Water policy in South Korea: Towards a new paradigm

The goal of the dissertation is to analyze evidence from international and national perspectives of the new paradigm, regional water conflicts, and the driving forces for the new paradigm to show why the four major integrated water resources management (IWRM) components are important and how they are changing IWRM in South Korea.; This analysis includes reviews of water management experiences of the United States and South Korea to provide comparative perspectives and to identify and assess important factors for the new paradigm in South Korea. It also discusses four IWRM elements and five driving forces to find further improvements IWRM practices in South Korea.; The dissertation compares water management practices in South Korea and the United States. The countries have different economic and political conditions, and they face many similar needs, where new and more holistic thrusts are needed, including capacity-building and demand-side water management. The American experiences of water management strategies are very important for South Korea to understand the changing water paradigm and to adapt IWRM principles into its water policies.; The concluding chapter evaluates the water management practice of South Korea and suggests further comments about future improvements on South Korean water management. The international community rates South Korea as an excellent country in the overall water management performance. On the other hand, most of the Korean people are significantly critical to its international recognized achievements. The sectoral achievements of the IWRM components in South Korea are generally improving their management mechanisms to reflect the changed environments.; South Korea should enhance its social adaptive capacity by improving technical, social, and political capacities. Providing cooperation and coordination approaches also will be the necessary conditions to increase the social adaptive capacity. Sustainable development can be attained through fully implementing the four principal IWRM components, and then South Korea can proceed to the phase of natural resource reconstruction.