Economic damages, which are influenced by diverse natural disasters, have had quite an impact in Korea. Civil engineers in the country have played a major role in managing floods accompanied by typhoons. This study aims to improve the role of Korean civil engineers in natural disaster management. Comparative perspective was used as the major methodology. Civil engineers' dominance-oriented management was compared to coordination-oriented management through four variables, namely civil engineering employees, civil engineering researchers, civil engineering businessmen and other professionals. The key finding is that Korea has to change its civil engineers' dominance-oriented management into coordination-oriented management. Similarly, other nations may apply the lessons learned from Korea to their cases via the social impact of disaster, trust relations, participatory approach, various networks, emergency plans, training and exercises and the value of equity.
Literature reviewWhen diverse natural disasters occur, many damages and the collapse of infrastructure facilities can be attributed to poor structural design, poor quality of building materials, incorrect interpretation of building codes and lack of 34