Participatory Low Impact Development (LID) Process Based on a Geodesign Framework : Nam-gu in Incheon as a Case Study

Abstract

The Low Impact Development (LID) guideline provided by the Ministry of the Environment lacks the participation of residents. Since LID is a decentralized water management system, continuous community involvement and attention is important for the maintenance and management of LID facilities. Therefore, in order to make an effective plan, the planning process is needed in which the opinions of residents can be fully considered.

The purpose of this study is to build the Participatory LID Process based on the framework of Geodesign which is strengthened the design process in Planning Support System (PSS) and expanded the participation of residents in the planning stage. In order to investigate the effect of the Participatory LID Process, the case study was conducted on Namgu in Incheon Metropolitan City.

The Participatory LID Process was created based on literature review. The LID process of Korea Environment Institute (KEI) was reconstructed according to a framework of Geodesign. The LID Public Outreach Program of County, P. G. S. (1999) has been added to the reconstructed LID process to strengthen the participation of residents.

The Participatory LID process based on a Geodesign framework consists of three times iterative processes of the six models (Representation Model, Process Model, Evaluation Model, Change Model, Impact Model, and Decision Model). The first iteration for an understanding of the site and the second iteration for setting a strategy was added into the LID Process of KEI, so that the residents can participate in. The setting of residents who participate in were members of the local government's Residents Participation Budget System Committees.

The LID proposal of Namgu, Incheon was simulated according to the LID Process of KEI and the Participatory LID Process respectively. After that, the two plans were evaluated in terms of continuous resident's participation, feasibility, impermeable area reduction and localization.

As a result, the LID proposal of Namgu, Incheon derived from the Participatory LID process showed improvement in all evaluation aspects compared to the LID Process of KEI. Thanks to residents providing information on local projects and local conditions suitable for non-spatial LID, the Participatory LID process can be linked to local projects to plan the application of LID techniques in stages to local budgets and residential areas there was. Therefore, a large area of the residential area, which is ambiguously described in the LID Process of KEI and difficult to apply LID techniques, is included as an impermeable ratio reduction area.

This study is meaningful that the information and knowledge possessed by the residents are helpful in deriving the LID proposal that reflects the local situation through the Participatory LID process. Such residents' participation can be effective in areas where LID-related computerized data is lacking. However, there are still many challenges to actual implementation and activation of the Participatory LID process. I hope that there will be active research on the residents' participation of LID from this study.