Case study 2

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Oct 30, 2023

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Extreme Floods in Seoul, South Korea Jaeheon Kim ATM 103 Professor. Kevin Reed Oct 23, 2O22 In August 2022, Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, was hit by a large scale of extreme flood. The extreme flood brought catastrophic and disastrous impacts to Seoul and its citizens in that Seoul is the largest metropolis and the densest populated area in South Korea. In this paper, I will discuss the physical description of the extreme flood in Seoul and the information that the community did and did not learn from the event. Generally, floods can occur due to a variety of reasons. To give an example, heavy and prolonged rainfalls, failure of water control, snowmelt, and heavy waves on shores result in the extreme flood (National Weather Service, n.d.). Particularly, heavy and prolonged rainfalls are caused by reckless human activities which bring about significant climate change (“How Climate Change,” 2022). In order to provide the physical description of Seoul’s case, the extreme flood was led by heavy rain for a long period of time. Namely, the intense rainfall was the main atmospheric condition that led to the extreme flood event. The event itself was very rare in that this rainfall was recorded as the highest rate in 80 years, which was about over 100mm (3.94inches) per hour. (“Seoul Serious Floods,” 2022). Moreover, the August extreme flood in Seoul was rare in that there were casualties. Yeung and Bae (2022) reported that 13 people were killed. Also, 14 people were reported to be injured (“Seoul Serious Floods,” 2022). Not only the large amount of rainfall

over several hours, but also the absence of precautionary measures to cope with the flood was the factors that made this extreme flood event so impactful. All in all, the heavy rainfall was the sole responsible physical force for the extreme flood in Seoul. After experiencing catastrophic and unprecedented extreme floods, a lot of things have changed in the community of Seoul. One is that the government announced a new policy to invest 1.15 billion dollars to construct six gigantic subterranean tunnels to store and drain rainfall as a mitigation plan to prevent future extreme flooding (Jung & Choi, 2022). According to Lee and Kim (2022), another plan that the government launched is phasing out the half-basement residential units and converting them into nonresidential use since the half-basement units are very vulnerable and dangerous when there is an occurrence of extreme floods. This drastic societal change of removing half-basement residential units was specifically put forward taking into account the fatalities of poor people living in these environments during the August extreme flood. Ever since the extreme flood in August, fortunately nothing similar to this catastrophic event has happened in Seoul. Although the extreme flood event itself was disastrous, there have been a lot of positive changes in the culture (Lee & Kim, 2022). The extreme flood event shed light on the socially disadvantaged class in that these people need societal attention and care. Also, the extreme flood not only sparked numerous requests for increased money and focus on public services, but also inspection of the housing and climate laws to protect socially disadvantaged class (Lee & Kim, 2022). All in all, even though the extreme flood left a lot of damages in Seoul, the community is consistently trying to make positive changes learned from this natural disaster.

References How Climate Change is Fueling Extreme Weather. (2022, July 19). Earth Justice . Retrieved September 1, 2022, from https://earthjustice.org/features/how-climate-change-is-fueling-extreme-weather#:~:t xt=Human%20activity%20is%20causing%20rapid,is%20released%20into%20our% 0atmosphere Jung, H., & Choi, S. (2022, August, 11). Reuters . Retrieved October, 6, 2022 from https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/after-deluge-climate-change-fears-make- korea-prioritise-seoul-flood-defences-2022-08-11/ Lee, M., & Kim, M. (2022, August, 12). The Washington Post . Retrieved October, 6, 2022 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/12/seoul-floods-banjiha-basement- outh-korea/ National Weather Service. (n.d.). Flood Related Hazards . Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://www.weather.gov/safety/flood-hazards South Korea’s Capital Seoul Hit with Serious Floods. (2022, August, 09). BBC . Retrieved September 1, 2022, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/62479716 Yeung, J., & Bae, G. (2022, August 12). CNN . Retrieved September 1, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/11/asia/seoul-flooding-banjiha-basement-apartment-cl mate-intl-hnk/index.html

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