Gyeongnam Province Protects Residents as a 'Disaster Safety Control Tower'

Yoon Seong-hye, Head of the Gyeongnam Provincial Safety Headquarters, is announcing the plan to establish a disaster safety control tower. / Photo by Se-ryeong Lee ryeong@

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] Gyeongsangnam-do is establishing a disaster safety control tower to protect residents' safety from various disasters.

On the 29th, Gyeongnam Province announced that following the Itaewon incident last October, it recognized problems in information sharing and transmission/reporting systems among frontline agencies and decided to create a control tower to improve these issues.

According to the province, Governor Park Wan-su previously ordered, “Establish a control tower and institutional foundation that allows situation rooms of agencies including the province and cities/counties to connect and cooperate for rapid response.”

The province will first expand the provincial disaster safety situation room to a division-level unit with a Grade 4 organizational structure and transition to a joint duty system involving provincial, police, and fire officials.

A comprehensive disaster video information monitoring system will be established to send warning messages to residents or disseminate disaster situations based on existing city/county CCTV footage in case of emergencies.

The comprehensive monitoring system will display approximately 38,000 city/county CCTVs, 487 disaster-risk area CCTVs, and on-site footage from fire trucks.

The province plans to strengthen linkage with the emergency medical comprehensive control tower launching next year to facilitate rapid transport of emergency patients, share bed information for timely treatment, and maintain a hotline year-round.

A bed operation information system will also be established among 119 ambulance teams, 119 situation rooms, and emergency medical institutions, with real-time sharing to the disaster safety countermeasures headquarters and disaster safety situation room.

Gyeongnam Safety Council, led by Gyeongsangnam-do, police, and fire departments, will also be formed.

In addition to cities/counties, related agencies such as the Office of Education, military units, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Korea Expressway Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation, and Nakdong River Flood Control Office will share major event information in advance to prevent disasters and conduct joint responses in emergencies.

Efforts will also focus on securing real-time field information by assigning disaster situation management personnel to city/county CCTV control rooms.

Yoon Seong-hye, head of the Provincial Safety Headquarters, said, “The disaster safety control tower will complete physical installations such as video monitoring systems by April next year and establish the overall project promotion system by May to begin full operation. We will create a better safety management system and protect residents safely.”

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