Abstract
Pollutant unit load developed by Ministry of Environment (MOE) in 1995 has been a tool commonly used for water quality management and environmental policy decision. In spite of the convenience of the method in application, the shortcoming of the method has been criticized especially for nonpoint source pollution from paddy field. In this paper the estimation procedures of pollutant unit load from paddy field in the major river basins (Han, Nakdong, Geum, and Youngsan river) were investigated, and some suggestions of improvement measures of the unit-load estimation were made. The investigation showed that the distributions of rainfall, run-off, and run-off ratio, which are the most important factors affecting discharge amount of pollutants, were not similar among river basins. Such differences seemed to result in a greater unit loads estimation at Han river and at Nakdong river watersheds compared to the others. Therefore, it is not likely to be rationale to compare unit load among the watersheds without consideration of such differences. We conclude that estimation of unit-load through an intensive monitoring of pollutant discharge is crucial for better estimation of unit-load. When such an intensive monitoring is not easy due to labor and expense restriction, we suggest that unit-load should be estimated based on the storm-events which is a representative rainfall-runoff event of the area.
