• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.48-58
• /
• 2001

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of environmental sound rice farming method on the productivity of rice industry which may result in impacts on the staple food securities. Recently fanners have been concerned about adopting new rice cultivation method such as organic and low input farming system in which fertilizer and pesticide can be substantially reduced so as to alleviate the burden of agro-ecosystem. However, It has been argued about whether or not there are negative impacts on the self sufficiency rate of food, income of farm household and technological adaptability. Therefore this study examined the productivity trend of environmental rice farming system and predicted the long term rice self-sufficiency rate when environmental rice farming system are adopted by assuming various scenarios. It was estimated that rice self-sufficiency rate can be decreased up to 52.2% by 2010. Based on the analysis of results, policy recommendations for environmentally sound rice farming were suggested as follows: 1) gradual adopting and transferring of environmental rice cultivation method, 2) increasing profitability of rice growing fanners 3) developing the farm level technology specific to Korean farming condition, 4) institutionalization of direct payments for encouraging environmental rice fanning.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
• /
• 2005.11a
• /
• pp.1033-1038
• /
• 2005

As a global effort to conservate the environment, life cycle assessment(LCA) which considers the environmental impact through the life cycle of a product, from acquiring of resources to scrapping, has been actively applied. The LCA is a tool to calculate quantitatively the environmental impacts caused by products or services through their life cycles. The list of numerous data should be analyzed, stored and conducted in order to assess the environmental impacts. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a software for LCA, which can perform the interpretation as well as the environment impact assessment to execute the analysis of such a large number of data effectively. At this time, for the existing some kinds of general LCA softwares, the information about all of input and output should be fed directly and the conclusion is deduced by linking to the database from the public authorized organizations. That makes it possible to evaluate the environmental grades accurately, but it is too slow and difficult for general users to operate and applied it into an electric motor unit(EMU). Therefore, in this research, the basic model was designed, which is based on construction of database structure of the software and organization of architecture, to develop an advanced software for EMU according to user and purpose of it by benchmarking of domestic and international softwares. The result of this study would be applied to develop the LCA software in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.161-170
• /
• 2009

As urban growth continues, the earth ecosystem is increasingly dependent on the patterns of urban growth. The impact intensity from urban growth is expected to change predictably with distance from the urban center. However we can't fully understand yet how urban development pattern affects urban ecosystem. In researches about urban ecosystem, it is important to relate the spatial pattern of urbanization to ecological processes. So we used gradient analysis with time data; 1980's, 1990's and 2000's. We attempted to quantify the urban spatiotemporal impacts in Daejeon-city and Cheonan-city, Korea, along a 75km long and 3km wide transect. Through the results, we found the impacts range of urbanization with urban development process of two cities. When the urban growth was concentrated on in both cities, the impacts intensity and range were much stronger and wider. As a result, in urban planning or green space planning, we have to consider suitable urban development forms with surrounding areas, and make legal clauses which limits landuse change. This quantifying the urban gradient is an important step in understanding urban ecology.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.135-140
• /
• 2000

The Government of Mongolia approved establishment of the Mongolian LTER network in December 1997. In June 1998, a seminar was organized by the Mongolian Academy of Sciences to initiate the program. Dr. James Gosz of the US LTER program keynoted the seminar. A Mongolian LTER Steering Committee was established to organize the network and to develop guidelines for its management. This Committee designated Hovsgol National Park in northern Mongolia as the first Mongolian LTER network site. Other potential sites are presently being considered. including study sites in steppe grassland and desert locations. The primary goals of the Mongolian LTER Network are to study human impacts on Mongolia's environment; with a focus on short-term impacts of nomadic grazing on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and long-term climate change impacts on more pristine environments in the protected areas. There are at least two additional goals: to provide information and advice on how best to protect Mongolia's pristine environments, and to train Mongolian students to work on environmental problems to encourage the growth of expertise for making sound environmental decisions.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.64-68
• /
• 2012

Design factors such as design objects establishment, analysis, synthesis, production, test and evaluation should be educated in a systematic way. Also design ability to reflect practical restrictive conditions such as industrial standards, economic feasibility, environmental impact, aesthetics, safety and reliability, ethical impacts and social impacts should be cultivated. In this paper, we explain the meaning of these terms and propose a systematic engineering design education framework satisfying Korean engineering education accreditation criteria. We also present a simple implementation in information network engineering.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.47-56
• /
• 1997

This Paper Proposes new pollution indices as a quantitative measure of environmental impact. The pollution index for a process is defined by using pollution balance equations. Three pollution indices were defined on the basis of waste characteristics: mass, BOD, and toxicity. Such pollution indices can be effective and valuable tools for minimizing the waste production of a process in terms of environmental impacts, and, when used with cost estimates, for objectively determining the optimal process. In this paper, the application of these indices was demonstrated in a case study involving the production of detergent, as reported in the literature. Pollution indices for the existing process and two improved processes were calculated and compared to evaluate environmental impacts of these processes.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
• /
• 2004.06a
• /
• pp.296-302
• /
• 2004

After the Rio declaration on environment and development in 1992, developed countries are undertaking 'environmentally sustainable transportation (EST)' projects. To meet the needs for EST, current transportation policies in Korea are rapidly reforming and one of its concerns is modernizing and upgrading railway freight system. Planning new railroad construction projects is increasing and subsequent environmental impact assessment (EIA) demands improvements, especially in both the EIA and decision making systems. In this paper, we discuss the present status of EIA for railroad construction projects, especially, by analyzing the EIA documents accumulated for last six years. The EIA for railroad construction projects .accounts for only $4.9\%$ of total project EIAs during 1998-2003. However, the portion is gradually increasing. Major environmental concerns for EIA in railroad construction projects were geomorphological and ecological changes, protection of rare organisms, air pollution, water quality, wast management, noise, etc. We also compared the characteristics of environmental impacts of railroad construction with those of vehicle road construction. The result shows that railroad construction usually requires 3${\~}$4 times longer tunnels and bridges for a given length than vehicle road construction. In addition, the amounts of geomorphological and ecological changes (road-cutting, embankment, devegetation, etc.) in railroad construction were generally less than $40\%$ of those in vehicle road construction. In order to develop environmentally friendly railway systems, monitoring studies for environmental impacts of railroads such as habitat fragmentation and road kills, dispersal of alien plants, tunnelling effects on groundwater and vegetation, and noise impacts are highly required.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.111-116
• /
• 2018

The environmental impacts of a 1 kW polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system are quantitatively assessed by performing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study. A PEMFC system produces electricity and heat simultaneously, so an appropriate allocation of associated inputs and outputs is performed between the electricity and heat produced. The environmental impacts of the PEMFC system on the impact categories such as global warming (GW), abiotic depletion (AD), acidification (AC), and eutrophication (EU) are assessed from the life cycle impact assessment. The impact indicator results of the impact assessment on these impact categories are obtained as $3.70E-01kg\;CO_2\;eq./kWh$, 1.86E-03 kg Sb eq./kWh, $4.09E-04kg\;SO_2\;eq./kWh$, and $1.88E-05kg\;PO_4{^{3-}}/kWh$, respectively. For all impact categories studied the most influential stage is the operation stage, which accounts for 98.8%, 98.7%, 70.3%, and 62.3% of the total impact on GW, AD, AC, and EU, respectively. For the impact categories of AD, AC, and EU, most of the environmental impacts during the operation stage is attributed to the production of city gas. However, for the impact category of GW, $CO_2$ emission from the reforming process of city gas is the main reason for the largest contribution of the operation stage to the total impact results.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.26 no.9
• /
• pp.1031-1043
• /
• 2017

Recently severe drought caused the water shortage around the western parts of Chungcheongnamdo province, South Korea. A Diversion tunnel from the Geum river to the Boryong dam, which is the water supply dam for these areas has been proposed to solve this problem. This study examined hydraulic impacts on the Geum river associated with the diversion plan assuming the severe drought condition of 2015 would persist for the simulation period of 2016. The hydraulic simulation model was verified using hydrologic and hydraulic data including hourly discharges of the Geum river and its 8 tributaries, fluctuation of tidal level at the mouth of the river, withdrawals and return flows and operation records of the Geum river barrage since Feb. 1, 2015 through May 31, 2015. For the upstream boundary condition of the Geum river predicted inflow series using the nonlinear regression equation for 2015 discharge data was used. In order to estimate the effects of uncertainty in inflow prediction to the results total four inflow series consisting of upper limit flow, expected flow, lower limit flow and instream flow were used to examine hydraulic impacts of the diversion plan. The simulation showed that in cases of upper limit and expected flows there would be no problem in taking water from the Geum river mouth with a minimum water surface level of EL(+) 1.44 m. Meanwhile, the simulation also showed that in cases of lower limit flow and instream flow there would be some problems not only in taking water for water supply from the mouth of the Geum river but also operating the diversion facility itself with minimum water surface levels of EL(+) 0.94, 0.72, 0.43, and 0.14 m for the lower limit flow without/with diversion and the instream flow without/with diversion, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.541-550
• /
• 2013

Noise is defined to be unwanted (or undesirable) sounds, and it can be subdivided into occupational and environmental noises. The occupational noise is largely emitted from workplaces, but the environmental noise is produced from various sources such as transportation, construction, and even neighborhood. Transportation, particularly road vehicles, has been recognized to play a major role in emitting environmental noise and having adverse effects on urban communities. Considering this issue, this research investigated how severe the impacts of road traffic noise on a variety of land uses in a highly urbanized area, Fulton County, Georgia, United States. Daytime and nighttime road traffic noise maps were derived with Traffic Noise Model that was developed by Federal Highway Administration at United States Department of Transportation. Individual noise maps were overlaid on three-tiered land use type maps in order to evaluate the magnitude of noise impacts on the study area, as a noise exposure assessment. This study found that many land use parcels and buildings were exposed to noise levels exceeding the guideline values of the World Health Organization and the Atlanta Code of Ordinance. Therefore, it would be required to take an action that can protect many urban residents from ill effects of road traffic noise.