Recently transportation has become a matter of major concern in geography. It plays an important part in the formation of a regional structure as well as in the interaction between human beings and between goods. This study was attempted to analyze th...
Recently transportation has become a matter of major concern in geography. It plays an important part in the formation of a regional structure as well as in the interaction between human beings and between goods. This study was attempted to analyze the characteristic feature of the transportation network in Korea. Three view points were considered for this analysis. Firstly, the accessibility was measured in terms of its connectivity. And the regionalization was examined on the basis of the accessibility. Finally, the correlation between the formation of region and the traffic volume was investigated. the results of the analysis are summarized as follows :
1. During the Yi Dynasty, the transportation network which had organized following the relay station system(驛院制) since the Period of Three Kingdoms(三國時代) was developed into nine trunk lines. But with the appearance of automobiles in the 1910s, the road for automobiles was constructed by Japanese invader. After the Korean War the military network was built up around the northern military zone. The economic development plans since 1960s accelerated expansion and improvement of the industrial network, and it became possible to connect any part of the country with others for daily living, parallel with the improvement of the expressways and the tourist network in the 1970s.
2. The total length of roads in Korea is 51,003km. Out of this length, expressways cover 1,420Km, while national roads 12,244Km, 22.4 percent. Investigating the network based upon Graph theory, it is characterized as follows :
There are 176 nodes and 358 linkages. Alpha Index is 0.527, Beta Index is 2.03, and Gamma Index is 0.686. These figures show that the network in Korea belongs to Delta type of Taaffe's network development models. Especially considering the index numbers, it belongs to the early stage of Delta type.
3. The topological character of the network was examined in terms of Weighted Multiple Linkage Measure of Accessibility Given 0.3 Scalar Score. Accessibility was highest in Seoul and relatively high in nodes surrounding Seoul. But in nodes on the coast such as Jangseongpo, Jindo, Wando, Chungmu, Sokcho the accessibility was low. Accessibilities of principal cities had much to do with the budget, the national tax, the local tax, and money dealing in wholesale and retail in the cities.
4. Factor analysis of Weighted Multiple Linkage Measure of Accessibility was made in order to understand the structure of regions. According to the analysis, the whole country can be divided into 6 factor regions of above Eigenvalue. 1.0. Factor Ⅰ as the capital area surrounding Seoul and it has the highest accessibility. Factor Ⅱ is Youngnam area surrounding Taegu in the southeast part of the country. Factor Ⅲ is Honam area surtounding Kwangju in the southwest part. FActor Ⅳ is Choong-chung area surrounding Kongju, and Factor Ⅴ is Taeback area surrounding Jinbu which has the low level of linkage density. Factor Ⅵ is area surrounding Muju and it overlaps with other regions.
5. In the hierachy classified on the basis of factor score from the factor analysis. Seoul, the capital having the highest accessibility, represents the first center. And the nodes in the heart of each Factor Regions - Suwon, Taegu, Jinbu, Kongju-forms the Second center. Such cities including Chunan, Kyungju, Pyungchang, Kwangju(Junnam), Kwangju(Kyunggi), Sukgog, Namwon, Youngchun, Onyang, Buyu forms the third center and these cities have high connectivity with adjacent nodes. There are other 7 classes based upon factor score.
6. The traffic volume was closely related to the structure of region. The higher accessibility and linkage density a region has, the heavier its traffic volume is; The traffic volume is highest in Factor Ⅰ Region, capital area surrounding Seoul, while lowest in Factor Ⅴ Region. Taebaek area.