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This study develops a resilience-oriented disaster information architecture that integrates regional vulnerability considerations with AI-enabled optimization of emergency response under conditions of intensifying climate-driven uncertainty (Ripple et al., 2020). Existing disaster information systems remain fragmented and reactive, limiting their capacity to manage cascading and compound risks. To address these challenges, the study adopts a qualitative, case-based analytical approach grounded in disaster informatics, deep defense theory, and dynamic resilience. Drawing on representative disaster cases from Japan, Pakistan, and South Korea, the analysis examines how social, infrastructural, and informational vulnerabilities emerge and how ICT- and AI-enabled interventions mitigate systemic failure. Rather than advancing a fully quantitative model, the study emphasizes conceptual and architectural synthesis to clarify the structural logic of resilient disaster information governance. Based on this synthesis, a distributed disaster information architecture is proposed, highlighting multilayered communication, intelligent data integration, and adaptive decision support. The findings demonstrate how deep defense mechanisms and dynamic resilience can be operationalized through system-level design and institutional learning, offering transferable insights for regions facing escalating climate risks and infrastructural constraints.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-related risks encompass not only technical uncertainties and industrial risks but also the potential for widespread violations of fundamental rights. There is an increasing demand for a more sophisticated regulatory framework. From this perspective, this study aims to provide policy and practical implications for future legal frameworks addressing the potential risks associated with AI by comparing the risk management frameworks of the EU AI Act (AIA) and the AI Basic Act of Korea (BAI). The comparative analysis of EU and Korean law on AI provides that the BAI lacks a detailed categorization of obligated parties and limits enforcement to administrative fines.Based on these findings, the study proposes that the BAI needs to clarify risk definitions and classifications, refine the categorization of obligated parties, strengthen enforcement measures, and enhance alignment with international norms.

This study examines how policy instruments mobilized during the COVID-19 crisis shaped citizens’ perceptions of policy effectiveness. Drawing on Vedung’s (1998) typology, instruments are classified into regulation (sticks), financial support (carrots), and information provision (sermons), and further specified as social regulation and health system–based regulation, universal cash transfers and selective indirect support, and information disclosure. The results indicate that social regulation significantly increased perceived effectiveness, whereas health system–based regulation showed no statistically significant effect. Universal, cash-based support such as nationwide disaster relief payments improved perceived effectiveness, while selective and indirect assistance such as in-kind provision to vulnerable groups reduced it, suggesting design-driven perceptual gaps. Information-provision instruments did not significantly affect perceived effectiveness in an environment characterized by information overload. Overall, citizens are more likely to evaluate crisis policies as effective when instruments are experientially tangible and perceived as fair, offering practical guidance for configuring instrument mixes and implementation modalities in future crisis response strategies.

On November 9, 2025, a fatal accident occurred at an inland aquaculture facility in Goseong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea, resulting in the deaths of one Korean and two Sri Lankan workers inside a large water tank. This study applies root cause analysis and comparative assessment of similar confined-space incidents to identify systemic failures in safety governance and migrant worker protection. The principal contributing factors included oxygen deficiency, the absence of confined-space safety protocols, and language-based communication barriers. Drawing on media evidence and occupational safety literature, the study calls for stronger policy enforcement, intelligent environmental monitoring systems, and multilingual safety training. The results reveal that small enterprises continue to represent a critical blind spot in Korea’s industrial safety system. Migrant workers, in particular, face compounded risks due to inadequate access to hazard communication and emergency preparedness. International comparison cases demonstrate that early gas detection and mandatory training substantially reduce confined-space fatalities. These findings highlight the urgent need for Korea to implement more technology-driven and inclusive safety management frameworks. Such reforms are essential to prevent the recurrence of similar tragedies in high-risk confined-space environments.

This study aimed to identify factors associated with life satisfaction among multicultural adolescents in South Korea. The sample comprised multicultural adolescents in their second year of middle school (N = 1,763) drawn from the 2023 Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study (MAPS). Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with higher life satisfaction, and a classification and regression tree (CART) model was applied to examine complex relationships among key predictors. Higher life satisfaction was significantly associated with better subjective physical health, a more positive body image, absence of depressive symptoms, and greater parental and friend support. Conversely, experiences of bullying and depressive symptoms were strongly associated with lower life satisfaction. CART analysis identified depression and body image as the most influential factors in predicting life satisfaction. These findings highlight the need for comprehensive interventions that emphasize mental health support, bullying prevention, and the strengthening of family and friend support systems to improve life satisfaction among multicultural adolescents.

Urban-rural health disparities are evident among older adults in South Korea. Focusing on cardiovascular disease (CVD), this study examined urban–rural differences in this population’s general characteristics, knowledge regarding the early recognition of major vascular events, and health behaviors. Data from the 2024 Korea Community Health Survey were analyzed for a total of 83,794 older adults. Despite higher mean age, more single-person households, and lower education and income compared with their urban counterparts, rural older adults demonstrated greater CVD knowledge and preventive health behavior engagement. In both urban and rural settings, greater knowledge and the absence of unmet healthcare needs were positively associated with higher health behavior engagement. Unexpectedly, lower education was associated with greater health behavior engagement. In urban areas, income was significantly associated with engagement in multiple health behaviors. Additionally, single-person households were also positively associated with this outcome. These findings highlight the need for tailored community-level strategies that account for contextual socioeconomic and healthcare system differences.

The purpose of this study was to examine knowledge of advance directives on life-sustaining treatment (AD-LST), biomedical ethics awareness, and attitudes toward respect for patients’ self-determination in life-sustaining treatment (AR-SD-LST) among nursing students and to identify factors associated with AR-SD-LST. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 133 nursing students from four universities. Mean scores were 10.76/16 for AD-LST knowledge (66.9%), 2.94/4 for biomedical ethics awareness, and 4.13/5 for AR-SD-LST. In hierarchical regression, AD-LST knowledge was not a significant predictor of AR-SD-LST, whereas clinical practicum semesters (β=-0.24, p=.010), religious affiliation (β=0.19, p=.027), neonatal life rights (β=0.24, p=.008), and organ transplantation ethics (β=0.22, p=.028) were significant, explaining 19.3% of the variance. These findings suggest that AR-SD-LST is shaped more by ethical reflection and patient-centered values than by legal–procedural knowledge alone, supporting educational programs that integrate AD-LST content with case-based discussion, simulation, and guided reflection.

This study attempted to provide guidelines for an educational program to improve the cardiopulmonary resuscitation ability of paramedic science students. The cardiopulmonary resuscitation ability of paramedic science students was influenced by gender, grade, major satisfaction, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training experience. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation ability was positively correlated with attitudes toward cardiopulmonary resuscitation (r=.38, p<.001), cardiopulmonary resuscitation self-efficacy (r=.66, p<.001), and attitudes toward automated external defibrillator (r=.60, p<.001). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation self-efficacy (β=66, p<.001), attitudes toward automated external defibrillator (β=32, p<.001), and grade (β=25, p<.001) were found to be the most influential factors. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation self-efficacy was found to be the most influential variable. These variables explained 53.8% of the subjects' cardiopulmonary resuscitation ability. Based on the study results, improving cardiopulmonary resuscitation ability among paramedic science students requires providing customized educational programs tailored to each grade level to increase cardiopulmonary resuscitation self-efficacy and positively change attitudes toward automated external defibrillator.

Climate change is accelerating shifts in the natural environment, increasing both the frequency of extreme events such as typhoons and floods and the severity of river damage. While natural rivers tend to form meanders that reduce the energy expenditure of flowing water, regulated rivers with hydraulic structures such as levees and weirs strongly constrain this behavior. As a result, the risk of failure at river bends can rise rapidly during floods that exceed the design return period. Because meandering remains a representative geomorphic feature in both natural and regulated rivers, understanding the problems and site-specific phenomena that occur in bends is a key issue in river engineering. This study examines Korean rivers to identify the installation locations of transverse structures (weirs) and their offset distances from river bends, and to characterize these patterns in relation to geomorphic factors and design flood discharge. The results provide baseline information for subsequent mobile-bed experiments in a 90° meandering channel to quantify how weir location affects longitudinal and transverse bed morphology and water-surface superelevation, and to derive bend-design implications under climate-change-driven flood risk.

This study investigates the limitations of firefighting equipment currently held by the Busan Fire Department and proposes improvement measures for responding to nuclear power plant accidents. Although nuclear facilities supply nearly 30% of South Korea’s electricity, radiological releases can cause large-scale consequences, as evidenced by the Fukushima Daiichi accident. High-dose environments restrict the deployment of firefighters due to equipment performance limits and exposure management challenges. This study analyzed domestic and international nuclear accident cases, compared shielding characteristics and dose-limit standards, assessed protective equipment performance, and reviewed operational manuals from the Gijang Fire Station and the Gori Radiological Emergency Preparedness Center. Findings revealed inadequate gamma shielding, insufficient control of operational time and exposure, shortages of protective gear, and the absence of unmanned or remotely operated devices. The study recommends improving advanced protective equipment, setting evidence-based operational guidelines, adopting firefighting robots and remote tools, and developing dose-limit standards specific to firefighting. These measures can enhance responder safety, reduce disaster impacts, and strengthen South Korea’s radiological emergency preparedness and community resilience.