Seoul university study finds urban renewal improved park access, but not equally

More parks did not automatically mean equal access to them, according to a study of Seoul’s Ahyeon community zone. Researchers found that urban renewal improved park access across the area, but some apartment complexes remained physically disconnected from nearby green space.

The research team from the University of Seoul examined changes in Ahyeon during three periods: 2008, when urban renewal projects began in earnest; 2018, when Seoul introduced its community plan; and 2024, when most major projects had been completed. The paper appeared in the international urban planning journal Cities.

Overall, the supply of parks shortened the average walking distance to the nearest park. It also nearly doubled the size of parks available within a specified distance, producing broader gains in accessibility and spatial equity.

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This study is meaningful because it examined not only how many parks urban renewal projects created, but also who can actually reach the newly supplied parks through the pedestrian environment, at the building level.

Those gains were not evenly distributed. In some apartment communities, walls, restricted entrances and broken pedestrian routes made parks difficult to reach even when they were physically close. The researchers quantitatively confirmed that these barriers could also affect surrounding residential areas.

The study’s authors said the findings go beyond counting how many parks urban renewal creates. Future projects, they said, should assess apartment entrances, public pedestrian paths and connections with surrounding neighborhoods, alongside park area and the number of parks. The research received support from South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea.

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Future urban renewal projects need to consider not only park area and the number of parks, but also apartment entrances, public pedestrian paths and connectivity with surrounding areas.