Water policy in South Korea: towards a new paradigm

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the new paradigm, the driving forces, and the ongoing water policy changes in South Korea. Its goal is to analyze evidence from international and national perspectives of the new paradigm, regional water conflicts, and driving forces in South Korea to show why four major components of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) - planning, pricing, public participation and water governance - are important and how they are changing water policy in South Korea. The analysis includes reviews of water management experiences of the United States and South Korea to provide comparative perspectives and to identity and assess important factors for the new water paradigm in South Korea. It also discusses four major IWRM elements and five categories of driving forces to find further improvements needed to advance the practice of IWRM in South Korea. The final stage of the dissertation is to evaluate the overall water management practice and sectoral applications of the four major IW RM components in South Korea. The dissertation compares water management practices in South Korea and the United States. The countries have different economic and political conditions, and they face many similar needs, where new and more holistic thrusts are needed, including capacity-building and demand-side water management. The American experiences of water management strategies include voluntary, community-based, bottom-up and participatory approaches, and are very important for South Korea to understand the changing water paradigm and to adapt IWRM principles into its water policies. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 discuss the international, national and local perspectives of water management. Chapter 2 reviews Chapter 18 of Agenda 21 suggested by the UNCED conference and presents four important IWRM components that are essential to understand the new water paradigm in South Korea. Chapter 3 compares management characteristics of the two countries based on analysis of water management at the national levels in South Korea and the United States, and at the state level in the United States. Chapter 4 identifies the outcomes of the new paradigm at work at the project levels in the two countries where two regional water projects, in different decades and different places, without apparent close relationships, were not completed. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss five categories of driving forces and their affected outputs of IWRM applications in South Korea. Chapter 5 reviews the economic, political, social, environmental, and technological driving forces that led to the new water paradigm in South Korea. Chapter 6 focuses on the four principal IWRM components and reviews three important water management practices initiated by the government (comprehensive water management measures and the Four Rivers Special Acts) and a voluntary local watershed movement (the Daepo stream case). The overall evaluation in the dissertation includes the international and domestic issues. The international community rates South Korea as an excellent country in the overall water management performance. On the other hand, most of the Korean people are significantly critical to its international recognized achievements. The concluding chapter explains why there is a divergence in these international and domestic perspectives. It evaluates the water management practice of South Korea and suggests future improvements. Management mechanisms within sectors are generally improving their IWRM practices to reflect the changed environments. Three out of four components - planning, pricing, and public participation - are recognized as moving towards the new paradigm. The institutional frameworks of the fourth element - water governance - are also improving, but still remain under the influence of the old paradigm. South Korea should enhance its social adaptive capacity by improving technical, social, and political capacities. Providing cooperation and coordination approaches also will be the necessary conditions to increase the social adaptive capacity. The initial phase of the demand-side management is not enough to prepare for the coming water scarcity deficit period. Sustainable development can be attained through fully implementing the four principal IWRM components, and then South Korea can proceed to the phase of natural resource reconstruction.