Seoul
“Seoul, a Clean and Attractive Global City”
Overview
No other city in the world has a river as long and resourceful as Seoul ’s Han
River. No other city boasts more scenic views of its surrounding mountains.
Despite these natural wonders, however, and despite the city’s 600 year history,
it is difficult to identify a single feature which symbolizes Seoul. The Han River,
for all its vitality, serves more to symbolize the economic disparity between the
more prosperous Kangnam area (south of the river) and the less prosperous
Kangbuk area (north of the river).
The industry which gives Korea its sharpest competitive edge is ‘digital
technology’. But, despite Seoul’s unparalleled dynamism, it offers few places to
help advance this technology. Kangbuk, considered the economic heart of the
city, has remained inactive and must be injected with fresh blood to stimulate
not only Seoul’s economy but also that of Korea, and to propel both forward
into the global economy.
Where does Seoul stand now? Where is it headed? It is standing at a turning point, transitioning from being a ‘good city’ to being a great one. It is on the point of becoming an economic and cultural center with global competitiveness. The transition to greatness demands a creative new design and vision.
Seoul is the city that represents Korea. Its competitiveness is fundamental to the economic success of Korea. To make it globally more competitive, we need to build the necessary urban infrastructure and provide administrative services that touch the heart of its citizens.
The Republic of Korea is a nation that achieved a remarkable economic development called “the Miracle on the Hangang(River)” by an admiring world.
CUD Seoul - Smart Transportation Program
Internet Business Solutions Group CUD Seoul 18th Dec 2007
Full of devotion and hard work of all Koreans have led this nation to become the world’s 11th largest economy and its capital city Seoul has arrived at the threshold of becoming a world class city. But “complacency” is not in our vocabulary. Seoul is now laying the stepping stones to achieve a great vision of becoming a great city and it will sure to leave such a great city to the generations to come.
Asia is expected to experience the most turbulent changes in the world as China is growing at a daunting speed. In order to survive such change, Seoul needs to brace for the future with specific strategies for dealing with future threats to its vision of becoming a world class city.
If Seoul develops its uniqueness into a world-recognized asset while pursuing to be a first class city, we can be sure of leaving our descendents a great city.
The key to making Seoul a world class city is to enhance its city competitiveness. For this enhanced city competitiveness, Seoul needs a vision that encompasses ways to secure economic prosperity and improve the quality of citizens’life.
To this end, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has come up with “Seoul, a Clean and Attractive Global City” as its vision for the next four years under the leadership of fourth popularly-elected Mayor Oh Sehoon.
Four-year Plan of the Fourth elected City Administration (2006-2010)
Green Strategy
Recognizing the severity of climate change and the need for a response to the issue, Seoul Metropolitan Government formed a global environment team as the first local self-government to do so in September 2005.
The team is in charge of all work related to climate change. In 2007, it set a target of reducing greenhouse gases emissions by 20% by 2010 and 25% by 2020 of the 1990 level and announced it through the Seoul Declaration on Environmentally-Friendly Energy.
The role of CUD
City Transportation Headquarters of Seoul Metropolitan Government is engaged in the CUD program for building the strategic plan and delivering innovative projects, towards sustainable urban mobility featured by the equilibrium balance of Public and Private Transportation based on ubiquitous connectivity.
CUD related Programs
Smart Transportation Pricing
Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Department of Transportation Policy is conducting a Smart Transportation Pricing Proof-of-Concept project to create a next-generation urban infrastructure that increases efficiency of traffic flow and ultimately lowers emissions from vehicles and other transportation systems.
Smart Transportation Pricing is a set of pricing reforms targeting to reduce traffic and parking congestion. It allows more flexible pricing by enabling area-wide, time and distance based charging schemes and increases the adaptability of integrated transport payment system using universal mobility account. And it will encourage the modal shift from the personal vehicles to public or cleaner transportations.
Please refer to the Smart Transportation Pricing program page in the Thought Leadership for Mobility section of this website for further details of this CUD pilot solution;
Personal Travel Assistant
Also, a further development by Connected Urban Development, Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Department of Transportation Policy is the development of the Personal Travel Assistant as a Proof-of-Concept as part of the strategy is to link with the Seoul city wide TOPIS(Transport OPeration Information System) Development. Next phase of the U-TOPIS development includes; Traffic Information Integration, and Personalized Mobile Transport Information Service.
The CUD Personal Personal Travel Assistant is being designed to link with the u-TransPolis Implementation Roadmap (MP6 PTIS) and Real-Time Travel Information Services through the co-development of a technology architecture and standard eervice platform.
This U-Topis development aims to address the requirements in Seoul for a;
- Next-Generation Integrated Information Service Platform
- Personalized Travel Information Services
- Enhanced Transportation Planning
Please refer to the Personal Travel Assistant program page in the Thought Leadership for Mobility section of this website for further details of this CUD pilot solution;
Other Sustainability Projects in the City
Some examples of response measures to climate change pursued by Seoul Metropolitan Government are establishing a foundation for responding to climate change, pursuing greenhouse gases reduction projects, establishing response measures to climate change, and inducing citizen’s participation in climate change response efforts. The following are the major measures taken by the City of Seoul;
Enactment of Climate Change
In order to continuously and systematically pursue comprehensive climate change measures, enacting an ordinance that reflects the reality of Seoul Metropolitan Government is needed. Therefore, a Climate Change Ordinance is expected to be enacted after fully collecting the opinions of environmental groups, companies, citizens and legislation documents from Korea and other countries around the world.
Requests for Seoul Metropolitan Government to Take Actions on Climate Change
Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to provide a map on the climate situations of each region and the amount of energy consumed to provide information with the aim to spread awareness on climate change response among general citizens and form city plan measures taking into account weather conditions of the city.
Urban Climate Monitoring System Innovation
The most important part in establishing practical climate change measures is to have accurate climate change monitoring system. Seoul Metropolitan Government has 90 Urban Climate Monitoring stations (80 at Elementary schools, 8 by the river sides, 2 in the mountains) and 4 Weather Monitoring Bureaus by Cheonggyecheon (Stream) – Jangtonggyo (Bridge), Saebyeokdari (Bridge), Seongbukcheon (Stream), and Jeongneungcheon (Stream). Seoul Metropolitan Government is planning to establish 25 more Automated Weather Stations (AWS) to enhance accuracy in climate monitoring and is planning to make use of 27 Automated Weather Stations - owned by the Korea Meteorological Administration – established in Seoul.
Greenhouse Gases Mitigation Project
Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to pursue projects on protecting the climate as a comprehensive city environment policy including energy, disposals, green tract of land in parks, construction, and transportation. The city will present a guideline to achieve greenhouse gases reduction target for effective promotion of projects and to analyze and monitor the effects of greenhouse gases reduction for each project. Major greenhouse gases reduction projects are as follows:
- Renewable Energy Distribution Project:
Create renewable energy landmarks, establish zero-energy houses, build solar power facilities at idle sites such as sport facilities, and increase the use and spread of fuel cells.
- Project on Rationalizing Building Energy:
By improving facilities of buildings, rationalize the use of energy of buildings, set environmentally friendly construction standards, and provide incentives to building with high energy efficiency.
- Environmentally Friendly Transportation Demand Control:
Establish a low-energy and environmentally friendly transportation system such as CNG, implement no driving on a day of the week and a central bus lane system.
- Expand parks and green space:
Plant trees on rooftops, create a mass-scale park in the area north of the Han River, create Gwanghwamun Plaza, etc.
Further details about urban sustainability projects in the City of Seoul can be found at;