The Regional Ripple Effects and Residents' Perceptions of the West Coast Highway on West Coast Regions of Chung-nam Province

서해안고속도로가 충남 서해안 지역에 미친 파급효과 및 주민인지

The purpose of this study was to analyze the regional ripple effects and residents' perceptions of the West Coast Highway on four regions of Chung-nam province. The data was collected through questionnaire interviews with 400 residents in four regions of the west coast area. After data cleaning, the statistical methods used were confirmative factor and cluster analysis with 309 sampled from four regions of Dangjin, Boryong, Seosan and Taean. The results of this study were as follows. First, it is classified, according to the residents' perceptions against the opening of the West Coast Highway, into four groups. Group A is the people who haven't lived there long and mainly consists of relatively young (30's-40's) males, while Group B is the people with lower incomes and middle-aged males (40's) who have lived there for 11 to 20 years. Group C is mainly the people who are middle-aged housewives in their 40's and who haven't lived there long and with a relatively higher income. Group D is the people who lived for less than five years and had lower incomes than other groups. The results show that their perceptions against the influence of regional development differ demographically from each other. In conclusion, it was determined that most of them were concerned that it, coupled with the construction of the West Coast Highway, would damage the surrounding countryside but believed it would contribute to the growth of the region's economy. Whereas groups A and B seem to acknowledge the necessity of regional development and environmental protection, groups B and D appear to be more content with the tourism development derived from the West Coast Highway and are paying more attention to such plans than other two groups.