• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.95-106
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• 2016

Water Management Resilience Index (WMRI) was developed as a policy measure of adaptability to withstand water stresses and to set up water management strategies mainly in mid-small scale tributaries, and then evaluated on 117 sub-basins in South Korea. The index consists of 3 sub-indices such as vulnerability, robustness and redundancy sub-indices, each including indicators of 3 sectors: water use, flood mitigation, and river environment. Total number of indicators selected for the index was 31. Taking into account the stream order and control capability of river flow discharge, sub-basins were categorized into 3: 1 for mainstreams of lower large dams, 2 and 3 for tributaries, respectively without and with flow discharge regulation. As a result of the evaluation, resilience index scores in Category 2 and 3 are much lower than that of Category 1, especially with very poor score of redundancy. Although there was no significant difference between mainstream and tributaries in vulnerability and robustness sub-indices, results of redundancy sub-index in tributaries were lower than those in mainstream. Thus, it is conceived that the variety of water management schemes should be considered to improve their resilience in the face of future uncertainty. Addressing comprehensive stability of river basin against internal and external impacts, WMRI in this study can also be used for the prioritization of water management plans.