Ministry of Environment to Establish 'Urban Water Circulation' Legislation Within This Year... Launches Expert Forum

Minister of Environment Jong Myung-rae./Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of Environment launched an expert forum on the 30th to establish a strategy for improving urban water circulation. The plan is to prepare policy directions and legislation related to urban water circulation by the end of the year.

On the same day, the Ministry of Environment held the "Green New Deal Urban Water Circulation Expert Policy Forum" at the Millennium Hilton in Jung-gu, Seoul.

Water circulation refers to the continuous flow in which precipitation becomes surface water and groundwater, flows or is stored in rivers, lakes, swamps, seas, etc., evaporates, and returns as precipitation.

With increasing urban flood, drought, and heatwave damage due to climate change, and increased stormwater runoff caused by aging infrastructure, it is time to devise countermeasures to restore water circulation.

The forum was attended by Minister of Environment Cho Myung-rae, Korea Water Resources Corporation President Park Jae-hyun, Sejong University President Bae Deok-hyo, Han River Basin Water Management Committee Chairman Kim Hyung-soo, and various experts from different fields.

President Bae served as the chair of this forum, which featured a keynote presentation and three thematic presentations followed by a free discussion under the theme "Strategies for Recovery and Promotion of Urban Water Circulation in the Green New Deal."

In the keynote presentation, Chairman Kim Hyung-soo introduced the necessity and expected effects of establishing an urban water circulation strategy as the first step of the Green New Deal. Following this, Professor Kim Yi-hyung of Kongju National University presented the current policies and future directions for the recovery and promotion of urban water circulation.

Professor Byun Byung-seol of Inha University introduced recent domestic and international trends regarding laws and systems related to urban water circulation and emphasized the need to enact urban water circulation legislation.

Lastly, Professor Kim Young-do of Inje University presented on the development and application directions of water circulation indicators as the foundation of urban water circulation policies.

After the thematic presentations, experts from academia and public institutions engaged in in-depth discussions on why urban water circulation is necessary in Korea and how policies and systems should be shaped going forward.

The Ministry of Environment plans to operate the forum focusing on three subcommittees: policy, legislation and systems, and indicator development, following the launch of this forum.

Subcommittee meetings will be held until November, and by the end of the year, efforts will be made to establish policy directions related to urban water circulation, prepare legislative bills, and develop evaluation indicators.

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