New Year's Briefing on Environment and Safety
Largest-Ever Seoul International Garden Expo
Municipal Waste Reduction Project Launched
AI Fire Patrol Robots Expanded to Traditional Markets
This year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will focus on expanding "green welfare" to achieve the goal of a "5-Minute Garden City Seoul." The city plans to newly establish 65 companion gardens within medical, welfare, and childcare facilities, and will also expand the "Seoul-style Garden Prescription" program, which provides nature-based healing for citizens in need of emotional stability and recovery.
On January 30 and February 2, Mayor Oh Sehoon received work reports from a total of seven departments: Environment, Gardens, Finance, Lifelong Education, Arisu (Waterworks), Fire and Disaster, and Civil Affairs & Judicial Police.
The scene from the '2025 Seoul International Garden Expo' held last year at Boramae Park in Dongjak-gu, Seoul. The Asia Business Daily
The Garden City Bureau announced that it will enhance citizens' experience and realize "green welfare" through the "5-Minute Garden City Seoul" initiative. In addition to attractive gardens in daily life, 65 new companion gardens will be established within medical, welfare, and childcare facilities. The "Seoul-style Garden Prescription" program, which offers nature-based healing for citizens in need of emotional stability and recovery, will also be expanded.
In G-Valley, the city will increase roadside greenery to 100,000 square meters by 2030 by utilizing street trees, green belts, and public open spaces. Landscape forests and themed or experiential gardens will also be gradually created in World Cup Park, Baekryeon Neighborhood Park, and Jungnang Camping Forest.
The "Seoul International Garden Expo" will be held at Seoul Forest from May 1 to October 27 this year under the theme "Seoul, Green Culture." A total of 150 specialized gardens linked to K-culture will be created, and linear gardens will connect main roads and village alleys, expanding the expo space throughout the area.
The Climate and Environment Headquarters reported a comprehensive reduction-focused plan to address the ban on direct landfilling of municipal waste, which took effect this year, amid the fact that the national budget for the construction of the metropolitan resource recovery facility has been completely cut for two consecutive years.
Since 2019, Seoul has pursued the construction of a metropolitan resource recovery facility, but the project has been suspended due to lawsuits from residents. In addition, the National Assembly has completely cut the national budget for the construction of the Mapo Metropolitan Resource Recovery Facility for both 2025 and 2026. Even if the city wins the appeal on February 12, 2026, it will not be able to start the project immediately due to the lack of national funding.
To address the uncertainty regarding the expansion of treatment facilities and to ensure stable waste management that reduces inconvenience for citizens, the city will launch a citizen participation-based reduction policy to decrease municipal waste from the point of generation. Notably, the "10 Million Citizens Municipal Waste Diet Project," which aims to reduce each citizen's annual waste by the equivalent of one standard volume-based waste bag, will begin on February 9.
The Seoul Arisu Headquarters will conduct water quality tests on 362 items-more than twice the 166 recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO)-to ensure world-class water quality management and daily safety for citizens. The city has also introduced free nighttime and holiday water quality testing, as well as non-face-to-face water testing, considering the lifestyles of single-person and dual-income households.
The Fire and Disaster Headquarters will fully implement the "Seoul-style Disaster Response System," which dramatically enhances citizens' sense of safety by introducing artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced robotics technology across all disaster response operations. In particular, the "AI Fire Patrol Robot," which was introduced for the first time in Korea last year and piloted in two traditional markets (Mapo and Namdaemun), will be expanded to four traditional markets.
The Civil Affairs & Judicial Police Bureau announced plans to conduct thorough criminal investigations and preventive activities in the real estate and illegal private finance sectors, which can cause irreversible harm to vulnerable groups amid high exchange rates and inflation. The city will strictly investigate price-fixing activities that disrupt real estate prices and new types of illegal lending operations exploiting franchise outlets, in order to establish a sound transaction order. In response to the spread of youth-targeted crimes online, the city will operate an online reporting channel for youth drug offenses and intensify investigations into illegal substances and harmful establishments.
Additionally, the Finance Bureau will improve the "Seoul Contract Plaza," which provides contract information for the city, to enhance accessibility for small and medium-sized enterprises to public contract information and substantially alleviate difficulties experienced during the public contract participation process. The city will provide customized contract statistics by comprehensively analyzing key information such as contract type, size, timing, and method, and will post explanatory materials for each contract procedure to improve understanding of public contracts.
Mayor Oh stated, "One of this year's key tasks is to build a city where citizens' daily lives are safely guaranteed, based on the achievements of policies that Seoul has pursued with utmost effort so far," and added, "Only when the basics-such as environment, safety, and education-are firmly established, can citizens' lives be stable."
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