Introduction
Rapid economic growth and industrialization have continuously resulted in overcrowding cities, and such changes in urban areas have caused several problems, such as deteriorated facilities in existing downtown areas and problems related to transportation and environment, and served as a motive for middle-class people who lived in downtown areas to head for outskirt areas such as new towns and cities (
Lee and Dong, 2005). Recent redevelopment projects for existing residential areas have been implemented mostly from the perspective of supply-centered expansion and development policies. As a result, all-out redevelopment projects have been conducted, focusing only on physical environmental improvements not on residents, and in this process problems like the concentration of population and the relocation of commercial areas have resulted in various social and financial problems such as the decline of original downtown areas, the reduced quality of residential environments, a decrease in the population and employment in downtown areas and economic downturn (
Kim, 2016). For this reason, original downtown areas have been isolated from expansion and development projects, and their deteriorated residential conditions such as poor living environments, residents’ decreasing financial status, aging population and an increasing risk of crimes have risen to the surface (
Jung et al., 2015). To address such problems, the government has implemented various urban redevelopment projects in deteriorated downtown areas like redevelopment, reconstruction and new town projects, but has focused only on physical environmental improvements without reflecting regional characteristics, which has destroyed their own historic and locational values (
Kim, 2016), and has caused conflicts between residents over development gains, and in turn new problems such as destroyed local communities and a decreasing resettlement rate (
Jang, 2016).
As an alternative to measures to address problems observed in such conventional urban redevelopment projects, a new concept - urban regeneration - started to emerge (
Korea Planning Association, 2009).
Jung et al. (2015) said that urban regeneration is an act of revitalizing cities considering not only their physical environments but also their economic, social and cultural environments. Recently, many cities started to establish and apply various urban regeneration strategies through the efficient utilization of limited spaces and resources (
Choi, 2016), and it is necessary to suggest alternatives that gradually improve environments, not by directly developing areas after all-out demolitions, but by restoring local communities and improving and managing deteriorated living environments on the initiative of residents (
Kim, 2016). Against this backdrop, this study aimed to suggest to create community vegetable gardens as a measure to improve community environments that resident can be satisfied with by building sympathy among residents and inducing their engagement, beyond conventional government-led environment improvement projects.
Community vegetable gardens allow residents through space called ‘vegetable gardens’ to exchange and communicate with each other, restore local communities and gradually improve environments, functioning as a place to improve and manage deteriorated living environments (
Kim, 2016). In addition, they are meaningful as a place for healthy leisure activities for urban residents and community restoration (
Hong et al., 2018). As concepts such as healthy city, age-friendly city, safe city and happy city started to be highlighted as future keywords in urban planning fields, community vegetable gardens have contributed to facilitating interactions and building cooperative relations between neighbors, improving the health and quality of life of individuals and creating families and communities (
Lim, 2017). Under the research hypothesis (
Fig. 1) - residents’ satisfaction with the surrounding environment of residences and participation in community vegetable gardens affect their overall satisfaction with residences and community spirit - this study surveyed residents in Jungnosong-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju-si who led and participated in improving the environment of their community and examined change in their perception of and satisfaction with their residences before and after participating in activities of community vegetable gardens.
Research Methods
Subjects
The target area of this study is a grid-shape area with alleys (1.0–6.5 m) located in Jungnosong-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do, and alleys such as Munhwa 1-gil, Munhwa 2-gil, Munhwa 3-gil and Inbong 1-gil pass through the area. Out of them, Munhwa 1-gil is differentiated from other alleys by creating an alley garden instead of wall paintings as residents voluntarily placed their own pots outside their house on the alley. As a community vegetable garden was created in collaboration with the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science in 2018, residents have continued to voluntarily participate in creating and managing community vegetable gardens in vacant spaces other than their own garden and rooftop, which was introduced as a successful urban regeneration case (
Kwon, 2019).
According to the 2018 Statistical Geographic Information Service (
http://sgis.kostat.go.kr), 16.99% of Nosong-dong is covered with green spaces, and the share of the elderly population aged over 70 years is high. While the ratio of services for living such as transportation, welfare and culture services is high, the number of young and middle-aged residents has continuously decreased, which is a typical case of deteriorated original downtowns (
Fig. 2). This study, as an empirical study, conducted a questionnaire survey on 35 residents who have participated in activities of creating and managing community vegetable gardens in Jungnosong-dong and 30 residents who did not participate in order to compare and analyze their demographic characteristics, the components of residential environments and their settlement and community spirit.
Questionnaire survey
A questionnaire survey was conducted on two groups: a group of those who participated in the creation and management of community vegetable gardens (hereinafter ‘experimental group’); and a group of those who did not participate in the activities (hereinafter ‘control group’), and was designed as a group comparison study. Changes in their perception of the surrounding environment of residences and community spirit were surveyed.
The questionnaire survey was conducted between April 30 and May 14, 2019 on the experimental group composed of 35 residents who participated in the creation of community vegetable gardens that were created under the research project of the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science from 2018, and the control group of residents who were randomly sampled in cooperation with the Nosong-dong Community Service Center. The questionnaire used in this survey was composed of questions about the components of the surrounding environment of residences extracted based on demographic characteristics and a related earlier study (
Hwang, 2018; Cronbach’s
α created areas .894; non-created areas .889) and settlement and community spirit about the surrounding environment of their current residences (Cronbach’s
α created areas; .927 non-created areas .945;
Table 1).
From September 30 to October 4 when the activities of creating community gardens were finalized, an additional questionnaire survey was conducted on the experimental group of 35 residents to survey changes in their satisfaction with residences and community spirit. The questionnaire survey used a Likert 5-point scale (1 ‘strongly disagree’; 2 ‘disagree’; 3 ‘neutral’; 4 ‘agree’; and 5 ‘strongly agree’).
Analysis methods
The questionnaire survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews, and a total of 65 questionnaire sheets were collected without any missing value. Data on the collected questionnaire sheets were collected using the Excel program, and were analyzed using the IBM SPSS statistics Ver.25 program. Frequency and descriptive analysis was conducted on the demographic characteristics of subjects and their perception of the surrounding environment of residences. Reliability analysis was conducted and Cronbach’ alpha was calculated in order to verify the internal consistency of questionnaire items about the surrounding environment of residences, settlement and community spirit after creating community vegetable gardens. In addition, an independent two sample t-test was conducted at the significance level of 95% to verify differences between the experimental and control groups in their satisfaction with the surrounding environment, settlement and community spirit after participating in the creation of community vegetable gardens. A multiple regression analysis was conducted at the significance level of 95% to statistically verify whether their satisfaction with the surrounding environment of residences and participation in the creation of community vegetable gardens affect their satisfaction with residences and community spirit respectively.
Results and Discussion
Demographic characteristics of respondents
The demographic characteristics of respondents were as shown in
Table 2. Out of a total of 65 respondents (30 in the control group and 35 in the experimental group), females accounted for 55.4%, higher than that of males (44.6%). The share of those aged over 70 years was the highest (49.2%), followed by those aged 61–70 years (23.1%), those aged 51–60 years (12.3%), those aged 41–50 years (7.7%), those aged 31–40 years (6.2%), and those aged 21–30 years (1.5%). In terms of occupation, the share of homemakers was the highest (40%), followed by retirees (21.5%), professionals (15.4%), others (10.8%), self-employment (9.2%) and employed workers (3.1%), and no respondent was found to be engaged in agriculture. In terms of family members, the share of those who lived with spouse was the highest (36.9%), and the share of those who lived alone and those who lived with spouse and children was the same (27.7%). Those who lived with three generations including their spouse, children and their spouse and grandchildren showed the lowest share (7.7%). In terms of average monthly income, those whose monthly income was less than 1 million won was the highest (32.3%), followed by 1–1.99 million won and 2–2.99 million won (26.2%), 3–3.99 million won (6.1%), and 4–4.99 million won and 5 million won and higher (4.6%). These results can be attributed to the high share of retirees and homemakers.
Importance and reliability analysis of components of surrounding environment of residences
Internal consistency by the component of the surrounding environment of residences
Components of the surrounding environment of residences were selected, and the internal consistency of each component was verified through reliability analysis. As shown in
Table 3, all the analyzed components showed a high internal consistency between activities (Cronbach’s
α = .908).
Importance of components of surrounding environment of residences
The results of importance analysis regarding the components of the surrounding environment of residences were as shown in
Table 4. Out of 10 items on the surrounding environment, the score of eight items on a Likert 5-point scale was lower than the median value (3.0), indicating that both those who participating in the creation of community gardens and those who did not participate in overall were not satisfied with the surrounding environment of residences.
In terms of their perception of the surrounding environment of residences, the experimental group in general showed a higher score than the control group, indicating that those in the experimental group tended to perceive the surrounding environment more. X1 (creation of vegetable garden), X2 (fence management), X3 (guide & signs installation), X4 (lighting installation), and X9 (public parking lot) did not show statistically significant differences. However, X5 (pavement & maintenance), X6 (sewage & garbage disposal), X7 (community space), X8 (experience & exhibition space), and X10 (overall satisfaction with residence) showed a low significance level (lower than 0.05), indicating that there were statistically significant differences between the control and experimental groups. These results indicate that those in the control group perceived more the components of the surrounding environment except X1 (creation of vegetable garden), X7 (community space) and X8 (experience & exhibition space). These results were similar to the results of
Kim (2013) that activities of growing plants in vegetable gardens or communicating with others through community spaces provided opportunity for urban residents to be satisfied with the surrounding environment of residences and have emotional stability, but they did not coincide with the conclusion of
Hwang (2018) that highlighted the importance of components of alley gardens, indicating that there are differences in the importance of components of the surrounding environment between residential areas.
Settlement and community spirit in different surrounding environments
Internal consistency analysis of individual community spirit items in different surrounding environments
A reliability analysis was conducted to examine the internal consistency of each component of community spirit in different surrounding environments, and as shown in
Table 5, all the analyzed components showed a high internal consistency between activities (Cronbach’s
a = .952).
Settlement and community spirit
The settlement and community spirit of the control and experimental groups were analyzed as shown in
Table 6. First, in the experimental group, the score of ‘I want to continue to live in my neighborhood’ was the highest (3.77), followed by ‘I feel attached to and proud of being a member of my neighborhood’ (3.71), ‘I want to recommend others to live in my neighborhood’ (3.57), and ‘I frequently interact with neighbors’ (3.51). Meanwhile, in the control group, the score of ‘I want to continue to live in my neighborhood’ was the highest (3.33), followed by ‘I feel attached to and proud of being a member of my neighborhood’ (3.27), ‘I want to recommend others to live in my neighborhood’ (3.20), ‘The atmosphere of my neighborhood is lively’ (2.93), ‘I frequently interact with neighbors’ (2.73), ‘I am interested in what is happening in my neighborhood’ (2.37), and ‘I actively suggest my opinion on and participate in neighborhood issues’ (2.13).
While the experimental group showed a high satisfaction level (3.0 or higher on average), the control group showed a satisfaction level lower than the average in most of the surveyed components except Y1 (I want to continue to live in my neighborhood), Y2 (I feel attached to and proud of being a member of my neighborhood) and Y3 (I want to recommend others to live in my neighborhood). These results were similar to the results of
Im (2011) that cutoff from neighbors due to the absence of spaces for communication between community members, and cutoff from the nature due to lack of green spaces in desolate outdoor environments resulted in a low satisfaction level, and also coincided with the results of
Hwang (2018) that as residents voluntarily participated in the creation of alley gardens, their attachment to and pride of their community increased. Activities related to community gardens seem to be an important element for increasing exchanges between residents and their sense of belonging to their community and improving surrounding environments.
Changes in overall satisfaction with residences and community spirit
Factors that affect satisfaction with residences
To identify factors that affect respondents’ overall satisfaction with their residences as a dependent variable, a multiple regression analysis was conducted (
Table 7), and their satisfaction with the surrounding environment of residences, participation in activities related to community vegetable gardens and gender were found to affect their overall satisfaction with residences. The variable that has the biggest impact on their overall satisfaction with residences was the surrounding environment of residences, and it was found that the higher the satisfaction with the surrounding environment, the higher the overall satisfaction with residences. In addition, the group of residents who participated in the program of creating community gardens tended to show a higher satisfaction level with residences, and females’ overall satisfaction with residences was higher than that of males. These results were similar to the results of
Hwang (2018), indicating that activities related to community vegetable gardens improved the surrounding environment of residences and thus increased residents’ satisfaction with the surrounding environment.
Factors that affect community spirit
To identify factors that affect respondents’ community spirit as a dependent variable, a multiple regression analysis was conducted (
Table 8), and their satisfaction with the surrounding environment of residences and participation in activities related to community vegetable gardens were found to affect changes in their community spirit. The variable that has the biggest impact on their community spirit was the surrounding environment of residences, followed by their participation in the creation of community vegetable gardens, and it was found that the group of residents who participated in the program of creating community vegetable gardens tended to show higher community spirit. These results were similar to the results of
Hwang (2018) that activities related to community vegetable gardens improved the surrounding environment of residences and thus increased the satisfaction with the surrounding environment, indicating that residents’ satisfaction with the surrounding environment and participation in activities related to community vegetable gardens are major variables that increase their community spirit.
Conclusion
Urban problems raised by the concentration of population in urban areas have caused problems such as deteriorated infrastructure in original downtown areas and those related to transportation and environmental pollution. Residents in original downtown areas have also moved to other areas, and urban regeneration has emerged as an alternative to address such problems. Under the assumption that creating community vegetable gardens is effective in imp roving not only cities’ physical environment but also revitalizing cities considering their social and cultural environments, this study conducted frequency and descriptive analyses on 35 residents (experimental group) who participated in activities related to community gardens and 30 residents (control group) who did not participate in the activities in Jungnosong-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do to examine differences in the components of the surrounding environment of residences, and their settlement and community spirit between the two groups. An independent two sample t-test and regression analysis were conducted to examine changes in their community spirit after creating community gardens.
The demographic characteristics of respondents were empirically analyzed. The share of females in the experimental group was higher than males, while the share of males and females in the control group was the same. The overall share of females was higher. The share of those aged over 70 years was the highest both in the two groups, and the share of homemakers was the highest (40%). The share of those who lived with spouse was the highest (36.9%), and the share of those whose average monthly income was less than 1 million won was the highest (32.3%).
The results of a survey on respondents’ perception of the surrounding environment of residences showed that the score of the experimental group was in overall higher than that of the control group, indicating that those in the experimental group perceived the surrounding environment more. In terms of settlement and community spirit, the satisfaction level of the experimental group was higher than the average, while that of the control group was lower than the average. These results indicated that cutoff from neighbors due to the absence of spaces for communication between community members and cutoff from the nature due to lack of green spaces in desolate outdoor environments resulted in a low satisfaction level, and that creating community vegetable gardens has a positive impact on improving residents’ community spirit. Lastly, to verify the hypothesis set in this study, a multiple regression analysis was conducted, and residents’ satisfaction with the surrounding environment of residences and participation in activities related to community gardens were found to affect dependent variables including their overall satisfaction with residences and community spirit. As such, vegetable gardens, as spaces not only for doing physical activities but also as shared conversation topics, can be actively utilized in improving urban environments by creating social networks, inducing changes in residents’ perception through natural communication and exchanges between neighbors, improving their shared community spirit and encouraging residents to actively participate in the management of communities.
Based on the results of this study, it will be necessary to continuously conduct studies on strategies and policies to more conveniently approach urban regeneration as social and environmental functions by developing new types and models that utilize vegetable gardens as spatial media for vitalizing communities.