A Digital City Will Go Online in Yongin

A new town that will be completely controlled online will be built in the city of Yongin by 2007.

Korea Land Corporation has decided to build a 640,000 square meter futurist digital model town in the Heungdeok district of Youngdok-ri Giheung-eup, a model currently being developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the corporation said on January 16.

The corporation will complete the Heung-dok apartment complex by 2007 and finalize the digital town plans by year-end. A digital city model will be completed during the first half of the year.

The digital city is one where the road system is connected with communication chips, and where all aspects of city life are managed by a huge computer. It is an expanded, town-wide application of the next-generation online concept called “ubiquitous environment.”

In the city, residents can control electronic goods while driving their cars and can check the traffic situation from their homes.

The corporation considers building an intelligent transportation system and a high-speed Internet network that is faster than the currently available networks.

The corporation will build the complex while it will retain the natural surroundings of the area where water and forests are bountiful. It will maximize the benefits of the natural surroundings by scrapping old plans to maximize housing areas by filling meadows and leveling hills.

The corporation will reduce the ratio of apartments to houses. It will build 3,450 individual houses, or 37 percent, out of its total 9,330 housing units. It plans to sell the units beginning the end of next year.

The Heungdeok district, located in the west from the Seoul-Busan Expressway or in the south from the Seoul-Gangneung Expressway, was assigned as a housing complex site in December 2001.

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