YANGJU — The city of Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, has launched a framework for sustainable urban maintenance and management to keep assets from being left idle and communities from fragmenting after urban regeneration projects end. The city said it is overhauling its approach to regeneration with a management model of its own design that links local resources and administrative services even after projects are completed.
Yangju said on the 6th that it presented the urban management model YUMM, or Yangju Urban Management Model, at the 2026 Korea Urban and Regional Innovation Industry Expo, which ran through the 2nd of this month at OSCO in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.
YUMM is a tailored management system developed by the city to connect the spaces, residents and businesses of regeneration districts without disruption once seed projects have concluded.
While earlier regeneration efforts often stopped at one-off construction of facilities or the pursuit of individual projects, YUMM is a comprehensive management strategy that first assesses each district's problems and available resources, then matches them with the policies and services needed. Its defining feature is that it binds space operations, resident participation, commercial district revitalization and collaboration among city departments into a single integrated system.
The city has analyzed the living environments and cultural and commercial resources of six districts — Deokjeong, Sanbuk, Nam-myeon, Baekseok, Nambang and Jangheung — and set management directions suited to each area's characteristics.
At the expo, the city drew attention by presenting the policy concept as an "urban kitchen." Its interactive booth likened local problems and resources to "ingredients" and policy combinations to "recipes," encouraging officials from local governments nationwide and other visitors to propose and share their own tailored urban management options.
The presentation was seen as effectively conveying the message that the essence of urban management lies in connecting resources to fit local circumstances, rather than applying a single standardized solution.
"Urban regeneration does not end when a facility is completed. It is only complete when the resources created and the resident community keep working," an official at Yangju's urban regeneration division said. "We will identify demand in each district in detail to advance the YUMM model, and pursue sustainable revitalization policies that closely link existing resources with administrative support."
