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The primary purpose of urban growth management policies is to control urban sprawl and induce the diversification of travel mode share. Hence, how the greenbelt, as an urban containment policy, affects travel mode share is one of the important issues in understanding the efficacy of urban growth management. To analyze it for the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA), which has designated its greenbelt for more than forty-five years, this study implemented the spatial Durbin panel regression for the years from 2002 through 2016. Results showed that the greenbelt increased the use of public transportation and decreased car use, but it tended not to increase the use of nonmotorized modes of transportation such as bicycling and walking. There also turned out to be U-shaped (convex) relationships both between population density and car use and between the former and bicycling. Meanwhile, an inverted U-shaped relationship was observed between population density and public transportation mode, which was statistically significant. Based on these results, it can be said that a public transportation system outside of the greenbelt is needed for increasing its accessibility. To promote the use of public and nonmotorized transportation, it will also be important to determine the appropriate urban density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries around the world have responded to the problems associated with rapid urban growth and increasingly land-consumptive development patterns by creating a wide range of policy instruments designed to manage urban growth. Of the array of growth management techniques, urban containment policies are considered by some to be a promising approach. This paper focuses on greenbelts, the most restrictive form of urban containment policy. The long-standing greenbelt of Seoul, Republic of Korea is examined as a case study. Seoul's greenbelt has generated both significant social costs and benefits. Costs include higher land and housing prices in the urban area surrounded by the greenbelt, additional costs incurred by commuters who live beyond the greenbelt and work in Seoul, and increased congestion and related quality of life impacts. Benefits include the amenity value of living near the greenbelt, recreational resources, bequest and heritage values, fiscal savings due to increased efficiency in the provision of public services and infrastructure, and a wide range of life-supporting ecosystem services. After standing virtually unchanged for almost three decades, Korea's greenbelt policy is currently being revised and weakened, largely due to pressure from greenbelt landowners and developers. Although there is no definitive answer to the question of whether Seoul would be a more or less ‘sustainable city’ today without the greenbelt, it is certain that in the absence of the greenbelt, Seoul would have lost much of its rich natural heritage and essential ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of releasing the Development Restriction Zones, which is called by "Green Belt", in Korean society is controversial. Green Belt is a protected area designated around the city to restrict urban development in order to prevent urban sprawl and ensure a healthy living environment for citizens by conserving the natural environment surrounding cities. However, there are many opinions on the removal of the Green Belt due to recent problems such as restrictions on property rights of residents living in the Green Belt zone. But the releasing of the Green Belt is likely to damage not only the environmentally valuable land inside the Green Belt but also the land outside the Green Belt due to excessive urban expansion. This is because it has previously restricted construction in Green Belt areas and helped prevent urban areas to spread outside.In this study, the SLEUTH urban expansion model was used to examine how urban expansion would occur if the Green Belt was released. We also looked at how much of the environmentally valuable land will be damaged by the expansion of cities. The SLEUTH model is a type of urban expansion model that is derived from the preceding letters of input data "Slope, Landuse, Excluded, Urban, Transport and Hillshade". This model is based on the Cellular Automata model and is not only a simple urban expansion, but also a policy-driven one due to the presence of the "Excluded" layer.Three major methods have been used to identify how environmentally valuable areas have been damaged. First, the changes in land cover were analyzed. It was analyzed whether natural areas, such as forests and grasslands, have been converted to artificial areas such as cities whether the Green Belt area is released or not. Second, an altitude and slope analysis was performed. High altitudes or steep slopes are areas that need to be protected environmentally, and where is expected to cause serious damage to urban residents. Third, it is a way to utilize the environmental map provided by the Korean government. The Korean government is developing a map that evaluates environmental values such as the Ecological and Natural Map and the Environmental Conservation Value Assessment Map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]