6.81 Billion Cubic Meters Secured for Dam Flood Control This Year... Up 10% from Last Year

Flood Control Capacity Increased by 10.9% from Last Year
Goesan Dam's Restricted Water Level Lowered After Overflow Incident

Water is being discharged from Paldang Dam in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. The photo is unrelated to the article content.

The government has increased the flood control capacity of 20 multipurpose dams by more than 10% compared to last year in preparation for this year's flood response.

On May 14, the Ministry of Environment announced the "2025 Summer Flood Countermeasures." This plan was established to quickly identify flood risks during the summer and minimize damage.

According to the plan, the Ministry of Environment will secure a total flood control capacity of 6.81 billion cubic meters at 20 multipurpose dams. The basic flood control capacity of the dams is 2.18 billion cubic meters, but the ministry plans to further enhance its response capabilities by intensively discharging an additional 4.63 billion cubic meters. This capacity has increased by 670 million cubic meters (10.9%) from last year's flood countermeasures, which stood at 6.14 billion cubic meters.

A Ministry of Environment official explained, "Last year, for example, Daecheong Dam had to discharge water during the flood season. We have secured additional flood control capacity to reduce such occurrences as much as possible," adding, "After the flood season, we will operate the dams flexibly to prepare for droughts."

In particular, Goesan Dam, which experienced overflow in 2023, will have its flood season restricted water level lowered from the previous 3 meters to 5.3 meters. At that time, heavy rainfall hit the North Chungcheong region for three days, causing overflow at Goesan Dam. This was due to an exceptionally heavy downpour that statistically occurs only once every 500 years, and it was the first such incident in 43 years since 1980.

Management of border areas will also be strengthened. In 2009, North Korea unilaterally discharged water from its Hwanggang Dam, resulting in the deaths of six South Korean citizens. To prevent such accidents, the discharge volume of Gunnam Dam, which is located downstream of Hwanggang Dam in South Korea, will be regulated, and evacuation time for nearby visitors will be secured for up to 15 hours.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been introduced for flood risk detection and forecasting. By training AI with new water level observation data, the accuracy of flood forecasts will be improved. The number of cities covered by urban flood forecasting will be expanded from four?Seoul, Gwangju, Pohang, and Changwon?to six, with the addition of Cheongju and Busan.

Previously, decisions on dam discharge or flood response direction were made solely based on data, but going forward, these scenarios will be implemented directly in a virtual world (digital twin) to aid decision-making. There are also plans to pilot 1,000 intelligent CCTVs capable of automatically recognizing people and vehicles.

Emergency safety alerts, which were previously sent only during flood warnings, will now be issued from the severe stage when river flooding becomes dangerous. A new feature will also be added to car navigation systems to alert drivers when entering areas at the severe flood risk stage.

In wildfire-affected areas, such as around Andong in North Gyeongsang Province, where the risk of sediment runoff is high, the removal of sediment from rivers and drainage channels will be strengthened, along with enhanced monitoring of rising river levels.

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