The initial plan for the Urban Planning Information System (UPIS) dates back to April, 1999, and in the following year the city began to work on the system.

The first step was the Operation Level, which mainly relieved urban planning officials of simple repetitive work such as civil outreach and routine management including notification, approvals, and statistics through computerization. To do this, all of Seoul's urban planning information spread in various institutions, such as urban planning decision letters and drawings, were computerized. Likewise, the GIS map-based database and the system that can be inputted by urban planning officials in real time were established. 

The second step was the Management Level, which aimed to build the system for adding the information based on the established database and to support policy decision making; this enabled officials to concentrate on high quality works than simple ones.  

Since Feb. 2010, after the establishment of the Urban Planning Information System (UPIS) as the internal administrative system and commencement of its full operation, Seoul Urban Planning Portal the civil Internet service was built to provide the urban planning information in an easy, understandable way and find out about related projects at a glance. The service has been providing citizens with such extensive services since Feb. 2011.

The planning and establishment of Seoul Urban Planning Portal & Urban Planning Information System (UPIS) were initiated in Apr. 1999; the service was opened to the public in Feb. 2011, aiming to provide the urban planning information of Seoul promptly and accurately and support officials' rational decision making in urban planning. 
 

As a megalopolis currently populated by 10 million people, Seoul has been the capital of South Korea for over 600 years, competing with the world’s metropolitan cities in terms of population and economic scale. In the past, Seoul was a devastated city due to the Korean War in 1950. Numerous urban planning projects have been repeatedly established, modified, and abolished by the government until the city rapidly recovered and gained its current status.

Note, however, that informing citizens as the owner of the city of urban planning has been passive and perfunctory. Information on the plans or decisions regarding urban planning were posted only on the little bulletin board in front of the government offices or scattered among internet websites, which were too difficult and abstract for citizens to understand and for the urban planning officials to share any substantive contents.

Upon the arrival of a democratic, open society was the people’s growing desire to know what it looks like when an urban planning case is decided and realized in front of their houses and neighborhood. The little bulletin board in front of the government offices and the scattered urban planning information could not satisfy the citizens as the city grew bigger with the rapidly increasing population.

Thus, a system has been required to gather the urban planning information of the city of Seoul to support government officials' rational decision making and to open such to the public clearly and efficiently.

GOALS

1. Clear and Accurate Communication and Transmission of Urban Planning Information of Seoul

 Seoul is a megalopolis with a population of over ten million. As such, its urban planning is very complicated and massive. Since it was very difficult for citizens to get all the information on urban planning accurately and swiftly, Seoul established the Urban Planning Information System (UPIS) based on GIS and the urban planning portal, based on the realization of the necessity to inform citizens of urban planning decisions more efficiently and positively.

2. Support Information Sharing and Rational Decision Making by Urban Planning Officials 

 There have been physical limitations to keep and manage paper-based documents since some of the urban planning cases of Seoul take around 10~20 years to finish; thus producing massive administrative documents.

 Moreover, though information sharing between departments, predecessors and successors, and city government and autonomous districts is essential in making consistent, rational decisions in urban planning, the past system that used paper documents had been limited in such manner, including the management of changes in work history.   

Note, however, that the establishment of UPIS which computerized a series of processes from drafting to decision with GIS maps enabled all urban planning officials to share the information easily for rational decision making.

Over 1,000 urban planning officials of Seoul Metropolitan Government and its  autonomous districts are entering all the procedures for urban planning from drafting to decision making, and such information is delivered to the citizens in real time through Seoul Urban Planning Portal, SMS text messaging, e-mail, and Open API service and marked on the GIS-based map.  Currently, 146,000 cases of data are stored in UPIS, and it became a service visited by a daily average of 1,000 people who were drawn by the slogan "You can find all the information about the urban planning of Seoul in Seoul Urban Planning Portal." Furthermore, it became possible for 1,000 urban planning officials to be capable of consistent administration and prompt, rational decision making thanks to smooth information-sharing and to actualize clear urban planning administration by making available the information on related works.   

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