Pohang City Secures Provincial Funding for Urban Diagnosis Service to Take a Step Further in Ensuring Citizen Safety

Securing Provincial Funds for 'Safety City Development System Improvement and Diagnostic Service'

Realizing Disaster Preparedness System, Facility Design, and Application Standards

Pohang City, which is making every effort to create a city safe from the climate crisis, has secured provincial funding for the ‘System Improvement and Urban Diagnosis Service,’ giving further momentum to the promotion of the comprehensive safe city plan.

The ‘Pohang City Comprehensive Safe City Promotion Plan’ aims for a fundamental and reliable preparation in the event of a large-scale disaster by ▲establishing a comprehensive plan for a major transformation into a safe city ▲building disaster infrastructure based on new standards (establishing a comprehensive disaster prevention plan, establishing a district unit comprehensive recovery plan, conducting a thorough diagnosis and relocation plan for frequently flooded areas, expanding urban retention basins and improving rainwater pump station functions, installing floodwalls, maintaining the Hyeongsan River riverbed, and constructing the Hangsa Dam) ▲and improving and strengthening Pohang-style disaster prevention plans centered on citizen safety.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok is giving an on-site briefing to Kim Wan-seop, Budget Director of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, at Indeokgyo Bridge in Ocheon Naengcheon, a typhoon-affected area, during Kim's visit to Pohang on September 21 last year. (Mayor Lee Kang-deok, left, Kim Wan-seop, Budget Director of the Ministry of Economy and Finance)

To ensure smooth implementation of the disaster prevention plan, the city launched the ‘Analysis of Causes and Establishment of Prevention Measures for Damage in the Naengcheon Area Service (400 million KRW)’ in February this year, conducting a comprehensive investigation of flood-damaged areas and analyzing flood causes to establish permanent flood control measures.

Based on the results of this service, around August this year, the city plans to implement the ‘System Improvement and Urban Diagnosis Service (1.9 billion KRW)’ to update the current system and design/application standards of facilities, thereby laying the foundation for safe city projects.

Pohang City actively proposed the necessity of the ‘System Improvement and Urban Diagnosis Service’ to Gyeongbuk Province and local assembly members, emphasizing that it is an important first step toward becoming a safe city.

Gyeongbuk Province and assembly members also recognized the urgency of resolving local issues and agreed that citizen safety is the top priority, reflecting 570 million KRW of provincial funding out of the total 1.9 billion KRW service cost in the first supplementary budget of 2023, greatly supporting the construction of a safe city Pohang.

It is expected that once the system improvement and urban diagnosis service for safe city creation begins around August this year, a concrete blueprint for the comprehensive safe city plan will be drawn.

Furthermore, the city plans to continue close communication with relevant central government departments through requests for support such as the ‘Urban Diagnosis and Comprehensive Disaster Prevention Plan Establishment Service (10 billion KRW)’ to use it as important basic data for disaster response policies targeting the entire city, dedicating all efforts to making Pohang a city safe from disasters.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “A city where anyone can live with peace of mind and a safe city project that is essential for current and future generations is a long-term necessity. We will continue to make proposals to the government and the National Assembly and do our best to ensure citizen safety.”