4. Patterns of Risk Management Policies and Systems in South Korea: Special Reference to Water-Related Disaster Management

The chapter evaluates the extent to which disaster risk management policies and systems in South Korea have evolved from the 1960s to the present in order to cope with unprecedented challenges caused by natural disasters. Particular attention is paid to water-related disaster risk management. Mediocre levels of preparedness and prevention policies against water-related disasters, such as typhoon, torrential rainfall, and flashflood, trigger tremendous scales of damage, i.e., innumerable human losses and substantial economic losses. Typhoon Rusa in 2002 and Typhoon Maemi in 2003 badly affected the country and left invaluable lessons on how to enhance the country’s water-related risk management systems, especially for more people-centered, climate change-sensitive, socio-economic aspects-considered, and more preventive policies. The case of South Korea, which has succeeded in developing a top-down and centralized risk management system, illustrates the significance of systematic risk management policies and systems in order to tackle water-related disasters. These lessons can be benchmarked to other countries, especially developing countries which are vulnerable to water-related disasters.