President Lee Hak-soo of Korea Water Resources Corp.(K-water) views the products and new technologies exhibited at an event held at the K-water Research Institute on Feb. 28. (Photos: K-water)

Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-water) announced new technologies and R&D results at a meeting in the K-water Research Institute on Feb. 28.

K-water showed off the six core new technologies to control water, including one used to analyze satellite pictures to size up flood damage and others to check the water quality of newly built dams, especially green algae blooms. The company also test-operated its SMART water management system at the event.

K-water displayed the 12 R&D new results at its R&D institute, including technology to monitor the number of water supply channels needed and other new technologies for the management of water reservoirs developed at the institute.

Director Park Jae-young of the research facility said they will continue to carry on with research in connection with the 4th Industrial Revolution and other trends to continue to develop new technologies for water management aimed at making various contributions to the most effective and diverse water management in the country.

K-water also examined the results of 74 construction projects related to water dams across the country, especially their designs and values, finding 41.8 billion won saved from government budgets for the projects.

The move was meant to improve the budgets for the projects. K-water checked a number of key aspects of the projects to determine their safety and economic aspects, to decide their future management and make improvements. The company also examines the real values of the projects by analyzing the supply costs of the materials and the construction technologies that were employed to see if they were economically effective.

The checks on designs and economic viability had the most effective results on highways being planned around Ansan City, Gyeonggi Province, with 8.7 billion won saved. Some 7.4 billion won was saved from the Busan Echo Delta City Project, which is in the first of three stages. K-water saved a total of 957.3 billion won since the audits began in 2001.

President Lee Hak-soo said K-water has been working on improving the safety of the construction projects by examining them from the design stage for a rationale execution of government money. K-water will not change its audits and will continue to make improvements so that the expenses saved from the projects can be diverted to other projects that boost safety.

Realizing the need for multipurpose dams, the government set up multi-purpose dam construction projects to develop water resources, secure stable water supply, control floods and droughts, enhance water quality and improve the residential environment.

In order to promote such dam building projects, the government enacted the ‘Specific Multi-purpose Dam Act’ and set up the ’10-year Water Resources Development Plan.’ After that, it established Korea Water Resources Corporation (KWRC) to delegate the responsibility of managing the constructed dams.

In 1973, the government launched the Soyang Dam construction project, at that time the largest rock-fill dam in Asia. As the developer of Soyang Dam project, Hyundai Engineering & Construction led the project. Following the recommendation of Hyundai, the South Korean government chose to build a rock-fill dam rather than a gravity dam as recommended by Nippon Koei, a leading Japanese dam building company.

The first multi-purpose Soyang Dam built with the first rock-filled dam building technology, the first and largest multi-purpose dam in South Korea. Moreover, the country obtained its own dam building technology, which is still used in construction projects today.