• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.99-110
• /
• 2017

As a part of several Eurasian initiatives, the Korean government is trying to reconnect railways through North Korea to the Asian continent. If South Korea could build a network using railway, it would be a chance to develop a robust economic environment and to motivate economic growth. In the railway reconnection project between North and South Korea, the most important part of the railway roadbed sector is repair or improvement, and then construction of a new line through North Korea. There are not many big differences in the geological conditions; however, climate condition varies greatly during winter. The most significant condition in the safety of railway operation is frost-heaving. However, since South Korea has a relatively mild climate condition compared with North Korea, design and construction specifications under severe weather conditions in winter have not been prepared. This study proposes a plan for revising the railway design standard for underpass structures through an analysis of international standards, leading to site construction to prevent frost-heave.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.102 no.4
• /
• pp.491-498
• /
• 2013

Preliminary feasibility of REDD mechanism to combat forest degradation in North Korea is reviewed as a means of cooperation between South Korea and North Korea. North Korea has not established a national REDD+ strategy and a forest monitoring system which are required to implement REDD+ under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Credible statistical data of forest resources is a necessary condition for implementing REDD mechanism in the developing countries. However, other than forest area data using satellite images, statistical data of forest resources of North Korea are mostly estimated based on simple hypothesis rather than transparent and robust results from national forest inventory. The review of statistical data of forest resources of North Korea shows that North Korea is in a pre-stage of REDD readiness. The study suggests that following research and cooperation agendas should be considered to implement REDD mechanism in North Korea: 1) detecting land use change since 2000, measuring carbon stock change, and identifying causes of deforestation and forest degradation; and 2) establishing a national REDD+ strategy' and a national forest inventory system in North Korea.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.50 no.4
• /
• pp.3-15
• /
• 2008

North Korea is one of the most vulnerable countries of the world for drought but still it is difficult to find scientific researches for understanding of the drought characteristics. This study analyzed the temporal and spatial distribution of meterological drought severity and classified the drought development types in North Korea. All eleven drought indices were tested such as seasonal rainfall, PDS, SPI and so on, and then drew the drought risk map by each indicator using frequency analysis and GIS(Geographic Information Systems) for twenty one meteorological stations. In addition meteorological drought characteristics in North Korea was classified to six patterns on Si/Gun administrative units using cluster analysis on the drought indicators. The cluster III has the strongly drought-resistant area due to sufficient rainfall and the cluster V was considered as the most drought-vulnerable area, Pungsan and Sinpo, because of the severest drought condition for eight drought indicators. The results of this study are expected to be provided for the basic understanding of regionalized drought severity and characteristics confronting the risk of drought from climate variations in North Korea.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.345-358
• /
• 2017

The decadal change in rainfall for Changma period over the South Korea in early-2000s is detected in this study. The Changma rainfall in P1 (1992~2002) decade is remarkably less than in P2 (2003~2013) decade. The much rainfall in P2 decade is associated with the increase of rainy day frequency during Changma period, including the frequent occurrences of rainy day with a intensity of 30 mm/day or more in P2 decade. This decadal change in the Changma rainfall is due to the decadal change of atmospheric circulation around the Korean Peninsula which affects the intensity and location of Changma rainfall. During P2 decade, the anomalous anti-cyclone over the south of the Korean Peninsula, which represents the expansion of the North Pacific high with warm and wet air mass toward East Asia, is stronger than in P1 decade. In addition, the upper level zonal wind and meridional gradient of low-level equivalent potential temperature in P2 decade is relatively strengthened over the northern part of the Korean Peninsula than in P1 decade, which corresponds with the intensification of meridional gradient between air mass related to the East Asian summer monsoon nearby the Korean Peninsula in P2 decade. The enhanced meridional gradient of atir mass during P2 decade is favorable condition for the intensification of Changma rainfall band and more Changma rainfall. The atmospheric conditions related to enhanced Changma rainfall during P2 decade is likely to be influenced by the teleconnection linked to the suppressed convection anomaly over the southern part of China and South China Sea in P2 decade.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.52 no.4
• /
• pp.340-347
• /
• 2019

The red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkia) originated from the North America distribute widely as invasive species throughout the world including Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America. The red swamp crayfish is also an invasive species in South Korea. We aimed to characterize the occurrence and distribution pattern of the red swamp crayfish, and evaluate the potential distribution of this species in South Korea. In South Korea, the red swamp crayfish was firstly reported in Seoul in 1996, and recently its occurrence is frequently reported at streams or reservoirs at different regions, showing the expansion of its distribution area. The red swamp crayfish has high potential to occur in the nationwide scale in South Korea because of their biological adaptation, effects of climate change, changes of their habitat condition, and various types of human activities. Finally, our results revealed the necessary to conduct an extensive field survey, to keep up a monitoring program for the occurrence of alien species, and to implement a strategy to prevent the dispersal of alien species in the natural ecosystems.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.17-25
• /
• 2022

As climate change due to global warming continues to be accelerated, various extreme events become more intense, more likely to occur and longer-lasting on a much larger scale. Recent studies show that global warming acts as the primary driver of extreme events and that heat-related extreme events should be attributed to anthropogenic global warming. Among them, both terrestrial and marine heat waves are great concerns for human beings as well as ecosystems. Taking place around the world, one of those events appeared over East Sea in July 2021 with record-breaking high temperature. Meanwhile, climate condition around East Sea was favorable for anomalous warming with less total cloud cover, more incoming solar radiation, and shorter period of Changma rainfall. According to the results of wave activity flux analysis, highly activated meridional mode of teleconnection that links western North Pacific to East Asia caused localized warming over East Sea to become stronger.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.55-70
• /
• 2008

The global time slice approach is a transient experiment using high resolution atmosphere-only model with boundary condition from the low resolution globally coupled ocean-atmosphere model. The present study employs this "time slice concept" using ECHAM4 atmosphere-only model at a horizontal resolution of T106 with the lower boundary forcing obtained from a lower-resolution (T42) greenhouse gas + aerosol forcing experiment performed using the ECHO-G/S (ECHAM4/HOPE-G) coupled model. In order to assess the impact of horizontal resolution on simulated East Asian summer monsoon climate, the differences in climate response between the time slice experiments of the present and that of IPCC SRES AR4 participating 21 models including coarser (T30) coupled model are compared. The higher resolution model from time slice experiment in the present climate show successful performance in simulating the northward migration and the location of the maximum rainfall during the rainy season over East Asia, although its rainfall amount was somewhat weak compared to the observation. Based on the present climate simulation, the possible change of East Asian summer monsoon rainfall in the future climate by the IPCC SRES A1B scenario, tends to be increased especially over the eastern part of Japan during July and September. The increase of the precipitation over this region seems to be related with the weakening of northwestern part of North Pacific High and the formation of anticyclonic flow over the south of Yangtze River in the future climate.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.141-155
• /
• 1988

We have large areas of forests in our country where various types of trees can grow. Since Japan geographically locates on a wide region with the extention of 3,000 km south and north, the climate varies from subtropical to subarctical one. Many mountains additionally make the climatic condition more complicated. Thus, we are able to see many kinds of trees in our forest areas. We have also frequent rainfalls through whole season and the precipitation reaches approximately 1,500 mm per year in many forests areas. In some rainy regions, it sometimes account for more than 2,000 mm. The condition is so advantageous for the growth of weeds and shrubs that it makes them very strong competitors with plantation trees in our forestries. It, therefore, may be said that the most important problem in Japanese forestries is to combat with undesirable vegetations continuously and to keep trees from weeds.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.134-153
• /
• 2015

When making urban planning, it is important to understand climate effect caused by urban structural changes. Seoul city applies UPIS(Urban Plan Information System) which provides information on urban planning scenario. Technology for analyzing climate effect resulted from urban planning needs to developed by linking urban planning scenario provided by UPIS and climate analysis model, CAS(Climate Analysis Seoul). CAS develops for analyzing urban climate conditions to provide realistic information considering local air temperature and wind flows. Quantitative analyses conducted by CAS for the production, transportation, and stagnation of cold air, wind flow and thermal conditions by incorporating GIS analysis on land cover and elevation and meteorological analysis from MetPhoMod(Meteorology and atmospheric Photochemistry Meso-scale model). In order to reflect land cover and elevation of the latest information, CAS used to highly accurate raster data (1m) sourced from LiDAR survey and KOMPSAT-2(KOrea Multi-Purpose SATellite) satellite image(4m). For more realistic representation of land surface characteristic, DSM(Digital Surface Model) and DTM(Digital Terrain Model) data used as an input data for CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) model. Eight inflow directions considered to investigate the change of flow pattern, wind speed according to reconstruction and change of thermal environment by connecting green area formation. Also, MetPhoMod in CAS data used to consider realistic weather condition. The result show that wind corridors change due to reconstruction. As a whole surface temperature around target area decreases due to connecting green area formation. CFD model coupled with CAS is possible to evaluate the wind corridor and heat environment before/after reconstruction and connecting green area formation. In This study, analysis of climate impact before and after created the green area, which is part of 'Connecting green network across the north and south in Seoul' plan, one of the '2020 Seoul master plan'.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.161-169
• /
• 2012

The RCP 8.5 scenario based temperature outlook (12.5 km resolution) was combined with high-definition gridded temperature maps (30 m grid spacing) across the Korean Peninsula in order to reclassify the cold hardiness zone for winter barley, a promising grain crop in the future under warmer winter conditions. Reference maps for the January minimum and mean temperature were prepared by applying the watershed-specific geospatial climate prediction schemes to the synoptic observations from 1981 to 2010 across North and South Korea. Decadal changes in the January minimum and mean temperatures projected by a regional version of RCP8.5 climate change scenario were prepared for the 2011-2100 period at 12.5 km grid spacing and were subsequently added to the reference maps, producing the 30 m resolution temperature surfaces for 9 decades from 2011 to 2100. A criterion for threshold temperature to grow winter barley safely in Korea was applied to the future temperature surfaces and the resulting maps were used to predict the production potential of 3 cultivar groups for the 9 future decades under the projected temperature conditions. By 2020s, hulled barley cultivars could be grown safely at the southern part of North Korea as well as the mountainous Gangwon province. Furthermore, most of South Korean rice paddies will be safe for growing naked barley after harvesting rice. Also, dual cropping systems such as 'winter-barley after rice' could be possible at most of the North Korean rice paddies by 2040s. Additional grain production in North Korea could increase up to 4 million tons per year if dual cropping systems can be fully operated, i.e., winter barley after rice at all lowlands and winter barley after maize or potato at all uplands.