• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.14-27
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• 2020

The drought has occurred from the past, and has caused a lot of damage. It is important to analyze the past droughts and predict them in the future. In this study, the temperature and precipitation of the past and the future from climate change RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios were analyzed for Seosan and Boryeong in the western region of Chungnam Province, which is considered as a drought-prone area on the Korean Peninsula. Comparing Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Effective Drought Index (EDI) based on the past droughts, EDI was verified to be more suitable for the drought assessment. According to RCP 4.5, the frequency and intensity of droughts in the early future (2021~2060) were expected to increase and to be stronger. Particularly, severe droughts were predicted for a long time from 2022 to 2026, and from 2032 to 2039. Droughts were expected to decrease in the late future (2061~2100). From RCP 8.5, drought occurrences were predicted to increase, but the intensity of the droughts were expected to decrease in the future. As a result of evaluation of the frequencies of droughts by seasons, the region would be most affected by fall drought in the early future and by spring drought in the late future according to RCP 4.5. In the case of RCP 8.5, the seasonal effects were not clearly distinguished. These results suggest that droughts in the future do not have any tendency, but continue to occurr as in the past. Therefore, the measures and efforts to secure water resources and reinforcement of water supply facilities should be prepared to cope with droughts.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.93-104
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• 2022

Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sector to droughts, and drought damage on the agriculture sector could have effects on other sector. Droughts have different characteristics compared to other extreme events, which means more sophisticated methods considering the characteristics of droughts are required when measuring their damage. The purpose of this study is to analyze the damage of droughts based on limited computational general equilibrium model. To be specific, we constructed a CGE model focusing on the agriculture sector in Korea. Also, to limit changes in land use and labor, we limited them, and assume droughts only have effects on productivity of value-added. Lastly, we simulate drought effects on rice production in Korea based on several climate scenarios and GCM to identify the economic effects of droughts. The results show that 1) the cumulated damage of droughts during 2021~2040 is higher than other periods (2040~2061, 2081~2100), 2) the correlation between the damage of droughts and SSP scenarios is insignificant. This result implies the necessity of the effective drought risk management to prevent future droughts effects, irrespective of mitigation policies. 3) Due to increases in rice price, GDP of rice sector is increased. However, GDP of the other sector and consumer welfare are decreased. This result show that indirect effects of droughts would be more important when measuring drought effects on agriculture sector.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.14 no.2 s.36
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• pp.55-62
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• 2006

Droughts have been an important factor in disaster management in Korea because she has been grouped into nations of lack of water. Satellite imagery can be applied to droughts monitoring because it can provide periodic data for large area for long time. This study aims to present a process to analyze droughts in large area using satellite imagery. We estimated evapotranspiration in large area using NDVI data acquired from satellite imagery. For satellite imagery, we dealt with MODIS data operated by NASA. The evapotranspiration estimated from satellite imagery was combined with precipitation data and potential evapotranspiration data to estimate water balances. Using water balances we could analyze droughts effectively in our object area. As the result of this study, we could increase the usability of satellite imagery, especially in droughts analysis.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-102
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• 1996

The Korean Peninsula is located on the east coast of monsoon Asia of the midlatitude, where the Pacific polar front moves. As a result variations of spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation occur. A great variation of precipitation during the summer months created frequent droughts and floods. The purpose of this study is to identify distributional characteristics and to analyze synopic characteristics of summer droughts in Korea. The research methods used are ; (1) to identify droughts based on the anomaly of monthly precipitation during summer of 1994. (2) to analyze correlations between drought and weather systems by using the calender of rain days. (3) to compare a synoptic mechanism of summer droughts with that of typical normal summer. The characteristics of summer droughts of 1994 may be summarized as follows ; 1) While most regions were affected by the droughts some regions displayed specific characteristics. The southern part of the Korean Peninsula was severely affected during the month of June. August droughts severely affected east part of the Sobek Mountains, thus showing that the droughts of June and August are highly localized. 2) In the pressure anomaly of surface field. the positive anomaly appears in June around Korean Peninsula, but in July when all parts of the South Korea were under severe droughts, the anomaly changes and becomes negative. 3) Extracyclones occurred less frequently in the summer of 1994. Those that did occur were located in areas far off the Korean Peninsula having little consequences on the drought patterns. 4) The trough of westerly wave at 500hPa height patterns in June is located far from the eastern sea of Korean Peninsula, but in July and August Korean Peninsula belongs to ridge of westerly wave. 5) In June the positive height anomaly at 500hPa surface appears zonally from Siberia to the western Parts of North Pacific Ocean, and in July and August, the strong positive anomaly appears around Korean Peninsula. As a result the zonal index of westerlies at during each month of summer in Korean sector has a large value, which in turn implies that drought will prevails when zonal flow is strong.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.398-401
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• 2005

Droughts have been an important factor in disaster management in Korea because she has been grouped into nations of lack of water. Satellite imagery can be applied to droughts monitoring because it can afford periodic data for large area for long time. This study aims to develop a method to analyze droughts in large area using satellite imagery. We estimated evapotranspiration in large area using NDVI data acquired from satellite imagery. For satellite imagery, we dealt with MODIS data operated by NASA. As the result of this study, we improved the usability of satellite imagery, especially in drought analysis.

• Atmosphere
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.249-266
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• 2008

The tendencies for teleconnection with a time lag and other characteristics of Korean summer droughts have been investigated and some clues to predict the drought occurrences several months before have been found. First, the May and June droughts in Korea are simultaneous with those over the northwestern part of Korea owing to the relation with the baroclinic wave. However, the July and August droughts occur over the mid-latitudes or southern part of Korea owing to the relation with the Changma front. Second, several months before the MJJA droughts in Korea, it is found that the effective drought index (EDI) over particular areas (hereafter, referred to as the omen areas) is large. Thailand, Carolina Island, Mongolia, and Central Bengal Bay were selected as the omen areas. Third, when the monthly minimum EDI (MME) of the omen area in winter is more than 0.7, it signifies that the precipitation is above normal, Korea has almost always experienced a summer drought. However, the droughts occurring with this type of relationship only represent half of the MJJA droughts in Korea. Fourth, the relationships between the Korean drought and the precipitation over omen areas in low latitudes are not valid over all the eight precipitation areas in Korea, but only over Areas I, II, and III, where heavy rains occur during spring and summer.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.224-224
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• 2015

The East Asia monsoon is one of the most complex atmospheric phenomena caused by Land-Sea thermal contrast. It plays essential role in fulfilling the water needs of the region but also poses stern consequences in terms of flooding and droughts. This study analyzed the influence of Global Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies (SSTA) on occurrence of droughts in the East Asia monsoon region ($20^{\circ}N-50^{\circ}N$, $103^{\circ}E-149^{\circ}E$). Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was employed to characterize the droughts over the region using 30-year (1978-2007) gridded rainfall dataset at $0.5^{\circ}$ grid resolution. Due to high variability in intensity and spatial extent of monsoon rainfall the East Asia monsoon region was divided into the homogeneous rainfall zones using cluster analysis method. Seven zones were delineated that showed unique rainfall regimes over the region. The influence of SSTA was assessed by using lagged-correlation between global gridded SSTA ($0.2^{\circ}$ grid resolution) and SPI of each zone. Sea regions with potential influence on droughts in different zones were identified based on significant positive and negative correlation between SSTA and SPI with a lag period of 3-month. The results showed that SSTA have the potential to be used as predictor variables for prediction of droughts with a reasonable lead time. The findings of this study will assist to improve the drought prediction over the region.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.43-56
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to identify distributional characteristics of climatic elements and to analyze synoptic characteristics on the pressure fields for spring droughts in Korea. In the distributions of minimum temperature during the spring droughts, positive anomalies and negative anomalies are mixed up, but in March the negative anomaly areas are widely distributed in Korea. It implies that the droughts of March have more frequent occurrences of the west-high, east-low pressure patterns. In the maximum air temperatures, the positive anomalies appear in Korea. It indicates that the spring droughts have rain days, cloud amount and humidities less than normal. As a result, the amount of evaporation is increased in Korea. In the pressure anomaly of surface pressure fields, the positive anomalies appear in the west, negative anomalies in the east in March, but in May the positive anomalies appeared zonally around the Korean peninsula. It indicates that March droughts have more frequent occurrences of the west-high. east-low patterns, but in May the Korean Peninsula has more frequent recurrences of the migratory anticyclone patterns. The height anomaly patterns of 500hPa pressure surface in spring droughts are similarly shown to those of surface fields. In March droughts, the positive height anomalies appear in the west, the negative height anomalies in the east, but in April the negative height anomaly areas are extended to the west part. In May the positive anomalies appear zonally around the Korean Peninsula, and strong positive height anomalies appear around the Kamchatka Peninsula and the sea of Okhotsk. These are the result of circulations that inhibit the eastward movement of westerlies and that has persistent anticyclone circulation patterns around the Korean Peninsula. As a result, the zonal indices of westerlies during March and April droughts are lower than normal, but higher in May. These data indicate that early spring droughts are associated with weak zonal flow, but the late spring droughts are obviously related with strong zonal flow. In addition, during early spring droughts the abnormally deep trough over the west coast of the North Pacific Ocean that accompanied the anticyclone was associated with frequent advection of air from the dry regions in the Central Asia into the Korean Peninsula. The atmospheric circulation patterns at the height of the 500hPa pressure surface in May was quite different from March and April circulation patterns. Instead of the abnormal ridge in the west and trough in the east, the circulation pattern in May was characterized by a much stronger than normal anticyclone over the Korean Peninsula. Also, the zonal indices of westerlies in May are higher than normal. The occurrences of drought in early spring, therefore, have mechanism different from those of late spring.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.863-872
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• 2019

Using the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), this study analyzed the drought characteristics of ten weather stations in Gyeongbuk, South Korea, that precipitation data over a period of 30 years. For the number of months that had a SPI of -1.0 or less, the drought occurrence index was calculated and a maximum shortage months, resilience and vulnerability in each weather station were analyzed. According to the analysis, in terms of vulnerability, the weather stations with acute short-term drought were Andong, Bonghwa, Moongyeong, and Gumi. The weather stations with acute medium-term drought were Daegu and Uljin. Finally the weather stations with acute long-term drought were Pohang, Youngdeok, and Youngju. In terms of severe drought frequency, the stations with relatively high frequency of mid-term droughts were Andong, Bonghwa, Daegu, Uiseong, Uljin, and Youngju. Gumi station had high frequency of short-term droughts. Pohang station had severe short-term ad long-term droughts. Youngdeok had severe droughts during all the terms. Based on the analysis results, it is inferred that the size of the drought should be evaluated depending on how serious vulnerability, resilience, and drought index are. Through proper evaluation of drought, it is possible to take systematic measures for the duration of the drought.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.3B
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• pp.253-264
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• 2011

Drought assessment is usually performed qualitatively and/or quantitatively after defining a drought from meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and socioeconomic perspective. Most of the drought analyses focus on meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological droughts, whereas the socioeconomic drought evaluation has been not actively performed since it needs different aspects. In this study, after defining a socioeconomic drought applicable to assess droughts in Korea, we suggested Water Excess Deficiency Index (WEDI) as an useful tool to evaluate socioeconomic droughts, based on water demand condition and water supply condition. This study verified the validity of WEDI by comparing with other drought indices (SPI, PDSI) and historical drought condition in Gyeongsang-do in 2001. The results indicated that the WEDI can be used to assess regional droughts in a socioeconomic perspective.