The forests will bring in cool wind from the suburbs to ventilate urban air and reduce fine dust as well as the heat island effect. (image: Busan Metropolitan Government)
BUSAN, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The city of Busan announced on Wednesday that it plans to create an urban forest to reduce fine dust and mitigate the urban heat island effect.
The Blue Green Network, a project proposed by Busan, was recently approved by the
Korea Forest Service as part of its new Social Overhead Capital (SOC) project.
Busan will invest 20 billion won over the next three years to create so-called ‘Baramgil Forests’ in every nook and cranny of the city including streets, parks, streams and schools.
Baramgil Forests will help sustain nature both in and out of the city, organically connecting urban ecosystems to the suburbs.
The forests will bring in cool wind from the suburbs to ventilate urban air and reduce fine dust as well as the heat island effect.
Busan will begin developing basic plans with the aim to carry out the construction work in 2020. The city will first create a woodland in Sasang Industrial Complex to analyze the forest’s fine dust prevention capability.
The Korea Forest Research Institute showed that street trees and forest parks can reduce fine dust levels by as much as 32 percent and ultrafine dust levels by up to 15 percent.
“The Baramgil Forests will help Busan become a city without fine dust,” said a city representative.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
