The Namgang Dam is located in 8 km west of the city of Jinju and was constructed in 1969 on the Nam River, a branch of the Nakdong River, which is the second largest river in Korea, to prevent flood damage and provide irrigation, living and industrial water in the cities of Jinju and Sacheon.
This dam has a unique flood control method which diverts 80% of dam discharge (3,250 m3/s) to Sacheon Bay in case of inflow of 10,400 m3/s, project flood of 200 years frequency and discharge maximum 800 m3/s (20%) to dam immediate downstream.
The Korean peninsula was seriously affected by heavy rainfall from typhoon and seasonal rain front in June, 2006. The rainy season period of 2006 was 46 days and was 2 weeks longer than usual. And accumulated rainfall was 321~1,244 mm according to area, and average rainfall was 717,3 mm which was 3 times more than usual (262 mm). This rainfall was one of the longest and heaviest on record.
The amount of 1.4 billion tons flowed into the Namgang Dam due to the heavy rainfall at that time. And the discharge was implemented as the maximum 3,562 m3/s (main stream 392 m3/s, Sacheon Bay 3,166 m3/s, 16:00 10, July) considering the rainfall condition, dam inflow, restrictions of up-downstream and the safety of the dam. Thus, the flood control was accomplished at the maximum stage of EL. 44.48 m (24:00 10, July) which was 1.52 m lower than the flood water level (46 m).
The maximum amount of 392 m3/s and 3,200 m3/s was discharged to the main downstream of Namgang Dam and Sacheon Bay for 5 hours, respectively.
Therefore, it was considered that flood discharge of 5,900 m3/s and the stage of 2.62 m at the Jindong station were decreased as a result of flood control of the dam.