Landslide evacuation drills for residents will be refined and conducted at the township (eup, myeon, dong) level.
Lim Ha-soo, deputy director of the Korea Forest Service, held a press briefing on the 9th to announce key policy changes made since last year's landslide damage and the response system for this summer.
The Korea Forest Service first strengthened evacuation drills and decision-making criteria to ensure that resident evacuation operates swiftly in the field. Drills that had been conducted at the city, county, and district level through last year have been refined to the township level starting this year, expanding the number of drills from 201 to 819 and participants from 10,000 to 18,000.
The agency also distributed to local governments recommended quantitative criteria for determining evacuation preparation, evacuation implementation, and immediate evacuation (such as observing accumulated rainfall of 150 mm over 12 hours or 210 mm or more over 24 hours), along with a situation assessment checklist. Local governments decide whether to evacuate residents by taking into account regional topography, rainfall conditions, and on-site risk indicators.
Field response personnel were also expanded. The existing personnel for responding to forest fires, landslides, and forest pests and diseases have been integrated into a "Forest Disaster Response Corps," which is operating for 10 months. The landslide prevention and response tasks—such as inspecting landslide-vulnerable areas and assisting resident evacuation—that were carried out by 760 members of the landslide field prevention team last year will this year be performed by 9,272 members of the Forest Disaster Response Corps.
Prevention projects shifted from standalone erosion control dams to forest watershed management projects, and the number of sites expanded from 28 last year to 138 this year. The forest watershed management project, which comprehensively completes management across an entire watershed, has an average sediment storage capacity of 11,800 cubic meters, more than four times the 2,500 cubic meters of a standalone erosion control dam. Maintenance was also strengthened, including making precise inspections mandatory for aged erosion control dams and multipurpose erosion control dams that are more than 20 years old since completion.
The scope of information disclosure was also expanded so that the public can directly check risk information. Starting this year, the "Smart Forest Disaster" app provides landslide prediction information at the township level in three stages: advisory, preliminary warning, and warning. Any member of the public can register areas of interest on the "Smart Forest Disaster" app and receive information about those areas.
In addition, whereas until last year local residents could apply for areas in need of erosion control dam installation, starting this year the scope of the public solicitation was expanded to allow them to directly propose areas in need of erosion control dam dredging (removing the sediment accumulated in an erosion control dam) as well as risk areas judged to require designation as landslide-vulnerable areas.
Erosion control dam dredging applications were received early this year, with 13 cases implemented, and the 82 solicitation cases for erosion control dam installation and landslide-vulnerable area designation received by the end of May will, if the need for the project is recognized after field surveys, be reflected in future prevention projects and other measures.
The Korea Forest Service is currently operating a 24-hour emergency response system centered on its Landslide Prevention Support Headquarters, and is continuously monitoring risk indicators such as landslide prediction information and weather warnings.
Lim Ha-soo, deputy director of the Korea Forest Service, urged, "Please refrain from outdoor activities near forests, pay attention to evacuation guidance such as emergency disaster text messages (CBS) and village broadcasts, and, if an evacuation order is issued, evacuate swiftly to designated shelters such as village halls."
