Job Accessibility as a Lens for Understanding the Urban Structure of Colonial Cities: A Digital Humanities Study of the Colonial Seoul in the 1930s Using GIS

This study examined the urban structure of colonial Seoul in 1930s, capital city Korea under rule Japanese empire, by adopting quantitative geographical methods. We utilized a job accessibility index to operationalize structure. also used geographic information science (GIScience) analysis tools digitize neighborhood-level sociodemographic and parcel-level business location from historical materials. The results illustrated several findings that were not revealed previous studies based on qualitative approaches. First, transit-based (13.392) is significantly higher (p < 0.001) than walk-based (10.575). Second, there Γ-shaped area with accessibility, including central part Seoul. Third, Japanese-dominant neighborhoods had (27.156) Korean-dominant (9.319). Fourth, correlated unemployment rate overall. Although was seventh-largest few practical planning actions taken resolve issues, unlike other large cities mainland Japan.