Daejeon Ecological Lake Park in South Korea is finally set to be completed

An ecological lake park is expected to be created in the Gapcheon area of Doan New City in Daejeon, South Korea this year. The project to create a lake park in the Gapcheon area is based on the 2020 Daejeon City Master Plan.
The plan was first drawn up in 2006, and construction will begin 16 years later, with completion planned for the second half of this year. According to Daejeon city, the Gapcheon Ecological Lake Park will be built in the Doan-dong area of Seo-gu and Former Shinheung-dong of Yuseong-gu.
The park will be built on a scale of 431,244 square meters and green space of 284,929 square meters (93,510 square meters of lake) with an investment of 100 billion won. Construction will begin in April 2022 and the park will be completed this year.
Construction is scheduled to be completed in September, with trial operation to begin at the end of the year. The project was conceived in 2006 when the 2020 Daejeon City Master Plan was drawn up, but it has been stalled for 10 years due to compensation and environmental issues.
When the development plan was announced at the time, there were mixed reactions from the local community. The designation was announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in 2014, and the project plan and implementation plan were approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in 2015.
The project continued to be promoted, but it faced various obstacles. During the project promotion process, issues such as compensation and environmental issues were raised, and the opposition to the Kocheon Lake Park project in the local community grew stronger.
In the end, Daejeon City and Daejeon Urban Development Corporation formed a private-public consultation body including civic groups in 2016, and after 19 rounds of discussion, they came up with a plan to create a new lake park that would strengthen the ecological functions of the park.
During this process, a proposal was made to reduce the lake's freshwater area from the current 126,000 square meters to 85,000 square meters, but after discussions between the Ministry of Environment and other relevant departments, the current size was finalized.
Daejeon City is linking the Gapcheon Lake Park with the surrounding natural resources such as Gapcheon and Wolpyeong Park to maintain the stability of the Gapcheon ecosystem and to create an open space where citizens can enjoy their leisure time together with their neighbors.
The plan is to create a public participation space with themed playgrounds, cultivated wetlands, and an event plaza.