Temporal Variations of Citizens’ Demands on Flood Damage Mitigation, Streamflow Quantity and Quality in the Korean Urban Watershed

Abstract

Sustainable watershed management (SWM) can be achieved through recognition and reflection upon the values of citizens. Collaborative governance consisting of citizens is crucial for successful SWM. Collaborative governance definitely requires an active participatory decision-making process that reflects citizens' preferences. Citizen preference also tends to substantially change with life pattern and life quality. These shifts can be caused by slight variations in both social priorities and personal preferences for SWM. Therefore, collaborative water governance must be frequently renewed in response to citizens' values through the participatory framework. The An'yang Stream in South Korea is generally regarded as a representative urban stream restoration case that has been successfully led by collaborative governance. By conducting individual surveys with citizens on-site, this study addresses how citizens' preferences of the stream's management have changed between 2005 and 2015. In addition, this study used three quantitative hydrologic vulnerability indices: potential flood damage (PFD), potential streamflow depletion (PSD), and potential water quality deterioration (PWQD). They can spatially quantify citizen preference using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which can systematically derive citizens' subjective relative-weighted preferences. In the end, this study identified critical differences in priorities in regard to vulnerable areas between in 2005 and in 2015.

Resident perceptions of urban stream restoration and water quality in South Korea

“…Our study uses sociodemographic data collected as part of the AHP results published by Hong and Chung () to obtain residents' perceptions of stream restoration. The AHP survey was intended to identify citizens' primary values pertaining to stream restoration in the An'Yang Stream watershed.…”

“…SW4, SW5, and SW6 are located in the downstream portion of the watershed. The subwatershed regions of the An'Yang Stream that needed the most flood prevention were preferentially restored and financially received a much larger budget than other upper stream subwatersheds (Hong & Chung, ). In SW4, the project promoted the diversification of ecosystem types and improvement of water quality.…”

“…In SW1, projects focused on flood control and water quality improvement for a long time, in response to complaints from local residents that had limited access to the waterfront space (Yonhap News, 2008). needed the most flood prevention were preferentially restored and financially received a much larger budget than other upper stream subwatersheds (Hong & Chung, 2016). In SW4, the project promoted the diversification of ecosystem types and improvement of water quality.…”

“…Our study uses sociodemographic data collected as part of the AHP results published by Hong and Chung (2016) We selected the respondents who visited the waterfront areas in each subwatershed region. During the selection process, we did not restrict the selection of citizens based on demographic information, such as age, gender, income level, or education level.…”

Barriers, challenges, conflicts, and facilitators in environmental decision‐making: A case of An'Yang Stream restoration

“…Local citizens are prone to hold huge concern about environmental threats in their region (Anguelovski, ; Edelstein, ; Rich, Edelstein, Hallman, & Wandersman, ; Vorkinn & Riese, ). Thus, the various concerns held by private sectors, such as citizen groups, included social restoration as well as ecological restoration rather than science‐based stream restoration (Hong & Chung, ). The politicians were prone to rely on the consulting advice of professional advisory groups of An'Yang Stream to show their short‐term accomplishments in the restoration job.…”