• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.9-19
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• 2023

Drought is a natural disaster that can have serious social impacts. Drought's impact ranges from water supply for humans to ecosystems, but the impact of drought on river water quality requires careful investigation. In general, drought occurs meteorologically and is classified as agricultural drought, hydrological drought, and environmental drought. In this study, the BOD environmental drought is defined using the bivariate copula joint probability distribution model between the meteorological drought index and the river BOD, and based on this, the environmental drought condition index (EDCI-BOD) was proposed. The results of examining the proposed index using past precipitation and BOD observation data showed that EDCI-BOD expressed environmental drought well in terms of river BOD water quality. In addition, by classifying the calculated EDCI-BOD into four levels, namely, 'attention', 'caution', 'alert', and 'seriousness', a practical monitoring stage for environmental drought of BOD was constructed. We further estimated the sensitivity of the stream BOD to meteorological drought, and through this, we could identify the stream section in which the stream BOD responded relatively more sensitively to the occurrence of meteorological drought. The results of this study are expected to provide information necessary for river BOD management in the event of meteorological droughts.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.975-984
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• 2019

As an essential prerequisite for systematic and integrated management of river water, it is necessary to secure the basic data such as discharge supplied to the river and released from the river. Under the current permit system for river water use, 59.1% of licensed facilities were found to have no discharge meters in 2017, especially for agricultural water, which makes it difficult to secure reliable data as a large portion of the reports are voluntarily reported by users. In this study, the indirect discharge measurement method of calculating the discharge through the power usage of the pumping station was applied to secure reliable discharge data. In particular, focusing on the fact that the discharge calculated by the power usage method differed with the actual discharge according to the level of the river, the study was conducted on improving the power usage method reflecting the river water level and improving the accuracy of discharge data. Analysis of the discharge calculated using the power usage method considering river water level using the correlation analysis method such as regression analysis, percent difference, root mean square error etc. confirmed that the results are not high compared to the conventional power usage method, but are slightly more approximated to the actual discharge. Therefore, although reliable discharge data can be obtained from the existing power usage method, it is expected that more accurate data on intaking water of river water can be obtained if the improved power usage method is used at points where the variation in the water level of the river is large.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.40 no.6 s.179
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• pp.469-483
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• 2007

Nitrate and chloride are the most common contaminants in groundwater and their concentrations increase easily due to fertilizer consumption and urbanization. The number of time series data for groundwater quality at a single site was not sufficient to analyze trends on Jeju Island. Therefore rectangle grids were drawn for the whole island and single grid was determined to be $500m{\times}500m$ after considering similar stream density, homogeneous hydraulic coefficients, geologic features of volcanic rock and low topographic slopes. All data within each lattice were collected and arranged in time series order and analyzed using Sen's method. 10.6 % of the total lattices for chloride and 22.4% for nitrate showed upward trends from the early 1990's to the early 2000's. Especially, upward trends for nitrate concentration are distinct in the low mid-mountainous areas of western and southern watersheds. Many septic tanks and much domestic waste from the urbanization of the low mid-mountainous area have produced this upward trend. Additionally, the agricultural region has dramatically increased since the 1990's and this has led to an increase of fertilizer consumption and, as a result, nitrate concentration. Therefore, the target of any management plan for groundwater quality on Jeiu Island needs to be focused on careful land use decisions in the mid-mountainous areas which are near Halla Mountain.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.343-356
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• 2009

SCS method was applied to make the assessments of direct runoff according to land use changes in Jeju island. Land uses were obtained from 5 year-period remote sensing time series data from 1975 to 2000 which are provided by Water Management Information System (WAMIS). Hydrologic soil groups were categorized based on soil series of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), and permeable geologic structures such as Sumgol, Gotzawal and so on. The land uses of Jeju island are obviously characterized by urban-agricultural areas increases, and forest areas decrease. According to land use changes, curve number (CN) for Jeju island was consistently increased from 65.3 in 1975 to 69.6 in 2000. From 1975 to 2000, the amount of direct runoff and ratios increased due to CN changes. When the rainfall data in 1995 was applied to each year, the direct runoff amounts were $299.0{\sim}351.6\;mm$, and runoff ratios were $15.1{\sim}17.7%$. In the case of the application of the rainfall data in 2000, the direct runoff amounts were $136.9{\sim}161.5\;mm$, and runoff ratios were $9.7{\sim}11.5%$. Since direct runoff can be closely related to groundwater recharge and sustainable groundwater yield, the groundwater influence caused by land use changes or district exploitations should be considered for the reasonable water management and development in Jeju island.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.111-121
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• 2019

Evapotranspiration (ET) of vegetation is one of the major components of the hydrologic cycle, and its accurate estimation is important for hydrologic water balance, irrigation management, crop yield simulation, and water resources planning and management. For agricultural crops, ET is often calculated in terms of a short or tall crop reference, such as well-watered, clipped grass (reference crop evapotranspiration, $ET_o$). The Penman-Monteith equation recommended by FAO (FAO 56-PM) has been accepted by researchers and practitioners, as the sole $ET_o$ method. However, its accuracy is contingent on high quality measurements of four meteorological variables, and its use has been limited by incomplete and/or inaccurate input data. Therefore, this study evaluated the applicability of Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN) model for estimating $ET_o$ from less meteorological data than required by the FAO 56-PM. A total of six meteorological inputs, minimum temperature, average temperature, maximum temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation, were divided into a series of input groups (a combination of one, two, three, four, five and six variables) and each combination of different meteorological dataset was evaluated for its level of accuracy in estimating $ET_o$. The overall findings of this study indicated that $ET_o$ could be reasonably estimated using less than all six meteorological data using BPNN. In addition, it was shown that the proper choice of neural network architecture could not only minimize the computational error, but also maximize the relationship between dependent and independent variables. The findings of this study would be of use in instances where data availability and/or accuracy are limited.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.57-82
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• 2005

In this study, we propose methods for. the efficient management and integrity of groundwater in response to a diminishing supply. As an alternative water resource for the future. we investigated and comparatively analyzed the quality standards of groundwater in the US (New York, Wisconsin and Texas), Austria, Netherlands, Canada, Japan and United Kingdom. These developed countries heavily depend on groundwater, more than 70%, for drinking water and apply those drinking water standards to groundwater quality. However, there exists few differences in the quality standards of groundwater among the countries, because each country possesses its own individual environment and management. In Korea, surface water pollution is getting serious and its water resources are diminishing. Therefore we propose several new quality criteria that many countries regulate at these days for their efficient management of groundwater. There is a need to divide BTEX criterion into Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene, individually. In. addition, it is needed to establish BTEX criteria into agricultural water and industrial water use standards as well as daily life use standards. Also, regulations for some PAHs, showing carcinogenicity, are required. Due to rapid industrialization various hazardous chemicals were utilized and their uses are increasing each year. Therefore, there is a strong need to introduce n~w standards and tighter regulations of the levels. At the same time, the criterion of nitrogenous compounds need' to be regulated individually in order to prevent the damage incurred by the compounds. Several developed countries have established standards for radon, previously caused environmental accidents in Korea. Therefore, we propose the necessity of groundwater quality standards for radon in this study.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.12
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• pp.883-893
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• 2023

While South Korea's dependence on imported grains is very high, droughts impacts from exporting countries have been overlooked. Using the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI), this study globally analyzed frequency, extent, and long-term trends of agricultural droughts and their relation to natural oscillations and global crop prices. Results showed that global-scale correlations were found between ESI and soil moisture anomalies, and they were particularly strong in crop cultivation areas. The high correlations in crop cultivation areas imply a strong land-atmosphere coupling, which can lead to relatively large yield losses with a minor soil moisture deficits. ESI showed a clear decreasing trend in crop cultivation areas from 1991 to 2022, and this trend may continue due to global warming. The sharp increases in the grain prices in 2012 and 2022 were likely related to increased drought areas in major grain-exporting countries, and they seemed to elevate South Korea's producer price index. This study suggests the need for drought risk management for grain-exporting countries to reduce socioeconomic impacts in South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.109-120
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• 2007

The information on flowpath, storage, residence time, and interactions of water and carbon transport in a catchment is the prerequisite to the understanding and predicting of water and carbon cycling in the mountainous landscapes of Korea. In this paper, along with some up-to-date results, we present the principal methods that are currently used in HydroKorea and CarboKorea research to obtain such information. Various catchment hydrological processes have been examined on the basis of the water table fluctuations, the end-member mixing model, the cross correlation analysis, and cosmogenic radioactive isotope activity. In the Gwangneung catchment, the contribution of surface discharge was relatively large, and the changes in the amount, intensity and patterns of precipitation affected both the flowpath and the mean residence time of water. Particularly during the summer monsoon, changes in precipitation patterns and hydrological processes in the catchment influenced the carbon cycle such that the persistent precipitation increased the discharge of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrated in the surface soil layer. The improved understanding of the hydrological processes presented in this report will enable a more realistic assessment of the effects of climate changes on the water resource management and on the carbon cycling in forest catchments.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.23-36
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• 2024

Miryang City, the study area, has a water supply rate of 87.4%, which is 12% lower than the national water supply rate of 99.4%, but has a high dependence on groundwater due to the high ratio of farms. In agricultural areas, contamination becomes relatively more critical, requiring significant attention to the management and conservation of groundwater resources. This study aims at estimate groundwater vulnerability of Miryang City using the DRASTIC index map, Piper diagram, and water quality data to correlated with the DRASTIC index. The results from DRASTIC map were divided into five classes: very high, high, moderate, low, and very low. The areas in central and southern part of study area, which are characterize by a very high index with [Ca-Cl] and [Na-Cl] water types, covering a large alluvium with the Miryang River and Nakdonggang River. In addition, a correlation analysis between groundwater quality parameters and the DRASTIC index was carried out. Chloride, sodium, and sulfate ions showed a weak relationship with DRASTIC index, with correlation coefficient was 0.507, 0.487 and 0.344, respectively. These results suggest that aquifer media, soil media, hydraulic conductivity, and chloride ion are important factors for groundwater vulnerability.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.21-29
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• 2018

The contents of total nitrogen(T-N), phosphate($T-P_2O_5$), and potash($T-K_2O$) are important factors to determine the application rate of the livestock compost to prevent nutrients accumulation and maintain their appropriate levels in arable lands. The concentrations of nutrient, organic matter, salt, water content, heavy metal in livestock compost in circulation were investigated with 659 samples from 2016 to 2017. In order to investigate the fluctuation nutrient contents of livestock composts with the same product name, 19 samples were collected and analyzed T-N, and $T-P_2O_5$, and $T-K_2O$ concentration during two years. The mean levels of T-N, $T-P_2O_5$, and $T-K_2O$ in livestock composts of from 2016 to 2017 were 1.73%, 1.88%, and 1.66%, respectively. The average contents of organic matter, water, and salt were 38.9%, 40.9%, and 1.2%, respectively. There were found that the maximum concentrations of Cr, Ni, Cu, and Zn in some livestock composts were exceeded the criteria of the official standard of commercial fertilizer. The maximum variation coefficient of T-N, $T-P_2O_5$ and $T-K_2O$ content of livestock composts was found to be 24%, 27%, and 50% on average, respectively. In order to manage the nutrients in agricultural soils, it will be reasonable that the error range of T-N and $T-P_2O_5$ content in livestock composts should be recommended to be 27% in mean as variation coefficient in case of displaying the nutrient element in liverstock compost.