Incheon City Supports Relocation of 1,470 Semi-basement Households to Prevent Flood Damage

Incheon City will support the relocation of 1,470 households living in semi-basement homes that are highly vulnerable to flooding during heavy rains.

The city announced on the 29th that it has prepared measures to prevent flood damage to semi-basement homes, including this plan.

First, the city plans to support the relocation of 1,470 semi-basement tenants over five years until 2027. This year, relocation efforts will focus on 171 households of vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, and people with disabilities.

The city will connect these residents to rental housing so they can move to above-ground homes, and will provide support for moving expenses, settlement funds, and the purchase of essential daily items.

According to a survey of semi-basement homes in the area, 57% of the 1,001 respondents expressed a desire to move out of their semi-basement residences.

There are 24,207 semi-basement homes in Incheon, of which 3,917 are at risk of flood damage. The city calculated the relocation willingness rate among these households and decided to support the relocation of 1,470 households.

Last summer, 406 households in Incheon suffered flood damage due to heavy rain.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The city will also promote public acquisition of 630 households that own and reside in semi-basement homes. This project is jointly carried out by Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) and Incheon Urban Corporation (iH) in accordance with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s urban and housing disaster resilience enhancement plan announced in February last year in response to climate change.

Additionally, the city plans to install flood prevention facilities such as backflow prevention valves and flood barriers in semi-basement homes this year, investing 880 million KRW to prevent flood damage.

To enable residents of semi-basement homes to escape through windows in case of flooding, the city will also support the installation of operable security windows. This year, 25.9 billion KRW will be spent to maintain 37.7 km of sewage pipelines, and the installation of stormwater detention facilities in low-lying areas prone to frequent flooding will continue.

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