• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2021

The ML 5.8 earthquake shocked Gyeongju, Korea, at 11:32:55 UTC on September 12, 2016. One year later, on the afternoon of November 15, 2017, the ML 5.4 earthquake occurred in Pohang, South Korea. The earthquakes injured many residents, damaged buildings, and affected the economy of Gyeongju and Pohang. The damage proxy maps (DPMs) were generated from Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery by comparing pre- and co-events interferometric coherences to identify anomalous changes that indicate damaged by the earthquakes. DPMs manage to detect coherence loss in residential and commercial areas in both Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes. We found that our results show a good correlation with the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) report with Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale values of more than VII (seven). The color scale of Sentinel-1 DPMs indicates an increasingly significant change in the area covered by the pixel, delineating collapsed walls and roofs from the official report. The resulting maps can be used to assess the distribution of seismic damage after the Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes and can also be used as inventory data of damaged buildings to map seismic vulnerability using machine learning in Gyeongju or Pohang.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.363-376
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• 2022

An area under construction for a living facility collapsed around 12:48 KST on 13 January 2021 in Sa-dong, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do. There were no casualties due to the rapid evacuation measure, but part of the temporary retaining facility collapsed, and several cracks occurred in the adjacent road on the south side. This study used the potential of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for surface property changes that lies in backscattering characteristic to map the collapsed structure. The interferometric SAR technique can make a direct measurement of the decorrelation among different acquisition dates by integrating both amplitude and phase information. The damage proxy map (DPM) technique has been employed using four high-resolution Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation (COSMO-SkyMed) data spanning from 2020 to 2021 during ascending observation to analyze the collapse of the construction. DPM relies on the difference of pre- and co-event interferometric coherences to depict anomalous changes that indicate collapsed structure in the study area. The DPMs were displayed in a color scale that indicates an increasingly more significant ground surface change in the area covered by the pixels, depicting the collapsed structure. Therefore, the DPM technique with SAR data can be used for damage assessment with accurate and comprehensive detection after an event. In addition, we classify the amplitude information using support vector machine (SVM) and maximum likelihood classification algorithms. An investigation committee was formed to determine the cause of the collapse of the retaining wall and to suggest technical and institutional measures and alternatives to prevent similar incidents from reoccurring. The report from the committee revealed that the incident was caused by a combination of factors that were not carried out properly.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2006

Regardless of the recent observed warmer winters in Korea, more freeze injuries and associated economic losses are reported in fruit industry than ever before. Existing freeze-frost forecasting systems employ only daily minimum temperature for judging the potential damage on dormant flowering buds but cannot accommodate potential biological responses such as short-term acclimation of plants to severe weather episodes as well as annual variation in climate. We introduce 'dormancy depth', in addition to daily minimum temperature, as a complementary criterion for judging the potential damage of freezing temperatures on dormant flowering buds of grape vines. Dormancy depth can be estimated by a phonology model driven by daily maximum and minimum temperature and is expected to make a reasonable proxy for physiological tolerance of buds to low temperature. Dormancy depth at a selected site was estimated for a climatological normal year by this model, and we found a close similarity in time course change pattern between the estimated dormancy depth and the known cold tolerance of fruit trees. Inter-annual and spatial variation in dormancy depth were identified by this method, showing the feasibility of using dormancy depth as a proxy indicator for tolerance to low temperature during the winter season. The model was applied to 10 vineyards which were recently damaged by a cold spell, and a temperature-dormancy depth-freeze injury relationship was formulated into an exponential-saturation model which can be used for judging freeze risk under a given set of temperature and dormancy depth. Based on this model and the expected lowest temperature with a 10-year recurrence interval, a freeze risk probability map was produced for Hwaseong County, Korea. The results seemed to explain why the vineyards in the warmer part of Hwaseong County have been hit by more freeBe damage than those in the cooler part of the county. A dormancy depth-minimum temperature dual engine freeze warning system was designed for vineyards in major production counties in Korea by combining the site-specific dormancy depth and minimum temperature forecasts with the freeze risk model. In this system, daily accumulation of thermal time since last fall leads to the dormancy state (depth) for today. The regional minimum temperature forecast for tomorrow by the Korea Meteorological Administration is converted to the site specific forecast at a 30m resolution. These data are input to the freeze risk model and the percent damage probability is calculated for each grid cell and mapped for the entire county. Similar approaches may be used to develop freeze warning systems for other deciduous fruit trees.