In 1971, the city of Gwangju built a dam 19.3 meters high and 133.8 meters long across the Dongbok Stream, running through Seo-ri, Iseo-myeon, in Hwasun County. The project was undertaken to secure a stable source of drinking water for the nearby major city. This dam would go on to undergo a second, more significant transformation: an expansion project carried out from November 1982 to July 1985.
This expansion caused roughly ten villages and surrounding areas in Iseo-myeon, Hwasun County — a total of 6.6 square kilometers — to be submerged underwater. Part of Hwasun Jeokbyeok, the scenic cliff introduced earlier in this series as one of Hwasun's representative attractions, was also affected by the flooding at this time. An estimated 80 dolmens were located within the area slated for submersion, but only 15 dolmens across three sites were actually excavated and surveyed before the flooding. The remaining dolmens were, in all likelihood, submerged beneath the water without ever having been surveyed. This process — in which the needs of a major city, Gwangju, pushed villages and part of the heritage of a neighboring region, Hwasun, beneath the water's surface — offers a compressed illustration of the relationship between a city and the areas that support it from behind.