Busan’s Urban Future: Rethinking Roads, Green Spaces, and Livability

BUSAN, South Korea - Known for its rugged hills, winding roads, and dense urban districts squeezed between the mountains and the sea, Busan has long been defined by its complex geography. Unlike Seoul’s broad, well-planned boulevards, Busan’s urban sprawl developed in response to its natural constraints, creating a cityscape where roads carve through cliffsides, neighborhoods stack upon steep inclines, and pedestrian spaces often take a backseat to vehicle infrastructure. In recent years, however, the city has begun to rethink its relationship with its roads, looking beyond the car-centric model of the past to imagine a future where urban space serves both people and nature.

The Seomyeon Intersection Symbolic Garden, Busan’s latest initiative in urban greening, represents an early step in that direction. Positioned at one of the city’s busiest intersections, the project aims to transform a high-traffic traffic island into a green landmark, offering a respite from the sea of asphalt and steel that dominates the landscape. It is a symbolic move, a small but meaningful gesture toward integrating nature into Busan’s infrastructure.

Yet the city’s most pressing urban challenges lie beyond its commercial centers, in the older districts, the winding streets of the western regions, and the congested thoroughfares that struggle to balance pedestrian needs with growing traffic.

In much of Busan, the reality of urban mobility remains unchanged. In areas like Seo-gu, Dong-gu, and Yeongdo, where streets were designed for a different era, pedestrians navigate narrow alleys with little to no sidewalk space, forced to share the road with cars and delivery trucks. Roads in Sasang and Buk-gu, once adequate for mid-20th-century transportation patterns, now suffer from congestion that leaves little room for anything beyond vehicles. Unlike newer developments where planners have the flexibility to incorporate green infrastructure from the outset, these districts must work with what exists—outdated layouts, limited pedestrian zones, and insufficient room for green expansion.

The challenge is not just to add more parks or plant more trees but to redesign urban spaces in ways that prioritize people over vehicles, without compromising mobility in a city still highly dependent on cars.

For Busan, the solution will not be found in large-scale redevelopment alone but in a strategic reimagining of existing infrastructure. Cities with similar constraints—Hong Kong, Lisbon, and San Francisco—have embraced vertical gardens, tiered greenways, and adaptive reuse of roadways to integrate nature into limited spaces. In areas where road expansion is impossible, the introduction of pocket parks, tree-lined staircases, and green facades can soften the dominance of concrete and asphalt, offering small but impactful oases in otherwise gray environments. Public staircases, a common feature in Busan’s older neighborhoods, could be transformed into shaded green corridors, making them not just pathways but destinations in themselves.

Beyond aesthetic improvements, Busan’s streets need functional greenery that improves air quality, mitigates the urban heat island effect, and enhances pedestrian comfort.

Some initiatives are already underway—tree corridors designed to channel cool breezes through the city’s core, and urban reforestation projects aimed at reducing fine dust pollution—but these efforts remain fragmented. A more cohesive, citywide approach is necessary, one that prioritizes not just where greenery can be added, but where it can serve a tangible environmental and social function.

Traffic-heavy areas like Centum City, Gwangalli, and Sasang stand as prime candidates for this shift. In these zones, where vehicle congestion is unavoidable, integrating trees along road dividers, introducing bioswales to manage stormwater runoff, and creating shaded pedestrian pathways could redefine the way roads function. Instead of seeing streets solely as corridors for movement, Busan has the opportunity to transform them into active public spaces—places where greenery coexists with transportation, offering benefits beyond the utilitarian function of getting from one point to another.

But as with any urban transformation, challenges remain. Efforts to reclaim space from vehicles often meet resistance, particularly in a country where cars remain a dominant mode of transport. The city’s Greenbelt policies, designed to protect undeveloped land, are already being reevaluated to accommodate new projects, raising concerns among environmental groups about whether Busan’s commitment to sustainability is being undermined by its own development agenda. The cost of maintaining new green infrastructure also poses a challenge; without proper planning and investment, what begins as an ambitious initiative can quickly fall into neglect.

Yet, the momentum for change is growing. Cities worldwide are recognizing that the way we design roads and public spaces has long-term consequences for sustainability, resilience, and quality of life. Busan, with its unique geographic constraints, has the opportunity to pioneer a model of green urbanism that is adaptable, innovative, and deeply connected to the city’s natural landscape. If projects like the Seomyeon Intersection Garden are expanded beyond isolated beautification efforts and into a broader vision for a pedestrian-friendly, climate-resilient city, Busan could emerge as a leader in rethinking urban space in an era where sustainability is no longer optional, but essential.

The future of Busan’s roads will not be defined solely by how efficiently they move traffic, but by how well they serve the people who live in, walk through, and experience the city every day. The challenge now is ensuring that urban planning keeps pace with that vision, transforming not just a single intersection, but the very fabric of the city itself.