Government

Seoul: Model of Sustainability

Korean capital doubles as a research lab for megacity development.

The population of Seoul, Korea, has exploded to more than 10 million—double that if you include the suburbs—so the city now claims to be the fifth largest metropolis in the world. The resulting environmental problems have contributed to an overall decrease in quality of life. The government is searching for ways to reverse the damage and benefit the megacity’s residents.

Mayor Oh Se-hoon has announced a plan to create more than 3 million meters of green space inside the city limits by 2010. The government is also addressing the issue of traffic congestion (and the noise and air pollution it creates) by building bike lanes, strengthening pedestrian rights, and encouraging people to use public transportation. Hoping to promote sustainable development in all areas, the city is starting to invest in innovative green building techniques.

To that end, the mayor’s office has invited Fraunhofer, Europe’s largest research and development institution, to help transform the sprawling megacity into a model of urban sustainability. Fraunhofer researchers are designing a “zero-energy” building—i.e., where energy consumed and energy produced are in balance—that will utilize on-site renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind power. The green building will have private apartments, research facilities, and seminar rooms. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2009.

In addition to constructing eco-friendly buildings from the ground up, Fraunhofer is examining ways to retrofit older buildings with energy-saving technologies. At present, dwellers live in similar hastily constructed, poorly insulated apartments. Researchers have installed sensors in two dozen such apartments in order to monitor and record temperature and humidity. They will analyze the data to determine how to better insulate these types of apartments and conserve energy at the same time.

And then there’s the pesky issue of noise pollution. With millions of cars flooding the streets, noise is nearly impossible to regulate, and many residents are suffering. Fraunhofer’s acoustics experts are working with local Korean engineers to develop innovative soundproofing materials.

Philip Leistner, head of the Acoustics Division at Fraunhofer, told THE FUTURIST that the main deficiency of conventional sound insulation layers for standard floor systems is that they are vertically layered—rather than horizontally layered—composites. These are most ineffective when handling low-frequency noise. To deal with this issue, “we created a horizontally structured thin layer comprising two materials of different elasticity and porosity,” he says.

Fraunhofer researchers will also utilize their expertise in the cutting-edge field of adaptronics—the development of “smart” materials that, in this case, can detect and reduce sound. (Adaptronics is the art or science of embedding artificial intelligence into robots and artifacts.)

Fraunhofer is also working with Seoul city officials to design and implement new IT services, and other initiatives are being created with the overall goal of making city life more pleasant. Officials hope these efforts will enable it to become a model global city by 2010. By turning itself into a working prototype of sustainability and pleasantness, Seoul’s model could be adapted by other cities around the world, mega or not. —Aaron M. Cohen

Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Postfach 20 07 33, 80007 Münich, Germany. Web site www.fraunhofer.de.