Recent Progress in Low-Impact Development in South Korea: Water-Management Policies, Challenges and Opportunities

Muhammad Shafique,Reeho Kim

doi:10.3390/w10040435

Abstract

For the past few decades, rapid urban development and climate change has caused many meteorological disasters (flooding, droughts, and heat waves) in South Korea. The current stormwater management system (gray infrastructure) is based on the pipe networks, which is not an effective method to control flash flooding problems during big rain events. Therefore, there is a need to find a more sustainable stormwater-management system that can have the ability to solve these water-related problems in urban areas. Low-impact development (LID)/green infrastructure (GI) practices are an effective approach to solving the adverse effects of urbanization and to addressing climate change. This paper reviews national water-management policies which were selected for flood and environmental protection from 1960 to 2017. Research results of applied LID practices in Korea also show that these practices are useful for stormwater management in urban areas. The dominating challenges identified are: lack of proper knowledge for implementing LID practices; uncertainties in the benefits of LID/GI practices; and lack of cooperation and collaboration between different agencies for the expansion of LID projects. Finally, some opportunities for LID/GI practices in Korea are also described.

Highlights

Water management has become increasingly challenging in urban areas [1]
This study consists of a literature review, information collection and field studies in Low-impact development (LID) projects, the research results of applied LID facilities in South Korea, and information collected from the public
In South Korea, different authorities are involved in establishing water-management laws which include MLTM (Ministry of Land, Transport, and Marine Affairs), MoE (Ministry of Environment), MIFAFF (Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries), and

Summary

Introduction

Water management has become increasingly challenging in urban areas [1]. Population growth, climate change and limited available resources are causing severe challenges around the globe [2,3]. During the last few decades, urbanization and climate change have contributed to many meteorological disasters such as typhoons, urban floods and droughts in South Korea [3], and the country was not expecting these problems or ready to cope with them. The largest meteorological disaster in the 20th century occurred in 1994. Different heat waves and typhoons caused many causalities (3384) and property damage around the different parts of the country [4,5].

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Conclusion