The optimum size of Seoul's districts in South Korea

Published date01 August 2017
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1617
Date01 August 2017
Practitioner Paper
The optimum size of Seouls districts in
South Korea
Intae Choi*
Seoul, Korea
The optimum size of a city is marginal size when the city has inefciencies in urban administration or the point that
when a city loses attraction from citizens. This paper is examining optimal size of Seoul Autonomous Districts in
South Korea. Because of the highly dense population in Seoul area, the government of South Korea is trying to solve
this problem by implementing policies on developing non Seoul areas. However, it is important why Seoul in South
Korea has abnormal dense population in comparison to other areas. Seoul is consisted of 25 autonomous districts and
this paper found one autonomous district. Gangnam-gu is a highly inefcient district comparing to other districts in
Seoul. This nding can be a cause of dense population problem in Seoul. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
INTRODUCTION
The size of a city is not only signicant in terms of
regional management, but also in terms of urban
management. In regards to their economic dimen-
sion, smaller cities are likely to have higher manage-
ment costs. On the other hand, congestion costs
occur in larger cities (Henderson, 1974), which bring
about social losses. It is therefore crucial to examine
the optimum size of urban cities. From an economic
standpoint, the size of a city can change based on its
physical and socioeconomic variables; therefore, it is
important to examine the notion of a relative urban
size rather than an absolute urban size.
There are many factors that affect the size of a
city including production conditions, population,
city system, industrial structure, and facilities. The
topography, climate, and natural resources of a
city can create relatively favorable production
conditions for commodities, which leads to urban
growth. In terms of commerce, cities with such
advantageous conditions spend less on trading rela-
tions with nearby areas. However, comfortability
can also function as an important variable in
relation to urban size. Although generally speaking
the size of a city is largely dependent on population
density, urban housing preference is likely to be
dependent on comfortability. The demand of urban
commodities from nearby areas is also interrelated
with city sizes (Hong, 2004).
Although it is yet unclear on how certain social
conditions affect city sizes, an increasing amount
of interest is being given to examining the optimum
size of cities. This is because depending on city size,
the productivity, production costs, wages, and rent
vary, and different types of social problems, trafc
congestion, and environmental contamination oc-
cur. Although there are many studies related to ex-
amining optimal sizes of cities, it has been difcult
to nd a common standard because of philosophical
differences.
Prior to examining the optimum city size how-
ever, the determining criteria must be considered.
Criteria could include, the physical form of a city,
social convenience facilities, the level of agglomera-
tion economies, the economic efciency of urban
functions, and the economic participation of city
dwellers, which helps assess the quality of urban
life. If such determining criteria are different, it
would be difcult to examine the optimum size of
a city (Kim & Suh, 2009). However, among the
many theories, the one that draws most interest is
*Correspondence to: Intae Choi, Yonhee Hall 213, 50, Yonsei-ro,
Seodaemu-gu, Seoul 03722, Korea.
E-mail: intae@yonsei.ac.kr
Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1of 4
Journal of Public Affairs
Volume 17 Number 3 e1617 (2017)
Published online 5 July 2016 in Wiley Online Library
(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.1617

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