京 都 大 学 防 災 研 究 所 年 報 第 50 号 B 平 成 19 年 4 月
Annuals of Disas. Prev. Res. Inst., Kyoto Univ., No. 50 B, 2007

Recent Flood Disasters andProgress of Disaster Management System in Korea
Sunmin KIM, Yasuto TACHIKAWA* and Kaoru TAKARA*Department of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Kyoto University
Synopsis
Since the explosive economic development after the 1960s, Korea has emerged as
one of the major economic powers in Northwestern Pacific region. However, the same
growth in economy accompanied by a drastic change of social system made the country
more vulnerable to exterior effects, namely natural disasters. Floods are the mostcommon form of these natural disasters and the property damage by these disasters has
continuously increased. This study examines social and scientific responses andcountermeasures on historic natural disasters in Korea. By reviewing the recent typhoonand related flood damage of Korea, this study intends to search the way to mitigate flood
disaster of both countries.
Keywords: Korea, Typhoon RUSA, Typhoon MAEMI, flood disaster, flood forecasting1.

Introduction

As a by-product of the Cold War since 1945 andthe Korean War of 1950, the peninsula has been
divided at 38¶ North Latitude into the capitalist
Republic of Korea, or South Korea, and thecommunist Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
more commonly known as North Korea. The total
area of the peninsula is 222,196 km2, similar in size
to that of U.K, New Zealand, or Rumania. South
Korea possesses 99,434 km2 or 45% of the total
land mass, and North Korea 122,762 km2, theremaining 55%. As of 2001, the population ofSouth Korea is 48.3 million (North Korea: 22.3
million, estimated) with a population density of 476
person /km2, which ranks as one of the highest in
the world along with Bangladesh, the Netherlands,
and Belgium. Annual growth rate of South Korea isaround 0.63% and urbanization rate is about 88.1%.
The Korean Peninsula extends southward from thenortheastern part of the Asian continent between

33¶ and 43¶ North Latitude and 124¶ and 132¶G
East Longitude. The standard meridian of thepeninsula is 135¶, nine hours ahead of GMT.
Since the explosive economic development
after 1960’s, South Korea (hereafter Korea) has
emerged as one of major economic powers not onlyin the Northwestern Pacific Region but also in theworld economy. Within last four decades, thepopulation becomes double and the GDP has
boosted up drastically (see Table 1).
However, the explosive growth of economy
with a change of social system in Korea makes thecountry more vulnerable to outer effect, such as
unexpected natural disaster. Floods are the mostcommon form of natural disasters, and the property
damage by the disaster has continuously increased.
Floods happen almost every year in Korea,
especially during the summer monsoon season inwhich heavy rains and typhoons occur frequently.
Severe windstorm events are much less frequent
than extreme rainfall events and other type of－ 15 －

Table 1 Social factor’s change of South Korea
Year

Population(million)GDP(billion KW)

Urbanization
(%)

1960

2.499

200

39.1

1970

3.147

2,800

50.1

1980

3.744

37,800

68.7

1990

4.341

178,800

81.9

1999

4.736

483,800

87.6

countermeasures. Section 5 illustrates technicalefforts on flood forecasting and warning system of
Korea. Then, conclusion section summarizes thisstudy.
2.

(source: MOCT, 2001)
natural disasters such as earthquake and volcano
eruption is negligible.
Among all natural disasters, it has been
estimated that the 80% of total property damage,amounting to an average cost of 50 billion KW peryear, was caused by floods. Korea experiences one
to three typhoons per year on the average, withmost events occurring in August and September.
Since 1945, 17 major typhoons directly affected
Korea. Among them, Typhoon Rusa in 2002 andMaemi in 2003 caused significant damage to bothproperty and loss of human lives. There have been
limitations in the ability to predict high-impact
weather and fully utilize forecast information forthe benefit of society.
Natural disasters happen only when the natural
impact encounter certain conditions. Such
conditions in this case, are from topographic andgeological characteristics, social and economicchange, and preparedness for disaster in structuraland non-structural aspects. Based on this viewpoint,
it needs to consider all those conditions to analyze
properly the Korean flood history. This study
examined historic natural disaster mainly by floodof Korea by collecting information of the recent
Typhoon and related flood damage. This study will
be helpful for the societies having such natural
disaster to utilize the advances in science andtechnology, and to meet the challenge ofcountermeasure to natural hazard.
The organization of this paper is as follow.
Section 2 describes the recent history of flood
disaster in Korea with an overview on other typesof natural disasters. Section 3 focuses onhydrologic aspects related to flood disasters, suchasclimate,topographic,
andgeologicalcharacteristics. Section 4 focuses on law andadministrative system of Korea for flood

Recent Flood Disasters in Korea

2.1 Overview on Natural Disaster
Korea has suffered by natural disaster such as
heavy rainfall and snowfall, drought, storm andtyphoons in almost every year. In recent days,
natural disasters are becoming much stronger, andclimate change is believed as one of main reasons.
Table 2 shows occurrence time, casualty, andtotal property losses of recent 20 years on eachnatural disaster item. Among those items, property
losses by heavy rain is 6,300 billion KW(conversion into year 1999 currency). This amount,which is 73% of total property damages, comesfrom only 37% of the number of occurrence time
among overall natural disasters. It says how big thedamages are, which caused by heavy rain during
summer monsoon season in Korea. Korea’s
exposure to the other type of natural disasters suchas earthquake and volcano eruption is relatively low
or negligible.
Although life damage caused by natural
disasters is decreasing during the past four decades,
as shown in Figure 1, the property damage has
increased. Among all natural disasters, it has been
estimated that the 80% of total property damage
was caused by floods.

－ 16 －

Table 2 Human and Property losses by natural
disasters in Korea (1980~1999)
Occurrence
NumberDeath(person)Total Losses(billion KW)

Heavy
Rainfall

147

2170

6,294

Typhoon

34

1062

1,849

Storm

146

706

237

Heavy
Snowfall

21

118

242

Hail

42

22

0.7

Lightning

6

25

0

Tidal
Wave

9

3

28

Total

405

4,106

8,650

(source: MOCT, 2001)

Table 3 Recent five years’ damages byheavy snowfall in Korea
Year

Casualties

Property losses

Severeduration

1999

915 billion KW

Dec. 18~21

1998

1

34.9 billion KW

Jan. 8~91997

2

21 billion KW

Jan. 1~81996

37

1.8 billion KW

Feb. 17~19

1995

14

1.7 billion KW

Dec. 23~26(source: MOCT, 2001)
Fig. 1 Damages by natural disasters by decade

Table 4 Drought damage records in Korea

1) Damages from storms and heavy rains
Korea experiences one to three storms per year
on average, with most events occurring in Augustand September. Typhoons affecting to Korea aremainly generated in the west of North-Pacific
Ocean, where the east side of Philippine is, andslowly moving to Northwest as being stronger.
Typhoons occur 27.3 times every year in average,
and 3.1 numbers of typhoons affect to Korea
annually.
Frequent rains also occur due to the East Asianmonsoon. This weather system usually lasts forseveral weeks, during which time heavy rains andflash floods may result in extensive flood damage.
In Korea, heavy rain is generally named when adaily rainfall amount exceeds 10% of annual
precipitation amount, which is 1,283mm. Severe
windstorm events are much less frequent in Korea
than extreme rainfall events. However, typhoon
normally accompanies windstorm having more than
17m/sec (50~60km/hr) of wind speed.
2) Heavy Snowfall
The cold high pressure from Siberia causes
heavy snowfall in winter season. Table 3 shows therecent five years damage caused by the heavy snow
in Korea, and it shows the damage is getting
increase.
3) Droughts
Seasonal variation of water resources in Korea
is comparatively large. Annually, 46.7 billion ton of
runoff, which is the 67% of the annual total runoff
69.7 billion ton, happens in summer Asian monsoon
season (May to September). Because most small
size river except five main rivers in Korea has steep
slope and short river length, utilization of waterYear

Rainfall(mm)
May ~ July

Drought
Area (ha)Property
Damages(billion KW)

1967

307

420,547

626,615

1968

122

470,422700,928

1976

369

28,21842,044

1977

288

60,222

89,3701981

658

145,457

216,730

1982

301

231,244344,533

1992

392

31,523

46,9691994

231

231,569

249,281(source: MOCT, 2001)
resources is another big issue in Korea. Table 4shows the recent five years’ damages by draught in
Korea.
There was another big drought season fromMarch to June in 2001, and total rainfall during thatseason was only 79.9mm. Special water supply was
conducted until June 14, 2001 for 270,560 personsof 83,073 houses, which cover 80 cities anddistricts.
4) Earthquake
There have been many earthquake-monitoring
centers have been equipped in Korea since 1905,
and there were 18 seismometers of Korea
Meteorological Agency and 50 seismometers of
Korea Resources Research Center in 2001.
However, there have been no severe damages by
earthquake reported in Korea.
2.2 Recent Flood Disaster
Since 1945, 17 major typhoons that reached
Category 3 have made direct affect to Korea,－ 17 －

although all these had became reduced to Category
2 or below on making landfall. Among them, six ofthem including Typhoon Rusa in 2002 and Maemi
in 2003 caused significant damage to both property
and human lives. Historic devastating typhoons in
Korea are shown in Table 5.
In 2004 and 2005, Korea had relatively quiet
years with almost no loss from typhoons or heavy
rain. Typhoon Maemi, the worst catastrophe in thenation’s recent past, struck the southeastern part of
the Korean Peninsula in 2003, causing insured
losses of 650 billion KW. Typhoon Rusa, thenation’s second-worst recent catastrophe, hit Korea
in 2002 and resulted in insured losses of 150 billion
KW (Guy Carpenter, 2002 and 2003).
Table 5 The most devastating typhoons to Korea
Year

Name oftyphoonEconomiclosses(USD million)Max.
rainfall(mm/h)

1959

Sarah*

NA

NA

1987

Thelma

530

NA

1991

Gladys

260

600

2000

Prapiroon

560

247

2000

Saomai

890

491

2002

Rusa

6,700

871

2003

Maemi

4,800

432

(source: Guy Carpenter, 2003)
2.3 Typhoon Rusa and Maemi
In 2002, Korea was hit by Typhoon Rusa, whichat that time was dubbed by the news media as the
Korea’s worst natural disaster in history, with 246
casualties and an estimated loss of $6 billion. On
Sept. 12, 2003 about one year later, Super Typhoon
Maemi hit the southeastern part of the country, and
it is reported to be the most powerful typhoon to hit
the Korean peninsula since records began almost
100 years ago.
Typhoon Maemi caused a total property insured
loss of USD 522 million, which is more than threetimes that of Typhoon Rusa (USD 126 million).
However, total economic loss is estimated to be less
(USD 3.7 billion) than that caused by Typhoon
Rusa (USD 6.7 billion). Clearly, there is aninconsistency when using different methods tomeasure the loss: economic loss and insured loss.

By examining the different precipitation patterns of
the two events and the high concentration of
insured industrial property in Korea, theinconsistency can be explained and leads to a
distinction between "wet" and "dry" typhoons.
The amount of precipitation in Typhoon Maemi(so-called a dry typhoon) was only 50 % of thatcaused by Rusa (so-called a wet typhoon). There
were no reports of rivers overrunning their banks
during Typhoon Maemi, which was one of the
major loss impact factors in Seoul during Typhoon
Rusa. The damage due to Typhoon Maemi wasmostly dominated by wind, while claims following
Typhoon Rusa were primarily driven by flood (Ye,2004).
In addition, the track of Typhoon Maemi wascloser to industrial areas and consequently gave rise
to a greater insured loss than the case with Typhoon
Rusa in 2002. Figure 2 and 3 show each
representative damages by Typhoon Rusa andMaemi. While the most damages during Rusa wereby huge amount of rainfall and consequent flood inupper stream of river, most damages during Maemi
were because of strong wind.
Hit by Typhoon Rusa in 2002 and again bySuper-typhoon Maemi in 2003, Korea sufferedsignificant property damages and life loss. There
are points to be adequately considered for scientificcommunity, decision makers and public on dealing
with the high impact from the two typhoons.
[1] After many complained about the slow relief
measures after Typhoon Rusa, the administration
did not learn from past mistakes and had not carriedout effective evacuation actions when Typhoon
Maemi hit again one year later. The Korean
government is now pursuing several improvements
to its disaster management system, and a task force
for planning comprehensive flood mitigation
measures has been set up under the Office of thePrime Minister.
[2] The climate is changing but policy for
dealing with it has not. Climate knowledge shouldbe transferred more efficiently and quickly to thedecision makers as well as the public. After these
two
super
typhoonevents,the
Korea
Meteorological Administration fully recognizedthat the structure of such weather systems and theirformation mechanisms are still poorly understood.

－ 18 －

Fig. 2 JangHyun reservoir breached and swept a whole village during Typhoon Rusa

Fig. 3 Container cranes in Pusan port destroyed by strong wind during Typhoon Maemi[3] Rapid urbanization and industrialization but
lacking sufficient infrastructure for disastermanagement were contributed more in property
damage and life loss. Especially in rural area, mostwarning systems are poorly organized, and it

became clear that those areas are highly vulnerable.
[4] Although declaring special disaster zones,
thereby offering generous compensation, andpassing a supplementary budget bill are needed forthe victims to be recovered quickly, it is not better－ 19 －

than prevention or an effective warning system of anatural disaster.
[5] By analyzing the media reports on Typhoon
Rusa, Kim (2004) pointed out “the mass media, theprimary source of disaster information, has notprovided objective and accurate facts to prepare thestorm”. Based on the information he analyzed, only
2.1 percent of the stories were considered to be in
the pre-impact phase of disaster, and about 49
percent of stories focused on damage cited fromvictims (16%) and government officials (13%)
accounts. It was suggested that the media should
pay more attention on providing warning
information during the pre-impact period and help
to improve the disaster prevention system (Kim,
2004).
Korea is constantly hit by typhoons and thefloods caused by the torrential rainfall associatedwith typhoons are the major costly disasters in the
country. Although the government and public in
Korea clearly understand the forces of typhoons
and its effect to the society, there are still many
problems and considering points in the disastercountermeasures.
Dealing with natural hazards is not just a
problem of scientific technology or government
policy. To well prepare for the extreme natural
disasters and to prevent damages, not only
scientists and government policy makers, but also
public and mass media should work together andcollaborate to each other.
3.

Hydrologic View Points on Flood
Disaster of Korea

3.1 Climate and Precipitation
Korea is in the moderately humid zone of
medium latitude. It has a distinct seasonal climate,which is defined by dry, cold continental air masses
during the winter and humid, warm air masses fromthe ocean during the summer. Temperature varies
widely between summer and winter, and there isregional diversity as well. Distribution of
precipitation is more varied than that oftemperature. During the rainy season from June to
September, Korea receives about 70% of its annual
precipitation of 1,283mm. About 18% of the total
annual precipitation falls during the dry seasonfrom October to March (MOCT, 2003).
The climate of Korea is suited for conifer anddeciduous forests, though the relatively unequal
distribution of rains have not allowed for very
dense vegetation. At present, good forests can befound in mountain areas, where the forests havebeen protected and managed to a good degree,especially since the 1960’s. Two or three of theapproximately 28 typhoons occurring near thenorthwestern Pacific Ocean every year, influence
the Korean peninsula directly or indirectly. When atyphoon is located north of 20¶N and west of 140¶E,
it is expected to influence the Korean peninsula.
Korea is at a disadvantage due to the yearly,
regional and seasonal variations of precipitation
when it comes to managing water resources
effectively. Two-thirds of the annual precipitationis concentrated between June and September. Thus,
there are floods in summer and droughts in winterand spring. When it comes to yearly variations inprecipitation, there was 2.3 times of difference in1939 (754mm) and in 1998 (1,782mm). Arial
variation is also very large; there is 1.7 times ofdifference between GyungBuk Province (1,000mm)
and CheJu Island (1,700mm).
Korea gets an average precipitation of about
1,283mm annually, which is 30% more than theworld average, 973mm. This may seem sufficientfor water resources until Korea's high population
density is considered. The average annual
precipitation per capita is 2,705m3, which is about
10% of the world average of 26,800m3.
Average annual precipitation of Korea produces
a potential water resources volume of 127.6 billion
m3. However, 54.5 billion m3 or 43% of it is lost in
the form of infiltration and evaporation and theremainder, about 73.1 billion m3 or 57% isestimated to be annual surface runoff. Of thisamount, 49.3 billion m3 is swept away by floods
immediately, the remaining amount of water, 23.8
billion m3 flows during normal periods.
Table 6 shows the historic maximum rainfall
amounts (1hr duration) of Korea. The highest
rainfall intensity recoded was 145mm/hr in July 31,
1998 at SunCheon area, where is southern center of
Korea. For the largest five 1hr maximum rainfall
amounts, low pressure during summer monsoon
season was the main reason. Except Namhae, where－ 20 －

Table 6 Maximum hourly rainfall amount
Order

Values
(mm)

Date

Area

1

145.0

1998/07/31

SunCheon2

123.5

1998/08/06

GangHwa3

118.6

1942/08/05

Seoul

4

116.0

1999/09/10

PuYoe

5

112.5

1993/08/21

NamHaeSources
Low
Pressure
Low
Pressure
Low
Pressure
Low
Pressure
Low
Pressure(source: MOCT, 2003)
Table 7 Maximum daily rainfall amount
Order

Values
(mm)

Date

Area

1

870.5

2002/08/31

GangLung

2607.0

1987/07/22

SeoCheon

3547.4

1981/09/02

JangHung

4517.6

1987/07/22

PuYoe

5

516.4

1998/09/30

PoHangSources
Typhoon(Rusa)
Low
Pressure
Typhoon(Agnes)Low
Pressure
Typhoon(Yanni)(source: MOCT, 2003)
is located in southern east coast of Korea, thedominant area for the maximum rainfall was middleof Korea, such as Seoul area.
For the daily maximum rainfall amounts (seeTable 7), most of the rainfall happened withtyphoon, and the areas hit by those maximum
rainfall are mostly located in the southern coast of
Korea, besides GangLung (east coast side), where
was devastated by Typhoon Rusa in 2002. On theother hand, heavy rainfall from low pressure
usually happened in west side of Korea, such as
SeoCheon and PuYoe area in 1987.
3.2 Topography and River Characteristics
About 70% of the land of Korea is mountainous,
mainly to the north and east. Along the southern
and western coasts, the mountains descend
gradually towards broad coastal plains. Most of therivers have their tributaries on the north and eastsides, and flow into the Yellow and South Seas.
Concentrated for the most part off the southerncoast are upwards of 3,200 islands of various sizes
that provide scenery unparalleled in the world.
The eastern coast of the peninsula runs directly

along the skirt of the steep mountain slope range,
while the western and southern coast have curved
shapes and have wide alluvial plains in places. Thus,
the ridgeline of the watershed runs on the easternside of the peninsula. In general, rivers running to
the eastern coast are short in their length and steep
in their riverbed gradients. Long stretching rivers
with gentle gradients such as the Han River, theKeum River, the Nakdong River and the Seomjin
River flow into the Yellow and South Seas in Korea(MOCT, 2002).
The Han-River basin with an area of 26,018
km2 (26% of the national land area) accommodates
about 21 million persons, while the Nakdong-River
Basin with an area of 23,817 km2 accommodates
about 12 million persons. Of the 99,408 km2 of landin Korea, about 20.8% (20,676 km2) is suitable forcultivation and most of the remainder is hilly or
mountainous. Only about 5% of the area is used forbuilding sites, roads and factories.
The largest river in Korea from the viewpoint ofbasin area and river discharge is the Han River. It
has a basin area of 26,018 km2 and an annual runoff
volume of 27.7 billion m3, which constitutes 26%
and 28%, respectively, of the nation's total. On theother hand, the longest river in Korea is the
Nakdong River with a river length of 552km. Major
characteristics of rivers in Korea is as follows.
The river reaches are relatively short andchannel slopes are relatively steep. The river
reaches are short and drainage areas are small in
Korea compared with other major continental rivers.
The channel slopes are relatively steep upstream
because of steep mountains and deep valleys in the
uplands.
Therefore, floods occur quickly and peak flood
discharges are enormous. Due to the topographicalconditions and torrential rainfalls, the hydrographsof rivers in Korea are very sharp and peak flood
discharges are enormous compared with othercomparable rivers in the continent.
The coefficients of the river regime, expressedby maximum discharge over minimum discharge
for rivers, in Korea usually range from 100 up to
700. This large variation in the flow discharge
causes serious problems in river management
concerning flood control and water use.

－ 21 －

4.

Law/Administrative System for Flood Fights

4.1 History of Water Resources Development
Water resources planning and development in
Korea began in the early 1910’s under the Japanesecolonial period. Research work and water resources
development has continued for 90 years withsignificant changes. There have been four
significant phases in the development (NIDP,
2001).
(1) First Phase (1910 - 1940)
The focus of this phase was rather the control ofwater resources in Korea through small-scalechannel improvement projects than water resources
investigation. The main purpose of this period was
to secure food production.
(2) Second Phase (1941 - 1965)
World War II pushed the whole land of Korea
into a production base for the war support of Japan.
Hydropower generation for war support was themain focus of the water resources development
until 1945. After independence from Japanesecolonialism, the Korean War broke out in 1950 andcontinued until 1953. It destroyed the whole
infrastructure of Korea including many water
resources systems. In addition, most of the water
resources system built during the Japanese colonial
period were located in North Korea. There wasalmost nothing left in South Korea and there were
no activities concerning the planning andmanagement of water resources. This absolute
poverty was continued until 1965.
(3) Third Phase (1966 - 1980)
The focus of this phase was the construction ofmultipurpose dams for the integrated control andmanagement of water resources. As a part of thenational master plan for the economy andcomprehensive land development, the Integrated
River Basin Development Plan of the four majorrivers was established and systematically
implemented . During this period, great successes
were achieved in the water resources development
and management. The main achievements werereduction of flood damage by 40% as contrasted
with the annual average, 90% completion ofchannel improvements and increasing the municipal
water supply from 30% to 60%.
(4) Fourth Phase (1981 - 1995)

After the completion of the Integrated River
Basin Development Plan of the four major rivers,
the focus has been given to individual basin
development. The political changes from
centralization into the localization have caused a lotof problems in the development and management ofriver basin. The achievements during this period
were the completion of multipurpose dams andmulti-regional water supply systems. However,
Korea will prepare for a bright future in the 21st
century through adjustments and modifications of
the long-term water resources master plan for river
basin development and management.
In spite of newly arising problems within every
part of Korean society, the achievements in
integrated water resources development allowed
provision of a stable water supply. This resulted inan efficient utilization of land, stability ofagricultural and industrial production and a better
place to live in. Water resources development
planning has been established based upon thepolicy of the National Development Plan. Major
goals and policies of the previous national
development plan are shown in Table 8.
Table 8 National development plan of Korea
Plans

PeriodFirst

19721981- Establishment of basis for
economic growth

19821991- Balanced development

Second19871991- Balanced development

RevisedsecondMajor goals- Improvement of social welfare- Improvement of social welfare- Regionally decentralized
development

Third19922001- Efficient national land use- Improvement of the quality of
the living environment- Unification of South and North
Korea(source: NIDP, 2001)
4.2 Progress on Flood Disaster Counteractions
1) Before the 1960’s
Before the year 1960, it was difficult to put
much effort on flood control because Korea was inturmoil for political, economical and social aspects.
Furthermore, economic background was not
sufficient to push up much of flood disaster related－ 22 －

projects. There was no concrete legislative andadministrative system for natural disastermitigation at that time, and occasion works related
to disaster mitigation and recovery was carried only
when it was in demand.
2) In 1960’s
On July 22, 1961, regular movement for anatural disaster mitigation has began when national
construction agency (糑讀筸茡詽), former Ministryof Construction and Transportation, was newly
founded under the Economic Planning Board(篏裌絉货蚭), former Ministry of Finance andEconomy, and carried a flood disaster recovery
work on YounJu area (August 21, 1961). On
December 30 in the same year, the River Law(谮詐腟) was enacted for the first time in Korea.
the Economic Planning Board was reorganized andchanged to the Ministry of Works (筸茡臠) on June
18, 1962, and full-scale of disaster related works
got started. For flood prevention activities, national
scale projects, such as construction of multipurpose
dams, river repairing and maintenance, farmingarea reformulation, etc. were commenced under the
major project, economic development planning(篏裌脊衚薺筊総篯货), and this activity gave sucha large improvement in flood control at that time.
3) In 1970’s
In the 1970s, the integrate development project
for the four main river (Han-river, Nakdong- river,
Gum-river, and Youngsan-river), which had
prepared since 1969 from the investigation, wasfinished and started to construct the Namgang,
Andong, and Daecheong multipurpose dams. For
those projects, insufficient fund was loaned from
Asian Development Bank (ADB). The flood
prevention activity started in 1972 was on the
purpose to reorganize the 197 habitual flood places
and more than 90% of main rivers over the wholecountry. Korea Water Resources Development
Corporation (豈糑莤蟅蚤筛脊簰艧), which was
founded in 1967, was reorganized to the Industrial
Base Development Corporation in 1974, and put
more efforts to the multipurpose dam construction.
The
civilian
defensefundamentallaw(胐脪蛆結膩腟) was enacted under the ruling of
the Ministry of Home Affairs on July 25, 1975, andcountermeasure action to natural disaster was under
the control of the Ministry˅s civilian defense

activity. Counteraction and organization for anatural disaster was reformatted with the civilian
defense system.
4) In 1980’s
Since the 1980’s, magnitude of natural disasterbecame larger for the explosive economic growthand many rash development with large-scalecountry development projects, which did not fully
consider those effect to natural disasters. However,the flood control projects was continuously goingon by continuing the projects started in 1970’s, suchas construction of five multipurpose dams,
management of the four main river basin,
agricultural basement development, anti-erosion
work, etc. Additionally, new projects, such as the
Nakdong river shore development project I and II,
the water system flood control, habitual floodplainarea development, were started with the second
conglomerate
countrydevelopment
project(糑讀褛豗筛脊篯货: 1982~ 1991). Because
people’s expectation and their demand to thegovernment had increased with the economic
growth in the 1980’s, government support had
increased to the flood disaster prevention andrecovery action. Furthermore, big flood of middle
area of Korea in 1983 and the damages by Typhoon
Selma were so huge and it was beyond the recovery
ability based on the existing legislative andadministrative system (over 1,000 billion KW wasnecessary for a full recovery). Since then, thegovernment special support system has started, andthe flood in Danyang area of Chungnam Province
in 1988 and the Southern Korea flood in July 1989
were the first case of recovery supporting from themain government up to 73%. Before thegovernment special support system works, it waspossible to help only up to 43%.
5) In 1990’s
The 1990’s is the time of big change in thedisaster prevention system by the effect of the big
flood in Han-river in 1990 and big disaster by
Typhoon Gladis in 1991. First, as the type ofdisaster was getting diverse and the size was getting
larger, the disaster prevention system wasreorganized to consider the high industrialization
and urbanization of the country. ˈDisaster effectassessment systemˉ (蠏豵薀貍诓竏裃) was newly
established to assess the effect of a certain level of－ 23 －

big development project to the potential danger
from natural disasters. In 1995, ˈsmall size river
maintenance lawˉ (荐谮詐袛舆腟) was enacted toconsider many small size rivers, which had beenout of the care from the government and, for thisreason, much vulnerable to flood disaster so far.
Repairing local river basins and expansion of flood
forecasting and warning system to many rivers
were carried during this time. Especially, following
the president Kim’s commend saying prepares “theperpetual and overall countermeasure to flood
disaster”, “the special task force team for the flood
disaster” was temporally organized under thepresident’s secretary on September 11, 1999, withmembers of professional civilians and related
public officers. The special task force team had
activated until the end of December of the same
year and issued 199 acting plans, which are stillworking on with the related government main
projects. Following those acting plan, 24,000
billion KW is allocated for the overall flood control
activity on each river basin for 10 years(2000~2009). There were 64 regulations that weremodified or newly issued, such as the regulation ofa pre-consideration on natural disaster when new
development project starts, and 8 government
sub-systems were reorganized, including “the river
basin managing committee” under the governmentorganization to focus on the flood disasters
mitigation.
6) In 2000’s
In the 2000’s, flood disasters are getting serious.
Especially, tremendous loss by Typhoon Rusa in
2002 brought “the second special task force teamfor the flood disaster” under the charge of the prime
minister. The second special task force team offered
to use 42,790 billion KW for 76 new flood disaster
related projects for the next nine years (2003~2011).
The offered projects include strengthening a flood
forecasting system, preparing a fast and complete
recovery system, allocation of related jobs between
main and local government for an efficient reaction
to disasters, etc. Main differences to thecharacteristics of the existed projects are the changeof the flood control concept from ‘the line defense’that considers only river, to ‘the surface defense’that considers overall river basin. Additionally, it
was suggested to make “central and local disastercountermeasure
center”
asapermanentorganization, which has been temporarily board
only when disaster happens.
5. Technical Effort on Flood Disasters
5.1 Flood Warning System
1) Authority Regulations: The River Law,
Enforcement Regulation No. 13-1 and 2 (谮詐腟萘貇納謡 裎 13 裨 1,2 豮)2) Flood Warning Procedure- Collecting hourly hydrologic data from 205
rain gauge stations and 96 stage gauge stations in
Han-River Basin- Estimate water stages and discharges on
critical locations based on runoff simulations andconsidering dam reservoir capacity for a possible
discharge reduction- Flood control with dam operation consideringrainfall and stage of lower stream- Issuing flood warning when the expected stage
is higher than warning or alert stage3) Flood Warning
Flood Warning 1st Level (贜莤褹蜻膊) : It isissued when the water stage at the critical location
is expected to be higher than the water stage of 50%
of design flood discharges.
Flood Warning 2nd Level (贜莤篔膊) : It isissued when the water stage at the critical location
is expected to be higher than the water stage of 70%
of design flood discharges.
5.2 Flood Control System
1) Authority Regulations- The River Law No.25 (谮詐腟 裎25裨) :River Management Center (谮詐籚翓詽) can ask aproper dam operation to the dam operator to reduce
a possible flood in the river.
- The River Law, Enforcement Ordinance No.
57 (谮詐腟 萘貇罈裎57裨): In a flood defense
situation, flood warning and dam operation
authority are given to the chief of the flood control
center2) Dam Operation Ordering System on a Floodfighting Situation
When flood is expected by heavy rain or
typhoon, dam operation authority is given to the
Flood Control Center on the subject basin. Thereare currently five Flood Control Centers on the five－ 24 －

Fig. 4 Dam operation ordering system on a flood-fighting situation
big river basins, Han River, NakDon River, Ghum
River, SeomJin River and YoungSan River basin.
Among those, Flood Control Center of Han
River works as the headquarters of the othercontrol centers. Flood Control Centers need toreport the control situation to Ministry ofConstruction and Transportation.
For a proper dam operation in a flood
preparation, Flood Control Center collaborates with
Korea Water Resources Corporation (KOWACO)
and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)(see Figure 4). KOWACO owns a responsibility for
operating multipurpose dams and KEPCO has a
responsibility for operating hydropower dams in
Korea. For the necessary dam operation during
flood-fighting situation, those corporation need toget an approval from the Flood Control Center ofthe subject basin, and give an order to eachcorresponding dam operation center. After dam
operation center technically operates dam control
gates to control outflow from the dam, theoperation center reports the results and situations tothe corporation and inform to the local governmentand downstream residents of the dam.
5.3 Disaster Management System
1) Definition on Disaster
In Korea, There are three categories for adisaster definition; natural, industrial and national
disaster. Natural disaster is defined as a disaster
caused by natural phenomena, and it includes
typhoon, storm, heavy rainfall and snowfall,drought, earthquake, etc. Industrial disaster isdefined as a disaster caused by accident, and it
includes fire, explosion, chemical and biologicalaccident, severe traffic accident, etc. Finally,national disaster is defined as a disaster caused by
the malfunction of infra structure, such as energy
and water transportation, finance, etc.
2) Authority Ministry and Agency
Each disaster has its own authority ministry andagency for a proper and efficient disastermanagement in a situation (see Figure 5). In thecase of natural disaster, since typhoon and flood
can harm any place in the country, Ministry ofConstruction and Transportation (MOCT) andNational Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)
manage these subjects. On the other hand, othertypes of natural disaster, such as drought, cold
weather, hail and frost, are highly related tofarming or fishery. Therefore, Ministry ofAgriculture and Forestry (MAF) and Ministry of
Maritime Affairs and Fishery (MOMAF) manage
these disasters. For the industrial disaster, Ministryof Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) and
Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) with
MOCT and NEMA are the main agency to control
the disasters. Ministry of Health and Welfare(MOHW), Ministry of Finance and Economy(MOFE), MOCT and MOST control national
disasters.
3) Disaster Management Procedure
Among many kinds of disaster, flood disaster
caused by heavy rainfall and typhoon is the biggest
issue in Korea. The Flood Control Center preparedaction plan for the case of flood disaster. Figure 6
and 7 describe the management procedure fortheflood disaster situations, in the case of heavy
rainfall and the case of typhoon, respectively.

－ 25 －

Fig. 5 Authority ministry and agency for disaster management
In the case of heavy rainfall (see Figure 6), theprocedure is divided into three steps; readinessstage, warning stage and alarm stage. These steps
are classified by the rainfall amount, and damage
checking is carried out at each step. The ‘readinessstage’ is when the rainfall amount was more than
30mm per an hour or 80mm during last 12 hours.
At this stage, flood control center orders to allocate
observers on the subject river and to distribute
flood-fighting equipments. When the rainfall
amount was between 30 and 50mm per an hour or
80 and 150mm during last 12 hours, it is classified
as a ‘warning stage’. At this moment, flood fighters
are ready to depart and the local government
officers are patrolling dangerous area, such as
riverbank, and informing the situation to theresidents. If the rainfall amount was more than
50mm per an hour or 150mm during last 12 hours,
it is the alarm stage and all public officers should
be in ready for any possible situation. All
flood-fighters will be departed to the allocated area
and rescue equipments are also distributed.
Evacuation of local residents is carried in the caseof necessary and rescue team is also operating.

Even though the rainfall amount was not over thelevel of each step, water stage on specific point andreservoir volume are continuously checked. At
every step, damage checking is carried to survey
the human and property losses by the heavy rainfall
situation. For more details on the procedure, seerefer to Figure 6, and Figure 8 for the water stage
checking procedure and Figure 9 for the damage
controlling procedure.
Figure 7 illustrates the disaster management
procedure when a typhoon is expected on the
Korean Peninsula. This procedure is also divided
into three steps according to the location and stateof typhoon. To prepare the situation, location of
typhoon is checked beforehand. If any typhoon is in
the area of (N20°, E140°), it is called “1st reportarea”, and the track of the typhoon is checked andinformed to offshore ships. If the typhoon is closer
to the Korean Peninsula and is in the area of (N25°,
E135°), it is called “2nd report area”, and thereadiness stage begins. At this stage, the typhoon’s
track is checked and the information is distributed
to offshore ships. If the typhoon enters to “special
report area” (N28°, E132°), then emergency level－ 26 －

Fig. 6 Disaster management procedure: in a case of heavy rainfall
starts. For the emergency level, possible disaster by
the typhoon is prepared; evacuation and tighteningof ships, evacuation of coastal area residents, anddistributing the information to public. If thetyphoon is expected to pass through the peninsula,then alarm stage begins.
Figure 8 describes the procedure for checking
water stages and reservoir volume to prepare any
flood disasters. If there is any water stage on theflood expected area, the water stage was checked
whether it is over ‘warning level’ and ‘risky level’.
The warning level and risky level of water stage are
pre-decided for each water gauge station from

historic data and technical analysis. If there is any
dam or reservoir on the subject area, current
volume of the dam and the situation near the dam
will be considered.
Figure 9 illustrates the procedure for a flood
damage counteraction. The counteraction is largely
divided into two parts; for life damages and forproperty loss. In the case of life damages, thedamage control helps sufferers, death/missing andinjured peoples. In the case of property losses, thecounteraction is different to property types;
building, farming area and infrastructure.

－ 27 －

Fig. 7 Disaster management procedure: in a case of typhoon
6.

Conclusions

The floods caused by the torrential rainfall
associated with typhoons are the major disasters in
Korea. The flood disaster in the country seems
increase in the near future or at least continues thecurrent pattern. The overall pattern of the natural

disaster in the world is also increasing, and thesituation in Korea cannot be an exception.
Preparedness and counteraction to flood disasters
should be more active and progressive in a mannerof handling the potential flood disaster threat in the
future. In addition to technical and scientificsupport, the fundamental solution is how the－ 28 －

Fig. 8 Dam control procedure in a case of flood and typhoon

Fig. 9 Damage counteraction procedure in a case of flood and typhoon－ 29 －

government establishes and carries out a long-termplan with an understanding and participation of thepeople. The direction of the government policy on
the disaster countermeasure is decided by theoccurrence interval and intensity of disasters, andby the benefit and cost for the policy.
1) Emergency Action Plan: The possibility ofthe main river breach in Korea is not high, but it ishighly necessary to establish an Emergency Action
Plan (EAP) for the case of the worst scenario.
Recently, there have been many research andpreparation on the dam breach EAP in Korea. Thisis for reducing the possible losses of thedownstream of a dam by considering the physical,
geographical and structural factors of the dam andits environment.
2) Renewal of Water Resources Management:
River embankment and multipurpose dams tocontrol the flood disaster, and any type of reservoir
construction to handle the water supply problem
have been decided by the frequency analysis using
historical hydrologic data. However, the recent
climate change and enlargement of the disastermagnitude make it difficult to design the hydrologic
structures.
- Concerning flood control: The size of thedesign flood should be renewal and hydrologic
structures are to be reorganized following thereanalysis. The accompanying counter actions forthe renewal include structural renewal, such asrevision of the riverbank and flood pond
construction, and non-structural renewal, such as,
flood
forecasting
andwarningsystem,establishment of disaster proof urban plan anddistribution of flood hazard map.
- Concerning drought problem: To maximize
the efficiency of the water supply from the existing
reservoir, optimization of water supply is highly
recommended as well as a consideration on thewater supply enlargement and water recycling.
- Concerning an uncertainty in the design flood:
Hydrologic uncertainty mainly resulting from theclimate change needs to be considered when
designing the hydrologic structures.
- Connection of the flood and drought problem:
Dam operation and minimum discharge through adownstream channel should be considered together
for a comprehensive flood and water supply control.

Rainfall infiltration and/or detention pond would be
helpful for the both flood and water supply control
in an efficient way.
3) Civilian Action Plan: Civilian enrollment forthe disaster countermeasure should be morestrengthen. When disaster happens, the local
resident will be there from the beginning.
Government should educate the people for the fastand efficient counteraction to disaster including
their own evacuation. Master plan for disastereducation should be established and it should be
distributed to the public through as many as
possible way, such as mass media, brochures andinternet.
4) Real-time Disaster Warning System: Whendisaster happens, real-time observations and fieldsurvey are very important for the fast and efficient
reaction on the disaster. At this moment, most dataon disaster comes through reports from local
government and mass media, such as TV
broadcasting, and it is not sufficient to check thesituation on a real-time basis. It is highly
recommended
toutilizedisaster-surveying
technology using the state of the art equipments,
such as satellite remote sensing and wirelesstransmission.
Dealing with natural hazards are not justproblems such as developing more advanced
observation networks or more complicated models
that natural scientists must solve but also issues
involving decision makers, who make public policy
and daily business operation, and general public tounderstand weather/climate and apply into thedecision making processes. To well prepare for“surprises” the weather and climate extremes,
which are associated with climate change, brought
on society, scientists must work with thegovernment policy makers and planners, businessdecision makers, public and mass media.
References
Guy Carpenter (2002): Typhoon Rusa Flood Report 2002.
(http://www.guycarp.com/)
Guy Carpenter (2003): Typhoon Maemi Loss Report 2003.
(http://www.guycarp.com/)
Kim, Manjae (2004): How media response to Typhoon
Rusa in Korea, Presented to International Conference on－ 30 －

High-Impact Weather and Climate: understanding,prediction, and socio- economic consequences, Seoul,
Korea, April 2004.
Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Korea(MOCT) (2001): The Study on the Basic Course forPrevention of Disaster Policy, MOCT Study Report (inKorean).
Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Korea(MOCT) (2002): A Study for Efficient Management
Method of Flood Recovery, MOCT Study Report (inKorean).

Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Korea(MOCT) (2003): Study for the Countermeasures andLong-term Trend Analysis of Natural Disasters in Korea(I) – Focus on Flood and Storm, MOCT Study Report (inKorean).
National Institute for Disaster Prevention, Korea (NIDP)(2001): The Study on the Basic Course for Prevention ofDisaster Policy – For Setting up the Basic Plan forPrevention of Disasters, NIDP Study Report (in Korean).
Ye, Qian (2004): Typhoon Rusa and Super Typhoon
Maemi in Korea, NCAR/ESG.

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