About the KPA

Established in 1959, The Korea Planning Association (KPA) is an academic research organization with approximately 7,000 individuals as well as various public and private institutions (as of January 2016) as its members. The number and composition of our members is a clear indication that we are Korea’s leading research organization in urban planning.

Over the years, our organization has played a leading role in supplying national infrastructures such as highways and industrial complexes. We have also led the efforts to stabilize the housing, through supply and balanced development. Our

achievements can clearly be seen from many new towns and innovation cities we have led in developing such as Bun Dang, Il San, and Se Jong. In addition, we have recently began leading the discussions as well as coming up with new paradigm on planning of new types of cities such as resilience city, world city, U-city, and healthy cities –in order to cope with the changes due to climate change, globalization, IT innovation, declining birthrate, and aging population. Furthermore, we are also focusing on future subject matters such as land development and urban planning in North Korea post-unification of the Korean peninsula, and exportation of urban planning platform to developing countries.

But above all, we are most proud of the magnitude and the quality of our academic activities. The Journal of Korea Planning Association (JKPA), the official journal of KPA, is currently ranked first on Korea Citation Index (KCI) of National Research Foundation of Korea as the publication most cited; and it was also selected by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in Korea as one of “Korea’s leading journals.” Our English publication, The International Journal of Urban Sciences (IJUS), is published through a world class publisher Routledge. It is currently listed on SCOPUS as well as ESCI, and SSCI.

Our monthly publication “Urban Information Service” which provides urban planning issues quickly and accurately to Korean readers is a “must-read” for all city planning related public employees throughout over 240 regional government offices in Korea. We have also compiled numerous teaching materials for those studying in the fields of urban planning, while various special issues on the subject had been published for the benefit of general public.

Our organization has been discovering and sharing new knowledge through numerous academic seminars such as our regular biannual conferences in spring and autumn. Moreover, we play a pivotal role –through seminars and debates on issues at hand –in establishing national policies and structuring systems on the land and the cities. Since 2000, we have –together with Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport –organized Korea City Awards aimed to evaluate and honor those regional government administrations that have excelled in managing its cities. We also organize “City Day” celebrations to remind all those involved in urban planning of their social duties.

All the activities and contributions of our organization cannot be fully described by just these words. Much more can be learned about us from our website(www.kpa1959.or.kr).