Suwon Parks and Greenspace Business Office Holds Final Report on 'Research on Regeneration Plan for Aging Urban Parks in Suwon'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Research results showed that Suwon City must establish evaluation criteria for aging conditions of urban parks that have been in use for over 20 years, determine ratings, and present comprehensive management basic plans and regeneration measures.

The city held a final report meeting on 'Research on Regeneration Plan for Aging Urban Parks in Suwon' on the 29th in the conference room of the Suwon Parks and Greenspace Business Office.

The research conducted by the Suwon City Institute of Urban Science established standards for diagnosing the current status of aging urban parks in the city over five months beginning in September last year, and presented efficient management and regeneration measures for urban parks using cases of aging urban parks in Jangan-gu.

According to research results, as of late October last year, the city has 30 neighborhood parks, 203 children's parks, and 72 neighborhood parks as residential parks, and 1 historical park, 6 cultural parks, 11 waterfront parks, and 2 sports parks as thematic parks.

In terms of the number of parks, children's parks account for more than 62%, while neighborhood parks account for more than 84% based on area.

Urban parks were concentrated in construction during 1995-1999 and 2007-2008, which was analyzed as being due to many parks being created during the residential development project promotion process.

Based on these findings, the research specified the diagnostic evaluation method for aging urban parks. It presupposed urban parks with construction dates of 20 years or longer as evaluation targets and proposed functionality evaluation assessing the deterioration of ecology and facilities, satisfaction evaluation systematizing complaints, and park service evaluation based on surrounding population and the presence of other facilities.

The checklist created in this way was applied as a pilot evaluation to aging urban parks in Jangan-gu, classifying parks' aging conditions into four levels: ▲general management (when aging facilities are continuously being improved) ▲enhanced management (when repair targets requiring facility replacement are discovered) ▲partial regeneration (when spatial structure improvement is needed) ▲full regeneration (when overall functions have deteriorated and entire park remodeling is necessary).

Additionally, opinions were shared that there is a need to continuously collect and analyze basic data for effective management of aging urban parks.

Since organizing basic data such as history and drawings for each individual facility requires grounds for data collection and system construction, the city must introduce the 'Suwon City Park Management Basic Plan' to present the direction of park management and establish response measures for aging urban parks.

Choi Gwang-yeol, head of the Suwon Parks and Greenspace Business Office, said, "Through this research, we will encourage parks to be managed in a sustainable manner and establish a maintenance system for aging parks to contribute to improving citizens' quality of life."