Study of Built Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Poor Rural Areas of Southwest China

In recent years, China's rural areas developed rapidly, the settlement pattern and lifestyle in rural areas are also changing rapidly. At the same time, the development of built environmental assessment system in China is still in the initial stage. In the face of tremendous impact on rural settlement environment from the massive New Countryside Construction, the lack of comprehensive built environmental assessment system has become an increasingly prominent issue.;This study furthers the field by clarifying the necessity, strategies and framework of built environmental sustainability assessment in poor rural areas of Southwest China. This study reviewed the sustainable development theories, sustainable architecture theories and built environmental assessment methods in China and abroad; investigated the current situation and problems of village development and built environmental construction in poor rural areas of Southwest China. Based on these theories and context, a framework of rural built environmental sustainability assessment system including the assessment purpose, scope, issues and indicators were established. This framework covers environmental, social, and economic aspects. It provided the main issues and features of built environmental sustainability of poor rural areas of Southwest China which are quite different from urban areas. Then, three different cases were analyzed with different building environmental assessment system. Analysis outcomes were compared and discussed to investigate the applicability and sensitivity of existing assessment systems and the rural built environmental sustainability assessment system established by this study. The result shows that the framework of rural built environmental sustainability assessment system is more suitable for poor rural areas of Southwest China than other existing assessment systems.;Establishing a comprehensive understanding of sustainable development model and assessment system of rural areas is one of the significant strategies to solve the contradiction and problems between rural construction and sustainable development in poor rural areas of Southwest China. Furthermore, the promotion of sustainable rural development is to solve the much larger, longer-term problem of villagers leaving and abandoning their villages to move to the city in search of better living conditions. It is believed that a way to solve the problem is to raise the standard of the villages to a higher level of amenity and comfort for villagers and make it affordable and sustainable for them.;There are several main contributions of this study: - This study provided a comprehensive understanding of built environment sustainability of poor rural areas of Southwest China. Different from conventional rural development model in China, this study emphasizes the endogenous development model of rural areas. - This study established a framework of built environmental sustainability assessment system of poor rural areas of Southwest China. A more specific and detailed standard or rating tool can be developed based on this framework. - The understanding and assessment framework of built environmental sustainability of poor rural areas of Southwest China also can be used as a reference for the design and construction of rural built environment.;There are some limitations in this study: - This study only established the framework of the assessment system. The specific quantitative evaluation criteria have not been developed yet. And the weighting and rating method is also not yet been established. Therefore it is still can't be used as a rating tool. - This study is mainly focusing on the poor rural areas of Southwest China. The natural and social conditions of different areas of rural China are quite different from each other. This study cannot cover all of the rural areas of China.