Assessing national flood management using a sustainable flood management framework

This paper presents a prototype framework for sustainable flood management at the national level which features stakeholder participation, and is modified and applied to a case study. Through literature reviews and an interview survey of South Korea (the case study country), the causes of recent flood damage are found to be heavy rainfall due to climate change, urbanization, insufficient channel capacities and the application of inadequate measures. The interview survey also shows that, to reduce flood damage, along with consistent implementation of systematic long-term plans, minimizing injudicious artificial development is critical and necessary. Using the framework developed for South Korea on the basis of the findings and the prototype framework, national flood management is assessed and discussed. In particular, an implementation process based on flood risk management and integrated strategies is proposed to practically achieve the objectives of management practices with the cooperation of governmental organizations and stakeholders under circumstances of high uncertainty. Consequently, it is concluded that the effective conduct of sustainable flood management at the national level in South Korea requires a recognition of the context of flood management, cooperation and information sharing about flooding, and social learning and change, all of which can be achieved through the active participation of stakeholders.