A team from our university's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering—Kim Soo Min, Kim Byun Kwon, Hong Seung Hwan, and Jang Jeong Yun (advisor: Professor Shin Ju Young)—won the Excellence Award at the 「2025 National Groundwater Big Data Contest」. This competition selected outstanding research teams that proposed creative analysis techniques and practical utilization plans using groundwater big data. It served as a platform for industry, academia, research institutes, and government agencies to participate together and compete with innovative ideas that could contribute to domestic groundwater management and utilization policies.

The Kookmin University research team proposed a ground subsidence risk prediction model for Seoul based on groundwater data. They developed an ensemble prediction technology applying various machine learning algorithms, enabling the prediction of sinkhole occurrence probability by utilizing big data such as groundwater levels, sewer flow rates, and rainfall amounts.

The proposed model demonstrated improved prediction accuracy compared to existing simple statistical approaches, presenting the potential to contribute practically to urban infrastructure safety management and groundwater resource policy formulation. Furthermore, through their competition presentation, the research team proposed concrete application possibilities, such as an early warning system for ground subsidence risk areas and utilization plans linked to urban planning, receiving high praise from the judges.

This achievement exemplifies the creative capabilities and problem-solving skills of students from Kookmin University's Department of Environmental Engineering Students. It is expected to open new possibilities for future research on smart cities and sustainable water resource management utilizing groundwater big data.