• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.69 no.2
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• pp.78-87
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• 2024

The risk of global warming is increasing due to rapid climate change and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Among the greenhouse gases, methane has a strong warming effect; in particular, 51.2% of the agricultural sector's methane emissions are from flooded rice fields. According to the current standard rice cultivation method, rice is grown during the maximum tillering stage with an intermittent drainage period of approximately 2 weeks. During the flooding period, methane-producing bacteria are active, but the activity of methane-producing bacteria and the amount of methane gas produced are reduced when the soil becomes oxidized through watering. Accordingly, this study used multiple-sensing technology to analyze the growth response according to the intermittent drainage period and to identify the extended intermittent drainage period with less impact on rice production. The equipment used for growth observations included NDVI, PRI, and IR sensors. The results confirmed that growth indices related to stress, such as NDVI and PRI, were not significantly different from those of the control when treated within 3 weeks of drainage, but drastically decreased when the drainage period was extended beyond 4 weeks. These results appear to result from the fact that soil water content (volumetric water content) also dropped to below 20% 4 weeks after irrigation, creating actual drought stress conditions. The 22^nd day after treatment, when the soil moisture content reached 20%, was considered the point in time when drought stress conditions were formed. The point at which the SPAD value decreased to 0.6% of normal was estimated to be 23.5 days after treatment by using the regression equation between NDVI and SPAD.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.389-406
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• 2011

As part of a feasibility study for introducing carbon labeling of fruit products in Korea, we explore the use of carbon footprints for Korean kiwifruit from Gyeongnam region as a case study. In Korea, the Korean Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) is responsible for the carbon footprint labeling certification, and has two types of certification programs: one program focuses on climate change response (carbon footprint labeling analysis) and the other on low-carbon products (reduction of carbon footprints analysis). Currently agricultural products have not yet been included in the program. Carbon labeling could soon be a prerequisite for the international trading of agricultural products. In general the carbon footprints of various agricultural products from New Zealand followed the methodology described in the ISO standards and conformed to the PAS 2050. The carbon footprint assessment focuses on a supply chain, and considers the foreground and the background systems. The basic scheme consists of four phases, which are the 'goal', 'scope', 'inventory analysis', and 'interpretation' phases. In the case of the carbon footprint of New Zealand kiwifruit the study tried to understand each phase's contribution to total GHG emissions. According to the results, shipping, orchard, and coolstore operation are the main life cycle stages that contribute to the carbon footprint of the kiwifruit supply chain stretching from the orchard in New Zealand to the consumer in the UK. The carbon emission of long-distance transportation such as shipping can be a hot-spot of GHG emissions, but can be balanced out by minimizing the carbon footprint of other life cycle phases. For this reason it is important that orchard and coolstore operations reduce the GHG-intensive inputs such as fuel or electricity to minimize GHG emissions and consequently facilitate the industry to compete in international markets. The carbon footprint labeling guided by international standards should be introduced for fruit products in Korea as soon as possible. The already established LCA methodology of NZ kiwifruit can be applied for fruit products as a case study.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1185-1194
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• 2011

This study was carried out to estimate carbon emission using LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and to establish LCI (Life Cycle inventory) DB for lettuce production system in protected cultivation. The results of data collection for establishing LCI DB showed that the amount of fertilizer input for 1 kg lettuce production was the highest. The amounts of organic and chemical fertilizer input for 1 kg lettuce production were 7.85E-01 kg and 4.42E-02 kg, respectively. Both inputs of fertilizer and energy accounted for the largest share. The amount of field emission for $CO_2$, $CH_4$ and $N_2O$ for 1 kg lettuce production was 3.23E-02 kg. The result of LCI analysis focused on GHG (Greenhouse gas) showed that the emission value to produce 1 kg of lettuce was 8.65E-01 kg $CO_2$. The emission values of $CH_4$ and $N_2O$ to produce 1 kg of lettuce were 8.59E-03 kg $CH_4$ and 2.90E-04 kg $N_2O$, respectively. Fertilizer production process contributed most to GHG emission. Whereas, the amount of emitted nitrous oxide was the most during lettuce cropping stage due to nitrogen fertilization. When GHG was calculated in $CO_2$-equivalents, the carbon footprint from GHG was 1.14E-+00 kg $CO_2$-eq. $kg^{-1}$. Here, $CO_2$ accounted for 76% of the total GHG emissions from lettuce production system. Methane and nitrous oxide held 16%, 8% of it, respectively. The results of LCIA (Life Cycle Impact assessment) showed that GWP (Global Warming Potential) and POCP (Photochemical Ozon Creation Potential) were 1.14E+00 kg $CO_2$-eq. $kg^{-1}$ and 9.45E-05 kg $C_2H_4$-eq. $kg^{-1}$, respectively. Fertilizer production is the greatest contributor to the environmental impact, followed by energy production and agricultural material production.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2009

This study aims to identify negotiation alternatives related to Post-2012 reducing emissions from deforestation (RED) and enhancement of forest carbon stock (EFCS) activities. It also aims to recommend a negotiation strategy considering environmental integrity and national interest on the basis of estimating reduction potentials of each alternative on the assumption that tradable carbon credits play an important role as positive incentives. In order to estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potentials and income potential from RED and EFCS activities, 99 countries were selected by the Global Forest Resources Assessment of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. A 'baseline and credit' method was applied to estimate RED activities. Gross-net and net-net methods were applied for EFCS activities. According to the results, Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have more potential to get positive incentives through RED, while China, Chile, and the Republic of Korea have more potential to get positive incentives through EFCS. This study suggests including both RED and EFCS activities in the boundary of policy approaches and endowment of positive incentives to consider GHG reduction potentials in the global scale and equity among developing countries. Making a discount rate application of forest management activities can be also recommended to factor out the effects of human-induced activities by EFCS activities.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.157-185
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• 2014

The Kyoto Protocol has extended its life until 2020 by the decision at COP18 in Doha, Qatar in 2012. So has the Kyoto Mechanism of CDM, JI, and ETS. Nonetheless, the sustainability of CDM projects is jeopardized by the recent rule changes in the international emissions trade market such as EU ETS and the price decrease in emission credits. In particular, the domestic CDM projects reducing non-$CO_2$ GHG emissions are being directly affected. This study examines the trend of carbon credit price change in the international market. It also examines how the rule changes in the international emissions trade market have affected domestic non-$CO_2$ CDM projects through which mechanisms. The policy implications drawn from this study is two-fold: it suggests how the government can assist the project developers in utilizing GHG emission reduction technologies and the market in promoting investment environment before the domestic ETS enters into effect in 2015; apart from possible measures within ETS, an additional measures such as bilateral carbon offset system is suggested to help the private sector reduce uncertainty in investment and increase options to choose.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.29-42
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• 2017

As the "Guidelines for GHG Environmental Assessment" was revised, it pointed out that the developers should evaluate GHG sequestration and storage of the developing site. However, the current guidelines only taking into account the quantitative reduction lost within the development site, and did not consider the qualitative decrease in the carbon sequestration capacity of forest edge produced by developments. In order to assess the quantitative and qualitative effects of vegetation carbon uptake, the CASA-NPP model and satellite image spatial-temporal fusion were used to estimate the annual net primary production in 2005 and 2015. The development projects between 2006 and 2014 were examined for evaluate quantitative changes in development site and qualitative changes in surroundings by development types. The RMSE value of the satellite image fusion results is less than 0.1 and approaches 0, and the correlation coefficient is more than 0.6, which shows relatively high prediction accuracy. The NPP estimation results range from 0 to $1335.53g\;C/m^2$ year before development and from 0 to $1333.77g\;C/m^2$ year after development. As a result of analyzing NPP reduction amount within the development area by type of forest development, the difference is not significant by type of development but it shows the lowest change in the sports facilities development. It was also found that the vegetation was most affected by the edge vegetation of industrial development. This suggests that the industrial development causes additional development in the surrounding area and indirectly influences the carbon sequestration function of edge vegetaion due to the increase of the edge and influx of disturbed species. The NPP calculation method and results presented in this study can be applied to quantitative and qualitative impact assessment of before and after development, and it can be applied to policies related to greenhouse gas in environmental impact assessment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.576-586
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• 2019

Airlines need to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because of the Paris Climate Agreement and ICAO CORSIA. This examined the degree of the strategic responses to which the airlines have made and the problems in the emission trading system (ETS). According to the analysis, the total amount of emission all the airlines made in the last three years was 116% more than the emission allowance imposed by the central government resulting in 10.7 billion KRW additional emission expense. Airlines would also face an increased carbon cost due to the implementation of ICAO CORSIA by purchasing an additional paid-in emission allowance in international routes. Although it is effective to retire the old aircraft early and induce the brand-new fuel-efficient aircraft to reduce GHG emissions, it is impractical in the short-term due to the tremendous amount of investment. To reduce the emission, airlines are washing engines, using ultra-light ULD and carts in the cabin, increasing the use of flaps and preventing the use of APU. On the other hand, these are very limited measures for reducing emissions according to the ICAO's mandatory emission target.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.41-49
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• 2019

Livestock manure is a significant source for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, and a huge amount of GHG emission is generated during its storage. In the present work, lowering temperature was attempted to mitigate methane ($CH_4$) emission from cattle manure (CM) with high solid content. CM was stored for 60 d at $15-35^{\circ}C$ ($5^{\circ}C$ interval). $CH_4$ emission reached $63.6{\pm}3.6kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;CM$ at $35^{\circ}C$, which was reduced to $51.6{\pm}1.8$, $24.1{\pm}4.4$, $14.9{\pm}0.5$, and $3.7{\pm}0.1kg\;CO_2\;eq./ton\;CM$ at 30, 25, 20, and $15^{\circ}C$, respectively. After storage, 30% of COD reduction was observed in the CM stored at $35^{\circ}C$, while the COD removal decreased to only 6% at $15^{\circ}C$. It was found that only 3-11% of COD removal was done by anaerobic process, while the rest of COD removal was done by aerobic biological process. Methanobrevibacter and Methanolobus were found to be the dominant species in the CM, and the dominance of Methanolobus psychrophilus increased at lower storage temperature. Specific methanogenic activity test results showed that the inhibition by low temperature was temporal.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.385-393
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• 2022

Hydrogen has reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the main cause of global warming, and is emerging as an eco-friendly energy source for ships. Hydrogen is a substance with a lower flammability limit (LFL) of 4 to 75% and a high risk of explosion. To be used for ships, it must be sufficiently safe against leaks. In this study, we analyzed the effect of changes in the area of the air inlet / vent port on the ventilation performance when hydrogen leaks occur in the hydrogen tank storage room. The area of the air inlet / vent port is 1A = 740 mm × 740 mm, and the size and position can be easily changed on the surface of the storage chamber. Using ANSYS CFX ver 18.1, which is a CFD commercial software, the area of the air inlet / vent port was changed to 1A, 2A, 3A, and 5A, and the hydrogen mole fraction in the storage chamber when the area changed was analyzed. Consequently, the increase in the area of the air inlet port further reduced the concentration of the leaked hydrogen as compared with that of the vent port, and improved the ventilation performance of at least 2A or more from the single air inlet port. As the area of the air inlet port increased, hydrogen was uniformly stratified at the upper part of the storage chamber, but was out of the LFL range. However, simply increasing the area of the vent port inadequately affected the ventilation performance.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2021.06a
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• pp.148-149
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• 2021

Food waste has increasingly become a global issue of concern among the researchers and policymakers due to its significant environmental and economic impacts, and other associated unsustainable use of resources, including water resources. While food wastage occurs at each stage of the supply chain with food loss at the upstream and food waste at the downstream, the impacts of food waste occurring at the consumption side are enormous due to the accumulated added values. In this study, the embedded water resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and economic loss of household food waste were investigated. The primary granular data of household food waste was collected through direct sampling from 218 selected households of the Buk-gu community in Daegu, South Korea from July 2019 to May 2020. The water footprint, which was based on the water footprint concept, i.e., indirect water use, and GHG emission potential factor for each of the food items were adopted from the literature, while the retail prices and disposal cost were used to assess the economic cost of wasted food items. The water footprint, GHG emission associated with environmental impacts, and the economic cost of 42 major identified wasted food items were conducted. The findings showed that an average of 0.73 ± 0.06 kg/household/day edible food waste was generated among the sampled households, with leafy vegetable, watermelon, and rice responsible for 10, 9, and 4%, respectively, of the total weight of the 42 food wasted items. The water footprint and environmental impact of the household food waste resulted in 0.46 ± 0.04 m³ and 0.71±0.05 kg CO2eq, respectively. Beef, pork, poultry, and rice accounted for 52, 9, 5, and 4% of the total water footprint, while beef, pork, rice, tofu/cheese had 52, 8, 6, and 6% of the total emissions, respectively, embedded in the food wasted. Furthermore, the average estimated economic cost associated with wasted food items was 3855.93±527.27 Korean won, with beef, fish, and leafy vegetable responsible for 21, 13, and 10%, respectively, of the total economic cost. A combined assessment using water-environmental-economic nexus indicated that animal-based food had the highest footprint impacts, with beef, pork, and poultry indicating high indices of 0.3, 0.08, and 0.06 respectively, on a scale of 0 to 1, compared to corn and lettuce with lowest impacts of 0.02. Other food items had moderate impact values ranging from 0.03 to 0.05. This study, therefore, provides insight into the enormity of environmental and economic implications of household food waste among Korean households.