• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.35-56
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• 1995

During the last two decades, Korea has achieved remarkable economic growth. In this process the nation has become urbanized and industrialized. But we have also encountered widening regional disparity, housing shortage of larger cities, transportation congestion, environmental pollution and many other problems. Rapid increasing urbanization and continuous migration toward Seoul since the late 1960s have been one of the major concerns of government. Government has sought ways to moderate the population increase in Seoul. The regulation which include new town development near Seoul and dispersion strategies of higher education and other administration and living facilities outside of Seoul havemade a great expansion of the spatial influence of Seoul city. Seoul metropolitan reaion has evolved as the most powerful center of political and economical spaces. Generally within a metropolitan region, there exists a growing mutual interdependence economically, as well as socially between a central city and its surrounding area. Seoul metropolitan region manifests itself not only as a coherent system of urbanized regions, but also as an integral part of the daily urban system. The surrounding Gyunggi province and Seoul city become closely linked both economically and functionally, constituting true functlonai urban system. This study is primarily undertaken with the purpose of delineation of the sphere of influence of Seoul city in 1990. At the time of 1985, Seoul metropolitan region was delineated according to the result of the study which was performed by Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements. Afterward, the rapid speed of metropolitanization process with dramatic increase in mobility through the provision of wider transportation system across the Capital region have evolved, resulting in the great expansion of the spatial influence of Seoul city. So this study examines the expanded area of Seoul metropolitan regin during the period of 1985-90. In order to delineate Seoul metropolitan region, the indices of urbanization and functional linkage are selected. Variables included in the measurement of the urbanization level are agricultural structure, population characteristics, manufacturing and service industries, and cultural aspects such as newspaper circulation, the ratio of car ownership and piped water supply. Variables included in the measurement of functional linkage are commuting, shopping pattern, centralized service such as medical facilities and trade of agricultural products. The standardization method and factor analysis are employed in making the delineation of Seoul metropolitan region. According to the result of this study, 2 cities, 8 Eups and 46 Myuns are included Seoul metropolitan region in 1990. If we compare this delineated area in 1990 to that of 1985, we can find the distinctive pattern of expanded axes according to the main transportation routes such as Seoul-Suweon, Seoul-Gwangju, Seoul-Incheon. In 199O, all the Gyunggi province, except a few Myuns located at the north and northwest part of Gyunggi province, are included in Seoul metropolitan region. Furthermore, this study attempts to the analysis of regional structure of Seoul metropolitan region according to the functional characteristics of each city and Gun. Variables included in this analysis are the new residential function, manufacturing function, service function, education and infermation function, public facility function and agricultural function. Factor analysis and cluster analysis are employed in making regionalization. Seoul metropolitan reaion is subdivided into four subregions which reflect different functional specialization. The first group is the specialized region of newly formed residential function. The second group is the specialized reaion of manufacturing function. The third group is the specialized region of service function. And the fourth group has little specialized in terms of manufacturing, service, and residential function. But this region has some potentiality of development when Seoul metropolitan region grow continuously. Seoul metropolitan region accounted for 43% of national population, despite 11.8% of national land size in 1990. Although Seoul metropolitan region enjoys important agglomeration economies, it also has huge social cost in the form of transportation congestion, housing shortage, rapid increase of land value, environment pollution, and etc. Efficient metropolitan plan making is a vital element in promoting Seoul's economic development and providing high quality living environment at low cost. In the light of the result of this study, the outer ring of Seoul metropolitan region, especially northeastern part, are underdeveloped compared to overdeveloped southwestern area. It is needed to develop the guidelines for the implement of the growth control and management plan, inducing more balanced development for whole Seoul metropolitan reaion.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.6D
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• pp.541-552
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• 2010

The light rail transit (LRT) having bus lines as subsystem is being constructed or planned in the suburban area of metropolitans and medium size cities. However, there is difficulty in establishing the service coverage (SC) of the LRT because the LRT is a completely new transit mode in Korea. The purpose of this study is to provide the basic data and techniques to be used for establishing the SC of the future LRT by understanding the SC characteristics of buses and subways and building models to estimate the walking distances of their users. Busan City is selected as the study city and the SC's of buses and subways are surveyed simultaneously. A total of 9 variables for 82 stations are collected and the cluster analysis is conducted about the variables. The station areas are divided to three types of CBD (Central Business District), sub-CBD and regional center based on the analysis. A station in each area is selected as the study station. At the walking distance (WD) analysis for each mode, the 80 percentile WD of the subway is 672 m and that of the bus is 472 m. In comparing the SC's of both modes by the type of station areas, there are not significant differences between the SC's of sub-CBD and regional center except CBD. At analysis of the relationship between the personal attributes and the WD, for subway users the WD of female is longer than that of male and apartment residents use subway more positively than single house residents do. For the models to estimate the walking distances, the simple regression models were built employing the income as independent variable by dividing the stations into CBD abd non-CBD stations.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.565-575
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to derive political implications and to look into the establishment of new directions for the biotope mapping across the Korean territory so that such biotope mapping process could be used as a means of actual plan for natural environment preservation through the comparative study of biotope mapping methodology with that of the biotope mapping pioneer-Germany. As for research methodology, this study collected literature and data related to the biotope mapping of Korea and Germany and examined the general characteristics and inclinations about biotope mapping of both country, at a level of the national territory, federal government, provincial government, city and settlement areas. As a result of the examination, first, it was found that Germany drew up a landscape eco-type map and ecological landscape grade map throughout the nation in order to preserve and manage effectively by differential landscape eco-type unit. In contrast, Korea drew up a map on which Degree of Green Naturality and Ecological Nature Status are reflected for natural environment preservation at a nationwide unit. Secondly, the biotope mapping of German was worked centering on natural areas and their corresponding areas at German provincial government level and it drew up a Red-list by each province, while Korea has yet to carry out biotope mapping at a provincial level corresponding to Germany's. Thirdly, the biotope mapping on German cities and settlement areas includes not only big city areas but also medium & small cities and rural areas whereas Korean biotope mapping is conducted mainly centering on urban areas. In conclusion, this study suggests that the biotope mapping including natural areas and anti-natural area, not limited to city areas should be revitalized in order to be a real means of the all territory's balanced natural environment and biotope preservation & management. In addition, for this purpose, this study suggests that research on biotope pattern catalog and biotope red-list applicable to all territory should be preceded.