• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.315-325
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• 2011

There are not many practical measures to solve a water conflict, when a hydromorphologically asymmetric situation in international rivers exists whereby downstream users may not affect upstream users but upstream users do cause downstream impacts. In taking advantage of this merit, North Korea has built Imnam Dam in upstream of North Han River and uses water for trans-basin hydropower generation. As an impact of this dam South Korean' area as a downstream user has been suffered from water deficit and dry river. It is very critical for South Korea to solve a key problem such as water allocation for water supply and river maintenance. Therefore, this study is aim to suggest alternatives for equitable water allocation in consideration of special circumstances between the South and the North. For this, reviewing the allocation methods of water rights is carried using lessons obtained from international river cases. The results show that the minimum desired streamflow is calculated at 7.3 $m^3/sec$; water budget analysis by the equitable distribution of streamflows at the border line of the North Han River, the difference in water supply deficiency is at 3.7 $m^3/sec$ before and after Imnam Dam; in the determined distribution method, the difference in water deficiency is at 11.38 $m^3/sec$. These results show that South Korea should be secured 11.38 $m^3/sec$ from North Korean's Imnam Dam in respective of water use right and sound river maintenance.