Planning, Housing and Infrastructure for Smart Villages / by Hemanta Doloi, Ray Green and Sally Donovan.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chapter 1. Introduction -- Rural Settlements -- What is a Smart Village? -- Millennium Development Goals -- Making a Smart Village -- Chapter 2. Income Generation -- Introduction -- Businesses around Agriculture -- Non-Timber Forest Products -- Ecotourism -- Financing opportunities -- Recommendations for best practise -- Chapter 3. Education and Skills Development -- Introduction -- Providing a classroom experience -- Maintaining attendance -- Achieving educational attainment -- ICT and libraries -- Adult Education -- Reducing conflict through education -- Recommendations for best practise -- Chapter 4. Agriculture -- Introduction -- Crop Management -- Livestock management -- Recommendations for best practise -- Chapter 5. Housing -- Introduction -- Rural house and climatic responsiveness -- Building Designs -- Changes over time -- Smart Villages -- Recommendations for best practise -- Chapter 6. Energy -- Introduction -- Electricity -- Microgrid technology options -- Hybrid systems -- Electrical Energy Storage -- Recommendations for best practise -- Chapter 7. Waste -- Introduction -- Composting -- Anaerobic Digestion -- Recommendations for Best Practice -- Chapter 8. Water and Sanitation -- Introduction -- Provision of potable water -- Sanitation facilities -- Treatment of wastewater -- Balancing water resources -- Recommendations for best practise -- Chapter 9. Transportation -- Introduction -- Road infrastructure development -- Road maintenance -- Beyond roads: completing the picture of transport infrastructure -- Recommendations for best practise -- Chapter 10. Health and Wellbeing -- Introduction -- Foodborne illness -- Prevention and treatment of communicable diseases -- Access to health care -- Emergency response -- Recommendations for best practise -- Chapter 11. Environment -- Introduction -- What is Biodiversity and why does it matter? -- Can biodiversity loss be reversed? -- Forest preservation -- Permaculture -- Environmentally Friendly Energy? -- Recommendations for best practise -- Chapter 12. Governance -- Introduction -- Giving citizens a meaningful voice -- Government community partnerships/ local leadership -- Communication between governments and citizens -- Intergovernmental Communication -- The role of NGOs.

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. 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.

Also available in print format.