Seoul to guarantee ‘right to walk in shade’ citywide from 2028

Starting in 2028, Seoul plans to create a citywide environment where pedestrians can walk in the shade and avoid direct sunlight, which will reduce the need to walk under the scorching sun even during heat waves.

“We will introduce the right to walk in the shade as a fundamental principle of Seoul’s urban policy,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced Wednesday.

The policy aims to plan and manage urban spaces so that pedestrians have access to a certain level of shade along the routes they use in their daily lives.

Adequate shade is considered key to preventing heat-related illnesses among pedestrians.

Of the 815 heat-related illness cases reported in Seoul between 2023 and 2025, 31.4 percent occurred along roadsides, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

Seoul sidewalks were exposed to sunlight for an average of four hours and 21 minutes from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on July 28 last year, according to the city's analysis. Around 27.6 percent of the total segments were exposed for six hours or longer.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government conducted the analysis by dividing 4,031 kilometers (2,505 miles) of sidewalks at 67,029 locations into 1-meter (3.3-foot) segments, and then analyzed whether each segment was exposed to sunlight at different times of the day.

The average proportion of shade along the same routes was 44.4 percent, with buildings providing 29.2 percent and street trees 15.2 percent. Street trees helped make up for the loss of shade from buildings around noon, when building shadows were shortest.

Seoul plans to pursue a three-step strategy — identifying areas that need shade, creating shade appropriate for local conditions and connecting shaded areas along everyday walking routes — based on the analysis.

The city will first analyze sunlight exposure and actual pedestrian routes to identify areas where additional shade is most urgently needed. Priority will be given to routes leading to subway stations, schools, markets, hospitals and welfare facilities, as well as places where pedestrians have to wait outdoors, such as crosswalks and bus stops.

Where planting is feasible, the city will prioritize natural shade from trees. In areas where underground infrastructure or narrow sidewalks make tree planting difficult, it plans to install seasonal canopies, wall-mounted shade structures and small rest areas.

Seoul also plans to incorporate the right to shaded walking into its citywide master plan and neighborhood-level plans and gradually apply the principle to urban planning, redevelopment and public building projects.

The goal is to encourage the incorporation of shade when new buildings and roads are constructed.

The city is also considering offering development incentives to private companies that install shade structures for pedestrians and plans to use public contributions from development projects to create additional shaded areas.

Pilot projects will be carried out on 10 neighborhood streets lacking sufficient shade in 2026 and 2027. The city plans to apply the right-to-walk-in-the-shade principle across Seoul starting in 2028.

“We have increased green spaces in residential areas through our ‘Garden City Seoul’ policy, and now, through the right-to-walk-in-shade policy, we will make shade a basic urban service that protects citizens’ health and daily lives rather than something available only in certain places,” Oh said.

BY MOON HEE-CHUL [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]