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A Comparative Study of National Physical Planning System
국토계획제도 비교 연구(RR97-30) Yang-Soo Yun and Seung-Bok Lee
1997. 12․250 pages․Korean
Korea has experienced drastic changes with growing concentration of population in the cities, the appearance of megalopolis and increasing environmental considerations in the national physical planning during the last 30 years. The process of decentralization also changed the functions and roles of the central and local governments.
The National Planning System in Korea was formulated in the early 1960s when the economic development plan was first launched. Since then, there has been no major amendments although the planning environment has significantly changed over time. Therefore, it has been pointed out that the present planning system is not in accordance with the rapidly changing new planning environment and hence, a new planning system must be established.
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the national physical planning systems existing in other countries and to find their relevance for application to the national physical planning system in Korea.
This study first analyzed the status quo and problems of the national physical planning system in Korea. Along with this result, the national physical planning systems of foreign countries were investigated, including the background and characteristics of the national physical planning, spatial planning and formulating system, and implementation, evaluation and feed-back process.
The foreign countries included in the case study analysis are France, Germany and Netherlands in Europe, known to have the characteristics of decentralization and balanced development, and Japan which has a similar system to Korea.
Some of the problems found in the national physical planning system of Korea are; vagueness of the national physical planning goals, lack of clearly defined functions and roles of different levels of plans, complex planning system, lack of supporting measures in implementing the plans, absence of control and monitoring, and lack of implementation.
Major findings found in these foreign case studies, useful and applicable to the national physical planning system in Korea are as follows. First, the function of the national physical planning are clearly defined. Second, the characteristics of the national physical planning is indicative, guiding, and informative rather than investment oriented. Third, the national physical plan is organically supported by the sectoral and low level plans facilitating the implementation of the national plan. Fourth, the spatial planning system is well established so that the consistency can be guaranteed in the central, regional, and local development plans and land use plans. Fifth, the functional independence of the lower level governments is well respected and their participation is ensured in the formulation process of the higher level planning. Sixth, whenever needed, the special administrative bodies are created and development funds provided. Finally, the evaluation system such as annual reporting to the Parliament is also mandated in some European countries and the planning period is quite flexible, which is different from the situation in Korea. The national physical planning system in Japan which was a model replicated in Korea is now concluded to be ineffective.
