Recent Progress in Low-Impact Development in South Korea: Water-Management Policies, Challenges and Opportunities

For the past few decades, rapid urban development and climate change has caused many meteorological disasters (flooding, droughts, and heat waves) in South Korea. The current stormwater management system (gray infrastructure) is based on the pipe networks, which is not an effective method to control flash flooding problems during big rain events. Therefore, there is a need to find a more sustainable stormwater-management system that can have the ability to solve these water-related problems in urban areas. Low-impact development (LID)/green infrastructure (GI) practices are an effective approach to solving the adverse effects of urbanization and to addressing climate change. This paper reviews national water-management policies which were selected for flood and environmental protection from 1960 to 2017. Research results of applied LID practices in Korea also show that these practices are useful for stormwater management in urban areas. The dominating challenges identified are: lack of proper knowledge for implementing LID practices; uncertainties in the benefits of LID/GI practices; and lack of cooperation and collaboration between different agencies for the expansion of LID projects. Finally, some opportunities for LID/GI practices in Korea are also described.