• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 2021

It is important to extract and assess low-flow recession characteristics for water resources management in the upper reaches of a stream. It is difficult to express the groundwater flow recession characteristics for streamflow synthetically. The linear recession model has been widely used by baseflow recession analysis for reason of simplicity and convenience, but recent studies show that nonlinear recession models fit well, and the relationship between the reservoir storage of shallow unconfined aquifers and the groundwater discharge was to be identified as nonlinear in the literature based on the analysis of numerous streamflow recession curves. The objective of the study is to decode these nonlinear characteristics, including evaporation loss, storage, and recharge of groundwater using streamflow. By analyzing the observed time series of streamflow from the study area, which is the Pyeongchang River basin in Korea, the main components of the underlying groundwater balance, namely, discharge, evaporation loss, storage, and recharge, can be identified and quantified. As a result of the study, depletion of groundwater by evapotranspiration losses through the water uptake of tree roots was found to bias the recession curves and the estimated reservoir parameters. The seasonality of both rainfall and potential evaporation, analysis of the recession curves, stratified according to time of the year, allowed the quantification of evapotranspiration loss as a function of a calendar month and stored groundwater storage.

• Water for future
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.56-66
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• 2019

Nepal is bestowed with abundant water. With more than 1500 mm average annual rainfall in the country, a vast quantity of underutilized groundwater in the Terai belt, and the water stored in snowcaps in the Himalayas, aquifers in the mountains and glacial lakes, Nepal is potentially in an advantageous position in terms of per capita availability. However, low emphasis in management aspect of water and high emphasis in infrastructural developments related to water resources management has resulted in conversion of water in Nepal from a resource to a burden. The global climate change, reduction in number of rainy days, increase in intensity of rainfall during wet monsoon season, encroachment of river banks for settlement, inadequate release of environmental flows from hydropower plants, and attempt to tame the mighty and high velocity rivers of Nepal have resulted in increasing number of water induced disasters (flood and landslide), rise in conflict between local residents and hydropower developers, higher number of devastating landslides, and in some extreme cases mass migration of residents resulting in climate refugees. There is a ray of hope; the awareness level of the people regarding sustainable use of water resources is increasing, the benefit sharing mechanism is gradually being implemented, the role of interdisciplinary and integrated water resources management is appreciated at a higher level and the level of preparedness against flood and landslides is at a higher degree compared to a couple of decades ago. With the use of renewable energy sources, the possibilities for sustainable and productive use of water are on the rise in Nepal.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.spc
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• pp.51-63
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• 2022

In this study, the TPH(Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon) contamination and microbial ecological characteristics in petroleum-contaminated site were investigated through the correlation among the vertical TPH contamination distribution of the site, the geochemical characteristics, and the indigenous microbial ecology. The high TPH concentration showed in the vicinity of 3~4 m or less which is thought to be affected by vertical movement due to the impervious clay layer. In addition, the TPH concentration was found to have a positive correlation with Fe²⁺, TOC concentration, and the number of petroleum-degrading bacteria, and a negative correlation with the microbial community diversity. The microbial community according to the vertical distribution of TPH showed that Proteobacteria and Firmicutes at the phylum level were dominant in this study area as a whole, and they competed with each other. In particular, it was confirmed that the difference in the microbial community was different due to the difference in the degree of vertical TPH contamination. In addition, the genera Acidovorax, Leptolinea, Rugoshibacter, and Smithella appeared dominant in the samples in which TPH was detected, which is considered to be the microorganisms involved in the degradation of TPH in this study area. It is expected that this study can be used as an important data to understand the contamination characteristics and biogeochemical and microbial characteristics of these TPH-contaminated sites.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.40 no.6 s.179
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• pp.469-483
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• 2007

Nitrate and chloride are the most common contaminants in groundwater and their concentrations increase easily due to fertilizer consumption and urbanization. The number of time series data for groundwater quality at a single site was not sufficient to analyze trends on Jeju Island. Therefore rectangle grids were drawn for the whole island and single grid was determined to be $500m{\times}500m$ after considering similar stream density, homogeneous hydraulic coefficients, geologic features of volcanic rock and low topographic slopes. All data within each lattice were collected and arranged in time series order and analyzed using Sen's method. 10.6 % of the total lattices for chloride and 22.4% for nitrate showed upward trends from the early 1990's to the early 2000's. Especially, upward trends for nitrate concentration are distinct in the low mid-mountainous areas of western and southern watersheds. Many septic tanks and much domestic waste from the urbanization of the low mid-mountainous area have produced this upward trend. Additionally, the agricultural region has dramatically increased since the 1990's and this has led to an increase of fertilizer consumption and, as a result, nitrate concentration. Therefore, the target of any management plan for groundwater quality on Jeiu Island needs to be focused on careful land use decisions in the mid-mountainous areas which are near Halla Mountain.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.59-67
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• 2023

This review examined the current administrative policies and guidelines for management of reclaimed soils after remediation processes and proposed practical strategies to improve the potential value of the remediated soil as a resource. Three management practices are proposed to facilitate more efficient recycling of remediated soil; obligatory use, quality certification, and tracking of the remediated soils. If properly implemented in utilization of remediated soil, these strategies could contribute to enhancing public safety by assuring soil quality. Such administrative tools, for both suppliers and demanders, are expected to mitigate potential risks associated with the transactions of remediated soil. To enhance the quality assurance process, a soil quality certification combined with the soil health assessment index was proposed. The systematic integration of the suggested practices with soil health assessment can allow to produce optimal results, encompassing affordability, efficiency, and accessibility, which helps establishing more robust 'Remediated Soil Recycling Management System (RSRMS)'. Subsequent researches should be conducted to develop more effective policies that incorporate soil health assessment tools. The proposed management practices for remediated soil, coupled with soil health assessment, can be a pioneering effort to achieve such goals. By fostering an environmentally friendly policies, the sustainable utilization of remediated soil can be attained. Overall, the proposed strategies can provide a sound framework for responsible and sustainable soil management practices.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2005

National groundwater monitoring stations have been managed throughout the country by Korea Water Resources Corporation (KOWACO) in order to monitor variations in quantity and quality of groundwater resources. A multi-sensor installed in each monitoring station well measures groundwater level, water temperature and electrical conductivity every six hours and the logged data are automatically transmitted to a host computer in KOWACO. Meanwhile despite regular station inspection and replacement of deteriorate or broken devices, abnormal values or outliers often occur due to intrinsic limitations of automatic monitoring and transmission. Thus prompt recognition and measures to these values are essentially required to reduce disturbance and missing period of the data. In this study, time and frequency of outlier occurrence were analyzed for the water level data obtained from national groundwater monitoring stations within the Han river basin in 2000. The analysis results indicated that the most prominent patterns of the outliers were rapid decline for water level, no variation for temperature and steep decline for electrical conductivity. This study provided a sample criterion for determining the outlier for each parameter.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2004.05b
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• pp.77-89
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• 2004

A computer model is developed to assess optimal ground water pumping rates and optimal locations of wells in a coastal region. A sharp interface model is used to simulate the freshwater and salt water flows. Drawdown, upconing, saltwater intrusion and the contamination of well are considered in this model. A genetic algorithm with parallel processing is used to identify the optimal solution.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.635-643
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• 2022

Attempts are being made to use the sand dam as an alternative water resource securement facility by installing and operating sand dams in valleys, where water intake capacity is extremely limited, in areas with limited water supply in the upstream watershed of Korea. In the case of some countries in Africa, where sand dams are known to be most actively installed and used, it is difficult to find examples of establishing and applying a separate legal system for sand dams. A sand dam is a kind of groundwater dam, and in view of its concept, structural and technical form and characteristics, purpose, use, and function, it will be said that it has the legal character and status as a facility for securing groundwater resources specified in the current 「Ground Water Act」. Interpretation and application of regulations on facilities for securing groundwater resources also supports this. Therefore, it is legal and realistic to promote and implement the sand dam project as one of the installation and management projects for securing underground water resources based on the 「Ground Water Act」.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.533-543
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• 2020

In order to provide information for proper management of groundwater resources, it is necessary to estimate the rise time of groundwater level by calculating the delay time between the time series of precipitation and groundwater level and to understand the characteristics of groundwater level variation. In this study, total delay time (TDT) and cross correlation coefficient between the moving averaged precipitation generated by using the moving average method to take into account the preceding precipitation and the groundwater level were calculated and analyzed for the nine groundwater level monitoring wells in the Pyoseon watershed in the southeast of Jeju Island. As a result, when the moving averaged precipitation was used, the correlation with the groundwater level was higher in all monitoring wells than in the case of using the raw precipitation, so that it was possible to more clearly estimate the delay time between precipitation and groundwater level. When using the moving averaged precipitation, it had cross correlation coefficients of up to 0.57 ~ 0.58 with the time series data of the groundwater level, and had a relatively high correlation when considering the preceding precipitation of about 24 days on average. The TDT was about 32 days on average, and it was confirmed that the consideration of preceding precipitation plays an important role in estimating the TDT because the days of moving averaged precipitation greatly influences the calculation of the TDT. In addition, through the use of moving averaged precipitation, we found an error in estimating the TDT due to the use of raw precipitation. Through the method of estimating the TDT used in this study and the use of the R code for estimating the TDT presented in the appendix of this paper, it will be possible to estimate the TDT for other regions in the future relatively easily.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.619-629
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• 2020

The National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGMN) in South Korea has been implemented in alluvial/ bedrock aquifers for efficient management of groundwater resources. In this study, aquifer types were reclassified with unconfined and confined aquifers based on water-level fluctuation and water quality characteristics. Principal component analysis (PCA) of water-level data from paired monitoring wells of alluvial/bedrock aquifers results in the principal components of both aquifers showing similar water-level fluctuation pattern. There was no significant difference in the rate of water-level rises responding to precipitations and in the NO₃-N concentrations between the alluvial and bedrock aquifers. In contrast, in the results classified with the hydrogeological type, the principal components of water level were different between unconfined and confined conditions. The water-level rises to precipitation events were estimated to be 4.6 (R²=0.8) in the unconfined and 2.1 (R²=0.4) in the confined aquifers, respectively, indicating less impact of precipitation recharge to the confined aquifer. The confined aquifers have the average NO₃-N concentration below 3 mg/L, implying the natural background level protected from the sources at surface. In summary, reclassification of aquifers into hydrogeological types clearly shows the differences between unconfined and confined aquifers in the water-level fluctuation pattern and NO₃-N concentrations. The hydrogeologic condition of aquifer could improve groundwater resource management by providing critical information on groundwater quantity through recharge estimation and quality for protection from potential contamination sources.