Busan has launched a full-scale response system to prepare for summer heavy rains and typhoons. As climate change increases the risks of localized downpours and compound disasters, the city is building customized disaster-prevention infrastructure to address Busan-specific risks such as flooding, landslides and coastal wave overtopping, while significantly strengthening an artificial intelligence (AI)-based real-time monitoring system.
The Busan Metropolitan Government said Tuesday it held a "Final Inspection Meeting for Summer Natural Disaster Preparedness" at the city hall Disaster and Safety Headquarters to finalize a comprehensive response plan for minimizing storm and flood damage. The meeting was attended by about 50 officials, including Acting Busan Mayor Kim Kyung-deok, officials from city bureaus and divisions, 16 districts and counties, police and fire services, the Busan Regional Meteorological Administration, and the Busan Port Authority.
The city previously formed a "Task Force for Intensive Management of Six Risk Types in Summer Storm and Flood Season" in March, conducting advance inspections and on-site response drills. In addition to the three disaster types designated by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the city has added coastal wave overtopping, building winds and large-scale construction site risks, reflecting Busan's regional characteristics, to establish a response system centered on six risk types.
Notably, the AI-based disaster monitoring system will be fully operational this year. Through "Busan Safety ON," which has been in operation since May, the city integrates and manages river water-level data and closed-circuit television (CCTV) information. A new safety monitoring system for steep slopes will also be built to reflect Busan's hilly topography. "Along with inspections commissioned to specialized institutions, we plan to install sensors on high-risk Grade-C steep slopes and operate an AI-based real-time monitoring system that automatically sends warning alerts to local governments when risk thresholds are reached," a city official said.
Expansion of disaster-prevention infrastructure is also accelerating. By June, the city plans to complete the installation of fall-prevention facilities at 22,339 manholes in key management zones to prevent underground flooding, and to finish maintenance work on 130,000 rainwater inlets.
To address landslides and river disasters, the city plans to complete 18 erosion-control projects in landslide-vulnerable areas and a seawater-intake maintenance project at Dongcheon Stream this month, while prioritizing major processes of the national river project at the Hoedong district of the Suyeong River. To prevent damage from coastal wave overtopping, the city is also pushing forward a project to install a 500-meter breakwater in the Suyeong Bay Natural Disaster Risk Improvement Zone.
The city has also strengthened its protection system for disaster-vulnerable groups. It pre-selected 804 priority evacuees and deployed 2,608 resident evacuation support personnel, more than triple the number from last year. From this year, in the event of a disaster, team leader-level on-site liaison officers and a dedicated team for victims' families will be immediately dispatched to strengthen initial response and damage recovery support.
In particular, the city expanded the number of designated areas with high casualty risk to 363, an increase of 25 from last year. New quantitative standards for evacuation and traffic control have also been established. The city has completed executive-level responsibility inspections of 83 key management zones with high disaster risk.
"Recent sudden downpours and record-breaking heavy rains are always causing damage that exceeds expectations," Acting Mayor Kim Kyung-deok said. "We will devote all our efforts to securing citizens' safety through a seamless response that assumes the worst-case scenario."
