the University of Melbourne she spent six years working with the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California, developing policy documents for the US Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission. Her research has focused on a range of environmental management issues including appliance energy efficiency standards, greenhouse gas mitigation strategies, waste management and local air quality management.