Restoration Planning for the Seoul Metropolitan Area, Korea

The unintended negative consequences of urbanization are large problems in both developed and developing countries. For a long time now, people have considered the natural environment as a resource to be exploited. Recently, however, our attitude toward nature, in general, and urban green space, in particular, has begun to shift profoundly as the negative environmental and social effects of our industrialized economies have become increasingly evident. In an urban environment, green space is indispensable for the well-being of residents due to its diverse ecological functions, such as pollution filtration, conservation of biodiversity, and climate control (Grey and Deneke, 1986; Gilbert, 1991; Miller, 1998). However, the portion of an urban area occupied by the natural environment decreases, and the portion occupied by an artificial environment expands as urbanization proceeds. This situation increases environmental stress due to an imbalance between pervious natural surfaces and impervious built surfaces. As a consequence, the ecological functions of nature that reduce such stresses are not taken advantage of by society (Taoda, 1979; Smith, 1990; Freedman, 1995; Miller, 1998).

This chapter reports on a study that had two goals. The first was to obtain information on the degree of ecological degradation of soil and vegetation structure in Seoul’s metropolitan area, and to determine the city’s land-use patterns. The second goal was to synthesize such information and use it to suggest a landscape level restoration plan to reduce ecological degradation in the city.