KJC Korea
Journal Central

Both the Korean Disaster Safety Network (KDSN) and the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) in the US were established for effective civil governance on disaster relief, but produced quite different outcomes. This study aimed to overcome limitations of previous studies taking governance as given and suggest how to improve the Korea’s disaster relief governance. In an organizational perspective, a simple and parallel organizational structure of KDSN makes coordination difficult in disaster due to the different capability of each organization, and thus a systemic perspective would be needed for effective and synergistic decision-making structure. In an operational perspective, KDSN has focused on a one-time campaign outcome and was weak in information sharing and networking. In an institutional perspective, the KDSN’s official status should be strengthen to assume the role of governance and on-scene responsibility. A strategic approach is needed for effective coordination of the Korea’s disaster relief governance.

Due to strong wind and dry weather, forest fire disasters occur frequently from winter to spring in Korea. The 2005 forest fire in Yangyang, Kangwon-do caused signficant damage to the areas including Naksansa Temple, which disclosed a number of problems in fire response such as the lack of expertise, absence of manuals and integrative management systems. Meanwhile, the 2019 forest fire in Goseong was considered as an example of successful disaster response because of the central government’s active role in response. Nevertheless, there were still problems including low data reliability and delayed reporting from a fire site to headquarter. Therefore, this study comparatively analyzed the problems of the two forest fires using Root Cause Analysis Method. Based on the result, we developed the decision making support information checklist to help firefighting decisionmakers to make a proper decision during the forest fire response.

This study examined the possibility of estimating bed load discharge using a pipe hydrophone, an acoustic measurement sensor. To that end, a small-scale on-site hydraulic experiment device was built, and regression equations were developed based on the analysis of collision sound signals by bed load discharge, grain size distribution, and flow velocity change. They were classified into pulse and sound pressure integral-based regression equations according to the characteristic value of collision sound. To verify the regression equations, the calculated values of bed load discharge were compared with the actual values. The results showed that the regression equation based on the sound pressure integral had a higher accuracy than the pulse-based regression equation, and the error rate compared to the measured value was approximately 19%. The Index of Agreement (IoA) was found 0.83, indicating a good agreement between the changing trend and estimated value of bed load discharge. It is believed that sediment disasters could be prevented by incorporating various experimental conditions and establishing a corrective relationship with the actual bed load discharge in the river.

Smart cities are being promoted worldwide to solve urban problems. The smart city projects in South Korea are currently in the stage of large-scale development, mostly led by the central and local governments according to a long-term plan. The two new smart cities selected as a national pilot are located near the river, which requires a need of a flood control plan in a river basin. In this study, a comprehensive flood management technique was proposed in consideration of the characteristics of smart cities around rivers based on various administrative standards and domestic and foreign cases. A total of 35 flood management techniques were suggested for smart cities around the river from urban planning perspective in four planning areas (land use, infrastructure, housing complexes, and buildings). This study established urban planning standards for flood damage reduction, particularly when developing a smart city around a river, which should contribute to the creation of a safe smart city against flooding in the future.

Bicycle riding becomes more popular as a leisure activity and bicycle accidents by human error have recently increased. To provide safety measure for the accidents, this study performed a risk analysis of bicycle accidents in South Korea. We collected the statistical data of bicycle accidents due to driver’s negligence during 5 years (2014-2018) from Koroad TAAS (Traffic Accidents Analysis System). Bicycle accident types were identified in the 1st and 2nd detailed classifications, and human casualty was weight calculated including fatalities and injuries. The results show that side collision by an automobile is most frequent and driving off the road is the most severe in fatality rate. Considering that most of the bicycle accidents occurred by human error, local and central government should improve road safety education and campaign and enforce safety regulation.

The study was conducted to analyze the data from 117 firefighters aged 39.01±9.17 to find out the effect of post-traumatic stress symptoms and calling on their job satisfaction level. The three elements in IES-R, hyperarousal, avoidance and intrusion, were used to measure the level of post-traumatic stress, along with the Korean version of multidimensional calling measure (MCM-K). The results show that 35% of them were classified as a high-risk group of post-traumatic stress symptoms and the old group over 50 years of age had the highest level of post-traumatic stress. A significant negative correlation was found between job satisfaction and post-traumatic stress symptoms, while there was a positive correlation between job satisfaction level and calling. Statitistically significant covariates in the multiple regression model included educational background and working period of firefighters.

This is a descriptive research to identify the relationship between stress, alcohol, suicidal thoughts and depression, as well as other factors influencing depression of firefighters. The SPSS program was used to run a regression analysis to determine the effects of the subject’s stress level, alcohol consumption and suicidal thoughts on depression. Stress level and suicidal thoughts were found as significant factors influencing depression of firefighters, with the explainatory power of 69.1%. It is also found that the higher the stress and the more suicidal thoughts, the higher the level of depression. Therefore, the early detection of depression as well as management and treatment in connection with local mental health centers could lower suicidal thoughts in firefighters. There is a need for continuous attention to develop mental health programs in consideration of the job characteristics of firefighters and institutional plans for suicide prevention and mental health promotion.

Due to climate change and various environmental factors, localized torrential rains and weather-related road accidents have been increasing around the world. The estimated precipitation of torrential rains is subtantially inaccurate in areas where the rainfall data are not directly observed but estimated based on neighboring observations. Much attention is focused on rainfall observation technologies such as radar and AWS, but these facilities are too expensive to install and therefore lack the spatial resolution. We developed a technology to produce rain information using sensor signal features generated from rain sensors for vehicles. The W-S-R relationship formula, which was developed to utilize rain sensor signals to obtain rain information, was applied to the average signal values for five minutes, but found inaccurate due to insufficient consideration of the wiper effects. To solve this problem, the rain information was generated by the method of using the difference between the values before and after wipers were operated on the rain sensor signal, and evaluated by comparing the ground rainfall with that from W-S-R method.

This study amis to identify the substantive meaning of case management performed by short term youth shelter workers in Gyeonggi Province, Korea. To this end, a qualitative research was conducted to understand the concept of case management and learn how to practice case management. It is found that case management process consists of engagement, assessment and intervention plan, intervention implementation, termination and evaluation, and follow-up. Success factors for case management include a clear need and initiative of client, integrated support focused on holistic recovery of clients, support for everyday life, and client-oriented intervention, while failure factors include immature and rapid intervention focusing on superficial desire, and problem-focused delivery-oriented intervention. The difficulty in case management is mostly due to short term intervention, perspective confusion, administrative inefficiency, unrealistic evaluation criteria, excessive work stress, and high staff turnover. The results of this study is expected to be used to guide the direction of youth shelter projects by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in South Korea.

The purpose of this study is to discover the types of family expressed in family image and story using sand tray and virtual environments and analyze the characteristics of family in crisis and stable family. Using the NVivo12 program, 222 images and stories on family expressed in sand tray and virtual environments by 104 ordinary people aged 21 to 28 were analyzed. Four family types were identified; positive image and positive story (stable family), negative image and positive story (fake family), negative image and negative story (broken family), and positive image and negative story (superficial family). Despite the differences in the medium of expression and the passage of time, the characteristics of each type of family image and story appeared consistent. This study confirmed how well family images and stories expressed in sand tray and virtual environments reflect the individual’s realistic family characteristics, which highlights the usefulness of virtual environment-based psychological diagnostic tools for evaluating family stability and crisis.