Incheon has begun drafting the 2045 Incheon Master Plan and Living-Zone Plan, a 20-year blueprint intended to reorient the city around neighborhood-centered development.
Lee Won-ju, director of the city’s Urban Planning Bureau, told reporters in the city hall briefing room on March 24 that the city will launch the consulting contract in May and aims to finalize and publish the plan by June 2028.
The plan will serve as Incheon’s highest-level statutory document, laying out a long-term spatial strategy that addresses transportation, public safety and cultural infrastructure.
The master plan sets the city’s long-term vision and spatial framework, while the living-zone plan translates that strategy into concrete, neighborhood-level actions. A 2024 legal amendment made the living-zone plan mandatory, increasing its significance.
Incheon’s urban composition is complex—historic downtown areas, new towns including the Free Economic Zone, and island districts such as Ganghwa and Ongjin—so officials emphasize the need for a neighborhood-focused plan that reflects local conditions.
To improve efficiency in plan formulation, the city will employ artificial intelligence (AI) and mobile-based citizen engagement.
During revisions to the 2040 Master Plan, officials used AI to shorten draft preparation from 19 months to five weeks and substantially broadened public participation via mobile feedback.
For the 2045 plan, AI will again generate initial drafts, and the city will continuously incorporate public input to accelerate and streamline the planning process.
The city will also introduce an Incheon-specific “N-Minute City” model, informed by an international joint study called B15M (Beyond 15-Minute) linked to the European Union’s urban innovation program (DUT), to complement the 15-minute city concept.
The model aims to refine access systems across living zones in a way that accounts for Incheon’s coexistence of historic downtowns, new towns and island communities.
Lee said, “By combining AI with robust citizen participation, we will transform the planning process and develop a living-zone-centered urban model tailored to Incheon.”
/Reporter Yejin Park yejin0613@incheonilbo.com
