Spontaneous Urban Agricultural Lands as Potential Green Open Space

摘要

Seoul City promotes ‘Urban Agriculture’ by consistently building vegetable garden parks and community vegetable gardens and inviting citizens to participate in the new movement. However, far too little attention has been paid to proper evaluations on the existing spontaneous agricultural lands, despite the fact that some agricultural lands remain neglected or public lands are being illegally used by individuals. Our research area, Gwanak-gu, is a representative case with many spontaneous agricultural lands that carry various risk factors such as that of disaster, environmental pollution, and degradation of the landscape in the city. The purpose of this study is to categorize the types and problems of agricultural lands in Gwanak-gu through a field survey. By using Geographic Information System and satellite images, field surveys and interviews, we showed the current distribution status. As a result, 45 areas of agricultural lands, mainly located around the edges of Mt. Gwanak, were found. The agricultural lands were classified into six categories: three of those, flat Vegetable Garden, Edge Vegetable Garden and Private Weekend Farm, are well managed, while three types, Farm in Forest Edge, Farm in Forest, Shabby Farm, are in poor condition. The study discusses what caused lands to be either well managed or ruined. This study has an objective to discover whether spontaneous agricultural lands have the possibility to become community open spaces.