The Evaluation of Rural Housing Retrofitting in Improving of Residents Quality of Life, Case Study: Sojasrod County- Khodabande Township

Rural houses in most developing countries are a symbol of the sovereignty of the physical structures with high risk that have low Resistance against seismic forces resulting from the earthquake. So that some scholars believe that more than 95 percent of all deaths from earthquakes is the result of the destruction of the houses. So, regarding to its retrofitting against such disasters is very important in achieving optimal and sustainable settlement. This study aimed to evaluate the retrofitting of rural housing in the last decade and its impact on the quality of life indexes of rural residents in Sojasrod County (Khodabandeh township- Zanjan province). Methodology used was descriptive-analytical; and needed data collected by the use of field study and questionnaires. For this reason, from 3500 households of 30 villages in the county, 170 cases in 15 sample villages were selected by the use of modified Cochran formula; and questionnaire distributed randomly in the sample Villages. For data analysis, statistical methods such as cluster analysis, chi-square homogeneity test, multiple regression analysis and analysis of variance, correlation coefficient in SPSS software were used. The research results showed that there is a meaningful differences in life quality indexes in 2 periods of before and after house retrofitting; and also there is a straight and high relation between housing retrofitting index and life quality indexes. Furthermore, among studied indexes in rural housing retrofitting, using high quality materials in house building and applying the expected building codes of Housing Foundation have the highest impact and house design based on family needs has the lowest impact on the life quality of rural families.