River development has been changed by social value for several decades.
The earlier river development focused on river channelization from the 1960s, followed by river utilization during the 1970s, and aimed on water purification and restoration duri...
River development has been changed by social value for several decades.
The earlier river development focused on river channelization from the 1960s, followed by river utilization during the 1970s, and aimed on water purification and restoration during the 1980s. However, the reckless river development of the past decades have caused many side effects; for instance, the removal of obstructions such as dredging mud up from bed of a river resulted in bed irregularities between the upstream and the downstream.
Of course, the large-scaled river development contributed to the growth of the Korean economy. However, as mentioned above, inappropriate river development and floodworks cost significant assets and created large budgets. Recent research of floodworks which are from foreign countries reported that extensive modification of a river route is liable to produce inundation of low-lying lands because the floodworks merely send the threats further downstream. Natural and ecological floodworks have positive effects on the quality of water and restoration of the biological environment. Installing artificial level-up riversides and parking lots which are human interventions of river streams adversely deteriorates the river environment. Particularly, the restoration of the Cheonggyecheon represents positive ecological change.
The restoration of Cheonggyecheon changes the traditional role of streams, such that the restoration positively influenced the restoration of adjacent streams. This research focuses on collecting information of river developments operated in Korea and analyzing the problems of reckless river development. The researcher places emphasis on precedential river development and administrative issues rather than technical issues. Restoration technology of river environmentsin Korea has been advanced on a level similar to that of other advanced countries. Korea now has competitive technology on ecological river restoration. Therefore, the Korean government now should reform the existing problems in river policy and system efficiently. On the ecological river restoration, each local government and administrative department must prioritize the order of rivers to be restored and establish the basis of the selection of rivers.