Environmental research

Targeted Location and Population: The project site-Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture is inside the China s biosphere reserve and is the most abundant tropical bamboo production area in China. There are 28 households with 126 Aini ethnic minority people in the project site. The main economical resource of the village is tea production. It has 370 mu (Chinese unit of area, 1 mu= 1/15 of a hectare) of cultivated field, 50 mu of forest land, and 2500 of ancient tea tree field. In recent years, the village has developed the out-door adventure and tea collecting tourism. The average income of the villagers is about 3000 yuan per year. Problems: Created in the area by the minority people, the bamboo folk buildings are one of the important integral parts of the minority group and cultural features. Restricted by technologies and building materials, a traditional Dai bamboo building has many disadvantages: the first is the building is not fireproofed, the second is the bamboo material easy to be moth-eaten and not durable of use, and the third is the poor security of the structure of the building. Therefore, since the 50 s of the last century, the bamboo buildings are gradually replaced by the wood buildings. In recent years, some highly energy-consumptive and environment-destructive materials (steel bar, cement, solid clay brick etc.) have been widely used in the area, making the ecological environment and traditional feature of the minority villages destroyed in extraordinary extents. Solutions/plannned activities: 1. Technical research of new technology of bamboo structure. 2. Technical research of new technology of the light bamboo heat insulation wall body. 3. Building design of the demonstrative new Aini bamboo building. 4. Publicizing the knowledge of climate changing and the new bamboo building 5. Technical training of the construction of new bamboo building, and one Aini bamboo building construction. 6. Publicizing the structure technology of the new bamboo building. Anticipated results/ immediate outputs of this project: 1. Two sets of green building design drawings and one handbook of standard collective drawings are compiled. 2. Two booklets and are compiled. 3. about 300 persons have the knowledge of climate change and renewable energy. 4. about 70 village craftsmen, 30 local construction management workers and technicians have the skill of construction of new bamboo building. 5.One Aini new bamboo building is constructed in project site, which can save 50% of steel in comparison with the steel structure, reducing cost of main structure 40%; save 60% of cement, sand and stone materials in comparison with the reinforced concrete structure, reducing cost of main structure 20%;reduce 1/3 of deadweight and 40% of thermal transmission coefficient in comparison with the solid clay brick wall of the same thickness. By reducing building materials, one 150 square meters new bamboo building can recude 10 tons of CO2 emissions. 6.The energy-saving technology of the new bamboo building are publicized.

China