In the aftermath of the World War II, many Asian countries placed growing their economy as a priority, which resulted in rapid urbanisation and the negligence of quality of life and proper urban planning (Y.-K. Lee et al., 2014). For this blog post, we place focus on the case study of the Cheonggyecheon restoration project, an attempt by Seoul City to veto the horrible air pollution and poor quality of life brought about by poor urban design in the past.

The Cheonggyecheon is an eleven-kilometre stretch of stream that flows through the central part of Seoul, the capital of Korea. The water in the previously ephemeral stream Cheonggyecheon originates from the highlands north of the stream, such as the Bukhan mountain (Jeon & Kang, 2019). Cheonggyecheon then flows and connects to the Han River, which drains out into the Yellow Sea.

Prior to the restoration in 1958, Cheonggyecheon stream was buried under an expressway that was 50m wide and span 6km in length. Later in 1976, an elevated highway was built upon the pre-existing highway to mitigate congestion issues (Kim & Jung, 2019). As majority of the land-use around Cheonggyecheon was roads and traffic, it led to a decline in air quality around the Central Business District (CBD) area of Seoul. A study found that citizens who worked or lived near the area were twice as likely to suffer from respiratory illnesses as compared to other Seoul citizens (Hwang, 2004). This was due to the high nitrous oxide and benzene levels from idling vehicles.

Talks of restoring the Cheonggyecheon began with the election of Seoul’s first conservative mayor Lee Myungbak in 2002. Lee’s political campaign focused on improving environmental and cultural spaces in the city to increase the quality of life and revitalise the dull urban environment that resulted from the rapid urbanisation in Seoul. The Cheonggyecheon Project promises to do just that; the removal of the expressways encouraged citizens to switch over to active mob ility methods like walking and cycling (Kim, 2007), greatly improving the air quality due to the large decrease in vehicles passing through the CBD area. In fact, the city saw major decline in records of air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone prior to and after the restoration project (Hoe, 2006).

The Cheonggyecheon project has become a global example that advocated the importance of green and sustainable spaces in a city. It also presents ideas and encouragement of utilising active mobility and public transport as effective ways to curb vehicle air pollution in cities.

References

Hoe, Y. (2006). The Research Regarding the City Air Environment Improvement Effect Follows in the Cheonggye Stream Restoration (Master’s Thesis). University of Seoul, Seoul, South Korea.

Hwang, K. Y. (2004). Restoring Cheonggyecheon Stream in the Downtown Seoul. http://lloydgoff.com/airparkvillage/beyondoilusa/news/b7-hwang.pdf

Jeon, C., & Kang, Y. (2019). Restoring and Re-Restoring the Cheonggyecheon: Nature, Technology, and History in Seoul, South Korea. Environmental History, emz032. https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emz032

Kim, B. (2007). Urban typological analysis of the cheonggye stream restoration project in seoul. The Korea Spatial Planning Review, 53, 110–130. https://doi.org/10.15793/kspr.2007.53..007

Kim, H., & Jung, Y. (2019). Is Cheonggyecheon sustainable? A systematic literature review of a stream restoration in Seoul, South Korea. Sustainable Cities and Society, 45, 59–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.11.018

Lee, Y.-K., Lee, C.-K., Choi, J., Yoon, S.-M., & Hart, R. J. (2014). Tourism’s role in urban regeneration: Examining the impact of environmental cues on emotion, satisfaction, loyalty, and support for Seoul’s revitalized Cheonggyecheon stream district. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 22(5), 726–749. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2013.871018