As the pluralistic value of rural landscapes has been refocused recently, the interest and demand on rural landscapes have been increased such as rural tourism and visits of rural districts to have the rural experience differentiated from urban landsc...
As the pluralistic value of rural landscapes has been refocused recently, the interest and demand on rural landscapes have been increased such as rural tourism and visits of rural districts to have the rural experience differentiated from urban landscape. However, because rural landscape has been changed since the modernization, the inherent prototype landscape which should be preserved was damaged much in Korea and it is very different from the past rural landscape now. In particular, rural development projects which have been intensively carried out since the 1950s overlooked regional characteristics and stuck to the uniform development approach. As a result, it gave the dominant impact on damage and changes in rural landscape such as destruction of locality and uniformity of rural districts.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to present the implications on desirable rural landscape planning and management by analyzing and assessing the transition of rural landscape according to the impact of chronological rural development projects. In order to achieve the goal, literature search, an on-the-spot survey of 40 towns as targets for this study, interviews with residents in each town were performed in this study and key findings are summarized as follows.
Firstly, results of analysis of background for occurrence of rural development projects since 1950’s showed that changes in aspects of system and policy, aspects of society and economics, and international and political aspects mutually and complexly affected the rural development projects upon establishing it. It implied that characteristics of chronological rural development project represented the flow of society and politics at the time. In addition, in terms of analysis of contents of rural development project, total investment budget in rural development projects has been increased based on the historical flow, but the average budget for each rural development project tended to decline a little bit in 1990s as the starting point. It implied the recent trends were restructured by switching from the large-scale development projects to the small-scale development projects. Stages of rural landscape transition derived through analysis of background and contents for occurrence of rural development project could be classified into ‘stage 1, the period of reorganization of rural infrastructure(1950s~1960s)’, ‘stage 2, the period of reorganization of residential environment(1970s~early 1980s)’, ‘stage 3, the period of reorganization of settlement environment(late 1980s~1990s)’, and ‘stage 4, the period of excavation and reorganization of amenity resources(after 2000s)’.
Secondly, the contents of transitions of rural landscape from 1950s up to date were identified through literature search for 40 targeting towns, on-the-spot survey and interviews with residents. The frequency analysis of contents of changes derived from interviews with residents was additionally performed to characteristics of changes depending on each type of landscape. As a result of analysis, in the period of reorganization of rural infrastructure, the proportion of changes in 'cultivation landscape' and 'streetscape' got higher. While factors and system of prototype landscape were continued and maintained, only some hill slope reclamation and farmland expansion projects affected it. In the period of reorganization of residential environment, the impact of new community movement was the representative example and its impact undermined and changed factors and forms of prototype landscape very much. Especially at this moment, the proportion of changes in ‘residential landscapes’ and ‘streetscape’ was high and introduction of artificial colors, changes into the slate roof and expansion and paved road projects results in structural changes in rural landscapes. The characteristic changes in the period of reorganization of settlement environment included composition of urban residential complex with large scale land for housing project and location of facilities. It showed that the proportion of changes in ‘residential landscape' focusing on improvements on appearance of residential environment such as houses and amenities got higher. In the period of excavation and reorganization of amenity resources after 2000s, the related development projects with main goal to establish the rural tourism infrastructure have been performed due to impact of social flow such as heightened concern for the rural landscape and changes in tourism form. In particular, it was the main background to massively introduce the tourism infrastructure and amenities in the area of ‘green landscape’.
Thirdly, based on aggregated results from interviews for each target land, chronological trends of changes in rural landscape were identified. It could be explained by six types of landscape factors such as ‘formation’, 'change', 'transfer’, 'loss', 'restoration' and 'maintenance & preservation’. In the period of reorganization of rural infrastructure, the proportion of ‘maintenance & preservation’ was higher but in the period of reorganization of residential environment, the proportion of ‘change' and ‘damage’ have rapidly increased. In the period of reorganization of settlement environment, the proportion of ‘maintenance & preservation’ tended to sharply decline and in the period of excavation and reorganization of amenity resources, the proportion of ‘restoration’ has been increased.
Fourthly, the rural prototype landscape which has been proposed as the direction of desirable maintenance was compared and analyzed with current regular rural landscape in Korea and big differences in landscape forming factor, change cycle and physical characteristics were shown. The main physical features of the rural prototype landscape included the harmony with nature, formation of landscape to comply with terrain / topography, contiguous configuration of space and the hierarchical spatial order. The main features of current rural landscape included the linear spatial configuration and installation of large-scale facilities in contrast to the natural environment, application of color with high chroma, introduction of artificial material, formation of landscape caused by economic logic, massive corruption and negligence of traditional landscapes and formation of a space for outsiders.
This paper combining with above findings showed the critical view of rural landscape which were rapidly corrupted and changed due to the rural development project and emphasized the value of the rural landscape supposed to be preserved. In addition, this paper claimed that we should perform the ‘preservation type’ planning for future rural landscape while moving away from the traditional approach. In this context, this paper can contribute to establish the basic data to continue to preserve the rural landscape as well as planning and management for the desired future of rural landscape.