Preventing Recurrence of 'Gyeongbuk Landslide'... Establishing 'Preliminary Warning' to Secure Evacuation Time

Government Announces Measures to Prevent Soil Disasters
Plan to Revise by June Next Year

The government has decided to establish a preliminary landslide warning system. In addition, the landslide-prone areas will be expanded to include forest-adjacent lands (within 100m from the mountain boundary) where there is a high possibility of human casualties. Along with this, the landslide risk map, which was built based on the probability of landslide occurrence, will be reconstructed to reflect rainfall, landslide damage sites, and impact zones.

Lee Seung-ho, Head of the Disaster Cause Investigation Team, is speaking at the briefing on the analysis of causes of landslide disasters and measures to prevent human casualties held at the Government Seoul Office Building on the 13th. Photo by Yonhap News

The Disaster Cause Investigation Team, consisting of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Korea Forest Service, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, related government agencies, and private experts (led by Professor Lee Seungho of Sangji University), held a briefing at the Government Seoul Office on the 13th and announced measures for analyzing the causes of landslide disasters and preventing human casualties.

This measure follows the landslide that occurred in July, which resulted in a total of 26 deaths: 21 in Gyeongbuk, 3 in Chungnam, 1 in Sejong, and 1 in Chungbuk.

The government formed a joint public-private investigation team to investigate the causes and identified key reasons for the damage, including that the current landslide warning system may not provide sufficient evacuation time after issuing a warning, and that evacuation orders lack enforceability, limiting actual compliance.

Accordingly, the government decided to supplement the warning and evacuation system. The current two-stage warning system ('Advisory → Warning') will be improved to a three-stage system ('Advisory → Preliminary Warning → Warning') to ensure residents have enough time to evacuate.

To prevent large-scale damage, the head of the Korea Forest Service will be authorized to directly recommend evacuation to local government heads. When the Korea Forest Service issues a landslide forecast, local government heads will be required to hold a situation assessment meeting to decide on resident evacuation, and related forest laws will be amended accordingly.

Considering that many landslides occur at night, the distribution of 'in-home village broadcast speakers' will be expanded to households near landslide risk areas. A new 'Forest Disaster Autonomous Monitoring Team' composed of local community leaders such as village chiefs, Saemaul leaders, and forestry workers familiar with the local geography will be established to assist during evacuations. Standards for designating and operating landslide shelters will be prepared, evacuation drills will be conducted annually in May to June before the main rainy season begins, and emergency contact networks will be pre-established.

To improve the accuracy of landslide prediction information, the 'landslide risk map' will also be revised. The existing risk map was based on landslide occurrence probabilities, but the new map will incorporate rainfall, landslide occurrence sites, and damage impact zones. This will expand the current prediction information from the eup/myeon/dong level to nearby watersheds and the ri level, to be used when issuing landslide warnings and advisories and provided to local governments.

The 'mountain weather observation network' used for Korea Forest Service warnings will be expanded from 464 locations as of last year to 620 locations by 2027, enabling more detailed damage prediction.

Landslide-prone areas will be expanded to include forest-adjacent lands, and 70% (up from the previous 51%) of the annual 200 billion KRW landslide prevention project budget will be prioritized for installing check dams, drainage facilities, and protective structures in these vulnerable areas.

A nationwide survey of steep slopes will be conducted to include areas with high damage potential in management targets, and a 'Comprehensive Road Slope Management Plan' will be established for medium- to long-term maintenance of road slopes. A system to integrate and share 'slope information' such as mountain areas, steep slopes, and road slopes held by various agencies will be built to support the formulation of landslide prevention and response policies.

Professor Lee Seungho of Sangji University, head of the Disaster Cause Investigation Team, emphasized, "Due to climate change, heavy rainfall concentrated in specific areas over a short period may increase landslide damage. It is important that these measures are implemented and firmly established in the field."

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