We will focus on preventing disasters and reducing damage through research that the public can feel.
Park Seon-gyu, president of the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT), said this at a press briefing held at the headquarters in Goyang, Gyeonggi, on the 24th. The event was held under the theme of "sinkhole prevention system and urban flooding safety strategy."
On the day, Choi Chang-ho, senior research fellow at KICT, said, "Ninety-seven percent of the public expects that science and technology research and development (R&D) will play an important role in disaster safety," and noted, "We have formed a dedicated team to analyze the causes of disasters and calamities and find ways to minimize damage."
KICT launched the "disaster and construction accident safety project team" in Jun. Recent two-year Google search data related to disasters and calamities were reviewed, and among the 13 keywords with the largest increases in search volume, sinkholes, urban flooding, large fires, and construction accidents were selected as the four priority areas. A research team of 44 Ph.D.-level experts will identify the causes of major accidents and technological gaps and propose policies and technologies that can reduce loss of life and property damage.
There were a total of 957 sinkhole incidents from 2019 to 2023. Kang Jae-mo, a researcher at KICT's Geotechnical Research Division, said, "The number of sinkhole incidents is small, but when they occur, they are dangerous incidents that can result in fatalities," and announced, "Over the past 10 years, an average of about 220 cases have occurred, and the number is expected to increase by more than 20% each year."
According to Kang, sinkhole incidents are mainly caused by the aging of underground facilities and large-scale underground development projects. However, the managing entities and related regulations differ for each facility, inevitably creating blind spots. KICT said it has worked to fill these blind spots with technology.
A representative example is a map that predicts sinkholes based on digital underground information. After creating databases of the degree of aging and density of facilities related to water supply, sewage, heat, electricity, and gas in space, an artificial intelligence (AI) model is used to predict risk levels by region.
Kang said, "We created a map predicting sinkhole risk based on underground facility information available from local governments, and we will secure real-time capabilities by reflecting climate change information such as heavy downpours," and explained, "We will also develop technologies to detect cell phone signals to rescue buried people and to predict construction collapse risks through AI (artificial intelligence) simulation (mock experiments)."
Kim Hyeong-jun, principal researcher at the Water Resources and River Research Division, gave a presentation on urban flooding. Kim said, "In the 2020s, extreme heavy rainfall occurred 22.3 times a year, which is more than double compared to the 1970s," and noted, "Due to the effects of climate change, increased rainfall, and exceeding drainage capacity, urban flooding will inevitably occur repeatedly in the future."
KICT said that since 2010 it has developed flood forecasting system construction and improvements, urban flood prevention research, and AI-based flood forecasting systems. By 2026, it plans to develop urban flood prediction technology. It will also incorporate "digital twins," which replicate real environments virtually, so the public can intuitively understand risk levels.
Park said, "The disaster and calamity R&D budget amounts to only hundreds of millions of won, but when there are casualties, the social loss reaches trillions of won," and added, "With the goal of reducing at least 50 casualties during my term, we will also overhaul research evaluation criteria to focus on what the public can feel." Park's term runs for three years from Nov. last year.