The Korea Forest Service is stepping up as a guardian of public safety by upgrading the functions of its Smart Forest Disaster app.
The agency announced Thursday that it has improved the app's features to actively inform the public about forest disaster information and enable preemptive evacuation of residents when wildfires occur.
The Smart Forest Disaster app is the Korea Forest Service's flagship forest disaster app, providing intuitive forest disaster information and offering everything from reporting to real-time alerts when forest disasters occur. It can be downloaded from the Android and iOS app stores.
The Korea Forest Service has enhanced accessibility and convenience for app users by improving the following features: user interface tailored to each type of forest disaster, real-time wildfire risk ratings and large-scale wildfire risk forecasts based on current location, resident evacuation alerts through wildfire spread prediction maps when wildfires occur in nearby areas, landslide prediction information and forecast status, and public action guidelines in the event of landslides.
In particular, the resident evacuation alert function sends push notifications to Smart Forest Disaster app users located within areas predicted to be affected by wildfire spread. Residents within a five-hour spread prediction range receive "immediate evacuation" alerts, while those within an eight-hour range receive "evacuation preparation" alerts. Users must first consent to location data transmission and allow notification messages to receive these alerts.
"Wildfires and landslides are forest disasters that threaten the lives and property of citizens, as well as the forest assets of future generations," said Lee Yong-kwon, Forest Disaster Control Officer at the Korea Forest Service. "We will actively inform the public about the risks of forest disasters and operate preemptive resident evacuation alerts to protect citizens' lives from forest disasters."
