Daegu City to Expand 'Urban Forests'... 11.3 Billion KRW Invested This Year

14 Projects, 118 Sites, "Greenhouse Gas and Heat Island Mitigation"

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Koo Dae-seon] Daegu City will invest 11.3 billion KRW this year to launch an urban forest creation project.

Daegu City will carry out 14 projects, including the creation of 'climate response urban forests,' to expand urban forests within residential areas and achieve carbon neutrality by reducing fine dust.

Urban forests are forests created to solve environmental problems by absorbing greenhouse gases generated in urban areas and mitigating the urban heat island effect, as well as to enhance the urban landscape.

Daegu City will promote various forest cultivation efforts to realize a carbon-neutral city and secure insufficient urban green spaces by implementing 14 projects including urban forest creation.

Through urban forest creation, 5 projects including climate response urban forests will be carried out at 21 locations with a budget of 8 billion KRW, and 9 projects such as removing fences for residential green space creation will be conducted at 97 locations with a budget of 3.3 billion KRW. Construction will begin in the first half of the year and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.

Duryu Park Daegu Representative Urban Forest.

Previously, in the urban wind corridor forest project promoted by the Korea Forest Service to reduce fine dust and mitigate the heat island effect in urban areas, 20 billion KRW out of the total project cost of 30 billion KRW was invested in the first phase from 2019 to 2022, completing the creation of 38 sites covering 48 hectares including Daegu Representative Forest in Duryu Park.

Also, with 500 million KRW this year, the second phase project’s detailed design service will be completed by the end of the year, and from 2024 to 2025, over two years, an investment of 9.5 billion KRW will be made to create urban wind corridor forests centered on river aquatic ecological axes such as the Geumho River to induce air circulation within the city.

Ji Hye-jae, Director of the Environment and Water Resources Bureau of Daegu City, said, “It is necessary to expand urban green spaces to respond to heat island effects and air pollution, and we plan to improve quality of life by creating various urban forests within residential areas.”