Abstract

The revision of the Landscape Act in 2013 has obligated landscape planning for new developments. The Seoul Metropolitan Government does not establish the landscape committee but integrates its function with related committees. Accordingly, specific issues about the effectiveness of the landscape review are addressed.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the actual conditions of the landscape review system, to identify the bottlenecks and suggest plans for improvement. To this end, recommendations based on the analysis of landscape review documents, interviews with landscape commissioners, and case studies of related review systems of Shinjuku, Incheon City and Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) are provided.

The results of the Landscape Review Operation are as follows. First, the inadequate number of landscape commissioners to consider the landscape development projects is a cause for concern. Second, there is no regulatory authority to supervise the landscape review and implementation, and general landscape plan and policy. Third, the guidelines for landscape review are not different from the guidelines for deliberation by other committees. Fourth, basically, the percentage of policy documents that meet the guideline was low and major items are often omitted. A landscape checklist was not submitted, or merely indicated as applied/not-applicable. Especially, the conditions of the surrounding landscape were not analyzed and the plan contents considering the surrounding area were not prepared.

In order to improve the operating system, the following basic directions were proposed.

First, it is necessary to strengthen the role of the landscape review. The city will strengthen the commissioners who are dedicated to the landscape review and pool the efforts and services of the landscape committee members to discuss the principles and standards of landscape management in Seoul.

Second, it is necessary to improve the process of deliberation by delving into the debate on landscape. The process of reviewing the landscape can be reviewed by introducing a pre-consultation method when Shinjuku and Incheon city cases are considered.

Third, the enforcement of the role of administrative organization supporting the landscape review and the system maintenance should be carried out collectively. To this end, it is necessary to strengthen the landscape management function of landscape department, to reinforce professional manpower, and to standardize the documents for landscape review.

Finally, comprehensive guidelines are needed for each region by utilizing the comprehensive landscape plan of the district unit and activate the plans of the autonomous region.

 

Contents

01 Research Outline

1_Background and Purpose of the Study

2_Research Scope and Methods

 

02 Landscape Review System of Seoul

1_Landscape Review System

2_Operation of the Landscape Review System

3_Improvement Directions

 

03 Operational Assessment of Landscape Review System of Seoul

1_Assessment of Operating Status

2_Landscape Commissioners Interview

3_Recommendations

 

04 Case Studies of Landscape Review System

1_Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

2_Incheon and IFEZ, Korea

3_Implications for Seoul

 

05 Improvement Schemes for Landscape Review System in Seoul

1_Enhancement of the Role of Review Committee

2_Support System for Committee and Administration

3_Supplementation of Landscape Design Guidelines

4_Education for General Landscapes Review System

5_Implementation Phase of the Improvement Schemes