[sustran] 2005 WTN Environment Prize Nomination: Restoration Technology in Seoul Korea

[Eric Britton]

2005 WTN Environment Prize Nomination: 

Restoration Technology in Seoul Korea

 

Dear Sustran and Kyoto Challenge Friends around the world,

 

Last year a number of you joined us in supporting the nomination for the
2004 World Technology Environment Prize of Ken Livingstone and the London
team for their pioneering work in making Congestion Charging not just a plea
from academics and specialists but a living and vibrant on-street reality
that has worked to encourage cities around the world to give serious
attention to this important new mobility option.

 

This year we are hoping to swing away from the earlier emphasis on North
American and European people and projects to demonstrate to the members of
the WTN and the international media that follows these events, to innovation
in Asia. And with this in mind we have now nominated that Restoration
Technology project in Seoul South Korea for this year's Award.  I attach a
Word version of the letter of nomination which I intend to send out formally
no later than tomorrow morning, and just to be sure replicate the text just
below.

 

Against this buckhound I have two short questions/requests for you:  First
to invite you to share with us any eventual suggestions that you might have
that could improve the quality of this nomination.  And second - and once
again - to see if I might encourage you to email to me a very short note
indicating your support of this nomination. This information will be
communicated to the organizers, and will also appear in the Seoul pages of
the WTN 2005 Nominations link that you will spot at the bottom of our left
menu for http://kyotocities.org <http://kyotocities.org/> .

 

We hope to have you with us.

 

Eric Britton

 

 

Copy of draft letter of nomination for comment:

 

2005 WTN Environment Prize Nomination: 

Restoration Technology in Seoul Korea

 

 

The Commons: Open Society Sustainability Initiative 

Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara

75006 Paris, France

 

 

Dear Colleagues and WTN Fellows,

 

This is to share with you my nomination for this year's World Technology
Environment  Award (Organizations) for the outstanding pioneering example of
applied and real time "Restoration Technology" on the part of an extensive
multi-disciplinary team in Seoul Korea under the active leadership of Mayor
Lee Myung-Bak.

 

The challenge that the city's leaders have faced, in a nutshell, is that of
managing the transition from a hard-pressed city suffering from
unthought-out strategies and applications of an 'old technology'
transportation/public space paradigm (in this case a chaotic combination of
an exploding car population and ever growing but not improving road system)
to something that draws on a far fuller palette of 21st century technologies
and ideas, for  which we propose the phrase 'Restoration Technologies'.  And
since this is such an important issue of world wide dimensions , I am
hopeful that we here in the World Technology Network will express our full
support of what they have already accomplished and the on-going process
which they have engaged.

 

*     *     *

 

As a fast-growing Asian mega-city, Seoul has seen its share of challenges,
as its population increased from 5.4 million inhabitants in 1970 to over 10
million today (with 20 million in the metropolitan area).  During this
period the number of motor vehicles has increased by 46 times to nearly 3
million vehicles.  The impacts on traffic congestion, public health, air
pollution, and noise have all taken a huge toll on both quality of life and
the economy of the city and those who live and work there.

 

To face this challenge beginning in 2002, the incoming Mayor Lee Myung-Bak
and his team at the Seoul Development Institute embarked on an alternative
course of action, to use technology in a way to return the city to people.
The efforts of the Seoul team have centered on three major projects as
path-breaking steps in the direction of a new technology, economic and life
quality environment:

 

1.	The Cheonggyecheon restoration (think of this in its way as demand)
2.	Seoul Bus Rapid Transit (which addresses the other side of the coin
supply side)
3.	Seoul Digital Media City (the extension of this new way of thinking
about technology into the future)

 

1.         Cheonggyecheon restoration 

 

While cities as diverse as Bangkok, Los Angeles, and Mexico City have
prioritized the construction of roadways and flyovers, Seoul has decided to
do the opposite.  Seoul has demolished an elevated roadway and has set about
to restore a central waterway.  Once upon a time the Cheonggyecheon stream
was a defining part of Seoul's environment.  This waterway in fact was one
of the reasons that Seoul was selected as the capital of the Joseon Dynasty
in 1394. Unfortunately, in the face of modernization, the waterway was
covered in 1961 to provide better access for private cars.  By 1968 an
elevated expressway provided another layer of concrete erasing the memory of
the waterway.

 

The Cheonggyecheon project restores 5.8 kilometers of waterway and
historical pedestrian bridges, creates extensive green space, and promotes
public art installations.  This project, though, is not a tradeoff between
economic efficiency and the environment.  Based upon a study by the Seoul
Development Institute (2003), the project will produce economic benefits of
between 8 trillion and 23 trillion won (US$ ) and create 113,000 new jobs.
(You can get a vision of what this is looking like if you click here to <a
href="http://ecoplan.org/graphics/seoul-images.ppt
<http://ecoplan.org/graphics/seoul-images.ppt%3e> >

http://ecoplan.org/graphics/seoul-images.ppt</a>

 

2.         Bus Rapid Transit project 

 

In support of this public space project and to make Seoul function on a more
human scale, and with better economics, the city's transportation system is
at work on a two pronged program (a) to discourage private motorized trips
and  (b0 to provide better mobility alternatives.  As of 1 July 2004, the
city launched a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that has dramatically
improved the quality of public transport.  Over 76 kilometers of median
busways were constructed in 2004 (with a plan to expand this to 162.4
kilometers).  Over 5,000 buses have installed GPS tracking technology to
ensure improved customer service, and 815 buses have been converted to
operate on natural gas.  A smart card system is utilized to allow free
transfers to different transit services.

 

The BRT corridors have recorded a 26.9% reduction in traffic accidents over
its first year of operation.  A single BRT lane carries six times more
persons than a mixed traffic lane.  Travel times along the BRT corridors
have been reduced by a factor of five.  Most importantly, the BRT system has
led to an 11% increase in the use of public transport.

 

3.         Seoul Digital Media City

 

Finally, Restoration Technology is also the key to the project known as the
Seoul Digital Media City.  In the place of a neglected landfill site, the
city is transforming this space into a hub of commercial and cultural
activity based around the theme of digital technology and media.
Construction on the site began in 2002 and is scheduled to be completed by
2010.  The hazardous and toxic waste on this brownfield site is slowly being
converted through natural processes into useful materials, while the entire
project is being developed in parallel with the city's new mobility
technologies and approach more broadly.

 

These initiatives are only the first steps in Seoul's Restoration Technology
transformation.  The city is currently looking closely at congestion
charging and stricter parking controls and the SOA technologies that go with
them.  The key to Seoul's experience has been the application of current
generation technologies to create a more human and economically sound city.


 

Leadership and Managing Socio-Technical Change in a Pluralistic Democracy

 

Any mayor brave enough (some might say foolish enough) to dare to make a
major paradigm change in anything that is as fundamental to people in their
day to day lives as the transport system they use in their city, and often
suffer from, can be sure in advance of a rough ride indeed.  And this has
certainly been the case of the first two prongs of the Seoul Restoration
Technology project. 

 

We only have to go back to the enormous public fuss which went so far as
personal attacks and legal challenges that accompanied the program of last
year's winner in this category, Ken Livingstone for his support of the
Congestion Charging program in London, to get a taste of what a mayor who
wishes to make a difference for his community is condemned to face.  And
that is just one example that is close to us here.  

 

And so it has been with some of the reactions to Mayor Lee Myung-Bak's
Restoration Technology program in Seoul. The forces of inertia and old
interests  in these cases are enormous, and it is for this reason, as well
as the technological and economic accomplishments of the program, that I am
now proposing to name the Seoul team for this years World Technology
Environment Award.  I ask you to join me in supporting this nomination.

 

With all good wishes,

 

Eric Britton

 

PS. For further information, including a listing of a number of outstanding
and respected international leaders, activists, researchers and authorities
who are supporting this nomination, I invite you to turn to the home page of
the Kyoto World Cities Challenge Initiative at http://kyotocities.org
<http://kyotocities.org/> , and to click there the link on the left menu,
WTN 2005 Nominations. 

 

The Commons: Open Society Sustainability Initiative - http://ecoplan.org
<http://ecoplan.org/>  

Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara                75006 Paris, France

Tel:  Europe: +331 4326 1323       N. America +1 310 601-8468

Mobile:  +33 6 73.21 58.68        Fax: +33 1 53.01 28.96

E:  <mailto:eric.britton at ecoplan.org> eric.britton at ecoplan.org    Backup:
<mailto:fekbritton at gmail.com> fekbritton at gmail.com

 

 

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