• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.263-268
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• 2009

The Yellow Sea is extremely important to the economy and to the health and well-being of surrounding countries, Korea and China. Recently, the Yellow Sea is under constantly increasing threat of degradation due to the increase of environmental pollution and over-fishing. The governments of Korea and China have been aware of the importance of the Yellow Sea and reached an Environmental Agreement between Korea and China at the governmental level(November, 1993) According to this environmental agreement the Yellow Sea Environmental Cooperative Research between Korea and China has been undertaken since 1997. The joint cruise had been conducted once a year at 33 stations in the 4 lines of the Yellow Sea where the 9 stations of the D line was newly added in the 7th cruise in 2003. The samples were analyzed by scientists of both countries at the WSFRI, Korea and the OEMNC of the SEPA, China in turn, the annual report has been published every year during 1998-2008. The scientific efforts to fix the cruise time in October and to extend research frequency, as twice a year, should be considered, and this requires the governmental supports such as research funds and other related administrational assistance on both sides. Finally, scientists should also pay a concentrated attention to standardize the analytical methods including quality control and to improve this Yellow Sea research as one of the most representative international projects in the Yellow Sea where sharing additional informations available, if exist of dumping sites and material content, and of the freshwater quality will be of great help to broaden the output of this joint research project.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.105-117
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• 2018

This study conducted health assessment and multivariate vegetation analysis using the riparian vegetation index in 30 sites of the Geumgang mainstream and Mihocheon to obtain practical data on the river management of the Geumgang. The result showed that the number of plant communities was 54. The flora was 75 families, 185 genera, 243 species, 2 subspecies, 21 varieties, 2 varieties, and 268 taxa. The riparian vegetation index was 38.3 (3.3; G-D1 ~ 66.7; G-U2, G-U4, and G-M3), and the health of the rivers in this area was evaluated as normal (grade C). The health of rivers was the highest in the upper stream of Geumgang mainstream and lowest in the downstream of Geumgang mainstream. The relationship between riparian vegetation index and chlorophyll-a content was low. The riparian vegetation was divided into five groups of Digitaria ciliaris colony group, Salix gracilistyla colony group, Erigeron annuus colony group, the group dominated by Humulus japonicus, Salix koreensis, Miscanthus sacchariflorus, and Phragmites japonica colonies, and the group dominated by Conyza canadensis and Echinochloa crusgalli var. echinata colonies. They had the similar health conditions. The CCA analysis showed that the environmental factors affecting the distribution of vegetation were physical factors such as vegetation area, artificial structure area, waterway area, branch width, channel width, and bank height and the biological factors such as the number of species. As such, it is necessary to maintain the health condition through continuous monitoring where the health condition is high and to apply active measures such as ecological restoration where the health condition is low.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.174-189
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to reconstruct spatial information using the results of the investigation and evaluation of the health of the living organisms, habitat, and water quality at the investigation points for the aquatic ecosystem health of the Nakdong River basin, to support the rational decision making of the aquatic ecosystem preservation and restoration policies of the Nakdong River basin using spatial analysis techniques, and to present efficient management methods. To analyze the aquatic ecosystem health of the Nakdong River basin, punctiform data were constructed based on the position information of each point with the aquatic ecosystem health investigation and evaluation results of 250 investigation sections. To apply the spatial analysis technique, the data need to be reconstructed into areal data. For this purpose, spatial influence and trends were analyzed using the Kriging interpolation(ArcGIS 10.1, Geostatistical Analysis), and were reconstructed into areal data. To analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of the Nakdong River basin health based on these analytical results, hotspot(Getis-Ord Gi, $G^*_i$), LISA(Local Indicator of Spatial Association), and standard deviational ellipse analyses were used. The hotspot analysis results showed that the hotspot basins of the biotic indices(TDI, BMI, FAI) were the Andong Dam upstream, Wangpicheon, and the Imha Dam basin, and that the health grades of their biotic indices were good. The coldspot basins were Nakdong River Namhae, the Nakdong River mouth, and the Suyeong River basin. The LISA analysis results showed that the exceptional areas were Gahwacheon, the Hapcheon Dam, and the Yeong River upstream basin. These areas had high bio-health indices, but their surrounding basins were low and required management for aquatic ecosystem health. The hotspot basins of the physicochemical factor(BOD) were the Nakdong River downstream basin, Suyeong River, Hoeya River, and the Nakdong River Namhae basin, whereas the coldspot basins were the upstream basins of the Nakdong River tributaries, including Andong Dam, Imha Dam, and Yeong River. The hotspots of the habitat and riverside environment factor(HRI) were different from the hotspots and coldspots of each factor in the LISA analysis results. In general, the habitat and riverside environment of the Nakdong River mainstream and tributaries, including the Nakdong river upstream, Andong Dam, Imha Dam, and the Hapcheon Dam basin, had good health. The coldspot basins of the habitat and riverside environment also showed low health indices of the biotic indices and physicochemical factors, thus requiring management of the habitat and riverside environment. As a result of the time-series analysis with a standard deviation ellipsoid, the areas with good aquatic ecosystem health of the organisms, habitat, and riverside environment showed a tendency to move northward, and the BOD results showed different directions and concentrations by the year of investigation. These aquatic ecosystem health analysis results can provide not only the health management information for each investigation spot but also information for managing the aquatic ecosystem in the catchment unit for the working research staff as well as for the water environment researchers in the future, based on spatial information.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.413-433
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• 1994

Jinhae Bay once was a productive area of fisheries. It is, however, now notorious for its red tides; and oxygen deficient water-masses extensively develop at present in summer. Therefore the shellfish production of the bay has been decreasing and mass mortality often occurs. Under these circumstances, the three-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic and the material cycle models, which were developed by the Institute for Resources and Environment of Japan, were applied to analyze the processes affecting the oxygen depletion and also to evaluate the environment capacity for the reception of pollutant loads without dissolved oxygen depletion. In field surveys, oxygen deficient water-masses were formed with concentrations of below 2.0mg/l at the bottom layer in Masan Bay and the western part of Jinhae Bay during the summer. Current directions, computed by the $M_2$ constituent, were mainly toward the western part of Jinhae Bay during flood flows and in opposite directions during ebb flows. Tidal currents velocities during the ebb tide were stronger than that of the flood tide. The comparision between the simulated and observed tidal ellipses showed fairly good agreement. The residual currents, which were obtained by averaging the simulated tidal currents over 1 tidal cycle, showed the presence of counterclockwise eddies in the central part of Jinhae Bay. Density driven currents were generated southward at surface and northward at the bottom in Masan Bay and Jindong Bay, where the fresh water of rivers entered. The material cycle model was calibrated with the data surveyed in the field of the study area from June to July, 1992. The calibrated results are in fairly good agreement with measured values within relative error of $28\%$. The simulated dissolved oxygen distributions of bottom layer were relatively high with the concentration of $6.0{\sim}8.0mg/l$ at the boundaries, but an oxygen deficient water-masses were formed within the concentration of 2.0mg/l at the inner part of Masan Bay and the western part of Jinhae Bay. The results of sensitivity analyses showed that sediment oxygen demand(SOD) was one of the most important influence on the formation of oxygen depletion. Therefore, to control the oxygen deficient water-masses and to conserve the coastal environment, it is an effective method to reduce the SOD by improving the polluted sediment. As the results of simulations, in Masan Bay, oxygen deficient water-masses recovered to 5.0mg/l when the $50\%$ reduction in input COD loads from Masan basin and $70\%$ reduction in SOD was conducted. In the western part of Jinhae Bay, oxygen deficient water-masses recovered to 5.0mg/l when the $95\%$ reduction in SOD and $90\%$ reduction in culturing ground fecal loads was conducted.