통합물관리에 따른 하천법 개선방안

The key to integrated water resource management is the integration of the River Act which oversees the quantity of water, and the Water Environment Conservation Act which controls the quality of water. The fact that the River Act now falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Environment(MOE) is symbolic because it marks the start of integrated water management. However, it’s a bummer that not much of the Act’s content directly linked to integrated water management. The change of jurisdiction to the MOE from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport without change of substantial content of the Act is the only thing that has really changed during the past four years. It is now time to actually integrate the management of river water. A total examination of the River Act is necessary in order to back that. While a number of revisions have already made to the Act enacted in December 30, 1961, it yet faces another turning point as demand for the integration of water management grows. Integrated water management requires a paradigm shift in managing rivers. Emphasizing the hydrologic cycle, along with watershed management and water quality management are some examples. In that respect, specific measures could include considering the hydrologic cycle a water management principle, adding integrated water management as well as watershed-based water management, expanding the designation standard on national rivers and raising the status of regional rivers to national rivers, building an integrated management system for river research･monitoring･information, reorganizing the river master plan, eliminating any redundancies in the river improvement project, enhancing the permission of river occupancy･use system, reshuffling the water rights system focusing on the River Act’s permission of water use, unifying the financial system, restructuring river minium flow, and finally, deleting the provision on water dispute adjustment.