University of Tehran Human Geography Research 2008-6296 53 1 2021 03 21 Evaluation of the Effects of Housing Improvment Special Plan on the Physical Structure and Economic Performance of Rural Housings (Case Study: Eilagh-E- Jonobi District, Dehgolan County) Evaluation of the Effects of Housing Improvment Special Plan on the Physical Structure and Economic Performance of Rural Housings (Case Study: Eilagh-E- Jonobi District, Dehgolan County) 47 63 72342 10.22059/jhgr.2019.272204.1007835 FA Mojtaba Ghadiri Masoum Professor of Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran Afshin Bahmani PhD in Geography and Rural Planning, University of Tehran, Tehran Hamed Ghadermarzi Associate Professor of Geography and Rural Planning, Kharazmi University, Tehran Mohammadreza Rezvani Professor of Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran Journal Article 2019 01 20 Introduction The house is a residential place, which is both relaxing and soothing. It serves as a shelter between the family and the surrounding environment that meets one’s biological, livelihood, economic, social, cultural, and psychological needs. Hence it plays quite an important role. Non-resilience of rural housing to the occurrence of various natural disasters, along with the deteriorated texture of these houses, has made governments to seek improving the quality of rural housing through implementing various policies. The Rural Housing Improvement Plan was started by the Islamic Revolution Housing Foundation in 1995 with the aim of improving the quality of housing and rural texture and promoting the level of safety, health, welfare, and comfort of rural houses. The project brought some kind of face to face and urban housing into the traditional Rural structure and became operational in Dehgolan. The County of Dehgolan, an area in Kurdistan Province, takes in a high portion of rural population in the province, having five rural regions in terms of country division. This study assesses the rural housing situation of the Eilagh-e-Jonobi, seeking to find the effects of housing renovation project on physical and economic dimensions of rural housing in the study area. Methodology This research was an applied library survey, being descriptive-analytical. The statistical population of the study lived in rural areas of Eilagh-e-Jonobi, Dehgolan County, and the sample was consisted of three villages of Qadarmarz, Bashmaq, and Bakrabad. The main data collection method involved observing the field, using questionnaires, and considering the wide area of ​​the study from a total of 606 residential units in the studied villages. In this way, by means of the modified Cochran Method, sixty residential units got selected as the sample. Through randomized stratified sampling method, both the percentage and share of sample size in each village were chosen. A questionnaire was used to collect field data. Experts' opinions and Cronbach's Alpha Method helped assessing its validity and reliability, respectively. For the questionnaire’s economic indicators, consisted of 15 items, the coefficient turned out to be 0/744, whereas for the physical index, with 14 components, it was 0/897. To analyze the data, the research utilized descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, mean, and standard deviation along with inferential statistics methods such as chi-square test, one-sample t-test, and Spearman correlation coefficient. Results and Discussion Evaluation of three important components, with regard to quality measurement of physical dimension of housing, suggests that housing renovation has a positive impact on improving the quality indices such as building strength, increasing level of satisfaction based on materials type and structural strength, and observing the principles and technical standards. Thus, with a significance level of 0/000, the coefficient of chi-square for the component of increasing the building strength is equal to 133/300; for overall satisfaction of the physical dimension, to 24/933; and for assessing the effect on observance of technical principles, to 40/933. Results from the t-test on the hypothesis indicate its significance as well as the negative impact of housing renovation on women's participation in economic activities. Thus, with a significance level of 0/30, the coefficient of t-test is 9/452, confirming the hypothesis. The impact of housing renovation and changing rural housing functions emphasizes the level of women's participation in economic activity. Part of the economic activities, including production of handicrafts like carpet weaving as well as some activities related to keeping the livestock and dairy products, is the result of activities by rural women, which by removing the relevant spaces and reducing the number of livestock and, consequently, rural houses, these activities have also dropped significantly. Conclusion Despite the prevalence of non-rigorous residential units in the rural districts under study, over the past two decades many of worn-out buildings have been renovated in the framework of this plan. A study of 15 economic categories indicates that due to the type of rural livelihood, often farmed, housing renovation does not have a favorable impact on household economic status, somehow undermining diverse economic activities of rural households. Surveying the level of satisfaction from physical aspects of rural housing has shown a relatively favorable situation, in which the owners are pleased with the improvement of safety level, building’s resistance degree, and the type of materials used in the manufacturing process.  Thanks to the benefit of spaces such as toilets, baths, and kitchens, they consider the quality and sanitary level of the renovated houses as desirable. But they are not satisfied with the limited level of infrastructure as well as the lack of attention paid to the design of interior plans of rural houses. Respondents have been of the opinion that the way of constructing new homes has changed the traditional landscape of villages. By blindly following the designs and architectures of urban houses, this minimizes the environmental and climatic factors in the construction of new houses. One criticism of the residents from a physical point of view to new rural houses concerns the removal of many livelihood spaces in rural houses, not to mention the reduction of housing infrastructure. Introduction The house is a residential place, which is both relaxing and soothing. It serves as a shelter between the family and the surrounding environment that meets one’s biological, livelihood, economic, social, cultural, and psychological needs. Hence it plays quite an important role. Non-resilience of rural housing to the occurrence of various natural disasters, along with the deteriorated texture of these houses, has made governments to seek improving the quality of rural housing through implementing various policies. The Rural Housing Improvement Plan was started by the Islamic Revolution Housing Foundation in 1995 with the aim of improving the quality of housing and rural texture and promoting the level of safety, health, welfare, and comfort of rural houses. The project brought some kind of face to face and urban housing into the traditional Rural structure and became operational in Dehgolan. The County of Dehgolan, an area in Kurdistan Province, takes in a high portion of rural population in the province, having five rural regions in terms of country division. This study assesses the rural housing situation of the Eilagh-e-Jonobi, seeking to find the effects of housing renovation project on physical and economic dimensions of rural housing in the study area. Methodology This research was an applied library survey, being descriptive-analytical. The statistical population of the study lived in rural areas of Eilagh-e-Jonobi, Dehgolan County, and the sample was consisted of three villages of Qadarmarz, Bashmaq, and Bakrabad. The main data collection method involved observing the field, using questionnaires, and considering the wide area of ​​the study from a total of 606 residential units in the studied villages. In this way, by means of the modified Cochran Method, sixty residential units got selected as the sample. Through randomized stratified sampling method, both the percentage and share of sample size in each village were chosen. A questionnaire was used to collect field data. Experts' opinions and Cronbach's Alpha Method helped assessing its validity and reliability, respectively. For the questionnaire’s economic indicators, consisted of 15 items, the coefficient turned out to be 0/744, whereas for the physical index, with 14 components, it was 0/897. To analyze the data, the research utilized descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, mean, and standard deviation along with inferential statistics methods such as chi-square test, one-sample t-test, and Spearman correlation coefficient. Results and Discussion Evaluation of three important components, with regard to quality measurement of physical dimension of housing, suggests that housing renovation has a positive impact on improving the quality indices such as building strength, increasing level of satisfaction based on materials type and structural strength, and observing the principles and technical standards. Thus, with a significance level of 0/000, the coefficient of chi-square for the component of increasing the building strength is equal to 133/300; for overall satisfaction of the physical dimension, to 24/933; and for assessing the effect on observance of technical principles, to 40/933. Results from the t-test on the hypothesis indicate its significance as well as the negative impact of housing renovation on women's participation in economic activities. Thus, with a significance level of 0/30, the coefficient of t-test is 9/452, confirming the hypothesis. The impact of housing renovation and changing rural housing functions emphasizes the level of women's participation in economic activity. Part of the economic activities, including production of handicrafts like carpet weaving as well as some activities related to keeping the livestock and dairy products, is the result of activities by rural women, which by removing the relevant spaces and reducing the number of livestock and, consequently, rural houses, these activities have also dropped significantly. Conclusion Despite the prevalence of non-rigorous residential units in the rural districts under study, over the past two decades many of worn-out buildings have been renovated in the framework of this plan. A study of 15 economic categories indicates that due to the type of rural livelihood, often farmed, housing renovation does not have a favorable impact on household economic status, somehow undermining diverse economic activities of rural households. Surveying the level of satisfaction from physical aspects of rural housing has shown a relatively favorable situation, in which the owners are pleased with the improvement of safety level, building’s resistance degree, and the type of materials used in the manufacturing process.  Thanks to the benefit of spaces such as toilets, baths, and kitchens, they consider the quality and sanitary level of the renovated houses as desirable. But they are not satisfied with the limited level of infrastructure as well as the lack of attention paid to the design of interior plans of rural houses. Respondents have been of the opinion that the way of constructing new homes has changed the traditional landscape of villages. By blindly following the designs and architectures of urban houses, this minimizes the environmental and climatic factors in the construction of new houses. One criticism of the residents from a physical point of view to new rural houses concerns the removal of many livelihood spaces in rural houses, not to mention the reduction of housing infrastructure. https://jhgr.ut.ac.ir/article_72342_0fddd1ddd9ff35201d50ef1a2d4f0bd8.pdf