The Impact Of Large-scale Construction Project On Aboriginal Families

Since 2000, social impact assessment became as a necessary procedure of large-scale project evaluation. However, it is plagued by many limitations as can been seen from the occurrence of not in my backyard campaigns. One of the most serious deficiencies is the ignorance of the influences towards the community family imposed by the project. Aboriginal families is one of the essential stakeholders, but could easily become the participants of the social campaigns. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the impact of large-scale projects on aboriginal families.Based on the classic family sociology theory and family modernization theory, it is hypothesized that large-scale projects have impact on aboriginal family structure, function, relationship, social relation network. In order to verify the hypothesis, case study was carried out, where structured and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data. In the end, Anhui Ningguo city Port bay reservoir project which has been operated for over ten years was selected and multiple fieldwork was undertaken.The results showed that under the intervention of the project:1) there is a trend of family miniaturization, core and empty nest; 2) the family based elderly supporting system is changed into the social welfare system; 3) the relationship distance among relative become longer; 4) there are no impacts on the neighborhood ties; 4) family ties expand from the traditional kinship and geographical restrictions.The practical implications are that:1) the family influenced by the project are suggested to be empowered during the project decision-making stage; 2) the compensation policy should be customized to the family characteristics; 3) the compensation apartment are better designed in small-size; and 4) the welfare organizations and facilities should be equipped accordingly when building the relocation regions.This study reveals a positive impact of large-scale project on the aboriginal family structure, function and social networks, thereby contributing to the knowledge of social impact assessment.