192 Cases of Ground Subsidence Last Year... 43% Decrease Compared to Previous Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 18th that the number of ground subsidence cases that occurred last year was 192, a 43% decrease compared to the previous year.

Currently, under the Enforcement Decree of the 'Underground Safety Act,' the Ministry counts ground subsidence cases when subsidence occurs over an area of 1㎡ or more or to a depth of 1m or more, resulting in death, disappearance, or injury. Simple potholes that occur locally on paved surfaces are excluded from this figure. The number of ground subsidence cases first recorded in 2018 was 338, but it decreased by 146 cases to 192 the following year, showing a 43% reduction.

By region, Gangwon Province, which had many ground subsidence cases due to water pipe damage in 2018, and Chungcheongbuk-do, where ground subsidence occurred due to sewer pipe damage caused by heavy rain, showed particularly large decreases. Gangwon dropped from 41 cases in 2018 to 5 cases last year, an 88% decrease, and Chungbuk decreased from 60 cases to 6 cases, a 90% reduction.

By cause, damage to aging sewer pipes was the most frequent with 98 cases. However, this showed a significant decrease of 52% compared to 140 cases in 2018. Other causes included poor compaction with 19 cases and water pipe damage with 8 cases.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is currently implementing the Underground Safety Impact Assessment system to maintain this downward trend in ground subsidence. The Underground Safety Impact Assessment is a system that requires projects affecting underground safety to investigate, predict, and evaluate their impact on underground safety in advance when granting permits, approvals, licenses, or decisions for implementation plans or execution plans, thereby preparing measures to prevent or reduce ground subsidence. Excavations deeper than 20m require an 'Underground Safety Impact Assessment,' and excavations between 10m and less than 20m require a 'Small-scale Underground Safety Impact Assessment' before project approval. The Ministry plans to improve the system by expanding the scope of reassessment in July and requiring monthly reports on post-impact investigations.

Jung Yong-sik, Director of the Ministry's Technical Safety Policy Division, emphasized, "Given the unpredictable nature of ground subsidence, it is most important to eliminate risk factors in advance through proactive preventive activities," adding, "We will actively support local governments' ground surveys and expand the scope of post-impact investigations to small-scale projects to ensure that the impact assessment system is firmly established on the ground."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.