In the past ten years, damages caused by heavy rain and typhoons amounted to KRW 313.9 billion in Korea. This accounts for approximately 90% of damages related to natural disasters, and resulted in a loss of 0.02% in annual GDP. The two main character...
In the past ten years, damages caused by heavy rain and typhoons amounted to KRW 313.9 billion in Korea. This accounts for approximately 90% of damages related to natural disasters, and resulted in a loss of 0.02% in annual GDP. The two main characteristics of flood damage in Korea are the occurrence of similar patterns every year, and the gradual increase in unpredicted damage. The growing uncertainties due to climate change have lowered the predictability of flood risks, and prevention-oriented approaches are now less effective in flood risk management. The changing nature of floods has led to more challenges in the scientific and statistical assessment of flood risks, and existing methods have failed to deliver satisfactory results. Compared to conventional anticipation-oriented approaches that involve the prevention or elimination of certain flood risk factors, resilience-based measures that consider adaptation to post-flood changes, factors contributing to flood vulnerability, and flood damage reduction are expected to be more effective. Since the local government is the minimum unit of flood risk management, this study analyzed characteristics of flood damage and flood resilience at the local government level. Community flood resilience was defined as “efforts to minimize flood risk and flood damage, and to recover pre-flood conditions using the five types of capital(financial, human resources, natural, physical, and social) at each stage of flood risk management.” This study analyzed community flood resilience in relation to characteristics of flood damage, so as to provide a scientific basis for the establishment of adaptation-based high-resilience areas and cities. It aimed to contribute to national climate change adaptation policies, and to stimulate discussions on climate resilience by presenting an integrated perspective of sustainable development-climate change adaptation-disaster-resilience. The three main sections of this study are as follows.
First, this study analyzed the characteristics of flood damage by area to establish effective community flood resilience. Taking into account the effects of climate change, this study viewed the relationship between extreme rainfall and flood damage as a characteristic of flood damage. Since extreme rainfall refers to rainfall in a very short period of time, data on annual maximum rainfall(mm/hr) per hour was used. Flood damage data was obtained from resources on flood victims, human casualties, private property, and public facilities, and the different data types were standardized to values between 0 and 1. Flood damage characteristics were analyzed for 229 cities, counties, and districts in Korea during 1990 to 2018, and in 2018 alone. The characteristics formed a 2x2 table comprised of “heavy rainfall-severe damage,” “low rainfall-severe damage,” “heavy rainfall-low damage,” and “low rainfall-low damage.” The areas classified under “heavy rainfall-severe damage” and “low rainfall-severe damage” were seen as having greater flood risk uncertainty compared to areas under “heavy rainfall-low damage” and “low rainfall-low damage.” Areas that sustained damages across various categories such as refugees, casualties, private property, and public facilities were seen as requiring flood resistance strengthening. The analysis from 1990 to 2018 revealed that areas requiring flood resilience strengthening were Inje-gun, which exhibited heavy rainfall-severe damage in refugees, casualties, private property, and public facilities; Bonghwa-gun, Jeju-si, and Seogwipo-si, which exhibited heavy rainfall-severe damage in human damage (refugees, casualties) and physical damage (private property, public facilities); Gwanak-gu and Seocho-gu in Seoul, which exhibited low rainfall-severe damage in refugees and casualties; and Andong-si, which exhibited heavy rainfall-severe damage in public facilities. In the single-year analysis of 2018, Yeongdeok-gun, Gyeongju-si, Seogwipo-si, Pocheon-si, and Yeoncheon-gun exhibited heavy rainfall-severe damage characteristics, while Wando-gun, Gangseo-gu in Seoul, Eunpyeong-gu in Seoul, Nam-gu in Busan, and Yangju-si exhibited low rainfall-severe damage characteristics. All of these areas sustained both human and physical damage.
Second, this study established indicators of measurement of community flood resilience, which are necessary to establish flood resilience by area. Under the integrated perspective of sustainable development-climate change adaptation-resilience, the indicators were classified into financial, human, natural, physical and social capital in accordance with the sustainable livelihoods framework. An integrated approach was taken by reviewing and collecting indicators associated with not only community flood resilience, but also disaster resilience and climate change adaptation, thereby addressing the abstract nature and uncertainty of flood resilience indicators proposed in past research. To establish flood resilience indicators specific to Korea, the indicators developed by the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements were also reviewed. For each indicator, flood risk management phases were connected to the 4R components of flood resilience to better reflect theories of community flood resilience. Out of the 46 candidates, this study selected 17 flood resilience indicators in consideration of the availability of data for the 229 cities, counties, and districts in Korea.
Third, this study analyzed the relationship between flood resilience and flood damage according to flood damage characteristics by area. Assuming that “stronger community flood resilience results in less flood damage,” areas with similar rainfall intensities were compared to determine whether the area with less flood damage had stronger flood resilience, and variables contributing to the reduction of flood damage were examined. From comparing the flood resilience of representative areas of “heavy rainfall-severe damage” and “heavy rainfall-low damage” to representative areas of “low rainfall-severe damage” and “low rainfall-low damage,” the representative areas with low damage had stronger flood resilience than those with severe damage in the case of areas having heavy rainfall. The types of capital related to flood damage reduction were found to be financial, natural, and physical, with the major variables being disaster prevention and civil defense budget, park area, green area, number of groundwater wells, and number of wards. In the case of areas having low rainfall, the representative areas with low damage had stronger flood resilience than those with severe damage. However, some representative areas under low rainfall-low damage had the same flood resilience as representative areas under low rainfall-severe damage. In representative areas with low rainfall, financial and physical capital were related to flood damage, and the key variables were drainage and waterproofing facilities, water flow and storage facilities, and disaster prevention and civil defense budget. Among the variables, water flow and storage facilities were most strongly related to flood damage in the case of low damage and severe damage areas having the same level of flood resilience.