Seoul City Planning and Green Policy - Assignment Example

Seoul Planning and Green Policy and Introduction Seoul is one of the world’s most densely populated yet well managed cities in the world (Matsumoto, 2008). Most of its success has been attributed to its shrewd city planning and green policies. Currently, Seoul has a population of 10, 530 million people. It also has nearly 2.978 million cars and over 2.525 million houses, both commercial and residential (SMG, 2013). Because of the high number of people, cars and buildings, Seoul is faced with challenges encountered by most capital cities. Seoul’s major challenges are congestion and pollution (Tshinghua.edu, 2013). The city planning and the green policies enacted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government are meant to address these challenges. This paper explores the city planning measures and green policies enacted by Seoul Metropolitan Government and makes suggestions on how they could be improved. The paper then briefly explores Beijing’s city plans and green policies and draws lessons that could be learned by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to help improve Seoul. City Planning of Seoul Seoul has had a series of urban plans since it started flourishing in the 1960s. Like most cities, the population has continuously been growing during this period. As people move towards the city, the space has continuously become a determining factor necessitating measures to be put in place so as to ensure right planning that supports sustainable development and growth of the city (SMG, 2006). The first plan was implemented between 1972 and 1981 and was geared towards growing the city’s facilities and infrastructure. The second plan was enacted between 1982 and 1991 and the thematic issue was distribution network. The third city plan was implemented between 1992 and 1999 and was geared towards the local development. The current Seoul’s city plan started being implemented in 2000 and is to be implemented until 2020. The current city plan is geared towards increasing Seoul’s international competitiveness (SMG, 2013). Seoul’s fourth city plan is known as the Master Plan. It has taken a different approach towards urban development. The Master Plan represents a paradigm shift from the traditional growth-driven models which focus on quantitative growth to a growth-management model which focuses on qualitative growth (SMG, 2013). The previous growth models that were implemented by Seoul Metropolitan Government were designed to achieve rapid growth. This was understandable given the fact that Seoul still had untapped potential and had not reached its optimal growth level. But now, faced with congestion challenges, the balanced development advocated by the Master Plan is more desirable (IGES, 2007). Secondly, the previous city plans enacted were based on vehicle-oriented development. The highways and other facilities constructed were geared towards providing a suitable environment for private vehicle owners. The current city plan’s development is public transit-oriented (SMG, 2013). The Seoul Metropolitan Government reckons that the private cars are what are the cause of congestions in the Central Business District and has intensified the plans to build more subways and walkways that facilitate public transit. Right now, the subway system is concentrated around the CBD. In the year 2005, the subway system was 1 kilometer in length. The improvements and expansions that have taken place since then have greatly increased the length and reduced the congestion in the CBD considerably (SMG, 2013). In this sense, the current city plan is qualitative as opposed to quantitative. Lastly, the current plan is also focused on restoring the history, culture and the nature; the last three city plans had little regard for these (Yonhapnews.co.kr, 2011). Zoning System Seoul covers an area of 606.55 km2. The city plan has zoned the area into sections that are for allocated specific functions (SMG, 2013). The residential area covers 316.69 km2 which amounts to 52%. The commercial zone occupies 23.56 km2 and the industrial zone constitutes 20.0 km2 which is 4% and 3% respectively. The city plan zoning has also taken into consideration environmental factors and has set aside 246.03 km2 to be used as a green area. This constitutes 41% of the whole city’s area and will be covered with exotic forests, botanic gardens and theme parks (SMG, 2013). Apart from setting up specialized areas, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has also divided the mega-city into different sections based on their territorial functions. There are sub-centers, metro-point centres and regional point centers (SMG, 2006). The Korean Spatial Structure Plans for 2020 is geared towards decentralizing the city. Under this city plan, the city’s development is based on multi-nuclei stations which are the sub-centers like Yongsan, Yeongdong, Yeongdeungpo, Sangam and Cheongnyangni (SMG, 2013). These sub-centers will form the basis for the national economy and will be the pedestal upon which international trade will be build upon. International organizations, financial institutions and organizations will be based on these sub-centers to promote international business and commerce. Also, under the plan, the metro-point centers will be formed by satellite cities. To achieve the territorial functionality, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has segmented the mega-city into functional areas. According to its city plans, by 2020 the CBD should be the historic city and serve the purpose of a symbol of global competitiveness (SMG, 2013). The northwest area of Seoul will be the cultural and digital media industries area. It will also be the eco-friendly capital. The northeast area will form the new economic center. It will also be the city’s waterfront. Seoul, as South Korea’s capital, is knowledge-driven. As a result, the southeastern area of the city will house the knowledge industries such as universities and research centers. Lastly, the southwestern area will consist of high-tech industries and residential areas with comfortable living conditions (SMG, 2013). The city plan being implemented is comprehensive and covers a host of areas where the authorities have targeted for development. Several projects have been rolled out to that effect. The Urban Regeneration project for Downtown Seoul is one such project. It has the goal of making Seoul a ubiquitous city with cultural heritage and a tourist attraction hub (SMG, 2013). It is also geared towards making Seoul the center for the design and fashion industries in East Asia. Then there is the Accessible and Comfortable Pedestrian Network that creates a pedestrian friendly environment through creation of crosswalks and parks. The other projects started under the plan include Han River Waterfront Development, the Yongsan Park development, the Sangam Digital Media city and Mt. Namsan Accessibility project (SMG, 2006; SMG, 2013). Seoul’s Green Policy Seoul is one of the cities in East Asia with strong Green policies (Eun-Jee, 2014). Seoul is endowed with naturally occurring environmental components such as mountains and hills, streams and rivers and natural forests (SMG, 2013). For instance, there is the Han River which passes right through the city and forms one of the city’s landmarks. There is also the Mt. Namsan at the center of the city surrounded by several other mountains. A study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNESCO classified Seoul’s Green Policy and performance as above average with only Singapore City boasting of better policies and undertakings. Figure 1 shows WHO’s classification of Asian Green City Index. Figure 1: Asian Green City Index generated by the WHO (Source: SMG, 2013) Seoul’s Green Policy is structured to address the deteriorating air quality, inefficient waste disposal system and the diminishing green area in the city (Skyscrapercity.com, 2007). Through the policy, Seoul has created more parks where trees have been planted. According to Seoul Metropolitan Government (2013), currently Seoul has 2,529 parks, both public and private. The greenbelt covers an area of 153.52 km2 which compounds to 25.3% of the total area occupied by the city. The metropolitan government has established various parks including national parks, children’s parks, natural parks, cemeteries, gardens and other green spaces (SMG, 2013). In 2013, Seoul was commended for its efforts towards making the world green and its achievements so far. Seoul’s park area per person stands at 16.62 m2 and is one of the highest in the world. The WHO recommends a park area per person ratio of 9 m2. The New York City boasts 14.76, Paris 14.10, Berlin 22.13 and Tokyo 4.46 meter squared as park area per person (SMG, 2013). Figure 2 shows Seoul’s Green Policy projections of park area and park area per person rates among others. Figure 2: Seoul’s Park area per person and other trends (Source: SMG, 2013) Seoul Green Policy has three objectives; to expand the parks in residential areas, to encourage citizen participation in urban greening and to develop the green network (SMG, 2013). To expand the parks in residential areas, Seoul remodels and expands the existing parks. Furthermore, it develops and creates theme parks and children’s parks. To promote citizen participation Seoul Metropolitan Government encourages creation of roof top gardens (Eun-Jee, 2014). It gives loans and grants for building owners to create these gardens. It also promotes the creation of school playground parks. At the moment, all schools in Seoul have developed a playground park to promote the greening of the city. Lastly, the authority encourages individuals to grow vegetables in containers (SMG, 2013). It subsidizes the cost of the containers and, at times, it gives them out for free. To develop the green network, Seoul Metropolitan Government has embarked on forestation and reforestation programs to link the broken green axis that was running from the north to south of the city. The authority also increasingly develops greenway and increases the number of street trees in the city (SMG, 2013). Recommendations to improve the city planning and Green Policy The Seoul Metropolitan has adopted some of the best practices in city planning and green policy development but it has not yet optimized its potential. There are still areas where it could make some improvements in both city planning and green policies. For instance, in its bid to decentralize its operations, Seoul has achieved lack of centrality. Smart cities across the globe are increasingly centralizing their operations (Evans, 2004). That is the sole reasons why cities are setting aside areas for economic free zones where products and services can be centralized such that the majority of services can be obtained under one roof (IGES, 2007). Seoul needs to review its urban spatial structure. In as much as the city requires strategic positioning of its industries, over-decentralizing may actually be detrimental to its growth and development ambitions (IGES, 2007; SMG, 2006). Seoul Metropolitan System also has to address its declining image due to declining quality of life. It can do this through further development of infrastructure such as the subway system and pedestrian walks, expanding the various parks and creating a new environment that promotes education and culture. Seoul Metropolitan Government is encouraging public participation to speed its greening process. However, most of the strategies have been undertaken without public consultation and, as a result; just 30% of the city residents are complementing the authority’s efforts (Tshinghua.edu, 2013). Listening to the resident’s opinions and views and designing intervention programs that are people-led will lead to designing programs that are sensitive to participants’ sentiments and this, in turn, promotes public participation, hence faster greening. The increased greening has created areas which could be used by criminals to perpetrate crimes. Seoul Metropolitan Government can create crimeless parks by increasing the facilities that enhance security, for instance, by increasing the number of surveillance cameras, lights and neighborhood watch teams (SMG, 2013). Currently, there are 1691 surveillance cameras. This is too low a figure considering the total area covered by the parks (SMG, 2013). The cameras should be increased by 500 cameras every financial year. Lastly, the authority should not only make the city green but also beautify it. This can be achieved through arranging flower contests and competitions. Beijing’s city planning and Green Policy and lessons Seoul Metropolitan Government can learn Beijing has a population of 21,150,000 people (Kwaak, 2014). Despite its dense population, the city is one of the most efficient in terms of planning. Beijing is revered for its extensive and expansive transportation system that is characterized by more than 11 highways and 2 high speed railways complementing expressways, and normal roads. Beijing subway is one of the most developed subway systems in the world (SMG, 2006). Beijing is also surrounded by airports which make it easier to transport goods and services. While Beijing is implementing a near-perfect city planning model, the same cannot be said of its Green Policy. At the moment, Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Beijing has failed to control carbon emissions and solid and liquid waste disposal. Beijing is an industrial center, but most of these industries are still powered by coal (Yonhapnews.co.kr, 2011). Beijing Green Policy is trying to address the deteriorating environmental conditions with little success. The smog that has been synonymous with the city for the past one year is slowly clearing up. With time, the effectiveness of the policies, or lack thereof, will be evident. Lessons Despite there being little differences between Seoul’s and Beijing’s city planning and Green Policies, there are still some lessons that Seoul can learn from the way Beijing is implementing its resolutions and policies. The first lesson relates to decongesting the city. Beijing has twice the population of the people working and living in Seoul but its congestion levels are less than those of Seoul. This is because Beijing has invested heavily in constructing a viable and functioning transportation system (SMG, 2006). While Beijing has ring roads, expressways, railways, and highways it still maintains Bus Rapid Transit system. Seoul is one of the cities that embraced BRT when it was still a new concept but when it started developing it shelved the project (Matsumoto, 2008). Matsumoto (2008) concludes his research by recommending that Seoul should consider creating a system where buses operate in segregated busways. Personal cars and other organizational vehicles should be restricted from entering the CBD and in the process reduce congestion in the city center (Evans, 2004). To ease congestion, Seoul should also further expand its subway system to be as expansive as Beijing’s. Beijing’s subway is the third longest in the world. In the year 2013, it recorded 3.21 billion rides (Eun-Jee, 2014). Beijing is not relenting; it is planning to expand it even further to have 30 lines and more than 450 underground stations which cover the whole metropolitan district. Seoul should emulate this. It can also build satellite towns that will act as transport hubs and divert people from its downtown area thus easing congestion. Just like Beijing, Seoul can also promote the use of bicycles instead of vehicles (Matsumoto, 2008). Beijing is one of the cities in the world with a huge number of bicycles. That fact is attributed mostly to its flat terrain. Seoul is almost the exact opposite as it is surrounded by hills and mountains. Still, bicycles can be efficient in easing congestions within the CBD (IGES, 2007). Incidentally, there has been a rise of electric bicycles and scooters, these can offer a viable alternative to the regular bicycles if the hilly terrain becomes problematic. Furthermore, just like Beijing, Seoul can encourage car-sharing and carpooling to reduce the number of cars entering the CBD (Matsumoto, 2008). Beijing has even one a step further to limit the cars that can access the downtown area. Pollution is Beijing’s greatest problem. Its air, land and water pollution situation has been pathetic over the past two years. Even though there is a Green Policy in place it is just not succeeding in curing whatever is ailing the city. In 2013, the air quality deteriorated to a point where the city residents had to use masks and sometimes buy bags of clean air from other cities with clean breathing air (Kwaak, 2014). To address this problem, Beijing has ordered all the factories that are using coal for energy purposes to be closed or accept to upgrade to coal gasification or retro-filling in order to reduce air pollution through gas emission (Eun-Jee, 2014). The city has started a project known as Beijing Clean Air Action Plan that has the objective of reducing coal consumption in Beijing from 23 tons to 15 tons per year. The lesson learnt here is that when it comes to environmental pollution, taking drastic measures, ones that may even be detrimental to a city’s image or economic fortunes may be necessary in order to achieve environmental conservation. Beijing also subsidizes filter purchase and installation by enterprises alongside limiting the number of grill restaurants and spas operating in the city (Kwaak, 2014). Environmentalists have intimated that grills and spas are some of the worst environmental pollutants. In Beijing, there are over 10,000 spas and barbeque joints releasing a considerable amount of air pollutants (Kwaak, 2014). Beijing is also phasing out diesel vehicles to be replaced with those using clean energy such as electricity. It is incentivizing so that people can afford these environment-friendly cars. If they cannot purchase these green vehicles, the administrators are already advising people to use alternative means of transport such as trains, bikes or even walking to work (Matsumoto, 2008). Seoul can also take stern actions to achieve the desired results. Conclusion In conclusion, it is clear that a lot of parallels can be drawn between Seoul and Beijing (Tshinghua.edu, 2013). Beijing has a better city plan and has already developed its transport system. Seoul is still developing its transportation system and in some areas there needs to be a complete shift in the models being used. However, when it comes to Green Policies, Seoul’s is more mature and developed (Eun-Jee, 2014). This study has also indicated that despite Seoul ranking higher than Beijing in the Asian Green City Index, there are many lessons that it can learn from Beijing especially when it comes to implementing its formulated policies. The most important lesson that can be learnt is to be shrewd in implementation of the policies and to stick to the best practices in city planning and formulation of green policies (IGES, 2007). If the Seoul Metropolitan Government does that then it can take Seoul to greater heights and achieve the desired state of being a historic and cultural center that is internationally competitive by 2020. References Eun-Jee, P. (2014). Seoul and Beijing agree to combat air pollution. Retrieved from http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/Article.aspx?aid=2987390 Evans, M. (2004). Understanding policy transfer. In Policy Transfer in Global Perspective, edited by M. Evans. Aldershot: Ashgate. Institute of Global and Environmental Strategies IGES. (2007). Best practice environmental policy in Asia and the Pacific. International Review for Environmental Strategies Special Edition Kwaak, J. S. (2014). In pollution battle, Seoul targets BBQs and Spas. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2014/02/04/seoul-to-crack-down-on-barbeques-and-spas-to-combat-pollution/ Matsumoto, N. (2008). Analysis of policy processes to introduce Bus Rapid Transit systems in Asian cities from the perspective of lesson-drawing: Cases of Jakarta, Seoul and Beijing. Tokyo: Institute of Global Environmental Strategies. Seoul Metropolitan Government SMG. (2006). Seoul public transportation reform: a Brand New Seoul. Seoul: Seoul Metropolitan Government. Seoul Metropolitan Government SMG. (2013). Case study: Policy management in Seoul- The 10th Seoul Field Trip. Seoul: Seoul Metropolitan Government. Skyscrapercity.com. (2007). Seoul offers inspiration for city, argue planners. Retrieved from http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=499173 Tshinghua.edu. (2013). The “Beijing and Seoul’s future: Sharing and cooperation” symposium. Retrieved from http://www.sss.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/sssen/7920/2013/20130614145205066105049/20130614145205066105049_.html Yonhapnews.co.kr. (2011). Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing agree to strengthen cooperation over environmental damage from disasters. Retrieved from http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/04/29/44/0302000000AEN20110429008800315F.HTML Read More