Ministry of Environment, Ministry of National Defense, and Korea Meteorological Administration Join Forces for Flood Response... Director-General Level Policy Council Held

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of Environment, together with the Ministry of National Defense and the Korea Meteorological Administration, will hold a director-level policy council and workshop via video conference on the 15th to strengthen inter-agency technology exchange and cooperation.

The director-level policy council has been operating since 2010 to jointly utilize meteorological and rainfall radar data and share technology between ministries. It is composed and operated by a total of 12 members, with four from each ministry, co-chaired by the Director of the Defense Information Planning Department of the Ministry of National Defense, the Director of the Water Resources Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Environment, and the Director of the Climate Science Bureau of the Korea Meteorological Administration.

Last December, an agreement was reached to support military operations with real-time water gate and flood information from the Ministry of Environment to improve flood and heavy rain response tasks of the Ministry of National Defense, and phased information sharing has been promoted since this year.

At this policy council, the basic plan for the first phase of installing small rainfall radars for flood forecasting by the Ministry of Environment will be reviewed. The Ministry of Environment expects to install small rainfall radars in seven locations including Ulsan by 2025 to achieve proactive flood response effects through monitoring sudden heavy rainfall.

Along with this, the current status and achievements of this year’s collaborative efforts, divided by ministry in radar equipment operation, observation strategy, and development of utilization technology, will be reported and next year’s plans will be reviewed.

The workshop held in the afternoon is prepared for joint inter-agency natural disaster response by sharing presentations on collaborative projects promoted for weather forecasting, flood forecasting, and military operation support purposes, as well as future key promotion plans by each ministry.

In-depth discussions will be held on military operation support using joint utilization of meteorological and rainfall radar data, improvement plans for flood forecasting applying artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and improvement plans for weather forecast models for cooperation with related organizations.

Kim Dong-jin, Director of the Water Resources Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Environment, stated, "We will actively take the lead in joint responses to overcome natural disasters through organic cooperation and linkage between ministries to respond to the climate crisis, including weather forecasting, flood management, and military operation support."

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