Metropolitan Growth Management and Green Belt in Korea

Abstract

The restrictive zone for urban development in Korea, in other words, the green belt, though being similar in name, has evolved in different phases from Great Britain and Japan in terms of definition of its boundary and management of the systems. The green belt was designated in major 14 cities around country from 1972 to 77, covering 5,372 km2 which is 5.3% of the total land area. It has been still unchanged since then. There have been, however a series of discussions on land release and adjustment issues since 1998. Based upon the green belt alteration policy by central government, local authorities are currently in the process of providing with their metropolitan plan. At the cabinet meeting of September 1969, urgent need was discussed to take some actions on the urban sprawl that was widely spread out from the '60. At the same time the Korean Planner's Association was reviewing an idea of introducing the green belt system in London and Tokyo. In January of the next year, Seoul city government established the planning policy of green belt system in the city master plan. The Green Belt policy was suddenly adopted at the cabinet meeting of April 1970. Primary objectives of the green belt were set up with 5 categories for 35 cities and 35 counties; decentralization of urban growth, control of concentration of population and industries, and others. But due to urgent and closed-door decision making process, there were institutional shortcomings which