"High School Senior Creates 'Flood Warning Website' Alone for Family and Friends"

High School Senior Developer Kang Minsu "Self-Taught Coding Since 4th Grade"
Website Consolidating Seoul River Water Level Status
Inspired by 'COVID-19 Dashboard'

Kang Minsu, a 19-year-old high school senior, developed a website called 'Real-time River Water Level Status' that automatically updates the water level information of rivers in Seoul. / Photo by Song Hyundo, Asia Economy intern reporter

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung, Intern Reporter Song Hyundo] The heavy rain that swept through the central region on August 8 paralyzed Seoul. The area around Gangnam Station was flooded, causing numerous property and human casualties. The government announced plans to build a 'Flood Risk Map' by 2025 that predicts flood possibilities by integrating data such as river water levels and rainfall.

However, this task has already been accomplished by a high school senior. Kang Minsu (19), who taught himself programming, told this paper on the 17th, "I thought it would be necessary to have flood information that my friends and family could easily access, so I created a website."

The 'Real-time River Water Level Status' website, created by Kang and released on the 13th, organizes the river water level ratios of various districts in Seoul into an infographic. When hovering over each area, users can see the current water level of nearby rivers, and at the bottom, a satellite map shows the exact location of the rivers and the expected areas of flooding in case of inundation.

This website gained attention as it was shared through social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter. Netizens praised it with comments like "You can clearly understand whether there is a flood risk right now" and "It will be useful if heavy rain pours again."

On the website created by Ganggun, you can easily view detailed data such as water level status and flood risk for each district in Seoul. / Photo by Kang Minsu

Kang said, "I have always thought that monitoring river water level data would be useful in heavy rain disaster situations, and I believed that if such data were made accessible not only to the government but also to the general public, my family would be safer." He added, "The coding self-study I started as a game in fourth grade has developed this far."

◆ Combining Data from Environmental Ministry-affiliated Agencies

The information provided by this website combines public data from various institutions, including local governments, the Han River Flood Control Office under the Ministry of Environment, Korea Water Resources Corporation, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power. He explained, "I saw news that President Yoon Suk-yeol instructed the Minister of Environment to develop a system to monitor river water levels nationwide," adding, "The goal of my project is to integrate and provide such data in one place." Following President Yoon's directive, the government plans to establish a 'Flood Forecast System' by 2025 that covers data from 218 tributaries and streams nationwide.

◆ "The Ministry of Environment Has High-Quality Data... The Problem Is Unstandardized Data"

However, Kang pointed out that after reviewing the public data compiled by related agencies, the urgent issue was not data quality but rather 'traffic control' of the data.

President Yoon Suk-yeol presiding over the River Flood and Urban Flooding Countermeasures Meeting at the Seoul Situation Center of the Central Disaster and Safety Situation Room, Government Seoul Office, on the morning of the 10th. / Photo by Yonhap News

He said, "When I first started the project, I was surprised by the vast amount of high-quality data from agencies under the Ministry of Environment. Collecting data was not difficult," but added, "However, since each agency provides different application programming interfaces (APIs), it took a lot of time to integrate and process them as one."

The issue Kang pointed out is known as the 'data silo' phenomenon. Because various ministries build IT systems based on different standards, the data are incompatible with each other. Kang emphasized, "The quality of data collected by agencies is excellent, so it seems like a problem that can be overcome," but added, "Continuous optimization efforts are necessary for more efficient services."

◆ "Delivering Statistical Information Is Important... Inspired by the 'Corona Dashboard'"

Kang's inspiration for creating the 'River Water Level Status' website came from dashboard services developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the 'Corona Board.' He explained, "I realized that services showing the status of COVID-19 infections were more useful to people than maps showing confirmed patients' movements," adding, "In crisis situations, delivering statistically meaningful information is more important than anything else, which led me to start this project." He also expressed, "I did not learn programming professionally, so I feel lacking and regretful," and shared his aspiration, "In the future, I want to receive formal education in this field and learn how to collaborate with other developers."