• Title/Summary/Keyword: Environmental problems

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Exploring sustainable resources utilization: Interlink between food waste generation and water resources conservation

  • Adelodun, Bashir;Choi, Kyung-Sook
    • Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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    • 2019.05a
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    • pp.232-232
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    • 2019
  • The persistence of drought periods and water scarcity is a growing public concern, as climate change projections indicate a more critical scenario in the future. The sustainability of water resources for the increasing population, and to ensuring crop production will unarguably be a daunting task for the water resources managers, with a projected 9.8 billion people by 2050 as well as the need to increase food production by 70 to 100%. Consequently, there is a need for significant irrigation water use for more crop production in the face of stiff competition among water users. However, the available natural resources are already over-constrained, and the allocation of more resources for food production is not feasible. Currently, about two-thirds of global water withdrawer is used by the agricultural sector while 48% of water resources in Korea is used for agricultural production. Despite the apparent ecological deficit and unfavorable conditions of resources utilization, a staggering amount of food waste occurs in the country. Moreover, wastage of food translates to waste of all the resources involved in the food production including water resources. Food waste can also be considered a serious potential for economic and environmental problems. Hence, exploring an alternative approach to efficient resources utilization in a more sustainable way can ensure considerable resources conservation. We hypothesized that reducing food waste will decline the demand for food production and consequently reduce the pressure on water resources. We investigated the food wastage across the food supply chain using the top-down datasets based on the FAO mass balance model. Furthermore, the water footprint of the estimated food wastage was assessed using the representative of selected food crops. The study revealed that the average annual food wastage across the food supply chain is 9.05 million tonnes, signifying 0.51 kg/capita/day and 48% of domestic food production. Similarly, an average of 6.29 Gm3 per annum of water resources was lost to food wastage, which translates to 40% of the total allotted water resources for agriculture in the country. These considerable resources could have been conserved or efficiently used for other purposes. This study demonstrated that zero food waste generation would significantly reduce the impact on freshwater resources and ensure its conservation. There is a need for further investigation on the food waste study using the bottom-up approach, specifically at the consumer food waste, since the top-down approach is based on estimations and many assumptions were made.

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Exploring sustainable resources utilization: Interlink between food waste generation and water resources conservation

  • Adelodun, Bashir;Choi, Kyung-Sook
    • Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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    • 2019.05a
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    • pp.408-408
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    • 2019
  • The persistence of drought periods and water scarcity is a growing public concern, as climate change projections indicate a more critical scenario in the future. The sustainability of water resources for the increasing population, and to ensuring crop production will unarguably be a daunting task for the water resources managers, with a projected 9.8 billion people by 2050 as well as the need to increase food production by 70 to 100%. Consequently, there is a need for significant irrigation water use for more crop production in the face of stiff competition among water users. However, the available natural resources are already over-constrained, and the allocation of more resources for food production is not feasible. Currently, about two-thirds of global water withdrawer is used by the agricultural sector while 48% of water resources in Korea is used for agricultural production. Despite the apparent ecological deficit and unfavorable conditions of resources utilization, a staggering amount of food waste occurs in the country. Moreover, wastage of food translates to waste of all the resources involved in the food production including water resources. Food waste can also be considered a serious potential for economic and environmental problems. Hence, exploring an alternative approach to efficient resources utilization in a more sustainable way can ensure considerable resources conservation. We hypothesized that reducing food waste will decline the demand for food production and consequently reduce the pressure on water resources. We investigated the food wastage across the food supply chain using the top-down datasets based on the FAO mass balance model. Furthermore, the water footprint of the estimated food wastage was assessed using the representative of selected food crops. The study revealed that the average annual food wastage across the food supply chain is 9.05 million tonnes, signifying 0.51 kg/capita/day and 48% of domestic food production. Similarly, an average of $6.29Gm^3$ per annum of water resources was lost to food wastage, which translates to 40% of the total allotted water resources for agriculture in the country. These considerable resources could have been conserved or efficiently used for other purposes. This study demonstrated that zero food waste generation would significantly reduce the impact on freshwater resources and ensure its conservation. There is a need for further investigation on the food waste study using the bottom-up approach, specifically at the consumer food waste, since the top-down approach is based on estimations and many assumptions were made.

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A Study on Disposal Diagnosis Algorithm of PV Modules Considering Performance Degradation Rate (태양광모듈의 성능저하율을 고려한 폐기진단 알고리즘에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Ji-Hyun;Lee, Hu-Dong;Tae, Dong-Hyun;Ferreira, Marito;Rho, Dae-Seok
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.20 no.10
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    • pp.493-502
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    • 2019
  • Recently, the installation of renewable energy including PV systems in distribution systems has increased energetically to cope with climate change and energy shortages according to the government's policy of renewable energy 3020. On the other hand, the electrical performance and lifespan of PV modules installed outdoors can be decreased considerably due to a range of deterioration phenomena depending on the ambient environmental factors. To overcome these problems, replacement of degraded PV modules with new ones is increased before the lifespan guaranteed by the makers of PV modules. Therefore, this paper proposes a disposal diagnosis algorithm to evaluate the time interval of the optimal replacement for PV modules according to performance degradation rate of PV modules. In addition, this study modeled an economic evaluation, which is composed of the cost and benefit of PV systems. From the simulation results based on the proposed modeling and algorithm to consider the performance degradation rate specifically, the replacement approach was found to have the best B/C ratio in 10th year with a 3[%] degradation rate and the disposal diagnosis algorithm of PV modules are useful and practical tools for economic evaluations of the replacement of PV modules.

A Study on Activation Technology Commercialization of Railway Vehicle Parts Manufacturing SME (철도차량부품 제조 중소기업의 기술사업 활성화를 위한 요인 분석)

  • Kim, Myung Jong;Lee, Kyung Chul;Koo, Jeong Seo
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.39 no.5
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    • pp.657-665
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    • 2019
  • The domestic railway parts and equipment manufacturing industry is mainly focused on SMEs, and the majority of them are suffering from profitability because they cannot build economies of scale. Besides, they have survived in the form of importing technology products from overseas advanced countries and delivering them to domestic railway operators rather than having in-house technology. Therefore it is necessary to study whether the problems of the current railway industry can be identified and improved and at the same time, whether the government's railway industry development policy is properly reflected. literature studies related to technology commercialization, and conduct surveys of AHP questionnaires on the experts of the manufacturing industry of SMEs, academics / research institutes of the railway industry. After that, the Level 3 activation method AHP analysis was additionally performed on the important factors of Level 2 that have the highest importance and priority in Level 1. As a result of the AHP analysis, 'Technical Connectivity' was the most important method in the technical factor, and SME experts and academic and research institute experts were highly evaluated for 'commercialization ability' Competence in terms of importance. As for external support factors, it was analyzed that SME experts "support for manpower development" was important, while the other two group experts research and development support was important. In this study, the priority of the government support and policy priorities are suggested according to the capabilities of the railway manufacturing SMEs before the future R&D support.

A Case Study on the Competitive System of EU Railway Transport Market (유럽 철도교통시장의 경쟁체제 도입사례 연구)

  • Lee, Yong-Sang;Moon, Dae-Seop
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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    • v.11 no.5
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    • pp.455-464
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    • 2008
  • This paper examines the situation and tasks of competitive systems of EU transport market focusing on railways. Recently, the EU transport market has changed radically, thanks to an increasingly competitive rail market. The European Commission has stimulated the creation of a competitive environment that will enhance the position of rail. Some scholars have insisted that the rail market is more monopolistic than competitive. However, the case of UK rail privatization suggests this is not the case. Moreover, some countries have a rail market that is more competitive. We draw on a wide range of sources including statistics and analyses of recent phenomena. These demonstrate the emergence of competitive markets in EU rail and the difficulty of developing a competitive market. With regard to the adoption of the competitive market, we examine three things. First, we observe recent cases and trends in competitive markets. Second, we compare the result of competitive markets and non-competitive markets within EU nations. Third, we demonstrate factors of formation of competitive markets and the possible expansion. We identified differences within open market policies amongst EU nations. Although a competitive EU rail market may have some difficulties, it will steadily begin to overcome technological differences and a lack of funds, because EU countries have a common goal, which is to develop the railways, solving, wherever possible both environmental and energy problems. Through this analysis, we found that the free market in EU rail will be extended to deliver efficiency and quality service.

Characteristics of Ionic Composition of Rainwater in Suwon (수원지역 빗물의 이온 조성)

  • Lee, Jong-Sik;Jung, Goo-Bok;Kim, Jin-Ho;Kim, Won-Il;Lee, Jeong-Taek
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.40 no.2
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    • pp.151-155
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    • 2007
  • The issue of acid precipitation and related environmental problems in East Asia have been emerging. To evaluate the acidity and chemical characteristics of rainwater in Korea, its chemical properties during crop cultivation season from April to October were investigated at Suwon, Korea. Also, to estimate the contribution of ions on its acidity, ion composition characteristics and neutralization effects by cation ions were determined. Ion balance and electrical conductivity balance between the measured and estimated values showed high correlation. Rainwater had distributed highly in the range of pH 4.5~5.6. The pH of rainwater was relatively high at June as compared with other monitoring periods. $Na^+$ was the main cation followed by $NH_4{^+}$, $Ca^{2+}$, $H^+$ > $K^+$ > $Mg^{2+}$. Among these, $Na^+$, $NH_4{^+}$, $Ca^{2+}$ and $H^+$ covered over 93% of total cations. About 86% of anion in rainwater was composed of $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$. In rainwater samples, $NH_4{^+}$ and $Ca^{2+}$ contributed greatly to neutralization of the rain acidity. Also, 88% of soluble sulfate in rainwater was nss-$SO{_4}^{2-}$(non-sea salt sulfate).

A study on the improvement of hydrophilic properties of activated carbon surface by nitric acid treatment (질산 처리에 따른 활성탄 표면의 친수성 특성 향상에 관한 연구)

  • Kang, Hye Ju;Yang, So Yeong;Kim, Tae Min;Kim, Yong Ryeol
    • Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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    • v.38 no.5
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    • pp.1241-1248
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    • 2021
  • In order to figure out various environmental problems, various governments and companies are investigating more environmentally policies and technologies. In other words, activated carbon is widely used for the adsorption of different harmful gases and waste liquid treatment. However since the required surface properties are different in various industry, depending on the adsorption properties, the development of activated carbon demand in different ways. In this work, we have investigated and developed the activated carbon surface to improve the hydrophilic properties by nitric acid treatment through reforming of activated carbon.

A Study on the Application of CIGS Solar Cells to Improve the Aesthetics of Public Facilities (공공시설물 심미성 향상을 위한 CIGS 태양전지 적용 방안 연구)

  • Lee, Saem;Seo, Ji-Young;Park, Su-Jy;Nam, Won-Suk;Jang, Jung-Sik
    • Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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    • v.12 no.12
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    • pp.235-243
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    • 2021
  • As environmental problems accompanied by industrialization have emerged worldwide, solar and wind energy have entered the stage of commercialization, especially in Korea. In addition, research on improving aesthetics using solar cells is being actively conducted. Examples include developing a transmissive solar cell and developing a solar cell with flexibility and color. Therefore, in line with the upward trend of solar cell development and solar cell-based public facility installation, we will present guidelines for designing public facilities using solar cells to improve aesthetics. First of all, components were derived to increase the suitability of solar cell application through literature surveys on solar cells and case studies on public facilities using solar cells. Next, through prior research on public facility guidelines, we established evaluation principles and drafted design guidelines. Based on this, a Delphi survey was conducted on a group of experts to verify its validity. Design guidelines for solar cells application measures to improve the final public design aesthetics were derived. The goal is to improve the public facilities using solar cells, through Accessibility and cognition, Usability, Shape and aesthetics, Sustainability and energy efficiency, Continuity with the urban landscape. And it is expected that this data will be used to improve the aesthetics of public design using solar cells in the future.

Recent Research Trends of Cryopreservation Technology Based on Microalgae Chlorophyta (미세조류 동결보존 기술 개발의 최근 연구 동향)

  • Yim, Jun-Ho;Seo, Yong Bae;Kim, Seon Min;Jeon, Young Jae
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.31 no.10
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    • pp.960-968
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    • 2021
  • Since microalgae research started on late 18 century, they have been recognized as one of the most important bioresources used in bioindustry. Owing to the large efforts paid to industrial application of this microorganisms, their importance on food/feed and bioactive compounds has been further extending into the environmental research areas including alternative energy resources, mitigation of the carbon emission, and waste-water treatment. However, despite the importance on their industrial application, the fundamental research field related to the long-term preservation of microalgae culture has not received much attention. However, a less labor intensive and cost-efficient preservation technology enabling biologically active and stable microalgae-culture provides a key success factor in the biotechnological application. Therefore, this study investigated various cutting-edge microalgae cryopreservation technologies currently developed so far, mainly targeting Chlorophyta, which occupies the largest taxon in the classification system of microalgae. In addition, for the development of successful cryopreservation technique, the key factors such as temperature control effect and preservative effect during cryopreservation of microalgae culture were investigated. In addition, the problems with current preservation technology that is being used in Korean domestic biological resource banks and the international microalgal resource banks are described. According to our investigation, currently no standard method for long-term preservation of microalgae is available due to their various morphological and physiological characteristics. To overcome such issues, much more efforts on fundamental research area on the identification of specific biomarker used for microalgae taxonomical classification and further systemic approaches based on strain-specific cryopreservation methods needed.

Calculation of Appropriate Number of Parking Lots for Cultural and Assembly Facilities - Focused on the Gwangju Metropolitan City Movie Theater - (문화 및 집회시설 적정 주차면 수 산정에 관한 연구 - 광주광역시 영화관을 중심으로 -)

  • Jin, Tae-Hee;Kwon, Sung-Dae;Jin, Il;Ha, Tae-Jun;Lee, Hyung-Mu;Lee, Gang-Seok
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.41 no.5
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    • pp.551-557
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    • 2021
  • Attached parking lots installation criteria is determined by use, total floor area, etc. according to the Parking Lot Act and local government ordinances. However, with traffic demand increase inconvenience about use of culture and assembly facilities have been raised. When planning number of parking lots for cultural and assembly facilities, legal parking lots and unit parking lots are used, but this causes inconvenience and traffic problems on the surrounding roads, because reality and convenience are not considered. Therefore, this study intend to present an realistic number of parking lots calculating equation for movie theater in Gwangju Metropolitan City. After investigating number of parking lots, number of screens, number of seats, total floor area, bus route and illegal parking for a cultural facility in Gwangju Metropolitan City, prediction model for calculating number of parking lots was presented using SPSS regression analysis. As a result of comparing prediction model and unit method, the prediction model was be closer actual cumulative parking space, so prediction model verification was completed. Based on the model verified in this study, Realistic number of parking lots will be installed. However, due to limitations of research on specific areas, research on various facilities should continue in consideration of regional, population, and urban characteristics