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A Lesson from the Cheonggyecheon Stream Restoration Project

Craig Mackintosh July 22, 2011

4 Less than a minute

This Korean tale of an ancient stream which got paved over to make a freeway, before becoming a nightmare of congestion and stress for inhabitants, and then being painstakingly restored, at great expense, back into a stream and pedestrian zone again, is an excellent case for permaculture observation, planning, ethics and design.

A little history on this:</p> <p><span id="more-5997"></span></p><div class="g g-3"><div class="g-dyn a-34 c-1"><style> @media (min-width: 350px) { .infeed { height: 90px; margin:auto; } @media (min-width: 500px) { .infeed { height: 90px; margin:auto; } } @media (min-width: 800px) { .infeed { max-width:729px; margin:auto; height: 90px; } } </style> <script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle infeed" style="display:block;" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="image-top" data-ad-layout-key="xxxxxxxx" data-ad-client="ca-pub-4709140704829756" data-ad-slot="5264186828"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script></div></div> <blockquote> <p align="left">In the 1970s, it was considered a symbol of progress when the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul, Korea, was covered and a road and elevated freeway were built above it. But by the year 2000, the Cheonggye area was considered the most congested and noisy part of Seoul, badly in need of revitalization, and people agreed that nothing could be done to improve the area as long as the road and freeway remained. — <em><a href="https://www.preservenet.com/freeways/FreewaysCheonggye.html" target="_blank">preservenet.com</a></em> (click the link to read more).</p> </blockquote> <p>We’ve ignorantly spent the last half century (in particular) building structures that will be wholly impractical in a post-peak oil world. Retrofitting and reversing is an expensive undertaking, in terms of cost, energy, and environmental impact during transition. In other words — we would do well to consider what we’re doing, and get it right the first time!</p> <p>

Craig Mackintosh July 22, 2011

4 Less than a minute

4 Comments

JBob says:

July 22, 2011 at 2:05 pm

Sounds like they’re pumping water to make this stream flow. Not exactly the epitome of permaculture, imho.

Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor says:

July 22, 2011 at 5:51 pm

Too true JBob. There’s lots wrong with this project. I wasn’t holding it up as an example of permaculture design, but more that the whole situation makes a serious case for the need of observation and permaculture design. i.e. they’ve taken a free flowing stream, paved it over in the name of ‘progress’ and made a highway (at great expense in cost and energy), then realised that was a daft thing to do, and so spent even more money and energy trying (but not necessarily succeeding) to put it back the way it was before.

It’s just a case for observing, and applying holistically-grounded design and ethics from the outset, and not just forging ahead blindly.

JBob says:

July 23, 2011 at 1:31 pm

Agreed. It is a monumental waste of resources worthy of study. Destroy a functional natural system to build an expensive artificial one that everybody hates, then spend gobs more taxpayer money to turn it back in to a Disneyfied version of its original self.

mirinae says:

July 26, 2011 at 4:17 pm

if I understand correctly this was a claim to fame of the current president when he was mayor of Seoul. Do you guys know of the current 4 rivers project to build a shipping canal the length of the country. goodness knows how much it will cost and how much devastation it will bring to local areas of wildlife and whole villages being uprooted and flooded out. A humungous financial and environmental cost for what benefit I as yet can’t appreciate. but by then he won’t be president anymore and all the kickbacks would have been had. Oh well …