Day Three: Organized Jane Jacob's Walk with a Citizen Activist

Today was a special day that I was super excited about within our study abroad program schedule. Our group visited the Ihwa Mural Village, a village that sits just outside of the city of Seoul. The Ihwa village was once considered a slowly declining and unattractive area and was in threat of demolition. However, the Ministry of Culture conducted a project (known as the Naksan Cultural Project) in the early 2000s to implement works of art in the village to attract tourism. A lot of the artwork reflected the characteristics of the village as well as the history of Seoul. Below is a photo showing a mural on the house of two of the residents in the Ihwa village.

Although attracting tourism was a success, it soon became a major issue within the village since privacy was no longer a given. It was interesting to learn the benefits and negative impacts of tourism. While walking along the hillside of this village, I noticed some of the newer buildings near the Seoul City Wall had solar panels on the rooftops. As we kept walking, I began to notice more of these panels on top of the buildings we were passing. I had not had the chance to notice these solar panels while in the city of Seoul. I became curious as to how many solar panels the city of Seoul currently has. I found that a little over 120 public buildings have a total installed capacity of 3.8 MW, 17 infrastructural facilities have a capacity of 3.8 MW, 43 schools have a capacity of 1.8 MW, and public parking areas have a total capacity of 12 MW based on the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. In addition, I was surprised to learn that Seoul will soon begin expanding its existing project (known as the "Small Photovoltaic Plants for Houses and Buildings") to include solar panels on public buildings. The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to install over one million solar panels on public buildings and offer subsidies as an incentive. I believe that the installation of these solar panels would greatly benefit the environment as it aids in the reduction of energy consumption, which is a part of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Although installing solar panels will have a high cost up-front, reducing energy consumption by using solar panels will offer a natural source of renewable energy which provides long-term benefits both financially and environmentally.