Urban streams and waterfront spaces have long served as vital ecological corridors and living environments for humans. However, these spaces face significant challenges, including ecosystem disruption and declining landscape value, primarily due to in...
Urban streams and waterfront spaces have long served as vital ecological corridors and living environments for humans. However, these spaces face significant challenges, including ecosystem disruption and declining landscape value, primarily due to indiscriminate development. In South Korea, urban streams have notably lost their unique character through prolonged civil engineering projects that prioritized water resources management and flood control under government-led economic development plans. Furthermore, the application of standardized river restoration across the entire linear stretch of these streams has resulted in a lack of spatial integration with the surrounding urban context.
The Seohocheon Stream, a major urban waterway in Suwon, serves as a representative case illustrating these issues. Suwon—whose name literally translates to 'Water Source'—possesses four major streams traversing its central living zones. However, with the exception of parts of the Suwoncheon Stream, most sections suffer from reduced public accessibility due to channel straightening and concrete revetments. The Seohocheon Stream passes through diverse landscapes, including industrial complexes, former military airfield sites, the old downtown, and natural landmarks such as Yeogisan Mountain and Seoho Lake (Suwon Urban Basic Plan 2040, 2025). In particular, the mid- and downstream sections are characterized by scattered industrial facilities, where poor maintenance and illegal activities degrade the landscape quality, limiting their role as urban amenities. Nevertheless, the area holds high potential for waterfront development, supported by unique landscape resources such as Seoho Park, Chukmanje, Gyeonggi Sangsang Campus, and Gyeonggi Old Road.
This study aims to move beyond conventional, standardized stream planning and maintenance by employing Landscape Character Assessment (LCA). It proposes integrated planning directions that consider both the urban context and landscape diversity of the Seohocheon Stream. The research proceeds in four stages as follows.
First, a spatial analysis was conducted to identify the natural, social and cultural landscape characteristics of urban spaces adjacent to the Seohocheon Stream. Based on these findings, the urban spaces were categorized into nine distinct types based on factors such as stream and landscape resource influence, population density, the built environment, and ecological integrity.
Second, the Seohocheon Stream was subdivided into 37 sections, where site-specific landscape characteristics were analyzed through on-site field surveys focusing on perceptual and visual quality. Consequently, these sections were categorized into distinct types based on their preservation and utilization value, degree of naturalness, usage demand, and the urgency for restoration; this process allowed for the identification of each section's potential and key improvement tasks.
Third, semi-structured interviews with river experts were conducted to gain professional insights into the Seohocheon Stream and derive specific spatial planning and management tasks.
Fourth, the research findings were synthesized to perform a comprehensive landscape character assessment and interpretation. Based on this synthesis, the Seohocheon Stream was delineated into five zones according to integrated urban and stream landscape characteristics, with tailored spatial planning and management directions proposed for each zone.
This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the LCA method in facilitating rational spatial management and deriving practical problem-solving measures, emphasizing the necessity of an integrated approach to urban and stream spaces. By linking urban space typification with stream section evaluation, the Seohocheon Stream was comprehensively assessed. This methodology is expected to be highly applicable to future evaluation and planning of various streams and linear open spaces.