expertise. Environmental impact assessment The Korean government introduced systems to examine the environmental impacts of land development projects such as environmental impact assessment (EIA) and prior environmental review system (PERS). The government came up with measures to improve the systems to shorten time and avoid overlapping each other. Under the EIA, all projects were subject to all test items (a total of 20) in the past, but now the government has adopted two streamlined processes according to the characteristics of a specific project. One is the "Scoping Process" under which an examination is conducted on necessary test items only. The other is "Simplified Assessment" which streamlines requirements for getting consent from local communities and consultation on documents of assessment when a project has a lesser environmental impact. "Scoping Process" and "Simplified Assessment" have been in effect since January 2009. Small factories in "Planned Areas" are now exempted from PERS which had been applied to all factories. As Korea has advanced its IT infrastructure, the government established the "Environmental Impact Assessment Support System" (EIASS) to provide all the information needed to draw up assessment documents. The EIASS provides free data, including measurements of environmental quality, ecosystem maps, historic sites, information on forests, geographical data, cadastral maps, and meteorological information. To fundamentally solve problems with EIA and PERS, the government is working to unify the legal basis of EIA and PERS into a single law. "The Act on EIA and Other Environmental Assessment Systems" is in the making with a focus on the aims and process of consultation and ways of assessment. When the act comes into force in 2010, the period of assessment will be shortened by 30-40% (about 5–6 months), and the cost for drawing up assessment documents will be cut by 30%. Seoul metropolitan area regulations Areas allowed for land development within regions subject to Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) will be increased. Environmental protection areas in and around the capital city of Seoul (including eight local governments in Gyeonggi Province) were banned from large-scale development projects as those areas are mostly located near the catchment area of the Paldang Dam which supplies drinking water to about 23 million people in Seoul, the city of Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. However, progress in enhancing the water quality of the Paldang Dam has been slow, due to small development projects that are not subject to the above-mentioned regulation. Therefore, the government