A Comparison of the Water Environment Policy of Europe and South Korea in Response to Climate Change

Climate change not only increases the atmospheric temperature, but also changes the precipitation conditions and patterns, which can lead to an increase in the frequency of occurrence of natural disasters, such as flooding and drought. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has reported fluctuations in the precipitation levels for each country from 1900 to 2005, based on global climate change, suggesting that environmental changes due to climate change manifest very differently based on the region. According to the results of studies that have been carried out recently, changes in the precipitation patterns based on climate change result in changes in the water environment, including alterations to the vegetation, land use, and river flow, while considerably influencing the rate of development of groundwater as well. In this study, the 3Is, which are the important variables of Ideas, Institutions, and Interests that are universal to the international field of political science, were used to comparatively analyze the water environment policies of South Korea and Europe. The first variable, Ideas, examined the influence of awareness on establishing the water environment policy in response to climate change. In particular, differences in the conceptual awareness of the water environment with regard to hyporheic zones were studied. The second variable, Institutions, examined the differences in the water environment policy within the national administration in response to climate change. The South Korean administration’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport and the Ministry of Environment were used in a case study. Finally, the results drawn from the third variable, i.e., Interests, for South Korea appear to differ from those of Europe, in terms of water environment policy. In this study, the water environment policy of South Korea was analyzed and compared to that of Europe in order to identify problems in South Korea’s water environment policy in response to climate change, while seeking a sole solution for a comprehensive water environment policy direction for South Korea