Internet Technology and Cyber Urban Planning in the

Information Age

International Symposium on City Planning 1999. Tainan, Taiwan(09/19 1999)

Kyoungsoo Lim (Prof. of Sungkyul Univ)kslim@hana.sungkyul.ac.kr

Deokho Cho (Prof. of Taegu University)chodh@biho.taegu.ac.kr

http://biho.taegu.ac.kr/~chodh

-The Table of Contents-

I. Introduction

II. Internet Technology and Information Revolution

III. Information Revolution and Paradigm Shifts in Urban Planning

1. A New Paradigm in Urban Planning 2. Information Technology and Changes of Industrial and Spatial Structures

3. Virtual Reality and Urban Planning

IV. Internet Technology and Collaborative Urban Planning

1. The Application of Internet Technology in Urban Planing 2. Internet Technology and the Simulation of Collaborative Urban Planning

V. The Limitations of New Planning Tools and Future Urban Planning

I. Introduction

In the last two decades information technology has been dramatically developed, and this trend will continue in the next decade. Internet technology has particularly led the emergence of the information age. An information revolution refers not only to computer and telecommunications technology, but to the role of information itself, and the accompanying transformations in the public, corporate, and personal worlds that information and the technology are bringing about. The information technology has far-reaching impacts that we are only beginning to understand, affecting local and international economies, urban spatial structure, travel and work patterns, and floor space requirements. It fundamentally changes the concepts of time and space in the spatial structure, which called cyberspace.

Planners should understand these impacts for preparing future urban planning. Urban planners must particularly understand the characteristics of information revolution and apply it to the urban planning. This paper first reviews the characteristics of the information age and the paradigm shift in urban planning. It second examines the relationship between the information revolution and urban planning. Third, it develops an urban planning model in the cyberspace using telecommunications technology. Finally, it suggests some directions on urban planning in the information age.

II. Internet Technology and Information Revolution

Telecommuting and telecommunications are likely to internationalize many practices and institutions. These technologies allow that accessibility to workplace will be less important, but a better residential location will be still important because the employees can work in their home through telecommunication. Particularly, the development of Internet Technology makes it possible to build cyberspace and video conferencing without having face-to-face meetings.

The number of personal computers connected to the Web Source was 82 million in 1997 and it will be 268 million in 2001. Generally, the number of Internet users is estimated to be 10 times the number of host computers.

In Korea, the number of hosts and domains are also dramatically increasing. The number of host was only 7,650 in 1993 but the growth rate is more than 25 times, which are 195,736 in March 1999. The number of Internet users reaches 3,681,000 in March 1999. More specifically, the change of number of hosts is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Change of Number of Hosts

Source: http://www.krnic.net/english/net/2_93_00.html

III. Information Revolution and Paradigm Shifts in Urban Planning

1. A New Paradigm in Urban Planning

An economic activity in the industrial age basically assumes mobility such as the mobility of the products from suppliers to consumers or the people's mobility from workplace to home. It also requires the cost of time and distance.

A city is created and grown by scale and agglomeration economies, comparing it with other cities. In order to provide the business environments for maximize these economies, a local government built a railroad or highway and large industrial complexes. These planning activities created a present city prototype with a high-density business district and high-rise building.

However, Information Technology is changing these basic assumptions on the time and space in economic activities of the information communications. It creates new concepts that mean a timeless time and cyberspace. It is also having

a propound impacts on the kind of economic activity and urban spatial structure.

Due to these changes, how a company is organized in the real world, where it is located, and what kinds of jobs Information technology generates or disappears? As a result, how urban spatial structure will be changed?

Furthermore, Information technology leads to the automation of routine activities in both manufacturing and the service sectors, such as a form process or database. Moreover, information technology makes possible new organizational options by enhancing communications linkages through computer networks, video conferencing, and electronic mail.

A function of an institute or a company can be geographically redistributed over a wider area regionally, nationally, over even on a global level. This technology has far-reaching impacts on the social activity and gradually changes the industrial and spatial structures. It leads to the globalization of economy and competition and creates a concept of cyberspace or cyber shopping. In other words, telecommunications have redefined the principles of growth and decay for many of large cities.

2. Information Technology and Changes of Industrial and Spatial Structures

Information technology is transforming the basic characteristics of economic activity and the type of jobs available is correspondingly changing.

It is restructuring industries and reorganizing companies. Many scholars argued that information technology is creating a more polarized job structure, consisting of high-skill, well paying jobs at one end and lower-paying, physical labor-oriented jobs at the other one, and fewer jobs in between.

Telecommunications will allow a space-less job while the traditional jobs demand the floor space and buildings. Information technology-based business is becoming available to employers to reduce cost, increase productivity, and serve customers better. In summary, the flow of information will decide the ultimate fates of cities in the information age while the flow of goods to the port or train station or highway terminal was main components of urban competitiveness in the industrial age.

Telecommunications, particularly computer conferencing emerged as a tool for building new social relationships across barriers of space and time. Remote Employment, the Virtual Office, and Hotelling are new options in business and urban planning. Barriers of time and space that have been two key factors in urban planning will be gradually disappeared in near future.

3. Virtual Reality and Urban Planning

Virtual environments are digital simulations of situations, real or fictional, in which users are able to participate. Participation can be achieved as real-time base. The building of virtual environments are composed of a threefold paradigm of representation, modeling and connection.

Virtual reality can be categorized as two types, immersive and non-immersive or remote VR, depending upon the degree of interface with users. Immersive VR is an application in terms of Qusi-Physical Experience. An aircraft simulator is one of the most representative example. Users can execute their tasks in a virtual reality as close as possible to those conducted in a real situation. A recent emerging concept of virtual reality is the network virtual reality. It is a result of the massive progress in the Internet and the World Wide Web in particular. Users can access the virtual reality across computer network at the remote locations. These kinds of networked virtual worlds are growing very rapidly at present, providing environments which many new kinds of representation and remote networking are able to take place (See Figure 2).

VRML shows how the urban environment can be modeled and the models distributed on the WWW. Figure 3 is a typical example of VRML models with visualization on the WWW. This basic model can be used effectively to visualize the urban environments.

Figure 2. Types of Virtual Reality

Source: http://www.casu.ac.uk/planning/articles4/vrsim.htm

Figure 3. Virtual Reality Modeling Example

Source: http://www.casu.ac.uk/urbanplan.pdf

IV. Internet Technology and Collaborative Urban Planning

1.The Application of Internet Technology in Urban Planing

Urban planning must deal with the explosive spatial, economic, and social problems emerging in cities and regions under the shock waves of the information age. The development of Internet technology opens the way to overcome the limitations of time and space in urban planning. The utilization of Internet technology in planning can generate several benefits as follows.

1) A planning agency can significantly improve their ability to release timely, accurate, and robust information, to get public input, and considerably to increase public satisfaction with planning function through this technology.

2) Internet technology can provide the public with a visionary information as well as a text and sound one. Moreover, this information can easily be

updated.

3) It also makes innovations in publications.

4) It also improves significantly the public participation in urban planning. Finally a web page can improve planning practices. They can easily understand their responsibilities and rights on urban planning and suggest their opinions to the planning agency.

2.Internet Technology and the Simulation of Collaborative Urban Planning

Due to the above characteristics of Internet technology, a new paradigm in urban planning can occur, called collaborative planning. Until now the participation of citizens in the planning process has been extremely limited due to several reasons such the lack of professional knowledge, time and space limits, or other reasons. The citizens usually participate in the planning process through public hearings or questionnaires and then their available role is to accept or reject the proposal.

Internet technology is one of the representative options to change the way of citizens’ participation in the planning process. In order to build a collaborative planning process, information network and databases on the planning area should be initially established like Figure 4 and Figure 5. A local community at first should build the infrastructure of an information network. Based upon this infrastructure, the databases on the economic, social, and physical statistics of the community can be established in order to get the basic information for preparing a collaborative urban planning.

Figure 4. Virtual Worlds -Client/Sever Model

Source: http://www.casu.ac.uk/urbanplan.pdf

Figure 5. The Geographical Information System of MapoGu

Source: http://www.metro.seoul.kr/kor/tour/tour/sub11.html

This paper develops conceptually a virtual model on the design of the 2002 World Cup Gymnasium in Mapogu. It assumes that the Mapo local community, where the 2002 World Cup Main Stadium will be located, already developed the information infrastructure and geographical information system like Figure 4 and 5. Based upon the information network and GIS databases of Mapogu, this paper will develop a model of collaborative urban planning for the 2002 World Cup Stadium. The first is a Co-Design process that focuses on the public communicating with community designers (planning professionals) through the creation of perspective drawings of gymnasium. In this process, a perspective drawing is drawn first and the plan develops as a secondary measure.

The Mapo community planners provide the Mapo citizens with a perspective drawing like the Figure 4, which is called a Bangpae Kite of Hope. The citizens suggest their opinions or advice to this Bangpae Kite of Hope through the Internet communications.

Figure 6. A Perspective Drawing of the Bangpae Kite of Hope of 2002 World Cup

Source: http://www.metro.seoul.kr/kor/index.html

The next procedure is to engage actual physical model construction with all of the participants. The community designers provide the guidelines on the drawings of facilities such as the site, floorspace, or functions and the public suggests the opinions or directly participates in drawing the facilities, following the guidelines. The designers of World Cup Gymnasium at first build a series of 3D models, using the design software like Computer Aided Design (CAD). The second phase is an “Open Ended Self Directed Approach.” In the phase the Mapo or Seoul Citizens are provided with the kits so that they can construct their vision of the gymnasium. The pre-made models are used to generate design discussion and to prepare the participants to construct their own models. These models will be revised through the telecommunications options and integrated into a final vision of gymnasium design like Figure 5.

Figure 7. Seoul Gymnasium of 2002 World Cup

Source: http://www.2002worldcupkorea.org/worldcup/kowoc.html

V. The Limitations of New Planning Tools and Future Urban Planning

Internet technology, especially urban planning through web page has several advantages such as the improvement of planning ability of planning staffs as well as innovations in methodology, publications, accomplishments, and even practices in the planning fields. And several software such as CAD, GIS, HTML, and Video Conferencing can be utilized in urban planning in order to create better the vision and communication, or to reduce the cost of urban planning. However, this Internet planning might be not a meta-rule. In order to applying it to the actual planning fields, it contains several limitations that must be solved as follows.

1) A local community must build an information network for communicating with the public and establish databases such as the geographical information system.

2) The community planners must provide their citizens with pre-design models, design or planning software kits for the collaborative urban planning.

3) Both the community planners and the public or professionals should have design and communications skills for creating their own designs and communicating them with each other.

4) The most important thing is the public concerns on the collaborative urban planning in the virtual space.

The success of virtual planning depends highly upon the citizen participation to the planning process. To develop a citizen involvement program that insures the opportunity for citizens to be involved in all phases of the planning process, the local governing body charges with preparing and adopting a comprehensive plan.

If the problems of communications and citizens participation are resolved, the virtual urban planning through the Internet will generate several benefits. In the information age, the demand of actual mobility will be decreased because the communications technology can take place of the transportation demand. Moreover, the Intelligent Transportation System is rapidly developing in these days and then it can result in a driver-free car in terms of the delivery of commodity goods. A driver-free car can create a car-free city in the near future. Eventually, the city like Venice has made an effort to develop a car-free city model. Furthermore, Internet communication technology in the information age makes possible to build an environmentally sound and sustainable city because it can reduce a mobility demand and as result decrease the pollution which has been generated in the industrial age. It will improve the quality of life and the efficiency of resource uses. Consequently, information technology might solve the current serious urban problems even if it also has several negative impacts such as the loss of jobs and unemployment.