The Seoul Nomination

The Seoul Nomination: Supporting background

Seoul Restoration Technology Program Overview

As a fast-growing Asian mega-city, Seoul has seen its share of challenges, as its population increased from 5.4 million inhabitants in 1970 to over 10 million today (with 20 million in the metropolitan area). During this period the number of motor vehicles has increased by 46 times to nearly 3 million vehicles. The impacts on traffic congestion, public health, air pollution, and noise have all taken a huge toll on both quality of life and the economy of the city and those who live and work there.

To face this challenge beginning in 2002, the incoming Mayor Lee Myung-Bak and his team at the Seoul Metropolitan Government embarked on an alternative course of action, to use technology in a way to return the city to people. The efforts of the Seoul team have centered on three major projects as path-breaking steps in the direction of a new technology, economic and life quality environment:

The Cheonggyecheon public space restoration project
Seoul Bus Rapid Transit (and supporting mobility management program)
Seoul Digital Media Street (integrating high tech with a human scale city)

1. Cheonggyecheon restoration

While cities as diverse as Bangkok, Los Angeles, and Mexico City have prioritized the construction of roadways and flyovers, Seoul has decided to do the opposite. The mayor's team has demolished an elevated roadway and has set about to restore a central waterway. Once upon a time the Cheonggyecheon stream was a defining part of Seoul's environment. This waterway in fact was one of the reasons that Seoul was selected as the capital of the Joseon Dynasty in 1394. Unfortunately, in the face of rampant modernization, the waterway was covered in 1961 to provide better access for private cars. By 1968 an elevated expressway provided another layer of concrete erasing all memory of the waterway.

The Cheonggyecheon project restores 5.8 kilometers of waterway and historical pedestrian bridges, creates extensive green space, and promotes public art installations. This project, though, is not a tradeoff between economic efficiency and the environment. Based upon a study by the Seoul Development Institute of the Seoul Metropolitan Government (2003), the project will produce economic benefits of between 8 trillion and 23 trillion won and create 113,000 new jobs. (You can get a vision of what this is looking like if you click here to http://ecoplan.org/graphics/seoul-images.ppt)

2. Bus Rapid Transit Project & Technologies

In support of this public space project and to make Seoul function on a more human scale, and with better economics both for individual citizens and the city as a whole, the Seoul team is at work on a two pronged program (a) to discourage private motorized trips and (b) to provide better mobility alternatives. As of 1 July 2004, the city launched a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that has dramatically improved the quality of public transport. Over 76 kilometers of median busways were constructed in 2004 (with a plan to expand this to 162.4 kilometers).

The technology content of the new BRT system is considerable. We introduced the world renowned IT technology of Korea to support the operations. A new Hi-Tech IC chip card, replaced an old Radio Frequency contactless card. A smart card system is utilized to allow free transfers to different transit services. The new smart card satisfies international standard and has more capacity and enable multi-functional services. It also plays a key role for the new distance-based transfer free fare system. Now passengers has recognized the benefits of new fare system and has enjoyed free transfers with 'T-Money'. Over 5,000 buses have installed GPS tracking technology to ensure improved customer service, and 815 buses have been converted to operate on natural gas.

The BRT corridors have recorded a 26.9% reduction in traffic accidents over its first year of operation. A single BRT lane carries six times more persons than a mixed traffic lane. Travel times along the BRT corridors have been reduced by a factor of five. Most importantly, the BRT system has led to an 11% increase in the use of public transport.

3. Seoul Digital Media Street

Finally, Restoration Technology is also the key to the project known as the Seoul Digital Media City. The Digital Media Street (DMS), located inside the DMC, is an experimental space for cutting-edge media technology and contents. It will be where innovation will be embraced day in and day out in a variety of ways. In the place of a neglected landfill site, the city is transforming this space into a hub of commercial and cultural activity based around the theme of digital technology and media. Construction on the site began in 2002 and is scheduled to be completed by 2010. The hazardous and toxic waste on this brownfield site is slowly being converted through natural processes into useful materials, while the entire project is being developed in parallel with the city's new mobility technologies and approach more broadly.

These initiatives are only the first steps in Seoul's Restoration Technology transformation. The city is currently looking closely at congestion charging and stricter parking controls and the SOA technologies that go with them. The key to Seoul's transformation experience has been the application of current generation technologies to create a more human and economically sound city.

A brief biography of Mayor Lee Myung Bak

Mayor of Seoul : Took office as the 32nd Mayor of Seoul City on July 1, 2002

Personal Data

Date of Birth: December 19, 1941
Family Relations : Married with one son and three daughters
Religion: Christian
Address: Office of the Mayor, Seoul Metropolitan Government
31 Taepyeongno 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul 100-744, Korea
Tel. No.: (82-2) 735-6060~1

Career

2002-Present Mayor of Seoul
2001 Commissioner, Subcommittee on Future Competitiveness, National Reform Committee, Grand National Party
1996-1998 Assemblyman of the15th National Assembly
1992-1996 Assemblyman of the 14th National Assembly
1977-1992 CEO of 8 Affiliates of Hyundai Group (Hyundai Construction, Hyundai Engineering, Hyundai Timber,
Hyundai Resources & Development, Incheon Steel, etc.)

Other Professional Activities

[Economic Activities]

1989 Deputy Chairman of Korea-USSR Economic Association
1982 Deputy Chairman of Korea Chamber of Commerce
1982 Chief of Construction Division, Economic Cooperation Committee in Southeast Asian Countries
1980 Chairman of International Contractors Association of Korea
1980 Chairman of Korea Atomic Industry Forum Inc

[Diplomatic Activities]

2000-Present Appointed as Advisor to Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Kingdom of Cambodia
1992-Present Honorary Ambassador of Arkansas State, USA
1991 (Chairman of North East Asia Economic Committee (*Member nations: Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan, China, Russia & Mongolia)
1986-1999 Honorary Consul General of the Kingdom of Bhutan to Korea

[Social Activities]

2001-Present Advisor to Overseas Korean Traders Association (OKTA)
2000-2002 President of Asia-Pacific Environmental Non-Governmental Organization in Korea: APENK
1997-Present Professor Emeritus at Graduate School of Business Administration, Korea University, Seoul Korea
1994-Present Founder & Chairman of East Asia Foundation

The challenge before us

Some wise person once wrote many years ago that most of the problems of a modern city are the result of someone's old solutions. And indeed it would be comforting to think that the best way to a more human and healthier city here in 2005 would be for us to find a way just to take away or erase the "errors" of the past. So if traffic and all that goes with it is our problem today, why not just use the force of the law to get rid of all the cars, trucks, buses and various two and three wheeled vehicles that are through their huge numbers and enormous cost and intrusiveness?

The fact is however that when we talk about sustainable development we also need to keep in mind that without a working democracy there can be no sustainability. And if progress toward a more sustainable world and lives has been slow in coming, it is because we are still learning how to reconcile the two.

Moreover, we are seeing that in democratic societies where citizens have become accustomed to a certain level of well being - and being fluently mobile is an important part of this in both economic and other terms - it is not possible to ask people to go backward. Not only that, let us not lose sight of the fact that those all "old solutions" that are giving us so many problems today were back then our considered best response to the problems that we were facing at the time. But here are some of the cold realities that we need to target and then work around:

The continued economic gains in South Korea have created tremendous growth in vehicle ownership. The city simply has run out of road space and parking space. The challenge for developing-nation cities, and particularly the rapidly growing cities in Asia, is to devise a strategy that decouples increased economic growth from increased usage of private vehicles.
The city has an extensive subway system, but it is not financially viable to continue expanding it in order to meet growth objectives in public transport. Therefore, the bus system must be improved to become truly car competitive. This implies that bus systems in rapidly growing cities must evolve into a metro level of quality. <
South Korea's economic performance over the past few decades has placed the nation at the cusp of developed nation status. This rapid increase in GDP, though, has come at a price in terms of the environment. The previous paradigm in Seoul meant covering waterways with concrete and disposing of hazardous wastes on urban lands. The time has now come to reverse such actions with a new focus on quality of life. Seoul and cities like it must now restore parts of its urban environment in order to meet the quality-of-life expectations of its population. The Seoul city government believes that restoring environmental quality can be done while continuing with the city's economic success. The long-term health of Seoul's economy is directly dependent on creating a healthy urban environment.

So we must find ways to go ahead, and it is our believe that the wise and clever use of technology - of 21st century technology - is the way to do this. We call these Restoration Technologies and with the three programs introduced here you can get a pretty good idea of how we feel it is possible to move ahead and still to have a softer, better and more economically viable city.

What next? Well this is both a new paradigm and a step wise process. Fortunately, we are not alone in this and the measures we are looking at and introducing are likewise being studied carefully and implemented by leading edge cities around the world). It is our modest claim that we are just doing our part, and hopefully showing some examples for other cities in their search for new ideas and new approaches to their problems.

We have plans for using these technologies and the approaches that go with them in many parts of the city, but in the immediate future we are already looking closely at congestion charging (encouraged by the examples of Singapore and more recently London and their city government) and stricter parking controls and the SOA technologies that go with them. But that is just the beginning. We invite you to come to Seoul and judge for yourselves.