Sustainability

A smart-city district on the Nakdonggang River sits on land that once buffered Korea’s largest estuary. Its construction reveals how a national water corporation became a developer.

Busan’s skyline soared upward while its public horizons quietly receded. Beaches, ridges, and memorial landscapes now stand at the edge of a slow transformation—one in which the view itself becomes a form of private ownership, and silence becomes the city’s most powerful development tool.

As Busan markets itself as Korea’s next AI and data hub, its energy system tells another story — one dominated by nuclear and imported LNG. With renewables under 3%, the city’s digital ambitions risk colliding with the realities of RE100 compliance and carbon-border regulation.

Rising market prices have not translated into higher farm incomes. With fertiliser and labour costs outpacing gains, farmers remain on the brink. Treating rice only as a consumer story risks undermining the very sector that ensures food security.

Busan’s Nakdonggang estuary has lost 60% of its wetlands to development. Can sustainability still guide the city’s future?

Rising temperatures, heavier floods, and urban expansion converge on the Nakdonggang River estuary, where decades of data reveal climate and ecological stress.

As heatwaves and floods hit crops, fresh vegetables and fruit in Korea now cost more than ultra-processed alternatives—reshaping diets, widening health gaps, and challenging food security.

Smart farms promise steady harvests, but without renewable power, shared infrastructure, and sustainable business models, the technology may not withstand the very climate shocks it is meant to defeat.

Eco Delta City was marketed as South Korea’s next-generation urban innovation zone. What unfolded was something else entirely—soil contamination, missing utilities, and housing priced out of reach. Built by public agencies, developed for private gain.

The rise in rice prices is being falsely attributed to government policies, overlooking the deeper issues of market inefficiencies and supply chain weaknesses.

Global forecasts show 2025 will be one of the hottest summers on record. As glaciers melt and harvests shrink, the link between climate change and food insecurity becomes alarmingly real.

Trendy vegan cafés are thriving in Korean cities, but they may be eclipsing more practical, affordable, and ecologically grounded food traditions. What’s lost when clean eating becomes a brand — and who gets left behind?