• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.432-440
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• 2015

Biochar, a by-product from pyrolysis of biomass, is a promising option to mitigate climate change by increasing soil carbon sequestration. This material is also considered to have potential to remediate a soil with heavy metal pollution by increasing the soil's adsorptive capacity. This study conducted the assessment of two biochars considering the climate change mitigation potential and heavy metal removal capacity at the same time. Two kinds of biochars (BC_Ch, TW_Ch) were prepared by pyrolyzing the biomass of burcucumber (BC_Bm) and tea waste (TW_Bm). The soils polluted with Pb were mixed with biochars or biomass and incubated for 60 d. During the incubation, $CO_2$, $CH_4$, and $N_2O$ were regularly measured and the soil before and after incubation was analyzed for chemical and biological parameters including the acetate extractable Pb. The results showed that only the BC_Ch treatment significantly reduced the amount of Pb after 60 d incubation. During the incubation, the $CO_2$ and $N_2O$ emissions from the BC_Ch and TW_Ch were decreased by 24% and 34% compared to the BC_Bm and TW_Bm, respectively. The $CH_4$ emissions were not significantly affected by biochar treatments. We calculated the GWP considering the production of amendment materials, application to the soils, removal of Pb, and soil carbon storage. The BC_Ch treatment had the most negative value because it had the higher Pb adsorption and soil carbon sequestration. Our results imply that if we apply biochar made from burcucumber, we could expect the pollution reduction and climate change mitigation at the same time.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.205-210
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• 2010

LED light has various advantages such as an energy saving effect of over 80% compared to existing lighting and environmentally friendly characteristics; however, there has been no affordable market for LED lighting because of its expensive price. This study discussed the validity of the expansion of distribution of LED lighting through an assessment of economic efficiency concerning LED lightening in order to analyze its efficiency in terms of energy savings and maintenance and repair, which will be generated as a result of the change from existing incandescent bulbs to LED lighting in the public sector. As to the target of analysis, the paper reviewed the validity of change to LED lighting as a result of the elimination of existing incandescent bulbs, by referring to 'the current incandescent bulb use and elimination performance' published by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy based on the "Elimination management system" executed by Korea Energy Management Corporation. The paper considered expenses for change, annual power savings amount and electric charges savings amount, repair and maintenance cost, $CO_2$ reduction volume, and the profit from the sale of CER (certified emission reduction). As a result of analyzing economic efficiency, when the discount rate during the change of existing incandescent bulb lighting to LED lighting is 3.26%, the profit was 8,648,400,000 won. Accordingly, NPV was analyzed to have a 'positive (+)' value, which means that this change is profitable.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.217-226
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• 2017

Although the effects of climate change are universal, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are considered to be most vulnerable. SIDS heavily rely on imported oil and fossil fuels for electricity generation and transportation, which makes them economically vulnerable and exposed to fluctuating oil price. Among the reasons SIDS highly depend on diesel fuel is due to the dispersed population living in remote islands which means, providing electricity through on on-grid system is difficult. Fiji as one of the SIDS, has actively promoted renewable sourced energy through a national plan to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In order to determine how feasible implementing a renewable energy (RE) system will be in Fiji, this study chose a remote island called Mavuva Island to test application of a hybrid RE system using HOMER. A combination of energy storage system (ESS), solar photovoltaic (PV) and diesel generator turns out to be the most cost effective and optimal configuration, resulting in effective greenhouse gas reduction for the given region.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.317-324
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• 2014

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) samples were collected separately in mainstream and side-stream smoke using a self-designed smoking machine, and a total 40 of PM2.5 was collected with low volume air sampler at indoor environments with and without ETS in Daejeon, Korea. About 20 trace elements including toxic metals like As, Cr, Mn, Se, V, and Zn were determined in PM2.5 and ETS samples by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). It is found that the emission factors of K, Cl, Na, and Al were much higher than those of toxic elements for both mainstream and side-stream smoke. The average concentration of PM2.5 was enriched by 1.5 times at smoking area ($58.7{\pm}18.1{\mu}g/m^3$) than at smoking free area ($38.6{\pm}12.7{\mu}g/m^3$). The concentration ratio of each element between smoking and smoking free area were ranged from 1.1 to 6.0 except Cu (1.0); especially, Ce (6.0), La (5.2), K (2.3), and Co (2.0) showed higher ratio, which suggests that the ETS is one of the possible increasing factors of PM2.5 and elemental concentration at indoor environment.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.358-383
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• 2015

The concept of 'carbon footprint' has been developed as a means of quantifying the specific emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) that cause global warming. Although there are still neither clear definitions of the term nor rules for units or the scope of its estimation, it is broadly accepted that the carbon footprint is the total amount of GHGs, expressed as $CO_2$ equivalents, emitted into the atmosphere directly or indirectly at all processes of the production by an individual or organization. According to the ISO/TS 14067, the carbon footprint of a product is calculated by multiplying the units of activity of processes that emit GHGs by emission factor of the processes, and by summing them up. Based on this, 'carbon labelling' system has been implemented in various ways over the world to provide consumers the opportunities of comparison and choice, and to encourage voluntary activities of producers to reduce GHG emissions. In the agricultural sector, as a judgment basis to help purchaser with ethical consumption, 'low-carbon agricultural and livestock products certification' system is expected to have more utilization value. In this process, the 'cradle to gate' approach (which excludes stages for usage and disposal) is mainly used to set the boundaries of the life cycle assessment for agricultural products. The estimation of carbon footprint for the entire agricultural and forestry sector should take both removals and emissions into account in the "National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report". The carbon accumulation in the biomass of perennial trees in cropland should be considered also to reduce the total GHG emissions. In order to accomplish this, tower-based flux measurements can be used, which provide a direct quantification of $CO_2$ exchange during the entire life cycle. Carbon footprint information can be combined with other indicators to develop more holistic assessment indicators for sustainable agricultural and forestry ecosystems.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.921-931
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• 2009

For the assessment of climate change impacts for the Byeongseong stream, CGCM 3.1 T63 is selected as future climate information. The projections come from CGCM used to simulate the GHG emission scenario known as A2. Air temperature and precipitation information from the GCM simulations are converted to regional scale data using the statistical downscaling method known as MSPG. Downscaled climate data from GCM are then used as the input data for the SWAT model to generate regional runoff and water quality estimates in the Byeongseong stream. As a result of simple sensitivity analysis, the increase of CO2 concentration leads to increase water yield through reduction of evapotranspiration and increase of soil water. Hydrologic responses to climate change are in phase with precipitation change. Climate change is expected to reduce water yields in the period of 2021-2030. In the period of 2051-2060, stream flow is expected to be reduced in spring season and increased in summer season. While soil losses are also in phase with water yields, nutrient discharges (i.e., total nitrogen) are not always in phase with precipitation change. However, it should be noted that there are a lot of uncertainties in such multiple-step analysis used to convert climate information from GCM-based future climate projections into hydrologic information.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.551-563
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• 2016

According to the 4th and 5th assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global climate has been rapidly changing because of the human activities since Industrial Revolution. The perceived changes were appeared strongly in temperature and concentration of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$). Global average temperature has increased about $0.74^{\circ}C$ over last 100 years (IPCC, 2007) and concentration of $CO_2$ is unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years (IPCC, 2014). These phenomena influence precipitation, evapotranspiration and soil moisture which have an important role in hydrology, and that is the reason why there is a necessity to study climate change. In this study, Asia region was selected to simulate primary energy index from 1951 to 2100. To predict future climate change effect, Common Land Model (CLM) which is used for various fields across the world was employed. The forcing data was Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) data which is the newest greenhouse gas emission scenario published in IPCC 5th assessment. Validation of net radiation ($R_n$), sensible heat flux (H), latent heat flux (LE) for historical period was performed with 5 flux tower site-data in the region of AsiaFlux and the monthly trends of simulation results were almost equaled to observation data. The simulation results for 2006-2100 showed almost stable net radiation, slightly decreasing sensible heat flux and quite increasing latent heat flux. Especially the uptrend for RCP 8.5 has been about doubled compared to RCP 4.5 and since late 2060s, variations of net radiation and sensible heat flux would be significantly risen becoming an extreme climate condition. In a follow-up study, a simulation for energy index and hydrological index under the detailed condition will be conducted with various scenario established from this study.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.803-812
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• 2014

This study assesses the strategy and performance of Eco-industrial Park (EIP) initiative implemented by Korea Industrial Complex Corporation (KICOX) with the support of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), Korea since 2005 to 2013 and recommends future directions. After the concept of EIP based on industrial symbiosis (IS) is introduced, the background and implementation procedure of the EIP initiative are described. Then, economic and environmental achievement was assessed. During the project periods (2005-2013), 449 industrial symbiosis project were explored, among which 296 projects have been implemented. Among (Of these 296 projects,) them, 244 projects have been completed in which 118 projects have been commercialized which shows 48% commercialization rate of the completed projects. Through these commercialized projects, around 311.1 billion won/year of economic benefits and reduction of waste by-products of 828,113 tons/year, wastewater of 215,517 tons/year, reduction in energy consumption of 250,475 toe/year and GHG emission reduction of 1,107,189 $tCO_2/year$ were achieved. This results confirmed that EIP initiative based on industrial symbiosis can enhance eco-efficiency of industrial parks and harmonize economy and environment. However, there are obstacles like absence of interagency coordination and cooperation, laws and institutional barriers, increased demand for local governments, funding for project investment. Thus, to utilize EIP initiative as a strategic tool for competiveness and environmental management of industrial parks, it needs intergovernmental collaboration and interdisciplinary approach to lower barrier in implementation.