Geospatial Analyses on Changes in Land Parcels for Religions: Ten Year Change between 2008 and 2018 before COVID 19

Abstract

Religions are recognized as having a great influence on Korean society, although the number of those who have religion has decreased. We tried to extract spatial statistics on the distribution of religious sites using the zoning information of the Korea Land Information System and to interpret their meanings. Nationally, the religious population decreased by 15% in 2015 compared to 2005, while the number of parcels for religions increased by 38% in 2018 compared to 2008. The total areas of parcels for religions increased 42%. In addition, parcels for religions showed a cluster distribution, and the degree of clustering in 2018 increased in comparison with that in 2008 across Korea. We investigated Busan Metropolitan City in detail. In this case, we found very low correlation between the total population and areas of parcels for religion, and that both Kangseo-gu, new-developed area and youngdo-ku, old town showed an increase in a huge cluster. We discussed the meanings of statistical figures and the necessity of qualitative and quantitative research.