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Toward a National Urban Park… Busan Metropolitan City Hosts Expert Familiarization Tour to Showcase the Value of Eulsukdo

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Acting Mayor Kim Kyung-duk, announced that it will launch a two-day on-site familiarization tour beginning today (May 19) by inviting experts in the fields of environment, ecology, and landscape architecture as part of its full-scale efforts toward the designation of the “Nakdong River Estuary National Urban Park.”

The event is intended to broaden external support for the City’s designation initiative amid the upcoming enforcement of the revised “Park and Green Space Act” on August 27 and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s national urban park designation competition.

A total of 17 experts—including Professor Cho Kyung-jin of Seoul National University, Professor Kim Young-min of the University of Seoul, and Professor Choi Song-hyun of Pusan National University—will participate in the event. Experts from academia, professional associations, the media, and civic organizations specializing in environment, landscape architecture, and ecology will assess the value of Eulsukdo for national urban park designation and contribute ideas for developing globally competitive content.

On the first day of the event (May 19), experts and members of the media will gather near Busan Station to engage in in-depth discussions on the current progress and key issues related to the national urban park initiative.

Participants will explore practical measures to accelerate the designation process and discuss differentiated strategies aligned with anticipated government evaluation criteria.

On the second day (May 20), participants will visit historical and wildlife conservation sites across Eulsukdo, the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, where nature and art coexist, and the Amisan Observatory, which offers panoramic views of the vast ecosystem of the Nakdong River Estuary, to highlight the area’s excellence as a nationally significant ecological asset.

The City also plans to propose expanding the land and environmental art-centered cultural space connecting the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art and Eulsukdo Cultural Center beyond the buildings themselves, while restoring existing artificial landscaping areas into ecological wetlands.

Through this event, the City aims to reinforce public consensus nationwide regarding the ecological excellence of the area while building policy support for establishing a national-level conservation system.

Competition among local governments to attract designation has intensified following recent legal revisions that significantly eased the minimum area requirement for national urban parks from 3 million square meters to 1 million square meters.

In response, the City plans to emphasize the ecological value of the restored brackish water zone made possible through the permanent opening of the Nakdong River Estuary Barrage as part of a differentiated strategy unique to the Nakdong River Estuary. Through this approach, the City intends to demonstrate why Eulsukdo should be designated as a national urban park.

Ahn Cheol-su, Director General of the Green City Bureau of Busan Metropolitan City, stated, “This familiarization tour will serve as an opportunity to consolidate favorable public opinion toward the designation of the Nakdong River Estuary National Urban Park and firmly establish its necessity both internally and externally.” He added, “We will devote all available administrative capacity to securing a decisive advantage in the national urban park evaluation so that the earnest aspiration of Busan’s 3.3 million citizens can become a reality.”