Urban Networks and Infrastructure Planning in the Metropolitan Region

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ISBN 89-8182-278-6

Urban Networks and Infrastructure Planning in the Metropolitan Region

Won Bae Kim Editor

Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements Department of Housing, Planning and the Environment

The Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research Utrecht University

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All right reserved. Printed in the Republic of Korea. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, 1591-6, Gwanyang-dong, Dongan-gu, Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 431-712, Korea.

http://www.krihs.re.kr

Urban Networks and Infrastructure in the Metropolitan Region / Won Bae Kim, Editor. -- Anyang: Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, 2003

p. ; cm. – (KRIHS research report ; 2003-9) ISBN 89-8182-278-6

539.7-KDC4 711.4-DDC21

CIP2004000079

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Foreword

With the intensification of globalization and regional integration, major metropolitan regions around the globe are pressured to reposition themselves.

Economic competitiveness lies at the core of such repositioning strategies. In addition, environmental sustainability and social equity remain as major issues to be dealt with in metropolitan regions. As an effort of searching effective approaches and strategies to cope with these major issues facing metropolitan regions, the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements together with the Utrecht University, the Netherlands Institute of Spatial Research, and the Department of Housing, Planning, and Environment, Dutch Government embarked a two-year collaborative study comparing spatial policy and planning in the Randstad region of the Netherlands with those of the Seoul capital region of Korea in 2002.

The first conference was held in Seoul in September 2002. The issue of regional competitiveness was extensively discussed in the conference. Following the Seoul conference, the second conference was held in the Hague in October 2003. Presentations and discussions in the Hague conference focused on urban networks and infrastructure planning. Even though the Randstad region and the Seoul capital region do not have the same urban pattern and institutional structure, they share many common concerns including the aforementioned competitiveness and sustainability.

Through the collaborative research, planners in the two countries learned a great deal about each other’s approaches to and strategies for spatial policy.

The Deltametropolis concept employed for reorganizing the Randstad region, for example, seems worthwhile considering for the metropolitan regions in Korea.

I hope that this report, although it does not explain the full context of metropolitan planning in the two countries, can provide materials for

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mutual understanding and a stimulus for new thinking in urban planning and spatial policy. Finally, I would like to extend words of gratitude to the institutions involved in the collaborative research as well as all the persons who participated in the Hague conference.

December 2003

Kyu-Bang Lee President, KRIHS

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Contributors

Luuk Boelens

Urban Unlimited / Utrecht University Piet H.L. Bovy

Delft University of Technology & TRAIL Research School Dirk Frieling

Delft University Hans Hilbers

National Institute of Spatial Research in the Netherlands Jin Cheol Jo

Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements Won Bae Kim

Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements Ton Kreukels

Utrecht University Won Sup Lee

Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements Kees Maat

Delft University

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Sang Woo Park

Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements Otto Raspe

Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research Edwin van Uum

VISTAL Landscape and Urban Design Bert van Wee

Delft University

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List of Tables

Table 2.1 Comparison of Market Potential of Major Economic Regions Table 2.2 Comparison of Major Airports in Northeast Asia

Table 2.3 Comparison of Container Ports in Northeast Asia (2002) Table 2.4 Travel Time Change by the High-Speed Railroad Table 2.5 Development Plan of the Incheon FEZ

Table 5.1 Characteristics of Hierarchical Levels in Settlements Table 5.2 Figures of Transport Supply Networks in the Netherlands

Table 5.3 Network Characteristics of Public Transport Service Networks in the Netherlands

Table 5.4 Travel Time Ratios PT/car by Trip Distance in the Netherlands

Table 6.1 Population Increase in the Seoul Capital Region Table 6.2 Population of Cities and Counties in the Capital Region, 2002 Table 6.3 Traffic Volumes along the Major Axes

Table 6.4 Traffic Congestion Costs

Table 6.5 Subway System in Major World Cities Table 6.6 Projected Population in the Capital Region Table 6.7 Projected Population and Modal Trips

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Table 6.8 Seven Development Corridors Table 6.9 Targets for Major Transport Facilities

Table 6.10 Projected Population in the Area with the 20~40㎞ Radius from Seoul

Table 6.11 Investment Requirements for Regional Transportation

Table 7.1 Key Figures for the Three Regions Table 7.2 Road Network Density and Capacity Table 7.3 Rail Networks

Table 7.4 Use and Task of Main Road Network

Table 7.5 Volumes and Share of Peak Hours on Main Road Network Table 7.6 Use of the Rail Networks

Table 7.7 Volumes and Share of Peak Hours on Main Road Network and Overall Driving Speed

Table 7.8 Share of Motorway System with more than 20,000 Vehicles Per Lane Per Day

Table 8.1 Population Trends in the SCR

Table 8.2 Population Distribution between South and North Seoul Table 8.3 Industrial Structure in the SCR

Table 8.4 Changes in Manufacturing Employment by Region Table 8.5 Major New Towns in the SCR

Table 9.1 Share of Private Vehicle Market and Public Transport Market in Selected Cities

Table 9. 2 Share of Distance Traveled Per Mode (1995)

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List of Figures

Figure 1.1 Aims and Means

Figure 1.2 The Political Frame of Refernce Figure 1.3 Typology of Futures

Figure 1.4 Three Mainstreams of Political Preference Figure 1.5 The 20^th Century Mainport Pattern

Figure 1.6 The Concept of Deltametropolis Figure 1.7 The Water System

Figure 1.8 The Recreational Network Figure 1.9 The Transportation Network

Figure 2.1 Components of the Northeast Asia's Economic Hub Strategy Figure 2.2 Special Economic Zones and Transportation Network in the

Capital Region

Figure 2.3 Spatial Linkages of the Special Economic Zones and Others

Figure 6.1 Multi-centered Spatial Structure

Figure 6.2 Grid Structure of Transportation Network Figure 6.3 Electrified Rail Network Plan

Figure 6.4 Arterial Road Network Plan

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Figure 6.5 Transfer System Plan

Figure 7.1 Main Road Networks in the Three Regions

Figure 7.2 The Fastest 5%, the Slowest 5% and the Median Travel Time

Figure 8.1 Population Density Trends from 1970 to 2000 Figure 8.2 Industrial Estates in the SCR

Figure 8.3 Transportation Networks in the SCR Figure 8.4 Green Belt in the SCR

Figure 8.5 Developing Pattern of the Space in the SCR

Figure 9.1 Relationships between Activity Locations, Needs and Desires, Transport Resistances and Passenger Transport

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Introduction

This report is the product of the Dutch-Korean Conference on Urban Networks in the Metropolitan Region, which was held during 9-10 October, 2003 in the Hague, the Netherlands. The main purpose of the conference was to learn from mutual experience in urban networks development and draw some lessons for spatial planning for each country. The 2003 conference was part of the two-year collaborative research comparing the Seoul capital region in Korea and the Randstad region in the Netherlands. The first conference was held in Seoul in 2002 discussing the theme of regional competitiveness and spatial policy. Following the theme, the 2003 conference placed an emphasis on urban networks and infrastructure planning. The papers presented in the conference cover a variety of topics ranging from the concept of urban networks to transportation planning.

For the purpose of publication, these papers were regrouped under three parts. The first part deals with urban networks and strategic spatial planning at the three scales: local, regional and global. The second part discusses transport networks and planning. Land use and transport planning is covered in the third part. Although some papers were originally presented as discussion materials, they had sufficient substance so that they are included as independent papers. Two power point presentations by Dr.

Edwin van Uum and Dr. Otto Raspe are attached in the appendix since they

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do not conform with the general format of academic papers in spite of many interesting ideas contained in them.

The first two papers by Frieling and Lee/Kim discuss the concepts or strategies for the Randstad region and the Seoul capital region respectively.

Frieling adopting multiple frames of references touching upon political, economic and spatial dimensions explains the background of the concept,

“Deltametropolis.” In his assessment of Dutch planning in the three layers of the global economic system, Frieling argues that the urban networks in the Netherlands do fairly well in the first layer of production and consumption and the second layer of regional distribution, whereas they take a moderate position in the third layer, i.e., the global system of cities. In anticipation of a deteriorating position of the urban constellations of Holland like the Randstad, Frieling suggests a strategy of an ‘idea-factory,’ generating concepts to give shape to the central idea of a Deltametropolis.

In a slightly different perspective, Lee and Kim discuss Korea’s hub strategy to strengthen the position of Korea in an integrating Northeast Asia.

While describing the major contents of the hub strategy, they pay attention to its potential impact on the national territory. The dilemma for Korea is how to strike a balance between the two goals of enhancing the international competitiveness and achieving domestic regional equity. Given the likelihood of deepening concentration in the Seoul capital region by setting up free economic zones, which are the major element of the hub strategy, Lee and Kim stress the need for strategies spreading the developmental effects of the hub strategy to other regions in the country. Another concern is uneven development within the Seoul capital region, which may intensify the existing the Seoul-Incheon development corridor. Lee and Kim argue that a key element to maximize the beneficial effects of Korea’s hub strategy is to secure functional linkages between free economic zones and hinterland

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regions. They suggest that one way to strengthen these functional linkages is the enhancement of transportation and communication networks between free economic zones and hinterland regions.

Kreukels in his comments on Frieling’s paper and Lee and Kim’s paper raises several critical issues. First, he points out a gap between reality and concepts of urban and regional planning including the concept of urban networks. Second, Kreukels raises a question about the utility of long-term planning in the current context of dynamic, complex and transnational environment. While concurring with the merits of the Deltametropolis concept in the respects that it considers a wider context of Northwest Europe, that it has a bottom-up characteristics, and that it complements programs of long-term development, however, Kreukels adds that the conceptual ambiguity of urban networks or clusters needs to be clarified. Whereas his reading of Lee and Kim’s is generally positive, Kreukels points out that Lee and Kim’s paper overlooks the basic insights of economic drives and conditions, especially in the sector of transport and logistics as they relate to the transnational context. In other words, the Korea’s hub strategy portrayed in Lee and Kim’s paper is over-formulated in spatial terms.

Evoking the Castells’ theory of the space of flows, Boelens elaborates the concept of urban networks, which in a sense supplements Frieling’s broad-brush treatment of urban networks concept. While focusing on the transfer points among the various types of networks and flows, Boelens introduces the five types of nodes constituting the networks. They are nodes of water, railway, highway, air and digital. These nodes are argued to be an integral part of our lives as well as of the urban fabric. The use and organization of nodes are of much greater importance in social terms than their physical appearance. Boelens suggests a need to think about a multi-

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layered nodes and nets instead of poly-nuclear networks, which is too much embedded in the concept of places.

Two papers in Part II examine the relationship between transportation infrastructure and metropolitan development. Bovy in the paper, titled as ‘Urbanization patterns and major transport networks: a multimodal approach,’ examines the multimodality issue of transportation from a supply and demand point of view. Recognizing the settlement hierarchy as a basic frame, which determines travel demands, Bovy argues that transportation system affects accessibility within and between settlements. From this perspective, the Randstad region is characterized as a highly dispersed pattern of relatively small settlements, a cluster of many medium-sized cities, relatively short distances between neighboring settlements and low urban density. Bovy evaluates that the Netherlands has a good multimodal transport system due to dense and extensive road, motorway and railway networks. A dense waterway network is pointed out to be a unique asset for the Netherlands. In terms of serving travel demands, the motorway system plays a major role in the Netherlands. The Dutch trunk road network is among the densest networks in the world, four times as dense as the British or French networks. In particular, Bovy stresses that intermodal trips are attractive in the market for long distance trips, especially to major centers for the purposes of work and education. To realize the Deltametropolis concept, it is necessary to have strong connections between major centers. Intermodal travel is considered to be essential in building such strong connections. In order to encourage intermodal traveling, Bovy suggests to improve public transport supply and transfer facilities, especially private access to public transport and transfer conveniences.

In the similar vein, Kim and Lee also suggest the need for improving public transport in the Seoul capital region. This is not only to reduce the

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dependence on private cars for traveling but also to increase efficiency in the whole transportation system. Unlike the Randstad region, the Seoul capital region is dominated by a mono-centric settlement structure. It has a radial type transport system oriented to Seoul. In addition to this mono-centric settlement structure, the mismatch between population and job distribution and high dependence on private cars are known for underlying causes of transportation problems within the Seoul capital region. Kim and Lee introduce the government’s long-term plan to deal with transportation problems within the Seoul capital region. The plan aims at establishing a circular and radial type transportation network. Moreover, the decentralization of central functions in Seoul to lower-order cities is considered necessary for redistributing travel demands. As in the Randstad region, intermodal travel and public transportation are encouraged to reduce the dependence on private cars. The plan also entails several measures to provide more convenient transfer facilities. However, Kim and Lee note several issues remaining to be resolved. They are accommodating demands arising from new development, financing of transport infrastructure development, and uncertainties involved in the future course of urban development in the Seoul capital region.

Part III deals with the issues concerning spatial structure, land use and transport. Hilbers argues that accessibility is a major factor in the economic competitiveness of metropolitan areas, especially considering the importance of the transport and distribution sector within the Dutch economy. The supply of transport infrastructure is described in terms of density, strutucture and capacity of the motorway, railway, and urban rail network. In comparison with the Rhein-Ruhr and the Antwerp-Brussels- Ghent regions, the Randstad region has an intermediate density of the motorway networks but with a low capacity when related to the number of

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inhabitants. The rail network density is comparatively low. However, both road and rail networks are intensively used in the Randstad region. Hilbers underlines a concern arising from a fast growth of population in the Randstad region, since the remaining capacity of the transport network is limited and there are no alternative routes.

Jo and Park examine the change of spatial structure in the Seoul capital region and discuss the role of infrastructure in regional development.

To deal with the issue of competitiveness, Jo and Park stress the need to transform the current mono-centric structure into a multi-centric structure.

Transport infrastructure is regarded to be a key in this transformation.

Similar to the Deltametropolis concept, the Seoul capital region is envisioned to have a multi-centered structure with well developed transportation networks supporting the efficient exchanges among those multiple centers.

Bert van Wee and Maat, while reviewing empirical studies of land- use impact on transportation in the Netherlands, point out the need to look at work locations in addition to residential areas. They argue that the location of work places has significant influence on travel behavior. Raising the question the way that land use plays a major role in mobility policy, van Wee and Maat suggest that land-use strategies should be evaluated taking into consideration six factors including people’s valuation of their living and working area, financial aspects, environmental impact, accessibility impact, safety impact and land coverage. They conclude with the future research needs, especially on the changes in land use and transportation via accessibility impact.

In the appendix, Edwin van Uum presents strategies for networking the city of Amsterdam, whereas Otto Raspe analyzes Dutch urban

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networking by employing the development of the information technology sector.

The Hague conference achieved its objective of better understanding each country’s urban networks and related infrastructure planning. The lessons for spatial planners in each country lie not so much in the details of urban networking and infrastructure planning but more in the way planners in each country perceive problems and formulate strategies in response to the more or less the same set of macro-variables affecting the national economies of both countries. Cautions are, however, necessary since the institutional context and the historical pattern of urban development in the two countries are different.

Finally, on behalf of the Korean researchers, I would like to thank Mr. Han Lörzing at the Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research, Mr. Arjen van der Burg at the Department of Housing, Planning and the Environment, Netherlands Government, and Mr. Frans de Noorji at South Holland provincial government for their excellent organization of the Hague conference. I would like also to express words of appreciation to Professor Ton Kreukels at Utrecht University for his coordination of the two-year collaborative research at the Dutch side. This collaborative study was not possible without the intermediary role of the Dutch Embassy in Seoul and in Tokyo. I would like to mention a few names, Mr. Philip Wijers, Mr. Man- Suk Kim and Mr. Thomas Kluck in appreciation for their special efforts.

December 2003 Won Bae Kim

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PART I

Urban Networks and Strategic Spatial Planning

Urban Networks: Present, Past and Future Dirk Frieling

Korea's Economic Hub Strategy in Northeast Asia and Its Implication on Spatial Development

Won Sup Lee and Won Bae Kim

Strategic Thinking for Urban Networks Ton Kreukels

The Mobile Life: the Quest for New Concepts and

Instruments

Luuk Boelens

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CHAPTER 1 Urban Networks: Present, Past and Future

Dirk Frieling

Present

A comparison between East-Asian and West-European experiences with metropolitan strategies has to look for common ground. A friend of mine at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft, to whom I will refer various times during my story today, defines culture as the silent understanding of all suppositions on which we base everything that we say explicitly. Because I am not sure that we share a common frame of reference, I will start with telling something of the Netherlands today, the present as it presents itself in the headlines of the daily papers.

What happens?

What happens today we necessarily interpret by our experiences of yesterday. The past is our frame of reference. For that reason the second part of this story about Dutch experiences and ideas on metropolitan strategies will be used to clarify my mental framework: how do I look at the world around me and what do I see?

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Having said explicitly what otherwise might have remained implicit the stage is set to talk about the future. I will do this in the last part of this introduction on today’s theme: urban networks and their role in metropolitan strategies. Our experiences of the past may be the only means available to interpret the present, the only reason why we need to do this is because the present forever implies that one question: what do we do now? Where do we go from here?

Last week’s headlines brought the news that Air France purchased KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines. The combinations headquarters that will be in Paris and Schiphol Airport will have to develop a new strategy as it is no longer the home base of a national carrier.

Protests against airport extensions are a worldwide phenomenon. We have them even after the new runway has been built, because, contrary to government promises not to use them to full capacity, of course this capacity will be used. We had protests in Rotterdam this week, where dockworkers from several European harbours did show their fear of liberalization by the European Union of national rules and regulations, protecting national interests.

Another telltale picture last week was of Ahold, our national grocer and one of the main grocers of the world, that came into financial trouble this year and had to work late at night to present a loss of more than a billion euro over last years. Having been a national icon of Dutch soundness and reliability, the financial troubles were felt by many a Dutchman also as a psychological blow; the whole thing then being aggravated by excessive financial rewards to a Swedish gentleman becoming the new chairman that has to clear up the mess.

Headlines also, last week, for the start of the intergovernmental negotiations on the European Constitution. Directly after the Draft

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Constitution was presented, the Economist was clear in its advise on what to do with it. Recently, it changed its mind as it expects European politicians to handle this matter in the same way as all European agreements have been handled from the start: never quite satisfactory to anybody, but nevertheless slowly and surely working in the direction of European integration.

Elected mayors are part of the program of the present cabinet.

Municipal elections last year introduced duality in municipal government between council and board, and provincial elections this year did the same for provincial government. Introducing elected mayors is another step in providing local boards with more power and in clarifying the role of both bodies of local government. Like in the European Union, adapting the organizational structure of democracy is cautious and slow. It could hardly be otherwise with issues of balance in society.

Average age tends to lengthen, while people tend to stop earlier with work. These tendencies combined produce a gap between the period to earn and save for old age and the period people expect to live from these savings.

So the choice is quite clear, though not easy: either work long and earn a good pension or work short and earn a moderate pension. Up till now these decisions are made collectively by the State. Maybe, some day, they will be made individually.

I hope that this arbitrary selection from last week’s headlines will give you some impression of things happening in the Netherlands. This selection, of course, was geared to the subject of today’s conference. That subject is to interpret these events and tendencies and to decide on what to do accordingly, with regard to urban strategies. What these headlines show is ongoing internationalisation of the economy and ongoing internationalisation of government. We experience both in a way as influences on our life that come from outside. At the same time things happen in society that are

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generated by ourselves, inside forces that aim, for instance, to improve democracy or to improve our health and prosperity so we may live longer.

Past

Time to pass on to the interpretation of present developments and the frame of reference in which these may fit. Let me start with introducing myself, to inform you about my own experiences in this field. After studying architecture in Delft Technical University, I worked for five years in Amsterdam with the municipal Housing Department, first in urban extension, later on in urban renewal. From there I moved to the IJsselmeer Development Agency, a part of the Ministry of Public Works, working for seventeen years on the new town of Almere, that has come to life and on an new polder Markerwaard, that came to nothing, so far. Some thirteen years ago I became professor of urban and regional planning in Delft. More or less parallel to that I have been advisor on urban strategy to the Board of the City of Amsterdam, a job that later on changed into agent of the Deltametropolis Association. Parallel to these jobs I participated in a few more free professional activities. One, called the Netherlands Now As Design, was an exploration of the shape of the Netherlands halfway the 21^st century, according to four different political scenarios. The second, called the Metropolitan Debate, was and is an exploration of improved methods of political decision processes. The third, job and hobby at the same time, is Deltametropolis, the exploration of the possibility to transform the existing, more or less loose collection of cities, towns and villages on the western seaboard into an integrated urban system of metropolitan scope and scale.

The association Deltametropolis is an association of municipalities, waterboards, chambers of commerce, employers associations from industry

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and agriculture, nature conservationist organisations and housing corporations. Recently, western provinces are joining the club and the Association also tries to get the universities to join, up till now with no success. The aim of the Association is to develop the emerging metropolis in the Rhine Delta, using spatial planning as its main instrument and acting as an ‘idea factory’ to inspire its members as well as others that may feel attracted by this Deltametropolis concept.

Figure 1.1 Aims and Means

The economic frame of reference I got accustomed to may be summarized by the Limits to Growth, published thirty years ago and the Global City, twenty years later. From the Limits to Growth I learned to conceive the economy as a world system, that is a set of interrelated and interdependent variables that has survival as its foremost rule. From the Global City I learned to conceive this system as a layered system, with the worldwide pattern of human settlements as centres of production and consumption as its base, a network of regional distribution centres as an

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intermediary layer and a system of global cities from where the process of production and consumption is regulated at the top.

The political frame of reference that belongs to the silent understanding of Dutch Culture – and one might say of European, at least Western European culture – is the political mainframe succinctly expressed by the French Revolution. Liberty to express individual opinion, equality before the law and brotherhood in things of common interest, from public works to public health. These principles reign in different realms of society.

Freedom of independent media is a necessity to guarantee freedom of religious and political preferences, freedom of arts and sciences. State law and a hierarchy of legal institutions are necessary to guarantee equality before the law. And private ownership of means of production and the opportunity of trade in a market are conditional for competition, complementarity and co-operation.

Figure 1.2 The Political Frame of Reference

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The vocabulary for decisions on land use, developed by my friend Taeke de Jong of the Faculty of Architecture is the third component of my frame of reference in matters of metropolitan strategies. This vocabulary distinguishes four types of land use: landscape and city as places to be, water and roads as spaces of flow. This territorial vocabulary replaces the functionalist vocabulary of modernists with its well known quartet of living, working, recreation and traffic.

A typology of futures is another scheme developed by Taeke de Jong and another friend of mine, Jan Brouwer, also shaping my frame of reference. The scheme distinguishes different types of futures. A set of possible futures : the realm of artists, inventors and engineers. A subset of probable futures : the realm of science. Another set of futures, desirable futures : the realm of a wide variety of social clubs and associations, political parties among them. And a subset of these desirable futures, called useful futures : the realm of public and private governors that have to decide on investments. Analysing these types of futures with regard to their aims and means, it is helpful just to distinguish between them if we want to know or do not know them.

Possible futures know neither means nor ends. For the creative mind anything may serve as means or ends. Original ideas apparently are generated by chance meetings and events. Force and necessity have never produced fertile soil to grow inventions.

Probable futures are those where means are known and aims are not.

Wherever human societies are unable to agree on common aims these societies will get the character of natural phenomena, with human beings behaving like all organisms in nature, adapting to external conditions in their aim to survive.

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Desirable futures are those that people dream of, without acknowledging as yet the price to be paid, not by themselves and certainly not by others. So in these futures aims are clear, but means stay vague.

Useful futures then are those where everything is said and done and people decide where and when to invest their money in what.

Figure 1.3 Typology of Futures

To sum up this exposure of my frame of reference, let me finish with an image how planning policy works in the Netherlands. Planning is a popular pastime in the Netherlands, so all levels of government engage in it, and all political parties have ideas about it. Political rationality does ask to attend to one’s voters. In the Netherlands we have three mainstreams of political preference, in line with the principles of the French Revolution:

freedom promoted by a party for freedom and democracy, abridged to VVD in Dutch; equality promoted by the labour party, abridged by PvdA in Dutch;

and brotherhood promoted by the party called Christian Democracy Appeal, CDA. Socialist voters are concentrated in urban areas, all over the country.

Christian democratic voters are concentrated in rural areas, villages and towns mainly in the south, east and north. Conservative voters are

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concentrated in the west. As no party will ever get a majority vote, coalition governments are the rule. Keeping the dispersal of voters in mind, it becomes easy to predict what planning policy any coalition will follow. A coalition of Labour and Christian Democrats will opt for national dispersal and regional concentration. A coalition of Christian Democrats and Conservatives will opt for national concentration and regional dispersal, just the opposite policy. In the unlikely event that Socialists and Conservatists co-operate, they will opt for national and regional concentration. But as no coalition will ever stay in office for more than two terms, no long term policy can ever be pursued for more than eight years, and often even less.

This means that in practice not the central government but the municipalities decide on land use in the Netherlands and thus give shape to our country.

And so what you see in the Netherlands is national and regional dispersal, showing the way we are, an easygoing democracy, tolerant maybe to others, but certainly to ourselves.

Figure 1.4 Three Mainstreams of Political Preference

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Future

Looking at the future in the Netherlands means looking to four different desirable futures, as far as conceived politically. In 1987 the foundation of ‘The Netherlands Now As Design’ gave, in the wake of reports of the Scientific Council on Government Policy, a first example of this way of political planning as opposed to traditional government planning, that vainly presumes to be non-political and above party-policy. Ten years later the Land Use Planning Bureau of the central government followed the same line of thought by presenting perspectives for the Netherlands as conceived by the Ministries of Housing, Planning and Environment (‘Netherlands urban land’), Traffic and Water Management (‘Netherlands flow land’), Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries, (‘Netherlands landscape land’), and the Ministry of Interior (‘Palette’ or, one might say ‘Netherlands municipal land’).

Looking at the future of the Netherlands on a world-wide scale does ask for assessment of this position on three layers of the world economic system. On the basic layer of production and consumption we do fairly well if one may take GDP per person as an indication. On the intermediate level of the worldwide network of regional distribution centres the Netherlands does extremely well. Combining relative positions in transport by ship, by airplane and by cable, the Netherlands belong to the top of the list together with worldwide hubs like London, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore and Hong Kong. Even if Shanghai and other Asian hubs may rise in rank, the Netherlands will probably keep its position in Europe, given its geographical situation.

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Figure 1.5 The 20^th Century Mainport Pattern

Looking at the future with regard to its position in the top layer of world economy, the Netherlands has a very moderate position. Only Amsterdam does play any role in the gamma category of world cities. As long as the main cities in Holland are not part of an integrated urban system, this position will stay weak. It may even deteriorate in an integrating European market. As headquarters of heavy industry like steel and international airlines like KLM move elsewhere, lawyers, accountants, finance companies and advertising firms may follow soon.

If one does aim, as the Deltametropolis Association does, to strengthen the position of the urban constellation of Holland in the top layer of the global economy, it is clear that something should be done. The Association itself can only play a minor role. What it has chosen to do is to act as an ‘idea-factory’ generating concepts to give shape to the central idea of a delta-metropolis. According to the frames of reference presented just

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now as vocabulary for decisions on land-use and as political mainframe, the organisation of work on Deltametropolis is envisaged as working on the four subsystems of the overall metropolitan system via three realms of human intervention: free generation of ideas on the left, useful co-operations in the marketplace on the right and necessary regulation by government in the middle.

To clarify the method I show a design of a few years ago of the Deltametropolis, conceived as an interaction of the four territorial systems mentioned earlier. This looks like a quite traditional map of a land use design.

Figure 1.6 The Concept of Deltametropolis

If we then deconstruct the overall image into its separate components we may look at the water system as a subsystem to manage the

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mainframe and we may look at the transportation system. Both spaces of flow are considered to be of structural importance on the scale of the Deltametropolis. The water system is then considered in its historical development, as this water system is providing the image and identity of the delta. The transportation system is considered with regard to the measure of interconnectedness it provides for the different urban centres of the metropolis, internally as well as with the outside world. These two systems- water system and transportation system-are then chosen to develop further by a combination of research and design.

For the water system, a concept is generated to combine the restructuring of the water network that is necessary with regard to climatic change and ongoing urbanisation along the Rhine with the completion of recreational network for boating, cycling and walking. This concept of a metropolitan recreational network is called ‘Water Realm’ to clarify that the water system is the leading system.

These recreational networks mostly already exist but they are not yet connected into a metropolitan recreational network offering access to rural landscapes, nature reserves, historical monuments and a wide variety of lakes and ponds for all kinds of water recreation. The concept is designed in several steps, two of which I show here just by way of example.

First of all the claim on extra room for water storage during dry summers and as extra weight to keep down salt water coming up from below.

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Figure 1.7 The Water System

The recreational network on the scale of the Deltametropolis has mazes measuring on the average six by six kilometres, interconnecting the cities and the main recreational areas, large and attractive enough for day- trips.

Of course this map is a reduction of the reality. Networks of more local importance and small scale recreational areas are not shown.

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Figure 1.8 The Recreational Network

To underline that Water Realm uses existing networks wherever it can, I show a map of the main routes for boating and sailing as anybody may obtain at one of the shops of the National Tourist Association, ANWB.

Present policies on water management will enlarge the possibilities for recreation in this network.

Another example of existing networks is a recent addition along an old line of defence. In history, the Dutch have used inundation of polders as a defence line against invaders from the east, hence the name Holland Water Defence Line. It is a combination of waterworks and fortresses along a line of 180km, running from north to south, from the so-called Southern Sea in the north to the southern branch of the Rhine in the south.

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The transportation network, called Deltanet, is conceived as a double network of road and rail, interconnected by multi-modal connectors and serviced by public transport by rail and by road. To integrate the urban system it is envisaged that travel time on a local scale has to be reduced by 20% and travel time on metropolitan level also, adding up to a 40%

reduction in travel time. Inventorizing national, provincial, regional and local policy documents we discover chaos: a large amount of so-called nodes in the networks that are ill-defined with regard to their place in the network as well as with regard to their development potential.

Figure 1.9 The Transportation Network

Strictly speaking, only fifteen of these nodes really connect the national road system with the national railway system and even then, the central stations of the main cities are ill-connected to the national road system.

At the end of October, the Association organises a week of working together on Deltanet. Design-teams of municipalities, provinces, national railways and national government will join forces in a professional effort to

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define and design Deltanet. To this end a typology of Delta-centres and Delta-connectors is introduced that offers the opportunities to position all centres in their present as well as in their future shape. It is not sure that participants will agree on such a typology, because it clarifies features of these centres they –or their political masters- may prefer to remain vague about. But it is worth a try and it is a positive sign that these parties participate in this exercise.

A result of this exercise may be the production of a provisional map of Deltanet, consisting of a configuration of city centers that belong to the metropolitan outfit of the Deltametropolis as well as a network of connectors between these Delta-centers, served by multinational connectors. By showing this dummy of an eventual result of work yet to be done, I think I may say that the medium is the message: we are in the midst of finding our way to discover and invent a strategy in transforming the present urban pattern into the integrated metropolitan constellation we call Deltametropolis.

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CHAPTER 2 Korea's Economic Hub Strategy in Northeast Asia and Its Implication on Spatial Development

Won Sup Lee and Won Bae Kim

Introduction

The new government of Korea set 12 national agendas as priority policy goals for the next five years. They cover various areas ranging from political nature through social to economic ones. The sixth goal is to develop Korea into an economic hub of Northeast Asia. Three strategies are presented to achieve the goal: promoting inter-Korean economic exchange and cooperation, establishing a system of Northeast Asian economic cooperation including such areas as railway, energy and finance, and building infrastructure for a logistics and business hub.

The hub strategy is not new, however, because the Korean government has been preparing a master plan to develop Korea into the business hub of Northeast Asia for more than a year. The project, officially announced by the last president in January 2002, is basically aimed at accelerating Korea's transformation into an open and flexible market

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economy in order to take advantage of the economic potential of Northeast Asia. Considering its geographical location and economic competence, Korea has potential to be a regional hub and has already shown capabilities to utilize advantages and overcome difficulties during the past four decades of industrialization.

The background of the Korea's hub strategy reflects the very painful lesson from the financial crisis during the late 1990s. The crisis revealed the reality that export oriented economic structure, the engine of Korea's rapid economic growth during the past four decades, could not sustain the dynamic growth any more. The vision of becoming the economic hub of Northeast Asia was also spurred partly by the similar efforts of rival Asian countries. Since the late 1990s, Hong Kong and Singapore have been pursuing plans to position themselves as the business hub of Asia. Other countries, including Taiwan and China, followed suit. These countries have succeeded in attracting foreign capital to create jobs and incomes, while Korea has not paid much attention to foreign companies. The hub strategy, therefore, is the result of late awareness of the growing trend toward globalization and the increasingly greater role played by multinational corporations to the future economic development of the country.

The Northeast Asia's hub strategy, although initiated by urgent national economic situation, has significant implications for spatial development. Because the hub strategy is based on specific region as the locus of economic activities, the strategy will function as a major factor for regional development. In addition, the hub strategy adds many new dimensions to host regions' economy such as globalization and deregulation.

Unlike most of industrial growth poles created by export oriented policies in the past, the new economic hub accommodates international business services, logistics, and knowledge and technology intensive industries,

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requiring much broad spatial base beyond the region's boundaries. There is no question that the regions hosting economic activities for the Northeast Asia's economic hub project will have more opportunities for regional development compared to those that are not directly affected.

This paper is an attempt to explore spatial implication of the hub strategy focusing on the differential impact between the capital region and the rest of the country. The authors discuss policy issues related to the hub strategy and suggest directions for the successful implementation of the strategy. The paper starts from an introduction and a review of the hub strategy, and then presents the details of infrastructure plan as a means of enhancing spatial linkages. Major transportation infrastructure projects and the special economic zone programs are discussed. The next issue is the impact of the hub strategy on spatial structure and regional development.

Possibilities of deepening disparities between the capital region and the rest of the country are examined. In addition, the authors stress spatial linkages among special zones and between special zones and other regions, which are critical for a balanced regional development.

The Economic Hub Strategy

Concept and components of the hub strategy

Korea's economic hub strategy reflects rapid changes in global economic environment as exemplified in the financial crisis during the late 1990s.

Korea experienced severe economic turmoil after the crisis, which expedited the transformation of economic structure toward more sophisticated and globalized structure. Korea had to find a new path of growth as it faced strong competitors in the global market, and as traditional strategy of

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economic growth depending on cheap labor costs could not sustain the growth any longer. Lessons from the crisis and success stories of competing countries in Asia led to the conclusion: make Korea the economic hub of the Northeast Asia.

Looking at the geo-economic potential of the Korean peninsula, the country has advantages to become a hub in Northeast Asia. Korea is located between China and Japan, two economic and political giants in the world.

Korea's land bridge location as an access point and gateway to Chinese and Japanese markets coupled with advanced social infrastructure offers opportunities for the economic hub of the Northeast Asia region. Market potential of the Northeast Asian region is large enough comparable to that of Europe and the Unites States. Northeast Asia is the third economic region in the world, following the European Union and the NAFTA. GDP of three Northeast Asian countries, Japan, China, and Korea represents one fifth of that of the world total, which is expected to grow to one third in twenty years.

Table 2.1 Comparison of Market Potential of Major Economic Regions Population

(Million)

Area (000 km²)

GDP Per Capita (US Dollar)

Korea 47 99 10,000

Northeast Asia 1,470 10,070 3,880

Unites States 260 8,100 28,020

The Netherlands 16 37 25,940

Europe 373 3,600 20,180

The concept of business hub does not necessarily mean the center of economic activity or the leading country in Northeast Asia. A more practical

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definition of the hub means a plaza for exchange of human resources, materials and goods, information and cultures in Northeast Asia, offering opportunities to its surrounding countries for business and cultural exchanges. Openness and deregulation are two main principles of the hub strategy, which have been considered as weak points of Korean society as a whole. This new paradigm for the economic growth for the 21st century is expected to lead the country to prosperity during the age of deepening globalization and rising regionalism.

Defining hub by using the concept of centrality, it refers to central a composed of place both tangible and intangible factors including norms and beliefs. Centrality can be achieved through networking using both soft and hard power. The Netherlands is a good example, which has built a reputation as a leading distribution center in Europe by utilizing not only geographical location and physical infrastructure but also soft power such as people’s language skill, mercantile spirit, business ethics, and multicultural management and diplomatic skills. In addition, the Netherlands has a broad institutional support from the European Union that shares common norms and standards. Korea lacks soft power and support from neighboring countries, requiring hard work to overcome those deficiencies to become an economic hub in Northeast Asia. Building up physical and social infrastructure should go hand in hand with setting up broad institutional frameworks in the Northeast Asian region.

Korea’s economic hub strategy is based on three platforms: logistics, high technology industries, and finance. All the three sectors can spurt the development of high value and service-oriented businesses in the Northeast Asian region. The hub strategy aims to produce high technology goods and advanced business services and to be a regional distribution center by bringing world-class multinational corporations that can create high

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technology and knowledge based jobs into Korea. Regions that will accommodate economic activities promoted by the hub strategy are Incheon, Busan and Gwangyang, which will be developed into the logistics, industrial and financial center. The capital region including Seoul will take the role of a financial and business center.

Figure 2.1 Components of the Northeast Asia's Economic Hub Strategy

Logistics Industrial Cluster Finance

• Logistics Center

• International Transportation network

• Information System

• IT infrastructure and high technology industry

• Parts and material

• R&D hub and Tourism

• MNCs

• Advanced financial sector

• Infrastructure of financial market

• Market stability

Building Northeast Asia’s Economic Hub

Convenient business and living environment

Action plan of the hub strategy

Of the three strategic sectors, logistics is considered the core by some, given Korea’s geographic location in Northeast Asia. In addition, China’s fast emergence as a new growth engine of the world economy offers Korea many opportunities in shipping and distribution business in Northeast Asia. Being located in a strategic position in Northeast Asia and having competent sea and air ports are two of the most important conditions to build a regional

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distribution center system. The Incheon international airport serving the capital region, for example, has 43 cities with population more than one million within a three-hour flight radius. Busan and Gwangyang harbors are two hub ports. Busan is one of the largest container ports of the world, while Gwangyang with expansion program has a potential to grow as a major transshipment and distribution center in Northeast Asia.

The three regions, Incheon, Busan and Gwangyang, have potential to become the centers of business given their geographic location, existing industrial networks and infrastructure. Korea's strategy for becoming the logistics hub in Northeast Asia will be focused on developing the Busan and Gwangyang seaports and the Incheon airport as early as possible. Incheon will be transformed into a central hub for logistics, IT industries, R&D and tourism, while acting as a gateway connecting Giheung and Namyang Bay in the South with the Gaeseong industrial park in North Korea. Busan, Korea’s largest port, will be tied together with Ulsan and Sacheon to grow into a base of logistics and parts development for the Southeastern hub. Gwangyang, which is the second container hub port and industrial city, can be developed in tandem with cities like Gwangju as the new center of distribution and new materials for the Southwestern hub.

The main scheme for building a logistics hub is to enhance the capacity of the new Incheon International Airport so that this may serve as a main hub airport of the region, while also enhancing the New Busan and Gwangyang container ports so that these two may become twin mega hub ports of the region. To help achieve this goal, the areas adjacent to those air and seaports will be developed into the Customs Free Zones (CFZs) for logistics, assembly, fabrication, trade and international business operations.

In addition, the Free Economic Zones (FEZs) that provide internationalized environment both for business and living will be developed in the three cities

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to attract multinational logistics corporations. There are also plans to restore the railways and highways of South and North Korea, linking them with the Eurasian transport system. Two model countries that Korea wants to adapt are the regional distribution center system of the Netherlands and Singapore that are serving Europe and Southeast Asia respectively.

A hub of high technology industries intends to create a regional cluster of innovation and aims to induce major international corporations to establish regional headquarters in Korea. Also intended are their regional research and development centers as well as high technology manufacturing facilities. The government encourages local companies and universities to concentrate R&D, and research facilities in the Incheon, Busan and Gwangyang areas, while allowing foreign universities and hospitals to build campuses and branch medical facilities in the regions. New industries such as information technology and bio-technology industries will be promoted in addition to the upgrade of existing industries such as steel, automobiles, shipbuilding and electronics. Important component of the plan is to make Korea a hub for information technology and digital media by utilizing advanced telecommunication network. Local information technology and digital media industry clusters will be created in selected areas such as Songdo in Incheon and Sangam Digital Media City (DMC) in Seoul.

Logistics and high technology industries hub cannot work well without the service of financial sector. International finance is considered one of underdeveloped sectors of the Korean economy. The regional finance hub strategy attempts to promote international business activities by offering high quality financial services to logistics and manufacturing firms. The Free Economic Zones program that offers favorable incentives will be the main tool to accommodate finance industries. Obvious examples of successful business and financial hubs in Asia are Hong Kong and Singapore, both of

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which have succeeded in building business service activities and attracting regional headquarters of financial industries. Their strengths are built on favorable business environment including good transportation accessibility, low taxes, English speaking workforce, the local governments' policy of free and open markets. Korea has to change its business environment faster and more decisively than its neighbors for the business and financial hub. Four major areas of emphasis are: 1) to strengthen the domestic financial sectors;

2) to eliminate regulatory barriers in key asset classes such as debt, equity, mutual funds, derivatives and structured products; 3) to develop deeper financial markets for government debt, corporate debt and equity; and 4) all these actions should be supported by a set of broader socio-economic measures.

Improving business environment

To emerge as the economic hub of the Northeast Asian region, Korea should make itself attractive to foreign companies and be able to provide all the services and resources they need. This is by no means an easy goal, considering Korea's country image and the language barrier for example.

International competitiveness of the business environment of Korea including the special economic zones is considered relatively low. Compared to the superior physical infrastructure such as transportation and telecommunication, social infrastructure such as administrative regulation and labor relations need radical reform. Many international surveys confirm the general perception that Korea is not a good country to operate businesses.

According to the report of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Korea's comprehensive competitiveness (27th) lags behind competing countries such as Taiwan (24th) and Malaysia (26th). The

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World Economic Forum (WEF) lists Korea's competitiveness ranking (23rd) at lower than that of Singapore (5th), Taiwan (13th), and Hong Kong (16th).

Korea's low international competitiveness is reflected on the low level of foreign investment. The ratio of accumulated foreign investment against the GDP was less than 10 percent in 2001, significantly lower than that of China, Malaysia, and Singapore.

An important agenda of the business hub plan, therefore, is to improve the business environment for foreign firms in Korea. These efforts include the improvement of labor market conditions, increased tax benefits for foreign investors, foreign exchange liberalization, deregulation of the securities market, liberalization of the immigration policy, increases in the scope of tax exemption for foreign residents, establishment of international educational institutions, use of English as an official language, free use of major international currencies, de-restriction of foreign hospital, medical doctors and pharmacies, construction of foreign residential compounds, and so on. It would be ideal that all of these are realized throughout the nation, but some of these items can be applied to the free economic zones first due to time required for institutional changes.

In spite of a series of effort to induce foreign investment to Korea, business environment of the FEZs is rated low compared to their competitors in Asia. A recent survey of foreign companies investing in Korea by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) in 2002 revealed that the comprehensive score of the Korean FEZ was only 54.4, compared to the benchmark city of Singapore (100), Hong Kong (75), and Shanghai (73.5).

The result implies that a systematic effort has to be made to improve business environment of the FEZs to successfully compete with their counterparts in Asian countries.

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Infrastructure as a Means of Spatial Linkages to Outside

Transportation infrastructure projects and the hub strategy

The hub strategy requires a high level of transportation infrastructure that connects domestic regions and foreign countries. New and modern transportation networks, domestic as well as international ones, have to be established if Korea can successfully compete with counterparts in Northeast Asia. Transportation infrastructure has been a key factor for the promotion of regional development in Korea for the past decades. There is a strong relationship between transportation accessibility and the level of regional development. New and advanced transportation infrastructure linking special economic zones and other regions serving them will affect the development of these regions.

Major transportation infrastructure for the economic hub strategy is consisted of an international airport, two seaports and inter-Korea railroads.

The newly opened (in 2001) Incheon International Airport has a plan to become a hub of Northeast Asian air traffic. Currently handling 327 international passenger flights and 10 domestic flights daily, the airport is used by 52 airlines including the two national flag carriers. As the Korea's largest international airport replacing Gimpo Airport after eight years of first-phase construction, the Incheon airport is striving to achieve the objective. However, it faces tough competition from fellow international airports in other Asian countries, including Chek Lap Kok International Airport in Hong Kong, Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan, and Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, China.

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Table 2.2 Comparison of Major Airports in Northeast Asia Incheon

(Korea)

Kansai (Japan)

Chek Lap Kok (Hong Kong)

Pudong (China) Area

(thousand ㎡)

11,720 (47,360)

5,120 (12,970)

12,470 (14,850)

9,470 (31,980) No. of Runways 2

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1 (3)

2 (2)

1 (4) Flights Handling

(thousand/year)

240 (480)

160 (260)

160 (320)

120 (320) Passenger

Handling (thousand/year)

30,000 (100,000)

25,000 (40,000)

45,000 (87,000)

20,000 (70,000) Freight Handling

(thousand ton/year)

2,700 (7,000)

1,390 (1,750)

3,000 (9,000)

750 (5,000) Opening Year 2001.3 1994.9 1998.7 1999.10 Note: ( ) represents figures in final completion.

In terms of location, Incheon sits in a highly favorable position.

Within three and half hour flight from the airport there are over 40 cities with more than 1 million citizens each, with the total combined population reaching 1 billion. The airport has two 3.75 km-long runways, enabling supersonic and super-sized airplanes to land or take off 24 hours a day. By 2005, Incheon aims to rank as the world's third largest airport in terms of cargo handling, and to become the Northeast Asia's hub airport by 2010.

With two more runways scheduled to be built, the airport will have facilities to handle one of the largest amount of cargo in the world.

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The area around the airport will be developed into an international business and customs free zone (CFZ). The main purpose of the CFZ in the airport and the surrounding area is to develop an aviation logistics center for the Northeast Asian region. Around 2 million square meters within the airport will be set aside for businesses specializing in loading and unloading, warehousing, sales and simple processing. About half of the 2 million square meters has already been designated as a CFZ, which will be developed by 2005.

Under the government strategy to turn Korea into the Northeast Asia's logistics hub, Busan and Gwangyang will take the leading role as the mega hub port serving the whole of Northeast Asia. The government plans to develop the two southern coastal cities into one of leading logistics ports in the world, like Hong Kong, Singapore or Rotterdam of the Netherlands over the next decade. The Busan-Gwangyang belt is ideally located on the trunk line of the Trans-Pacific shipping route linking Los Angeles and Kaoshung of Taiwan. In addition, Busan and Gwangyang are ideal ports for the handling of transfer freight from Japan's western coast and northern China, due to their geographical proximity to the two economic superpowers.

If railways between South and North Korea are linked in the future for connections with the Trans-Asian Railway comprising the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Trans-China Railway, the ports of Busan and Gwangyang will offer the shortest transportation route for Northern China's export freight, while taking advantage of its potential as a gateway port to Eurasia.

Considering geographic location, international stream of container freight and China's emergence as the manufacturing plant of the world, the Busan and Gwangyang ports have good chance to grow into the Northeast Asia's mega hub port.

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Table 2.3 Comparison of Container Ports in Northeast Asia (2002) Busan

(Korea)

Gwang- yang (Korea)

Hong Kong

Singa- pore

Kaoshung (Taiwan)

Kobe (Japan)

Shang- hai (China) No. of

berth (Current)

21 8 22 41 27 37 22

No. of berth (Added)

25 16 23 39 23 10 50

No. of berth (Total)

46 24 45 80 50 47 72

Freights Handling (thousand

TEU)

9,450 1,130 18,600 16,800 8,490 2,000 8,610

The expansion plan of the Busan and Gwangyang ports includes their facilities to a total of 70 ship berths by 2011, matching the world No. 3 port ,Shanghai's planned construction of an additional 50 berths by 2010 on top of its current 22 berths The Busan and Gwangyang ports, rather than being a simple cargo transfer center, will grow into an integrated logistics hub port with multiple functions of logistics, industrial assembly, trade and international business, taking advantage of their well-established hinterland.

The government plan calls for developing 3.07 million square meters of coastal land behind New Busan Port and 3.67 million square meters behind Gwangyang Port into a large-scale international logistics and business center, compared with Singapore's 4.29 million square meters, Rotterdam's 2.6 million square meters and Shanghai's 9.9 million square meters.

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In an effort to build the mega hub port scheme, the Busan and Gwangyang ports will be developed as the FEZs, together with Songdo, Yeongjongdo and Cheongla of Incheon in the capital region. Coupled with existing CFZs, the Busan and Gwangyang FEZ offers preferential treatment for foreign firms, internationalized residential district and hospitals and free circulation of foreign currencies and documents to attract investments from multinational firms in the fields of information technology, biotechnology, environment and motion picture industries.

One of key transportation projects is to restore South and North Korea's railways, which was divided after the Korean War (1950-1953). This is the first step to rebuild the gateway toward the Eurasian Continent. There are four railroads that need to be reconnected between the two Koreas: the Gyeongwon Line (Seoul-Wonsan), Mt. Geumgang Line (Seoul-Mt.

Geumgang), Northeast Coastal Line (Gangneung-Wonsan), and Gyeongui Line (Seoul-Shinuiju). The completion of the Trans-Korean Railway (TKR) will enable a connection with the Trans-China Railway (TCR) and Trans- Siberian Railway (TSR), reaching as far as Europe and forming one giant Eurasian Silk Road. The linkage of the TKR will play a fundamental role in forming the Eurasian Silk Road in the Northeast Asian region. It takes 30 days to sail a total of 28,000km from Busan to Paris, whereas through the cross-continent railway, it will only take 18 days to travel a total of 13,000 km.

South and North Korea's railroad reconnection project will have a significant impact on neighboring countries. Because China’s northeastern provinces do not have access to the East Sea, Korea can be the China’s new transportation route for its mining exports. Russia is also implementing various promotional policies to activate the TSR, the world's longest railway stretching 9,334km from Moscow to Vladivostok, and will benefit from the

Urban Networks and Infrastructure Planning in the Metropolitan Region