WTN 2005 Prize Nomination

2005 World Technology Award for Environment: Seoul Korea: Restoration Technology

Sustainable Development & "Restoration Technology" in Seoul Korea

Letter of nomination:

The Commons, Paris, 18 July 2005

Dear Colleagues and WTN Fellows:

As a World Technology Network Fellow and previous recipient of this prestigious international award, I am privileged to be able to submit herewith my strongest possible recommendation for the 2005 award to an organization or group for outstanding achievement in the critical nexus of environment and technology.

This is to share with you my nomination, and to ask your support for, the outstanding pioneering example of applied "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:

The Cheonggyecheon restoration (think of this in its way as demand)
Seoul Bus Rapid Transit (which addresses the other side of the coin supply side)
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 http://ecoplan.org/graphics/seoul-images.ppt.

2. Bus Rapid Transit/New Mobility 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 (b) 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 respectfully ask you to join me in supporting this nomination.

Eric Britton,
WTN Fellow and Recipient of 2002 Environment Prize
The Commons, EcoPlan International, Paris