Yongin City Prepares Comprehensive Measures for Summer Flood Damage and Heatwaves

Focused Inspection on Flood-Prone Roads, Riverside Walkways, Steep Slopes, and Semi-Basements

Yongin City, Gyeonggi Province, announced on the 24th that it will establish and implement a comprehensive plan to prepare for summer natural disasters such as floods, typhoons, and heatwaves.

The city plans to operate an emergency duty system to ensure there are no monitoring gaps and focus on strengthening safety management centered on flood-prone areas. In particular, it will prepare measures to prevent damage to semi-basement houses, commercial buildings, roads, and parks caused by heavy rain or typhoons.

First, the city will conduct on-site inspections of 43 locations, including roads, riverside walking trails, and steep slopes prone to flooding, and repair entry-blocking facilities. Throughout the summer, the city will regularly inspect these sites in advance to ensure that barriers do not malfunction.

Yongin City is installing flood barriers in semi-basement houses within the area to prevent flood damage caused by heavy rain.
[Photo by Yongin City]

Flood prevention facilities such as water-blocking panels and flood detection alarm devices have been installed in 84 semi-basement houses vulnerable to flooding caused by heavy rain. When rainwater touches the sensor during flooding, the alarm device sends flood notification texts to the city officials and residents. The city plans to install additional devices in 70 more locations.

Additionally, the city will inspect approximately 27.5 km of sewer pipelines in flood-prone areas and complete dredging and repair work on sections requiring maintenance within this month. Safety inspections conducted on 200 sites, including 52 local rivers and 148 small streams, identified 31 locations needing maintenance such as dredging, riverbed cleaning, embankment repairs, and waterfront facility maintenance, which will also be addressed. Dredging will be carried out at 10 locations including Singalcheon and Osancheon, and by the end of this month, dredging and removal of floating debris will be completed at 16 locations including Gyeangancheon, Dongmakcheon, Tancheon, Yuwuncheon, Cheongmicheon, and Geomeocheon.

The city will also focus on inspecting major roads and parking lots as transportation facilities. The Yongin Advanced Traffic Center will monitor real-time road conditions and unexpected situations 24 hours a day through CCTV. In preparation for heavy rain or typhoons, the city has pre-inspected 2,134 transportation facilities, including traffic facility enclosures and electric leakage at bus stops, and has prepared recovery equipment and established an emergency contact network to respond to facility damage.

A barrier facility to prevent citizens from entering Balancheon in Cheongdeok-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin during heavy rain.
[Photo by Yongin City]

The parking lot by the riverbank in Bojeong-dong, Giheung-gu, operates a control room 24 hours a day to monitor the inflow volume and water level of Tancheon in real time. During heavy rain advisory warnings or typhoon alerts, the city guides parked vehicles to safe locations, and any remaining vehicles that cannot be contacted are forcibly towed to predetermined evacuation sites.

To prevent road flooding damage, the city inspects the operational status of 13 underground pump facilities and the entry-blocking system of Jukjeon 1 underground road, and strengthens continuous monitoring and on-site inspections of low-lying roads including underground roads. For 22 underground roads vulnerable to flooding, four designated personnel including city officials, police officers, and community leaders monitor to enable rapid control in emergencies.

The city is also implementing various heatwave response measures. A heatwave response task force (TF) team consisting of 11 departments and 5 teams has been formed to carry out comprehensive heatwave countermeasures such as expanding heat reduction facilities, managing the health of vulnerable groups, and operating cooling shelters. To prevent road surface deformation caused by heatwaves, when a heatwave advisory or equivalent heat is expected, four water spraying trucks will be deployed to spray water along 181 km of urban areas from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

UV-blocking shade canopies will be installed at crosswalks and traffic islands in busy urban areas. The city currently operates 1,141 shade canopies within its jurisdiction and plans to install 100 more this year.

Furthermore, to ensure the safety of elderly people vulnerable to heatwaves, 73 indoor cooling shelters such as senior centers are open. The city plans to strengthen citizen safety by providing heatwave prevention supplies to vulnerable groups such as elderly seniors and basic livelihood security recipients, as well as small construction sites and financial shelters.

A city official stated, "We will do our best to strengthen surveillance of flood-prone areas and heatwave damage prevention activities so that citizens can safely spend the summer."