Recently, there has been increasing attention on river environments by the public as issues such as waterfront expansion and water quality have come to the fore. In order to respond to such increasing attention the Ministry of Environment has implemen...
Recently, there has been increasing attention on river environments by the public as issues such as waterfront expansion and water quality have come to the fore. In order to respond to such increasing attention the Ministry of Environment has implemented policies such as water quality forecasting and making available automated water quality measurement data to the public. The basis of these government driven policies that are related to water quality monitoring is the National Water Quality Measurement.
The National Water Quality Measurement plays an important role in both evaluating the efficacy of government policy that uses large-scale investment and manpower to protect water quality and collecting basic water quality data that is used to create effective water quality related policies. But there are several limitations in operating the National Water Quality Measurement. Rather than select monitoring locations based on water quality trend analysis that links the units of the river, they are selected according to the convenience and subjective decisions of the surveying institutions. Furthermore, while there has been increasing demand for the National Water Quality Measurement for various applications, the increase in monitoring locations has been unenthusiastic.
In order to overcome these recent limitations of government policy that result from a shortage of manpower in the public sector, volunteer work has been actively promoted. Volunteer work has increased in the public services sector because it utilizes the labor force of the entire nation to assist government responsibilities and it strives for a cooperative relationship between the government and civil society. Such advantages are also applicable to the environmental sector.
Operating the National Water Quality Measurement by utilizing volunteer work can increase the credibility of water quality evaluations and new water quality policies by increasing monitoring locations or categories. It can also create a good opportunity to increase the public's trust of governmental environmental services by providing the public with various categories of water quality information. Furthermore, in today's modern society that can be represented as "four waves," such volunteerism can lead to a strengthening of social capital and national competitiveness. Volunteer programs for water quality monitoring can go beyond mere water quality monitoring to help increase awareness in the community for environment protection and thus take on an educatory role.
In the US, not only are there various water quality monitoring programs such as the US, EPA, and State government-led programs, water quality monitoring data produced by volunteers are actually being used to make government policy. Furthermore, as volunteers naturally become more aware of river environments through monitoring, they can play an important role in preventing environmental pollution or indiscriminate development. In Korea however, although there are water quality related volunteer programs run by the Ministry of Environment, they are mostly activities included in local environment conservation activities such as environmental pollution or degradation monitoring. There are no water quality monitoring volunteer programs.
This study conducts research on utilizing water quality volunteer work to overcome the limitations of the National Water Quality Measurement that is presently operated by the Ministry of Environment. Through this study, proposals will be made on how to overcome operational difficulties related to the National Water Quality Measurement monitoring location, categories, and timing. It also aims to help increase the credibility of water quality policies and evaluations through the various and rich data made by volunteers. Furthermore, this study can make a contribution to creating policies to overcome physical limitations in operating monitoring programs for other environmental mediums such as the air, earth, and underground.
Key Words: Environmental Policy, Water Quality Management Policy, Water Quality Monitoring, National Water Quality Measurement, Volunteer Work.