Connecting, Expanding, and Creating More Green Spaces... Seoul City to Develop 2,000km 'Chorokgil' Green Pathways

New 400km Green Paths to Be Created by 2026... Additional Expansion, Maintenance, and Improvement of Existing 1600km

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 20th, Seoul City announced that it will promote the 'Chorokgil Project,' which organically connects forests, parks, gardens, and green spaces throughout Seoul so that citizens exhausted by the prolonged pandemic can enjoy greenery nearby anywhere.

Seoul City stated that it will invest 180 billion KRW over the next five years to create 400 km of Chorokgil. For the remaining 1,600 km of green spaces already established, paths that were difficult to use will be maintained for easier access, and new paths will be discovered in areas cut off by urbanization or where greenery is needed. Seoul City's goal is to provide citizens with a green network path totaling 2,000 km by 2026.

The three core strategies of Chorokgil are ▲ ‘Create more’ where green paths are insufficient ▲ ‘Open more’ to make existing paths easily accessible to citizens ▲ ‘Connect well’ to link disconnected and separated paths. As the first strategy, Seoul plans to discover additional paths in forests and urban areas and develop them into landmark trails to protect citizens' health and revitalize local communities. The Seoul Dulle-gil, Seoul’s representative forest trail that saw a 33% increase in visitors after COVID-19, will add 70 km of detailed routes by region.

New ‘Healing Forest Trails’ spanning generations will be created at five locations including Gwangjin Achasan and Jungnang Yongmasan, while the healing forest trails at Nowon Bulamsan and Dobong Choansan will be extended and expanded.

In the city center, diverse forest trails will be created by utilizing urban infrastructure in a three-dimensional and complex manner. Starting this year with the northern part of Banpodaegyo Bridge in Yongsan-gu (400㎡, 0.1 km), a three-dimensional ‘Green Art Trail’ will be developed under overpasses to transform the dark understructures into comfortable spaces. Additionally, a ‘Seoul Underforest Trail’ will be created using subways and underground passages, securing more than 0.12 km of underground green space by 2026. Old and steep paths within parks and forests will be systematically maintained and improved to become easy and comfortable for everyone to use.

Nearby mountain hiking trails close to the city, which have high citizen usage, will be selectively maintained in damaged sections. Narrow and steep areas will also be surveyed and improved to facilitate walking as much as possible. This year, 11 locations (5.0 km) including Inwangsan, Gwanaksan, and Bulamsan will be maintained, with steady improvements of 4?5 km annually to refurbish a total of over 23 km by 2026.

Major urban rivers will be specialized as ecological forest trails where nature and people coexist. In particular, slopes and idle spaces along riverbanks will be used to create forests and green zones where native plants can thrive healthily, along with walking paths for nearby residents. Starting this year with maintenance of eight rivers (19 locations, 9.8 km) including Anyangcheon and Jungnangcheon, a total of 12.8 km of river vegetation will be restored by 2026 to improve river landscapes and complete an ecological river corridor connecting village streams to the Han River.

Furthermore, damaged and fragmented green spaces will be restored and disconnected paths linked. Street trees and roadside greenery will be made lush and visually appealing. Starting this year with 10 km of pedestrian paths in downtown areas such as Euljiro in Jung-gu, the project will expand by 14?20 km annually to reconstruct 75 km by 2026.

Green corridors will be created to connect green axes cut off by urban development, ensuring the flow of greenery and linking ecosystems. In February this year, a green corridor connecting Samteo Park and Bangjuk Park in Gangdong-gu was designed, and in May, construction began to connect Guksabong in Dongjak-gu, which was cut off by roads.

Seoul City plans to establish a basic plan to further specify the ‘Chorokgil Project’ and discover additional necessary projects. The goal is to expand Chorokgil into living areas accessible to citizens and create a green city Seoul where diverse leisure cultures can be enjoyed.

Yoo Young-bong, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Green City Bureau, said, “To proactively respond to the diversified leisure demands of citizens due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we devised a more flexible linear forest trail network, moving away from the traditional use of park green spaces. We will systematically build the ‘Chorokgil’ by 2026 so that no Seoul citizen is excluded and everyone can enjoy green healing close to their homes, providing Seoul’s customized green services.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.