• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.489-502
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• 2023

Urban floods pose significant challenges to cities worldwide, driven by the interplay between urbanization and climate change. This review examines recent studies of urban floods to understand their causes, impacts, and potential mitigation strategies. Urbanization, with its increase in impermeable surfaces and altered drainage patterns, disrupts natural water flow, exacerbating surface runoff during intense rainfall events. The impacts of urban floods are far-reaching, affecting lives, infrastructure, the economy, and the environment. Loss of life, property damage, disruptions to critical services, and environmental consequences underscore the urgency of effective urban flood management. To mitigate urban floods, integrated flood management strategies are crucial. Sustainable urban planning, green infrastructure, and improved drainage systems play pivotal roles in reducing flood vulnerabilities. Early warning systems, emergency response planning, and community engagement are essential components of flood preparedness and resilience. Looking to the future, climate change projections indicate increased flood risks, necessitating resilience and adaptation measures. Advances in research, data collection, and modeling techniques will enable more accurate flood predictions, thus guiding decision-making. In conclusion, urban flooding demands urgent attention and comprehensive strategies to protect lives, infrastructure, and the economy.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.411-420
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• 2019

The objective of this study is to evaluate the appropriateness of methodology for designing urban sewer system using a rational method-based model, Makesw and an urban runoff model, SWMM. The Gunja basin was selected as a study area and precipitation, runoff, vegetation, soil, imperviousness data were used to estimate floods. The appropriateness of methodology was evaluated based on comparison analysis between floods estimated from Makesw and SWMM. The comparison analysis was conducted between floods estimated from Makesw and SWMM, which were simulated using design rainfall and measured rainfall from past inundation events. The comparison results showed that in the case of design rainfall, the rational method-based floods were larger than that based on SWMM in all main lines. However in several branch lines, the rational method-based floods were smaller than thoes based on SWMM. In addition, for the case of measured rainfall from past inundation events, it was easily to find the main and branch lines where the rational method-based floods were smaller than SWMM based ones. Especially, the lines where rational method-based floods were underestimated, were mostly main, $1^{st}$, $2^{nd}$ lines. It was concluded that the rational method-based results were not conservative. Based on rational method (steady flow analysis) and SWMM (unsteady flow analysis), the more conservative results the method provides, the more highly it is recommended to use in designing an urban sewer system.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 2016

Current cities encounter various types of water problems due to rapid urbanization and climate change. The increasing significance of urban water problems calls for the establishment of resilient alternatives to prevent and minimize social loss that results from these phenomena. As a background research for establishing resilient infrastructures for the mitigation of urban water problems, we evaluated the robustness of structural alternatives for urban flood as a representative case. Combining the robustness index (RI) and the cost index (CI), we suggested the robustness-cost index (RCI) as an indicator of the robustness of structural alternatives, and applied the index to assess the existing infrastructures and structural alternatives (i.e., sewer network expansion, additional storage tank construction, and green roof construction) at a site prone to floods located around Gangnam-station, Seoul, Korea. At a rainfall intensity frequency range of 2 to 20 years, the usage of a storage tank and a green roof showed relatively high RCI value, with a variation of an alternative showing greater RCI between the two depending on the size of design rainfall. For a rainfall intensity frequency of 30 years, installing a storage tank with some green roofing was the most resilient alternative based on the RCI value. We proposed strategies for establishing resilient infrastructures for the mitigation of urban floods by evaluating the robustness of existing infrastructures and selecting optimal structural alternatives with the consideration of scales of design disaster.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2021

Rising urban flood patterns are a universal phenomenon and a significant challenge for city government and urban planners worldwide. Urban flood problems range from relatively localized incidents to substantial incidents, which lead to cities being flooded for a few hours to several days. Therefore, the effect may be widespread, such as the temporary displacement of individuals, disruption to civic facilities, water quality degradation and the possibility of epidemics. The problems raised by urban flooding are highly challengeable and compound by ongoing climate change, with adverse implications for changes in rainfall and gaps in intra-urban rainfall distribution. Unplanned construction and invasions of large houses along rivers and watercourses have interfered in natural rivers and watercourses. As a result, the runoff has risen in proportion to the urbanization of the urban floods. The location of the relief camp and the priority for evacuation were determined, and the safest route to avoid floods were established. This method can be used for emergency planning in future flood incidents, and it will help plan disaster preparedness for Panchayat. This study will promote the flood plain's potential use for disaster management and land use planning virtually.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.349-349
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• 2023

In recent years, urban floods have become more frequent, causing significant harm to society and resulting in substantial losses to the national economy and people's lives and property. To assess the impact of floods on people's safety and property in Seoul, annual precipitation data from 1980 to 2020 was analyzed for return periods of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 years. A rainfall runoff simulation model for Seoul was established using HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS models. The study revealed that at a 5-year return period, water began to accumulate in Seoul, but it was not severe. However, at a 10-year return period, the water accumulation was relatively serious, and inundation began to occur. At a 20-year return period, there was serious water accumulation and inundation in Seoul. During a 50-year return period, Seoul suffered from severe inundation in commercial areas, resulting in substantial losses to the local economy. The findings indicate that Seoul City faces high flood risks, and measures should be taken to mitigate the impact of floods on the city's residents and economy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2007

The Anyang River which located in an urban area near Seoul had been managed focusing on supplying home and industrial water and preventing floods, coping with rapid industrialization and urbanization. Consequently, it was changed into a deadly river during 25 years. Its channel was straightened by concrete and water quality deteriorated to BOD 190mg/l. In addition, water quantity has been rapidly decreased and has been drying up. Also, as the river ecosystem, landscape, water-friendly function, and so forth were seriously deteriorated, people turn away from the urban river. From 2001, the master plan under the 10-year has been actively carried out centering on the preceding items, which are healthy river in which fishes inhabit, safe river free from floods and droughts, and pleasant river where citizens visit. As a result, its water quality was remarkably improved by BOD 5mg/l in 2005 and some upper zones were improved enough to allow people to swim. Moreover, various animals including fish and birds gather around the river. Now, the 'Anyang River Restoration Project' is recognized as the first comprehensive and systematic nature-friendly urban river improvement in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.617-625
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• 2017

Both domestic and overseas urban drainage systems have been actively researched to solve the problems of urban flash floods and the flood damage that is caused by local downpours. Recent urban planning has been designed to better manage the floods of decentralized rainfall-management systems, and the installation of green infrastructure and low-impact development (LID) facilities at national ministries has been recommended. In this study, we use the EPA SWMM model to construct a decentralized rainfall-management network for each small watershed, and we analyze the effect of the drainage-capacity improvement from the installation of the LID technologies in vulnerable areas that replaces the network-expansion process. In the design of the existing urban piping systems, it is common to increase the pipe size due to the increment of the impervious area, the steep terrain, and the sensitive entrance-ramp junction; however, the installation of green infrastructure and LID facilities will be sufficient for the construction of a safe urban drainage system. The applications of LID facilities and green infrastructure in urban areas can positively affect the recovery of the corresponding water cycles to a healthy standard, and it is expected that further research will occur in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2021.06a
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• pp.141-141
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• 2021

This study proposed an equation for Rainfall Threshold for Flood Warning (RTFW) for urban areas based on computer simulations. First, a coupled 1D-2D dual-drainage model was developed for nine watersheds in Seoul, Korea. Next, the model simulation was repeated for a total of 540 combinations of the synthetic rainfall events and watershed imperviousness (9 watersheds × 4 NRCS Curve Number (CN) values × 15 rainfall events). Then, the results of the 101 simulations with the critical flooded depth (0.25m-0.35m) were used to develop the equation that relates the value of RTFW to the rainfall event temporal variability (represented as coefficient of variation) and the watershed Curve Number. The results suggest that 1) the rainfall with greater temporal variability causes critical floods with less amount of total rainfall; and that 2) the greater imperviousness requires less rainfall to have critical floods. For validation, the proposed equation was applied for the flood warning system with two storm events occurred in 2010 and 2011 over 239 watersheds in Seoul. The results of the application showed high performance of the warning system in issuing the flood warning, with the hit, false and missed alarm rates at 68%, 32% and 7.4% respectively for the 2010 event and 49%, 51% and 10.7% for the event in 2011.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.20-25
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• 2012

New Zealand suffers from regular floods, these being the most common source of insurance claims for damage from natural hazard events in the country. This paper describes the origin and distribution of the largest floods in New Zealand, and describes the systems used to monitor and predict floods. In New Zealand, broad-scale heavy rainfall (and flooding), is the result of warm moist air flowing out from the tropics into the mid-latitudes. There is no monsoon in New Zealand. The terrain has a substantial influence on the distribution of rainfall, with the largest annual totals occurring near the South Island's Southern Alps, the highest mountains in the country. The orographic effect here is extreme, with 3km of elevation gained over a 20km distance from the coast. Across New Zealand, short duration high intensity rainfall from thunderstorms also causes flooding in urban areas and small catchments. Forecasts of severe weather are provided by the New Zealand MetService, a Government owned company. MetService uses global weather models and a number of limited-area weather models to provide warnings and data streams of predicted rainfall to local Councils. Flood monitoring, prediction and warning are carried out by 16 local Councils. All Councils collect their own rainfall and river flow data, and a variety of prediction methods are utilized. These range from experienced staff making intuitive decisions based on previous effects of heavy rain, to hydrological models linked to outputs from MetService weather prediction models. No operational hydrological models are linked to weather radar in New Zealand. Councils provide warnings to Civil Defence Emergency Management, and also directly to farmers and other occupiers of flood prone areas. Warnings are distributed by email, text message and automated voice systems. A nation-wide hydrological model is also operated by NIWA, a Government-owned research institute. It is linked to a single high resolution weather model which runs on a super computer. The NIWA model does not provide public forecasts. The rivers with the greatest flood flows are shown, and these are ranked in terms of peak specific discharge. It can be seen that of the largest floods occur on the West Coast of the South Island, and the greatest flows per unit area are also found in this location.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.8-17
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• 2018

A large urban region in Bangkok, Thailand is often inundated due to shallow water floods along the paved roads that have poor drainage facilities, and that can cause urban flooding. Existing methods, including using sand bags are not effective to prevent flooding in urban areas where the amount of sand is not sufficient. Thus, it is necessary to install artificial flood defense structures. However flooding and overflow defense equipment, which was developed in some advanced nations in Europe and in the USA, is highly expensive and complex construction methods are needed, therefore they are not suitable to be used in Southeast Asia. Thus, it is necessary to develop a flood rapid defense system(FRDS), which is inexpensive and simple to build, but is also highly functional. Thus, this study developed an FRDS that can be applied to Southeast Asia through the careful study of FRDS overviews, an analysis on the development trends in Korea and overseas, and the proposal of development needs and directions of the region. For the system developed, Korean Standards(KS) performance evaluations on leakage ratio deformation tests and impact resistance tests were conducted at the Outdoor Demonstration Test Center(Seosan) in the Korea Conformity Laboratories(KCL) and the system satisfied the standards of KS F 2639(leakage and deformation test) and KS F 2236(impact resistance test). The present study results can not only be applied to urban floods in Southeast Asian nations to cope with flood-related disasters, but also be utilized in flood prone regions and for major facilities in Korea. They can also induce scientific and pro-active responses from major local governments and facility management organizations in relation to urban floods.