• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.spc1
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• pp.1037-1051
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• 2021

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) concentration, one of important water quality indicators, is treated as the measuring item for the ecological chapter in lakes and rivers. This investigation employed novel two-stage hybrid paradigm (i.e., wavelet-based gated recurrent unit, wavelet-based generalized regression neural networks, and wavelet-based random forests) to predict BOD concentration in the Dosan and Hwangji stations, South Korea. These models were assessed with the corresponding independent models (i.e., gated recurrent unit, generalized regression neural networks, and random forests). Diverse water quality and quantity indicators were implemented for developing independent and two-stage hybrid models based on several input combinations (i.e., Divisions 1-5). The addressed models were evaluated using three statistical indices including the root mean square error (RMSE), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), and correlation coefficient (CC). It can be found from results that the two-stage hybrid models cannot always enhance the predictive precision of independent models confidently. Results showed that the DWT-RF5 (RMSE = 0.108 mg/L) model provided more accurate prediction of BOD concentration compared to other optimal models in Dosan station, and the DWT-GRNN4 (RMSE = 0.132 mg/L) model was the best for predicting BOD concentration in Hwangji station, South Korea.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2022

This study was conducted to investigate in relation to characteristic of macroinvertebrates in conventional and organic paddy fields. The investigation was conducted five times a year for Suwon, Ansung, Boeun, Gunsan, Gimje, Hamyang, divide into conventional paddy fields and organic paddy fields from 2009 to 2011. The macroinvertebrates collected from the surveyed between conventional and organic paddy fields belonged to 84 species, 47 families, 16 orders, and 6 classes in 3 phyla. In the habitat orientied groups, climbers, swimmers and sprawlers were considerably occupied in conventional and organic paddy fields. In relation to the functional feeding groups, predators such as Odonata, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera were only the highest in paddy field ecosystem, regardless of cultivation method. As a result of community stability analysis, orgainc paddy fields has been identified much as species high resistance and resilience to environmental change in paddy field ecosystem. Species belonging to the I groups is considered to be important in organic paddy field such as Sternolophus rufipes, Hydrochara affinis, Helochares nipponicus, which has high mobility. In conclusion, it was found that the introduction of coleoptera as a food source was higher than that of conventional paddy fields in organic paddy field where primary consumers were abundant such as Chironomidae spp. and Dixidae sp..

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.239-248
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• 2022

Forensic entomology is a study that purposes at field reconstruction through insects attracted to carcasses, and has been mainly studied using carcasses such as a pig and chicken. Therefore, this study was conducted to find out if there is a singularity by using the carcass of water deer with different conditions and shapes of the hair quality and to find out the appearance of a necrophagous insect. The water deer carcass was received from the Jeollanam-do Wildlife Rescue Management Center and research was conducted. From May 19 2021 to July 2 2021, the decay progress of the carcass was observed for about 6 weeks. A total of 51 species of 21 families in 4 orders of insects were collected. Even after the carcass completely decays, even at the stage where the activity of other insects is not observed, insects such as Dermestidae and Tenebrionidae are collected from the hairs and leather of water deer carcass until the last. It was confirmed that insects of the order Coleoptera other than Diptera can be used as forensic entomological data related to the decay of carcasses with fur.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2022

High-resolution data are needed to understand water body mixing patterns at river junctions. In particular, in river analysis, hydrological and water quality characteristics are used as basic data for aquatic ecological health, so observation through continuous monitoring is necessary. In addition, since measurement is carried out through a one-dimensional and fixed measurement method in existing monitoring systems, a hydrological and water quality characteristics investigation of an entire river, except for in the immediate vicinity of the measurement point, is not undertaken. In order to obtain high-resolution measurement data, a measurer has to consider multiple factors, and the area or time that can be measured is limited. Although the resolution might be lowered, an appropriate interpolation method must be selected in order to acquire a wide range of data. Therefore, in this study, a high-elevation measurement method at a river junction was introduced, and the interpolation method according to the measurement results was compared. The overall hydraulic and water quality information of the river was indicated through the visualization of the prediction and interpolation method in the low-resolution measurement result. By comparing each interpolation method, Inverse Distance Weighting, Natural Neighbor, and Kriging techniques were applied in river mapping to improve the precision of river mapping through visualized data and quantitative evaluation. It is thought that this study will offer a new method for measuring rivers through spatial interpolation.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2016

Macrofauna and community structure were investigated seasonally at five sites in subtidal zone of Uljin on the east coast of Korea from March 2010 to February 2013. A total of 146 species were collected and identified, including 67 molluscs, 27 arthropods, and 8,688 individuals, including 6,468 arthropods, 1,098 molluscs and 584 echinoderms. In the seasonal investigation, summer has been the highest in 96 species and 2,525 number of individuals. Site 4 was the highest species but number of individuals were the lowest (81 species with 1,377 number of individuals), whereas site 3 was the lowest species and number of individuals were the highest (45 Species with 2,213 number of individuals). These result indicate that Balanus species affected to richness and the other side a gastropod influence by diversity and evenness. And site 3 seems to be good habitate environment for Balanus as the result of 83.4% of Balanus rather than other sites.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3D
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• pp.445-450
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• 2008

Recently, environmental and ecological approaches is in progress in urban stream, especially the guarantee of instream flow becomes very important. In this paper, it is suggested that water volume estimation method utilizing the topographical shape data obtained by field investigation and satellite image to manage the urban stream efficiently. The data obtained at Gap River is the study area are analysed and those results are as belows. First, surveying to investigate topographic shape characteristics of urban stream is carried out. In details, the gradient characteristics from water surface to bottom in case of sand area and in case of grass area are 0.013 and 0.065 respectively. In conclusion, the gradient characteristic of grass area is five times bigger than that of sand area. Besides, IKONOS image is classified by spectrum analysis and Minimum Distance Method and the sand area extraction method by the generalization method as Median filter is suggested to calculate water volume. Finally, mapping process on the sand area extracted from the topographical shape field data in river and satellite images is carried out by the GIS spatial analysis. And on the assumption that the water level was 1m at that time when satellite image was taken, the water volume was $225,258m^3$. It is clarified that the effect of water volume improvement was about 10.5% in comparison with water volume that had no consideration on the gradient characteristics of sand-bar.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1195-1210
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• 2023

Coastal debris has emerged as a salient issue due to its adverse effects on coastal aesthetics, ecological systems, and human health. In pursuit of effective countermeasures, the present study delineated the construction of a specialized image dataset for coastal debris detection and embarked on a comparative analysis between two paramount real-time object detection algorithms, YOLOv8 and RT-DETR. Rigorous assessments of robustness under multifarious conditions were instituted, subjecting the models to assorted distortion paradigms. YOLOv8 manifested a detection accuracy with a mean Average Precision (mAP) value ranging from 0.927 to 0.945 and an operational speed between 65 and 135 Frames Per Second (FPS). Conversely, RT-DETR yielded an mAP value bracket of 0.917 to 0.918 with a detection velocity spanning 40 to 53 FPS. While RT-DETR exhibited enhanced robustness against color distortions, YOLOv8 surpassed resilience under other evaluative criteria. The implications derived from this investigation are poised to furnish pivotal directives for algorithmic selection in the practical deployment of marine debris monitoring systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.45-56
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• 2024

Heavy metals emitted from urban development do not decompose in the soil and remain for long periods, continually impacting the environment. Since the mid-1990s, there has been increasing societal concern in South Korea regarding soil contamination, prompting various legislative revisions to reduce pollution. This study utilizes the Environmental Impact Assessment Support System (EIASS) to investigate projects in the metropolitan area that have exceeded the Ministry of Environment's soil contamination concern levels from 1989 to 2022 and to examine improvements in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The results reveal that the average concentrations of nine contaminants-cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), hexavalent chromium (Cr6+), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), and fluoride (F)-have all increased over the years. Among these, Zn had the highest relative proportion, with 37.5% of the 40 sites exceeding environmental concern levels. Investigation of 19 specific projects at these exceedance sites showed that only 7 had documented analyses of contamination causes and remediation plans, and just one had contracted additional remediation services, though results from these efforts were found to be lacking. Furthermore, since 2019, a significant proportion of these sites were involved in residential developments, likely due to government initiatives in new city development and extensive housing supply plans. This research emphasizes the importance of public disclosure of the processes and outcomes of remediation efforts on historically contaminated soils prior to project development. It discusses improvements to the EIA by reviewing current legislation and international examples. The findings of this study are expected to heighten public awareness about heavy metal contamination and enhance transparency in soil remediation efforts, contributing to sustainable environmental management and development.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.119-135
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• 2021

Korea has stepped up efforts to investigate and catalog its flora and fauna to conserve the biodiversity of the Korean Peninsula and secure biological resources since the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits (ABS) in 2010. Thus, after its establishment in 2007, the National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR) of the Ministry of Environment of Korea initiated a project called the Korean Indigenous Species Investigation Project to investigate indigenous species on the Korean Peninsula. For 15 years since its beginning in 2006, this project has been carried out in five phases, Phase 1 from 2006-2008, Phase 2 from 2009-2011, Phase 3 from 2012-2014, Phase 4 from 2015-2017, and Phase 5 from 2018-2020. Before this project, in 2006, the number of indigenous species surveyed was 29,916. The figure was cumulatively aggregated at the end of each phase as 33,253 species for Phase 1 (2008), 38,011 species for Phase 2 (2011), 42,756 species for Phase 3 (2014), 49,027 species for Phase 4 (2017), and 54,428 species for Phase 5(2020). The number of indigenous species surveyed grew rapidly, showing an approximately 1.8-fold increase as the project progressed. These statistics showed an annual average of 2,320 newly recorded species during the project period. Among the recorded species, a total of 5,242 new species were reported in scientific publications, a great scientific achievement. During this project period, newly recorded species on the Korean Peninsula were identified using the recent taxonomic classifications as follows: 4,440 insect species (including 988 new species), 4,333 invertebrate species except for insects (including 1,492 new species), 98 vertebrate species (fish) (including nine new species), 309 plant species (including 176 vascular plant species, 133 bryophyte species, and 39 new species), 1,916 algae species (including 178 new species), 1,716 fungi and lichen species(including 309 new species), and 4,812 prokaryotic species (including 2,226 new species). The number of collected biological specimens in each phase was aggregated as follows: 247,226 for Phase 1 (2008), 207,827 for Phase 2 (2011), 287,133 for Phase 3 (2014), 244,920 for Phase 4(2017), and 144,333 for Phase 5(2020). A total of 1,131,439 specimens were obtained with an annual average of 75,429. More specifically, 281,054 insect specimens, 194,667 invertebrate specimens (except for insects), 40,100 fish specimens, 378,251 plant specimens, 140,490 algae specimens, 61,695 fungi specimens, and 35,182 prokaryotic specimens were collected. The cumulative number of researchers, which were nearly all professional taxonomists and graduate students majoring in taxonomy across the country, involved in this project was around 5,000, with an annual average of 395. The number of researchers/assistant researchers or mainly graduate students participating in Phase 1 was 597/268; 522/191 in Phase 2; 939/292 in Phase 3; 575/852 in Phase 4; and 601/1,097 in Phase 5. During this project period, 3,488 papers were published in major scientific journals. Of these, 2,320 papers were published in domestic journals and 1,168 papers were published in Science Citation Index(SCI) journals. During the project period, a total of 83.3 billion won (annual average of 5.5 billion won) or approximately US $75 million (annual average of US $5 million) was invested in investigating indigenous species and collecting specimens. This project was a large-scale research study led by the Korean government. It is considered to be a successful example of Korea's compressed development as it attracted almost all of the taxonomists in Korea and made remarkable achievements with a massive budget in a short time. The results from this project led to the National List of Species of Korea, where all species were organized by taxonomic classification. Information regarding the National List of Species of Korea is available to experts, students, and the general public (https://species.nibr.go.kr/index.do). The information, including descriptions, DNA sequences, habitats, distributions, ecological aspects, images, and multimedia, has been digitized, making contributions to scientific advancement in research fields such as phylogenetics and evolution. The species information also serves as a basis for projects aimed at species distribution and biological monitoring such as climate-sensitive biological indicator species. Moreover, the species information helps bio-industries search for useful biological resources. The most meaningful achievement of this project can be in providing support for nurturing young taxonomists like graduate students. This project has continued for the past 15 years and is still ongoing. Efforts to address issues, including species misidentification and invalid synonyms, still have to be made to enhance taxonomic research. Research needs to be conducted to investigate another 50,000 species out of the estimated 100,000 indigenous species on the Korean Peninsula.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.201-219
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• 2012

The estuaries bank of Nakdong River, Korea, was constructed in 1987 and many arguments have been under discussion on the subject of ecological impact on ecosystem during 20 years. In this context, however, it was not focused on the role of fish-way and the way of improvement to promote fish movement to complete its life history. This paper was the result of investigation on fish fauna of upper and lower part of the bank and the analysis of comparison of the fishes with those using fish-way which were installed in each side of bank as ladder type and fish gate. The authors discussed the importance of fish gate and its management base on the result. The number of fishes collected in this study for upper part of estuaries bank was 31 species, among them 71% was the pure freshwater residents indicating the characteristics of the area as a freshwater ecosystem. It was observed that 9 species of coastal fishes were found in this region including Coilia ectens and Neosalanx sp. which is anadromous to spawn. Excluding 6 freshwater fishes, 30 fish species collected in lower part of estuaries bank were coastal fishes indicating that former brackish ecosystem was changed into marine one. The freshwater fishes found in this region were restricted the appearance only in the season of discharging freshwater into the sea. The number of fishes found in fish-way was 39 species, more than that of river and coast. But only 19 species founded in fish ladder was comparable with the result of investigation on fish gate including 32 species. It was considered that the fish gate has more important role as a fish passage from the fact that only it allowed to movement of numerous number of fry of Neosalanx sp. and Engraulis japonicus. These results indicates that two-way movement system is more efficient than downward only one in estuaries bank for fish migration.