환경정의 관점에서 본 도시계획·개발법제의 몇 가지 쟁점

Abstract

Korea has achieved a highly compressed economic growth by taking industrialization and urbanization as its driving power. With the 1st National Land Comprehensive Plan in the 1970s, we pursued industrialization by adopting a hub development plan that mediated industrial complexes and promoted urbanization by building new cities in Seoul metropolitan region through massive residential land development. The rapid industrialization and urbanization, however, caused adverse effects such as overpopulated big cities, environmental destruction, as air and water pollution. Also, urban development basically proceeded while not sufficiently considering harmony between nature and humans and environmental justice designed for social justice. As our living environment is among the factors that determine the quality of life, it should be unjust and unfair to overly expose specific groups to costs or benefits related to productive activities. While social justice and environmental justice do not necessarily match, an environmentally unjust use of resources is socially unjust, too. All citizens should be guaranteed minimum right to environment, while environmental benefits for the majority must not be discarded in the interests of a minority. So, the state must ensure that national people are not subjected to unreasonable discrimination through urban development with respect to environment in all the areas of politics, economics, sociology, and culture for any reasons such as regions, population, and income level. The government must make sure that the involved benefits are widely shared and handed down to future generations. The study is designed to review urban planning and development related legislation with respect to environmental justice and form a discourse from the perspective of environmental justice with a focus on the latest issues arising in urban development. It is known that the erstwhile studies on urban planning and development as conducted from the perspective of environmental justice have steadily gone on in various areas such as public administration, urban planning, sociology, geology, and environmental engineering. In this study, in particular, I have treated several issues from the perspective of environmental justice with a focus on the issues related to urban planning and development that have arisen in the wake of the inauguration of the Park Geun-hye administration. Key issues include New Plus housing in the Green Belt, landfill sites in Seoul metropolitan region, Happy Home supplied on old railway sites, universal right to a view, and compensation for environmental damage in areas around public benefit projects.