The Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project had a variety of implications for population of Seoul. Impacts on the economy, culture and ecology of the differing zones resulted in both advantages and disadvantages.
The project had severe implications for merchants trading within the affected zones. Since the approval of the restoration project and the removal of the elevated highway, shop owners and street vendors felt the removal work threatened their business interests and therefore attempted to suspend the work through staging mass demonstrations and protests. In order to solve this issue, the SMG settled the conflicts by taking countermeasures that can be categorised under three headings:
Firstly measures introduced for storeowners included the offer of financial aid, the purchase of goods to benefit businesses located on the river bank and lastly the provision to move to a 500,000 square meter logistics complex.
Secondly street vendors became an increasing social issue and although they were not entitled to compensation due to their activity being illegal, Mayor Lee suggested they could move their business to the grounds of the Dongdaemun Stadium. Vendors were strongly opposed to the suggested relocation and in November 2003 squadrons of riot police drove out the last stalwart street merchants who were resisting the move. Vendors who didn’t give up their businesses were relocated into Dongdaemun Stadium, where a flea market was opened on January 16, 2004.
The livelihoods of many citizens was affected as many of the people who lived near the banks of the stream before the restoration cannot afford to move back to their former neighbourhoods. Business owners are also struggling as their stores are no longer accessible to customers and 25% were forced to change their business types due to loss of demand. Although the government recognises mistakes were made in the treatment of former residents, many citizens still dispute that not enough has been done to fix the situation.
Finally the implications for traffic control and the resulting measures were of upmost significance. Figures suggest that 100,000 vehicles used the expressway daily while around 60,000 ran on the Cheonggye road beneath it. Expanding the city's subway structure was not a practical or financially viable option. As a result officials formulated a plan to rationalise and expand routes, by adding 74 km of rapid bus-only lanes on arterial streets, synchronize schedules with the subway and improve overall service. Theses changes took place July 1, 2004 to great success as public transport use increased. The increase led to a reduction of vehicle emissions (which present global climate and air pollution problems). This was achieved as fewer cars are on the road, a full bus or train clearly consumes less carbon than 50 - 500 separate cars; this in itself means that using public transport will help to reduce fuel emissions. Traffic speeds have picked up even with the loss of vehicle lanes thanks to related transportation changes as mention above. The city has change from car orientated to a human orientated city thus becoming more sustainable.
Assessing the circulation of the area before and after the project completion subway users increased 3.6% and traffic volume levels plunged. In June 2006, the Seoul Research Institute of Public Health and Environment reported that there was a decrease in air pollution as NO2 reduced by 34% and PM10 had reduced by 19% meaning the restoration had a positive effect on the atmospheric environment. Further to the resulting drop in pollution levels the river became a natural air conditioner, cooling the capital during its long hot summers. This was largely down to the increased wind speed (2.2-7.1%) providing a constant supply of fresh, clean air to the city. This cleaner, more natural environment saw the biodiversity of the area boom. The variety of wildlife has vastly increased since the demolition of the road. Cheonggyecheon is now a haven for wildlife where children can learn something about nature while they play.
In assessing the sustainable credentials of the project it is essential to consider the environmental effects. The conversion to a stream resulted in significant improvements to the environmental performance of the area. Figures indicate lowered summer surface temperatures along the stream (3.6 degrees lower) compared to sites 400 meters away.
As discussed previously the success of the project would be largely dictated by the management of the materials through the demolition process. Figures indicate 95 percent of the concrete and asphalt and 100 percent of the steel used the restoration as being recycled from the 620,000 tons of demolition products produced by the elevated highway. The majority of this debris was remanufactured into street paving for the emerging public spaces.
The stream is not entirely green. Rainfall input to the stream is seasonal and depends on the monsoon. Therefore, for most of the year water must be pumped from the nearby Han River. Further development of Solar Technology could potentially reduce the Carbon Footprint of this site and make it an epicentre of sustainable urban renewal.
The area has attracted a huge amount of development capital, and both business and property values are up. This will go some way to paying back the initial costs of the project. Further to the above benefits the elevated highway contributed to the declining property values and population loss in Seoul’s downtown. A monitoring study on the real estate price changes of the site suggests that land value increased by 30% on average, and soared up to 100% in the redevelopment site along with an average 5% rent increase in Commercial buildings. This suggests that the restoration project has rejuvenated the economic aspect of the area.
To prevent overinvestment and waste of local resources, the SMG were required to estimate the economic impact to the community. They estimated this figure by carrying out a cost benefit analysis (CBA). They calculated the total cost to be 2262.6 billion won and the total benefit to be 4193.4 billion won. This suggested that the project would improve the wellbeing of the citizens of Seoul as the benefit to cost ratio is more than one. It would also help create 17,620 jobs nationwide.
This analysis shows that the construction industry would be the business sector that most benefits. Since a CBA was used to work these figures out, it can obscure the fact that while some social groups may gain, other may lose. E.g. a public project could hurt the poor yet benefit the middle income group (redistributive effect).
From the initial launch, the visitor count is trending down from 28million in 2006, to 12 million in 2008. This could be down to the novelty of the project declining as well as environmental problems e.g. odour and algae occurrences resulting in income loss.
Further to this the annual maintenance demand is increasing. In 2007, the maintenance cost increased by 7.4% compared to 2006, and in 2008 it increased by 10%. This suggests that the restored Cheonggyecheon is no financially sustainable.
In summarising the implication of the project Cheonggyecheon’s business environment has been vastly improved contributing to the booming downtown economy and although the figures above show vast improvements in areas such as land value, reduction in pollution by redirecting and decreasing traffic through efficient planning and expanded public transportation, environmental benefits seem to be minimal given the amount of money spent annually ($900,000) to electrically pump over 120,000 tons of water a day from the Han river which results in fossil fuels being used and thus making the stream a greenhouse gas contributor. Despite its natural appearance, the stream was not entirely restored as Cheonggyecheon was practically dry by the time the expressway was demolished subsequently making Cheonggyecheon an urban development as the stream does not flow naturally. Due to these factors, minimal sustainability has been achieved.
