The Prime Minister’s Office announced Thursday comprehensive plans for managing natural disasters in response to climate change.

The Prime Minister’s Office also said that the budget for disaster-prevention measures for 2011 has been increased by 21 percent from this year to about 5 trillion won ($4.4 billion).

Including funds to be generated from regional authorities, 6.7 trillion won will be spent on related projects.

Under the mid-term plans, which were drawn up by a government-private sector task force, Korea will introduce more advanced weather forecasting systems including satellites, aircraft and ships for weather observation.

The numerical weather forecasting system being developed specifically for Korea will be put to use in 2019.

The government also plans to build or improve sewers in 21 locations next year, and build 256 underground facilities to temporarily hold rain water by 2020.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, once the projects are complete, Seoul will be able to handle rains of up to 102 millimeters per hour with only 1.3 percent of the rain fall overflowing.

Other measures include work on 616 areas considered to be vulnerable to natural disasters within the next five years, completion of work on nationally managed streams by 2020, and building 1,000 debris barriers each year over the come 10 years in areas vulnerable to landslides.

As for next year’s budget, about 44 percent of the 5 trillion won, or 2.2 trillion won, has been set aside for water resource management projects that include building dams and maintenance works on streams managed by regional and central government.

Projects aimed at improving agricultural facilities’ ability to withstand severe weather conditions will see 900 billion won investment, while those designed for preventing floods in urban areas will be given 700 billion won.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)