Developing and Applying an Urban Resilience Index for the Evaluation of Declining Areas: A Case Study of South Korea's Urban Regeneration Sites

Byungsuk Kim; Gil-Sang Lee; Minjun Kim; Who-Seung Lee; Hee-Sun Choi

doi:10.3390/ijerph20043653

Developing and Applying an Urban Resilience Index for the Evaluation of Declining Areas: A Case Study of South Korea's Urban Regeneration Sites

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 18;20(4):3653. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20043653.

Authors

Byungsuk Kim¹, Gil-Sang Lee¹, Minjun Kim¹, Who-Seung Lee², Hee-Sun Choi³

Affiliations

¹ Water and Land Research Group, Division for Environmental Planning, Korea Environment Institute, Sejong 30147, Republic of Korea.
² Environmental Assessment Group, Division for Land Policy Assessment, Korea Environment Institute, Sejong 30147, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Planning and Strategy, Korea Environment Institute, Sejong 30147, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the direction of urban regeneration projects in declining areas by using the concept of urban resilience to cope with climate change and disaster. To this end, urban resilience was classified into a Green Resilient Infrastructure (GRI) and an Interactive Safety System (ISS), through a review of previous studies, and categorized into vulnerability, adaptability, and transformability. A total of 12 detailed indicators were derived and indexed using Euclidean distance. Using the indicators, three Korean urban regeneration targets, in Daegu, Mokpo, and Seosan, were selected to evaluate resilience before and after the urban regeneration plan. Consequently, the postplanning resilience index improved in all three target sites, compared to before the regeneration plan. Additionally, previously the regeneration plan showed lower index values in comparison to places not designated as urban regeneration areas. These results suggest that urban resilience needs to be considered in future urban regeneration projects, and that resilience indicators can be used as a means to set the direction of urban regeneration projects. To improve the overall resilience of a region, these indices can help local government establish a reference point for urban resilience in its region.

Keywords: urban decline; urban disaster; urban regeneration; urban resilience.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Climate Change
Disasters*
Local Government
Republic of Korea

Grants and funding

This paper is based on the findings of the research projects (2022-025(R), 2023-010(R)), which were conducted by the Korea Environment Institute (KEI) and supported by a Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) grant funded by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Grant 22TSRD-B151228-04, 23UMRG-C158194-04).