The city of Incheon has carried out a sweeping overhaul of park and intersection place-name data on major map apps such as Naver, Kakao and TMAP, raising the reflection rate from around 40 percent to 92 percent. Building on this progress, the city is now launching an advanced initiative to correct the place names themselves where they no longer match the current environment.
 [코리안투데이] Status of intersections targeted for place-name data revision on Incheon’s map apps © 장형임 기자 |
The Incheon Metropolitan Government (Mayor Park Chan-dae) announced on August 11 that, in order to ease residents’ difficulties in finding their way and to provide accurate location information, it had intensively reviewed and revised how everyday place names such as parks and intersections are labeled on major map apps.
Until now, even when an official name was assigned to a park or intersection, it was often not reflected promptly in private navigation and map services. As a result, residents frequently could not search for newly created parks and had to look for nearby buildings instead, or lost their way because intersection names did not match the actual road environment.
In response, since last June the city conducted intensive monitoring that cross-checked whether 492 place names, including parks and intersections, were reflected on the major private map platforms most used by residents, namely Naver, Kakao and TMAP. For place-name data that was missing or differed from the actual situation, the city requested prompt updates from the map operators. After pushing ahead with the revisions, excluding some cases that were difficult to label due to ongoing construction or changes in road form, the reflection rate rose from an initial level of around 40 percent to 92 percent.
The revised place-name data does more than improve everyday convenience in finding one’s way. In emergencies such as traffic accidents or fires, if a caller reports their location by the name of a nearby intersection or park, the 119 situation room can immediately identify the reporting point, which is expected to significantly shorten the time it takes for emergency vehicles to arrive on the scene.
Building on these results, the city is now moving to correct the place names themselves where they cause confusion by not matching the actual situation. Working with each county and district, it plans to identify targets for revision and, after going through relevant procedures such as review by the place-name committee, to newly establish or change place names.
As a first step, the city will comprehensively revise ‘old intersections’ whose names still reflect former facilities or road shapes and no longer match the current environment. Targets include Michuhol-gu’s ‘Nambu Station Three-way Intersection (Nambu-yeok Samgeori),’ which retains the name of a facility that has already disappeared, and places that still use their old names even though urban development has changed them from three-way to four-way intersections.
For ‘unannounced intersections’ that are in common use but have not been formally decided and notified as official place names, the city will confirm them as official names after reviewing their appropriateness. For ‘unnamed intersections’ newly created through new-town development but still without names, it will assign new names in stages in cooperation with the counties and districts.
In addition, the city will change names that can cause confusion or misidentification during emergency responses to match nearby landmarks, such as ‘Lake Park Underpass No. 1 and No. 2 (Hosu Gongwon 1·2 Jihachado),’ which are distinguished only by numbers and thus easily confused, and ‘Expressway Terminus Underpass (Gosok Jongjeom Jihachado),’ which retains a trace of the past even though it is no longer an expressway terminus.
Lee Won-ju, director-general of the city’s Urban Planning Bureau, said, ‘When accurate place-name information is properly reflected on maps, it not only makes everyday wayfinding more convenient for residents but also directly helps in quickly identifying the location of a report in emergencies.’ He added, ‘We will continue to carefully identify and revise place names that do not match the actual environment or that cause confusion for residents, and we will actively pursue a life-oriented place-name administration that protects residents’ daily lives and safety.’
지역 홍보대사 신청 기자양성과정 신청 코리안투데이 지부장 신청 코리안투데이 인천강화코리안브랜드대상 신청 최고경영인대상 신청 소비자만족도대상 신청
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