• Linking
  hydromorphology
  to ecology
• Network Contacts
• Resources
• Physical Habitat Assessment Methods in Rivers
• 2009 AGU Session
• 2008 AGU Session
• Ballater Workshop
• Relevant Literature
• Ongoing progress
• Contact
• South Korean 4-rivers project
• Catchment Management Homepage

South Korea and the 4-Rivers Restoration Project/Grand Korean Canal

Introduction and Background by Simon Langan

During Spring 2009 I was invited to attend an International meeting in Seoul to discuss and give examples/review what, where and how restoration was being undertaken in Europe, the U.S.A and Japan. Other international invitees to the meeting were:

• Marcia McNally and Randy Hester University of California
• Verena Friske, Landratsamt, Heidelberg, Germany
• Mikiko Ishikawa, Tokyo University, Japan

The meeting was organised, hosted and sponsored by the Professors’ Organization for Movement against Grand Korean Canal, an organization of 2500 university academics from across South Korea. The aim of the meeting, which took place on May 27th, was to gauge how a huge project being pursued by the Korean government, known as “4-Rivers Restoration Project” faired against other processes and projects involving River Restoration. The unanimous feeling of all international attendees was that neither the process nor the outcomes of the 4-Rivers proposal had been fully considered and that under its current form is likely to cause irreparable damage to many of the ecosystem functions we are working to save and enhance.

From this background and at the request of the Professors’ Organization we would like you to consider the information available, (see below) and download and sign the letter of expressing concern (number 5 below).

Further detail

1. Opening remarks to conference by Se-Kyum Kim, Seoul National University (73 KB pdf)
2. Background summary prepared by McNally (151 KB pdf)
3. Critical comments on 4-Rivers Project produced by Professors’ Organization (26 KB pdf)
4. Response of Professor Jong Ho to some key questions as to the background of the project (12 KB pdf)
5. McNally/Hester letter to Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime (Word document)
6. Bringing four rivers back to life - article on korea.net
7. More Four Rivers Controversy - article on ohmynews.com