Asan Bay

Asan Bay is a South Korean bay in the Yellow Sea. Named after the city of Asan immediately to its south, it lies at the mouth of several rivers and separates the provinces of Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheongnam-do. The boundary between the bay and the rest of the Yellow Sea is vague, as there are several scattered islands.

Geography

In the 1990s and early 2000s, almost the entire tidal plain in the outer Asan Bay in Chuncheongnam Province was lost due to land reclamation.

In the middle of 1990s, construction of a road bridge on the West Coast was started in the Inner Bay area.

Currently, there are approximately 2,640 hectares of natural or almost natural tidal plain in Asan Bay at low tide; three partially tidal reclamation reservoirs with intentionally porous dams and without permanent buildings, occupying approximately 1,270 hectares; and one immediately adjacent reclamation zone with port facilities and about 165 hectares of tidal plain. All reclamation reservoirs and approximately 525 hectares of open tidal plain within Pyeongtaek; the remaining 2145 hectares of tidal plain are located in Asan and Dangin.

Importance to Waterbirds

Asan Bay was first recognized as important for waterbirds internationally in 1988. Asan Bay remains important internationally for a large number of waterfowl species, including the globally endangered Far Eastern curlew Numenius madagascariensis and the black-faced spoonbill Platalea minor, both species with high conservation rates that they also turned out to be attractive for ecotourists in other areas.

Rivers

The rivers which meet the sea at Asan Bay are as follow:

• Jaancheon (at Hwaseong Lake)
• Barancheon (at Namyang Lake)
• Anseongcheon (at Asan Lake)
• Gokgyocheon (at Sapgyo Lake)
• Sapgyocheon (at Sapgyo Lake)
• Namwoncheon (at Sapgyo Lake)