This Year’s 170 Flood Warnings a Record High... Ministry of Environment Says "AI Adoption Effective"

Hangang Flood Control Office, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo unrelated to the article content.

This year, a record high of 170 flood warnings were issued. The Ministry of Environment evaluated this as an effect of significantly reducing the time by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

According to the Ministry of Environment on the 5th, the number of flood warnings issued this year is 170. This is an increase of 74 cases (77.0%) from 96 cases last year, and 48 cases (39.3%) more than the record high of 122 cases in 2020. Considering that the average number of flood warnings issued over the past 10 years is 34.2, this represents about a fivefold increase compared to the average year.

The expanded flood warnings are due to the introduction of AI technology. This summer, the number of flood warning points increased significantly from the existing 75 to 223. The Ministry of Environment conducted AI flood forecasting for the first time this year to effectively respond to heavy rainfall. AI automatically predicted river water levels every 10 minutes and issued risk signals, after which flood forecasters verified the data and issued flood advisories or warnings.

Kim Gu-beom, Director of Water Resources Policy at the Ministry of Environment, explained, “It was practically difficult for flood forecasters to monitor and predict all points. Previously, it took about 30 minutes from water level analysis to issuing warnings, but after introducing the AI automatic prediction system, the time was reduced to within about 10 minutes.”

Information observed every minute from 673 water level observation stations nationwide was transmitted 2,495 times to related agencies. This information was sent 8,651 times to local governments via fax, text messages, and voice messages. Deputy heads of local governments were also directly notified by phone.

The Ministry of Environment evaluated that the rapid flood warnings reduced casualties. Kim Gu-beom, Director of Water Resources Policy, emphasized, “Due to this year’s heavy rainfall, some areas experienced dangerous situations where river water levels exceeded the planned flood level, but by immediately transmitting flood warning issuance details to local governments in advance, residents were evacuated and casualties were prevented.”

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