Suitability of Rural Living & Work Facilities, Spatial Behavior of Farmers and Family Income

In recent years, China has put forward policies to improve rural infrastructure and promote the development of rural industries causing to dramatic transition in the living and employment conditions. Moreover, under the pressure of the high expenditure of living and the difficulty of finding jobs, new changes have taken place in the spatial behavior pattern of farmers’ residence and employment. Based on a field survey of 839 observations in 123 villages in Poyang Lake basin, China, we developed indicators to evaluate the suitability of rural living facilities (SLF) and work facilities (SWF). Multinomial logit regression model was used to measure the relationship between SWF, SLF and the spatial behavior patterns of farmers. The results show that: (1) SWF development in rural areas lags behind SLF; (2) Higher SLF is most distributed in suburban areas ; (3) Higher SWF is mostly distributed in suburban towns and characteristic towns; (4) The effects of SLF and SWF on the spatial behavior patterns of farmers are significantly positive; (5) Farmers in the urban-rural amphibious pattern usually obtain a higher income level, and also bring vitality to the countryside.

‘True Ownership’

The third chapter focuses on the work of Edward Carpenter, the socialist poet, cultural critic, and early queer activist. Seeking to keeping open a middle ground for people who could accept some role for the state while regarding full centralization askance, Carpenter’s thinking about the ends of state-action in the 1880s and 1890s crystallized around the question of land reform. Key to his reformist vision was the attempt to re-signify the language of capitalist society by advocating an ethos of proprietary care and concern (what Carpenter calls ‘true ownership’), a form of custodial attention that is supported by the state but that cannot be reduced to purely legal entitlements. The chapter explores Carpenter’s writing as well as his experience of rural living in Derbyshire. Carpenter, I argue, hoped to turn poetry itself into the ground where a collective desire for comprehensive, non-revolutionary social change might take root.

Diversifying Density - Renovating Rural Living within Kapiti/Horowhenua Coast

<p>‘Diversifying Density’ explores current issues surrounding New Zealand’s struggling rural regions with particular focus on the test region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast. These rural regions are subject to pressure from cities with regard to economic production and a cultural shift toward urban lifestyle. This has contributed to deconstructing much of what originally made these regions so attractive to live in. Through the process of revitalisation this research looks at the specific test site of Lake Horowhenua. While there is no shortage to these rural challenges, Lake Horowhenua has managed to retain particular significance within the overall region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast. The focus area of this research is to explore a diverse hybrid settlement for a specific area based around a potential economy. On developing this, the design explores how this can provide new habitation while working towards a better environmental system and occupancy potential. This research looks to encouraging discussion about conservation by adding further economic opportunity, the displacement of some current practices with the benefit of economic, environmental, and spatial diversities. Pulling these elements together the thesis proposes that this generates further opportunity, to increase human occupancy, formulating a perception and involvement within this rural landscape. Reconfiguring rural economies, lifestyles, recreation and conservation encourages authenticity of rural landscapes, creating new experiences and opportunities building the notion of abundance. The research being tested in detail is the harakeke (flax) economy. It is structured around the processing stages involving the extraction of the harakeke fibre. Developing this concept through one economy generates new opportunities for habitation, while facilitating alternative growth specific to the site and economy. This informs design moves that are directed specifically toward the economic and environmental diversity drivers connected to the site for growth encouragement. Then begins the exploration of concepts of authenticity; new rural living patterns; interdependencies of economies; environment and spatial patterns; and developing a synergy between work and living to construct community.</p>

Diversifying Density - Renovating Rural Living within Kapiti/Horowhenua Coast

<p>‘Diversifying Density’ explores current issues surrounding New Zealand’s struggling rural regions with particular focus on the test region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast. These rural regions are subject to pressure from cities with regard to economic production and a cultural shift toward urban lifestyle. This has contributed to deconstructing much of what originally made these regions so attractive to live in. Through the process of revitalisation this research looks at the specific test site of Lake Horowhenua. While there is no shortage to these rural challenges, Lake Horowhenua has managed to retain particular significance within the overall region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast. The focus area of this research is to explore a diverse hybrid settlement for a specific area based around a potential economy. On developing this, the design explores how this can provide new habitation while working towards a better environmental system and occupancy potential. This research looks to encouraging discussion about conservation by adding further economic opportunity, the displacement of some current practices with the benefit of economic, environmental, and spatial diversities. Pulling these elements together the thesis proposes that this generates further opportunity, to increase human occupancy, formulating a perception and involvement within this rural landscape. Reconfiguring rural economies, lifestyles, recreation and conservation encourages authenticity of rural landscapes, creating new experiences and opportunities building the notion of abundance. The research being tested in detail is the harakeke (flax) economy. It is structured around the processing stages involving the extraction of the harakeke fibre. Developing this concept through one economy generates new opportunities for habitation, while facilitating alternative growth specific to the site and economy. This informs design moves that are directed specifically toward the economic and environmental diversity drivers connected to the site for growth encouragement. Then begins the exploration of concepts of authenticity; new rural living patterns; interdependencies of economies; environment and spatial patterns; and developing a synergy between work and living to construct community.</p>

Development and Assessment of a New Framework for Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Control

The transport of agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollutants in water pathways is affected by various factors such as precipitation, terrain, soil erosion, surface and subsurface flows, soil texture, land management, and vegetation coverage. In this study, based on the transmission mechanism of NPS pollutants, we constructed a five-factor model for predicting the path-through rate of NPS pollutants. The five indices of the hydrological processes, namely the precipitation index (α), terrain index (β), runoff index (TI), subsurface runoff index (LI), and buffer strip retention index (RI), are integrated with the pollution source data, including the rural living, livestock and farmland data, obtained from the national pollution source census. The proposed model was applied to the headwater of the Miyun Reservoir watershed for identifying the areas with high path-through rates of agricultural NPS pollutants. The results demonstrated the following. (1) The simulation accuracy of the model is acceptable in mesoscale watersheds. The total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) agriculture loads were determined as 705.11 t and 3.16 t in 2014, with the relative errors of the simulations being 19.62% and 24.45%, respectively. (2) From the spatial distribution of the agricultural NPS, the TN and TP resource loads were mainly distributed among the upstream of Dage and downstream of Taishitun, as well as the towns of Bakshiying and Gaoling. The major source of TN was found to be farmland, accounting for 47.6%, followed by livestock, accounting for 37.4%. However, the path-through rates of TP were different from those of TN; rural living was the main TP source (65%). (3) The path-through rates of agricultural NPS were the highest for the towns of Wudaoying, Dage, Tuchengzi, Anchungoumen, and Huodoushan, where the path-through rate of TN ranged from 0.17 to 0.26. As for TP, it was highest in Wudaoying, Kulongshan, Dage, and Tuchengzi, with values ranging from 0.012 to 0.019. (4) A comprehensive analysis of the distribution of the NPS pollution load and the path-through rate revealed the towns of Dage, Wudaoying, and Tuchengzi as the critical source areas of agricultural NPS pollutants. Therefore, these towns should be seriously considered for effective watershed management. In addition, compared with field monitoring, the export coefficient model, and the physical-based model, the proposed five-factor model, which is based on the path-through rate and the mechanism of agricultural NPS pollutant transfer, cannot only obtain the spatial distribution characteristics of the path-through rate on a field scale but also be applicable to large-scale watersheds for estimating the path-through rates of NPS pollutants.

Bank Presence and Rural Development

Rural development is critical to raise rural living standards and reduce income differences between urban and rural areas. Much literature has explored factors that could affect rural development, and we investigate the effects of bank presence in rural areas on rural income. Using Chinese provincial-level data from 2005 to 2017, we quantify the effects of bank presence on rural income. Specifically, we use the number of banks per town to measure bank presence and use rural income per capita of each province to measure rural income. With the ordinal least square model and dynamic panel estimation, we find that bank presence increases rural income. Rural income increases the same year with banks appear in town, and the effects of bank presence last for years on rural income. However, we do not find significant evidence that bank presence in rural areas also contributes to the reduction of the income difference between urban and rural areas.