Pyeongrim Dam enters drought caution stage

Pyeongrim Dam entered the drought caution stage on Aug. 2, prompting planned supply adjustments.

The dam's catchment received 525 millimeters of rain this year, 64 percent of the usual level, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment said. Storage stood at 5.66 million tonnes, or 55 percent of capacity and 89 percent of the usual level. Pyeongrim supplies household and industrial water, agricultural water and river-maintenance water to Yeonggwang, Damyang, Jangseong and Hampyeong.

Before the alert, the government began operating an interconnection with Su-yang, an agricultural reservoir, on July 24 to store up to 15,000 tonnes of water a day. At the caution stage, contracted household and industrial supplies are maintained, while agricultural and river-maintenance water may each be cut by up to 4,000 tonnes a day. Transfer volumes and timing will vary with storage at Su-yang reservoir and Jangseong Dam, which stood at 50.2 percent and 33.3 percent on Aug. 2.

An amended Enforcement Decree of the Agricultural and Fishery Disaster Countermeasures Act takes effect on Aug. 15, adding unusually high temperatures as a cause of agricultural disaster and covering diseases and insect pests directly caused by them. It requires national and local governments to notify affected farm and fishing households how to report disaster damage.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said 8,534 of 9,104 2025 disaster-recovery projects had been completed by the end of June, a 93.7 percent completion rate, the highest in 10 years and 11.1 percentage points above the 10-year average.

Lee Jong-han, a professor in Inha University's Department of Social Infrastructure Engineering, developed LIVE digital twin technology, which combines analysis of material degradation, component damage and structural behavior to forecast where structural damage starts and how it spreads.

"The LIVE digital twin technology shifts maintenance that depended on after-the-fact inspections to a predictive, preemptive system," Lee said.