Korean ubiquitous-eco-city: A smart-sustainable urban form or a branding hoax?

Ambitious eco-city initiatives of the 21st century are commonly branded as carbon-neutral, low-carbon, smart-eco, sustainable, ubiquitous-eco and zero-carbon emphasising their sustainability niches. This study focuses on one of these brands-ubiquitous-eco-city (u-eco-city). The principal premise of a u-eco-city is to provide a high quality of life and place to residents, workers and visitors with low-to-no negative impacts on the natural environment with support from the state-of-the-art technologies in their planning, development and management. The paper aims to put this premise into a test and address whether u-eco-city is a dazzling smart and sustainable urban form that constitutes an ideal 21st century city model or just a branding hoax. It, first, explores the recent developments and trends in ubiquitous technologies, infrastructures, services and management systems, and their utilisation and implications for the development of u-eco-cities. It, then, places Korean u-eco-city initiatives under the microscope, and critically discusses their prospects in forming a smart and sustainable urban form and becoming an ideal city model.