This study reinterprets the modern cultural heritage of Janghang-eup in Seocheon-gun, Chungcheongnam-do as a multilayered complex heritage in which industrial, maritime, ecological, and everyday-life resources intersect, and proposes a culture- and to...
This study reinterprets the modern cultural heritage of Janghang-eup in Seocheon-gun, Chungcheongnam-do as a multilayered complex heritage in which industrial, maritime, ecological, and everyday-life resources intersect, and proposes a culture- and tourism-oriented regional regeneration strategy grounded in this perspective. Although Janghang-eup emerged as a modern industrial town shaped by railways, ports, and a smelter complex, shifts in the industrial structure, population decline, demographic aging, and environmental degradation have placed many heritage assets at risk of neglect or deterioration, while existing scholarship has remained limited to distributional or developmental analyses without presenting an integrated regeneration model. Through extensive literature review and fieldwork, this research classifies Janghang’s heritage into transportation infrastructure, industrial and production facilities, architectural and residential spaces, maritime, ecological, and landscape resources, and intangible and everyday-life heritage; it further diagnoses the internal asset structure and external environment through case studies of Gunsan, Incheon, and Mokpo, in conjunction with Seocheon-gun statistical data and a SWOT analysis. The findings indicate that Janghang possesses a distinctive urban narrative embedded in a linear and clustered heritage system—linking railway, port, smelter, old town center, pine forest, and tidal flats—where industrial history, everyday-life culture, environmental pollution, and ecological restoration coexist; moreover, a lifestyle-oriented, settlement-based regeneration model is found to be more suitable to the town’s scale and conditions than short-term, tourism-centered approaches. Based on this assessment, the study proposes a multi-cluster cultural tourism framework comprising industrial-heritage, marine-tidal-flat, forest-recreation, and culture-creation axes, alongside a combined public–private–resident governance and financing structure and phased utilization plans that prioritize environmental and safety considerations. By redefining Janghang’s modern heritage as a future-oriented regional asset and outlining the direction for a Janghang-specific cultural regeneration model, this research offers both academic and practical contributions, while calling for subsequent studies incorporating detailed physical surveys and data-driven evaluations.
The Graduate School of Cultural Heritage
Kongju National University,
Gongju, Korea
Supervised by Professor Beom Park