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Busan Metropolitan City Conducts On-site Inspection of Disaster-Risk Sites Ahead of Summer: “Citizen Safety Comes First”

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that today (13) at 2:00 PM, Vice Mayor for Administrative Affairs Kim Kyung-duk will visit a large construction site (the apartment construction site in Dongnae Historic Park) and a national river maintenance project site (Suyeong River Hoedong District) to directly inspect key disaster-risk sites in preparation for summer natural disasters.

This on-site inspection will be conducted with the participation of Vice Mayor Kim, who leads the task force (TF) for preemptive summer natural disaster preparedness, along with the Citizen Safety Office, relevant departments in charge of the sites, Dongnae-gu, Geumjeong-gu, and the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office.

Previously, on April 3, Busan Metropolitan City held the first task force (TF) kickoff meeting chaired by Vice Mayor Kim, where key policy directions and preemptive measures for vulnerable disaster areas in preparation for this summer’s natural disasters were intensively discussed.

At the meeting held last week, the city selected six major storm and flood risk types as priority management targets, taking into account the regional characteristics of Busan. To ensure thorough management, key measures discussed included situation management and integrated disaster information provision through “Busan Safety ON,” intensive identification of areas at risk of human casualties and responsibility-based inspections by bureau-level officials, expansion of preventive infrastructure in disaster-prone areas, reorganization of control and evacuation standards with strengthened evacuation execution, and expanded citizen participation in disaster prevention.

The six major risk types include landslides and slopes, river disasters, flooding of underground spaces, coastal overtopping waves, large construction sites, and strong winds and building wind effects.

During this inspection, Vice Mayor Kim will sequentially visit the large apartment construction site in Dongnae Historic Park and the national river maintenance project site in the Suyeong River Hoedong District to directly examine flood and storm prevention measures at disaster-risk sites in preparation for heavy summer rainfall.

At the first inspection site, the apartment construction project located in Myeongnyun-dong, Dongnae-gu, he will inspect facilities such as retention basins, sedimentation basins, drainage channels, and soil runoff prevention barriers designed to prevent soil erosion along slopes during heavy rainfall. He is expected to instruct officials on-site to regularly inspect drainage channels in preparation for the rainy season and to reassess whether retention and sedimentation facilities are adequately sized to respond to recent extreme rainfall events.

Subsequently, he will visit the national river maintenance project site currently underway in the Suyeong River Hoedong District to inspect risk factors that may hinder river flow. The city previously removed temporary structures such as cofferdams in May last year at the Dongcheon pipeline maintenance site and the Oncheon No. 5 Bridge reconstruction site to prepare for the rainy season. Considering the recent trend of localized heavy rainfall, Vice Mayor Kim is expected to request that substructure construction under bridges be completed by May and that any occupancy facilities obstructing river flow be removed.

Concluding the inspection, Vice Mayor for Administrative Affairs Kim Kyung-duk will state, “Under current weather conditions where sudden localized heavy rainfall has become commonplace, the best policy to achieve zero casualties is to proactively identify and eliminate on-site risk factors and prevent disasters in advance.” He will add, “To this end, the city, districts and counties, and related agencies will work together to ensure there are no gaps in preparation for summer natural disasters.”