Disaster management and land administration in South Korea: Earthquakes and the real estate market

Abstract

In South Korea it was widely accepted that the Korean peninsula was safe from earthquakes. However, powerful earthquakes occurred in Gyeongju in 2016 with a magnitude of 5.8 and in Pohangin 2017 with a magnitude of 5.4. This highlighted the importance of disaster management. Earthquakes in Japan, New Zealand and Haiti have highlighted the fact that land administration seems to be interrelated with disaster management, especially relating to earthquakes. Therefore, this study reviews the relationship between disaster management and land administration conceptually and analyses South Korean disaster management in terms of that relationship, focusing particularly on earthquakes. Conceptually, the four elements of disaster management – mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery – are closely linked to the five elements of land administration, which are country context, land policy framework, land administration functions, land information infrastructure and sustainable development. Land administration contributes to disaster management in South Korea through measures such as the provision of earthquake-proofing information, tax cuts and conducting cadastral surveys. In the process of the study, the real estate market and the danger zone are discussed in terms of land tenure, value, use and development. In addition, the South Korean case is analysed from the perspective of modern history.