The relationship between urban regeneration projects and the livability of the elderly through public parks in Seoul, republic of Korea

In South Korea, the elderly ratio has increased rapidly, and the government has conducted urban regeneration projects to respond to an aging society and improve residents' livability. However, many elderly people do not satisfy their quality of life since Korea has the highest suicide rate of the elderly among OECD countries. Therefore, the objective of the study is to understand the relationship between the urban regeneration projects and public parks in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from the elderly's perspective. In detail, this research aims to show how the urban regeneration projects of the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) influence its public parks, which are essential for a healthy elderly's life. Then, to understand how the parks impact the elderly's livability, the study analyzes how the elderly consider the parks and how they use them for their health and social relationships. This study used a case study method, and semi-structured interviews were the main data collection method. However, it also used other primary and secondary data, including observation, government documents, and academic databases. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with the specialist on the elderly's livability and the SMG's urban regeneration and the elderly residents above 64 in the case study sites. It also mainly used ATLAS.ti and QGIS for the analysis. There are three main findings. First, since the elderly on the site use the park not only for health but also for social relationships, the creation of small parks or park remodeling helps to improve the livability of the elderly, especially one-person households or the elderly over 80. Light physical activity is more important than vigorous exercise for the elderly over 80, and the elderly living alone have few chances to connect with nature and few social networks. Thus, even though the parks are small scale, it helps to improve their livability. Second, understanding of the interests of the elderly in the urban regeneration project is lacking, and it harms park use. From the point of view of the elderly, not only easy access but also safe and convenient facilities and appropriate amounts of trees are essential. However, some parks do not satisfy the interest. In addition, the lack of the elderly's understanding of the projects and institutional difficulties negatively affect the quality of public parks. The elderly are unfamiliar with resident participation and have difficulty understanding strategic development. Also, because of the institutional lack, it is not easy to utilize various resident participation and establish opinions of the residents and the local government. Therefore, this study recommends that outdoor space improvement, including public parks, should be actively implemented during the urban regeneration project in areas where the elderly in one-person households and the old-old are densely populated. Also, an urban planner should actively reflect the interests of the elderly by promoting the urban regeneration project for the elderly and active resident participation.