Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Dam Construction in Asia (Hantan River Dam in Korea)

Theses days, there are 3 prerequisites for dam building in Korea: First one is how to build the dam safe and stable from the technical points of view. Second one is how to design and construct the dam environmentally sound with the minimum change of the surrounding area of the dam site. Third one is how to activate the local economy of the surrounding area of the dam site in order to make the dam construction sustainable from the social and economical points of view. As far as technical aspects far dam building, there are hardly any problems in dam design and construction in our country. However, there are a little difficulty according to the location of the dam site. In order to fulfill the second option it is believed that a lot of effort should be made to accomplish the second task not only because that fairly large area shall be inundated with water after impounding but also because that ecological environments shall be changed due to change of water environment. Therefore, thoughtful investigation and assessment of the environmental features of the local regions have to be preceded before starting of the dam building. In order to overcome these difficulties Hantan river dam has been declared as an Eco-dam with 3 strategies and 9 activities plan at the design stage after sufficient consideration of the local identities of these region and coupled national plans for surrounding areas. Finally, Eco-tourism with the several coupled network-wise touristic courses, namely PERTH model, has been proposed after thorough analysis of the local identities by the Jahari window to make local economy being activated. Detailed descriptions for 3 strategies and 9 activities plan for declaration of Eco-dam and proposal of Eco-tourism with the network-wise touristic courses will be mentioned in the main content.