Korea has experienced rapid urbanization accompanied by rapid economic growth, and the size of urban area has been expanding because of continuing migration of rural residents into the cities. These recent phenomena have lead to an unequal development of entire country. Also, it has taken on various aspects from entire country to the development of local regions, and especially it has brought social problems to the cities located in the capital region. As for the solution to such problems, this study discusses the plan of urban revitalization based on growth management through theoretical approaches such as growth management, urban regeneration, sustainable development and smart growth that are being issued in developed countries. Then, the study verifies the robustness of urban revitalization plan and its correlation with basic strategies through an analysis on the aspects of urban development of Siheung city where various development projects are recently undertaking.
The results from theoretical approaches of this study show differentiated correlations in each of urban space, urban environment, political and systematic growth management, urban regeneration, sustainable development and smart growth, and based on the results, this study provided criteria for urban revitalization based on growth management. The conclusion derived from this study are as follows.
First, in foreign developed countries who have been pushing ahead numbers of urban regeneration policies as countermeasures to the deterioration of urban area, limitations in physical urban regeneration on existing inner section of a city were already realized and thus now they are making a lot of effort to control ill-considered expansion of urban area and revitalization of central area at the same time. Second, by applying various planning methods based on the concept and theories of urban regeneration based on growth management, the ill-considered expansion of large cities can be prohibited and at the same time it enables sustainable development accompanied by economic growth and conservation of environment. Third, to promote the urban revitalization based on growth management, following criteria should be considered: from the view of urban space, 1. construction of rational urban spatial structure, 2. plan of efficient use of land, 3. developmental density control for balanced development, from the view of urban environment, 1. conservation of history and cultural environment, 2. securing pedestrians’ space, and from the view of policy and regulation, improvement in finance, budget, organization and system and rational management. Fourth, Siheung city has made a great effort to build a sustainable city through various city development plans in the present, however, most of the development projects were far different from sustainable development management, and the projects relatively with higher correlations as well are limited to partial improvements. These aspects are likely to appear in other cities in Korea, and to prevent this, there should be certain level of population each city aims for and the characteristics of each city should be analyzed thoroughly so that they can set clear direction and vision of urban development. Also, strategic approaches appropriate to each city need to be prepared.