South Gyeongsang Province, 8 cities and counties join hands to manage Nakdong River waterfront

South Gyeongsang Province and eight cities and counties along the Nakdong River have launched a coordinated effort to draw up a regional blueprint for the systematic preservation and efficient use of the river's waterfront areas. The initiative aims to consolidate the separate Nakdong River-related plans each municipality has pursued independently into a province-led integrated management framework, positioning the waterfront as a new engine of regional growth.

The province held a kickoff briefing and MOU signing ceremony Friday at the Changnyeong-Haman Weir Integrated Water Management Center. Vice Governor for Economic Affairs Kim Myeong-ju attended alongside deputy heads and officials from Changwon, Gimhae, Miryang and Yangsan cities, and Uiryeong, Haman, Changnyeong and Hapcheon-gun counties. Participants shared the project's direction and discussed ways to cooperate.

The study will run 24 months from this month through June 2028. Of the total project cost of 500 million won ($324,000), the province will contribute 100 million won while the eight municipalities will each contribute 50 million won, collectively covering the remaining 400 million won. The Gyeongnam Research Institute will serve as the lead institution for comprehensive policy research, working jointly with architecture and planning firm Siteplanningarchitects, which will handle technical areas including spatial design.

The study covers approximately 106 kilometers of the Nakdong River's main channel running through South Gyeongsang Province. Rather than limiting the scope to the riverbed zone inside the levees, the survey will extend one to five kilometers beyond the embankments to encompass farmland, adjacent villages and mountains on both sides. The province plans to draw on advanced river management practices from abroad — including Germany's Rhine and Austria's Danube — to establish a wide-area waterfront management model.

The core tasks are to set a future vision for the waterfront space, establish guidelines covering land use, landscape and ecological conservation standards, and develop specialized strategies tailored to local conditions. The Nakdong River waterfront, despite its rich ecological and scenic resources, has long been criticized for fragmented management along administrative boundaries and for duplicated projects between neighboring municipalities.

The province intends to weight the study toward balancing conservation and use rather than letting it skew toward simple development. Through a working-level consultative body to be formed among the municipalities, the province will gather zone-specific requirements, coordinate and consolidate projects at risk of overlapping investment, and identify priority initiatives that reflect each area's distinctive character.

Particular attention will be paid to building a rational case for easing the dense web of environmental regulations — including development-restriction zones and water-source protection areas — that cover the Nakdong River basin. On that basis, the province plans to pursue deregulation talks with central government agencies such as the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office and to prepare a concrete roadmap for incorporating provincial projects into national plans and government policy.

"Through this project, we will systematically unlock the potential of the Nakdong River waterfront," Vice Governor Kim said. "We will build an effective integrated management foundation that goes beyond a simple spatial plan — one that creates a new growth engine for the region and improves the quality of life for residents."