Suwon Pursues Introduction of 'Sustainable Low-Maintenance Urban Park Forests'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Suwon City announced on the 25th that it is pursuing the introduction of 'sustainable low-maintenance urban park forests' that can reduce park maintenance costs while enhancing ecological value.

'Sustainable low-maintenance urban parks' are parks created in multi-layered forest forms that enhance ecological value while reducing maintenance and management costs.

Bird feed plants will also be introduced to the parks. Urban parks will be created with the concept of 'forests' rather than simple greenspaces.

When developed as low-maintenance urban parks, maintenance costs are 296 won per square meter, accounting for only 14.7% of intensive management-type urban parks (2,017 won per square meter) centered on lawns.

It is estimated that if 20% of Suwon City's expected greenspace area in urban parks is managed using the low-maintenance method, 1.6 billion won in annual budget can be saved.

The city plans to introduce design Value Engineering (VE) when creating or remodeling urban parks to enhance economic efficiency and secure biodiversity.

Design VE is a method of reviewing economic feasibility and on-site application viability to enhance ecological value while reducing budgets.

Additionally, the city plans to promote commissioned work on producing a 'low-maintenance urban park forest manual' to use when creating new parks or remodeling existing 'intensive management-type parks.'