Heatwaves have become one of the critical issues that have adverse impacts on local community in terms of health and well-being in a changing climate. The need to tackle heatwaves in a more comprehensive and precautionary manner increases as heatwaves are projected to become more intense due to climate change. In South Korea, the central government bodies have taken actions such as ‘An annual national plan for heatwave’ and various sectoral plans under the ‘National Adaptation Plan to Climate Change’. While this progress is welcome, there is still more to be done - particularly through focusing on longer-term measures and greater cross-sectoral collaboration and engagement.
The purpose of this study is first to diagnose the current national actions relevant to the effects of heatwaves. The selected actions include a range of sectors from public health to environment, social infrastructure, urban planning and primary industries. Secondly, this study aims to make suggestions for the establishment and management of a long-term adapting plan to tackle heatwaves and climate change. The suggestions are made at national level, not local level. In doing so, it adopts conceptual frameworks including ‘policy integration’, ‘social learning’ and ‘adaptive management’; draws policy implications according to the examination of the current actions at national level; and conduct a case study of health impact assessment of heat alert and warning system as an application of adaptive management cycle.
The study confirms that heatwave is a cross-sectoral issue and accordingly, the long-term adapting plan suggested here lays emphasis on the comprehensiveness and precautionary approach as well as long term scale dynamics. To apply such an approach, this study introduces four steps: firstly to set an overarching goal; secondly select relevant sectors and stakeholders; thirdly initiate strategies to establish and manage the long-term adapting plan in a sustainable manner; and lastly conduct comparative analysis and draw institutional implications for improvement.
The study concludes with the following suggestions: first, it is essential to investigate potential pathways of transmitting and/or multiplying adverse impacts of heatwaves across sectors. Also impact and vulnerability assessments of heatwaves need to be reinforced. Secondly, vulnerability mapping and guidelines for policy making can be helpful for local governments to prioritize the most vulnerable regions and populations and therefore to establish their own feasible plans. Thirdly, it is important to develop long-term pilot projects and create institutional arrangements for locals to develop and implement their own. Lastly, it is critical to develop indicators for monitoring and evaluating the progress made by the actions in order to continuously adjust the plans. The indicators and specific M&E methods should be modified according to local context and they can be facilitated by the national guidelines for local governments. Furthermore, it is proposed to institutionalize ‘National Committee for Heatwaves and Climate Change (provisional)’ to promote communication and collaboration among government bodies (horizontal) and between central government and local governments (vertical).