• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.71-81
• /
• 2013

Trace metal concentration in sediment cores from the outer sea of Lake Shihwa were determined to study the vertical profiles of metal concentrations and to evaluate the levels of metal contamination. Sediment pollution assessment was carried out using enrichment factor (EF) and geo-accumulation index (Igeo). The mean concentration of metals were 58.8 mg/kg for Cr, 10.3 mg/kg for Co, 22.8 mg/kg for Ni, 18.1 mg/kg for Cu, 74.0 mg/kg for Zn, 6.75 mg/kg for As, 0.14 mg/kg for Cd, 27.4 mg/kg for Pb and 0.026 mg/kg for Hg, respectively. The mean EF values for Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Hg were greater than 1.5 in sediment cores, indicating that these metals in sediments are slightly enriched by anthropogenic activities. The geo-accumulation index (Igeo) suggested unpolluted status for metals of sediments collected from outer see of Lake Shihwa. Igeo values for Cu and Hg nearby LNG station (site C, D, E) ranged from 1 to 2, indicating moderately to unpolluted pollution status for those metals. Even if the higher concentrations of trace metals nearby LNG station were observed, there is significantly positive relationship between Al and trace metals. Thus, the sediment grain size plays an important roles in influencing the distribution of trace metals in sediment cores from the outer sea of Lake Shihwa. Based on the comparison with sediment quality guidelines such as threshold effect level and probable effect level in Korea, the concentration of metals in sediments from outer sea of Lake Shihwa are likely to result in no harmful effects on sediment-dwelling organisms.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.157-181
• /
• 2020

Sediments from rivers, lakes and marine ports serve as end points for pollutants discharged into the water, and at the same time serve as sources of pollutants that are continuously released into the water. Until now, the contaminated sediments have been landfilled or dumped at sea. Landfilling, however, was expensive and dumping at sea was completely banned due to the London Convention. Therefore, this study applied contaminated sedimentation soil of 'Royal Palace Livestock Complex' as soil purification method. Soil remediation methods were applied to pretreatment, composting, soil washing, electrokinetics, and thermal desorption by selecting overseas application cases and domestically applicable application technologies. As a result of surveying the site for pollutant characteristics, Disolved Oxigen (DO), Suspended Solid (SS), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Nitrogen (TN), and Total Phosphorus (TP) exceeded the discharged water quality standard, and especially SS, COD, TN, and TP exceeded the standard several tens to several hundred times. Soil showed high concentrations of copper and zinc, which promote the growth of pig feed, and cadmium exceeded 1 standard of Soil Environment Conservation Act. In the pretreatment technology, hydrocyclone was used for particle size separation, and the fine soil was separated by more than 80%. Composting was performed on organic and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) contaminated soils. TPH was treated within the standard of concern, and E. coli was analyzed to be high in organic matter, and the fertilizer specification was satisfied by applying the optimum composting conditions at 70℃, but the organic matter content was lower than the fertilizer specification. As a result of continuous washing test, Cd has 5 levels of residual material in fine soil. Cu and Zn were mostly composed of ion exchange properties (stage 1), carbonates (stage 2), and iron / manganese oxides (stage 3), which facilitate easy separation of contamination. As a result of applying acid dissolution and multi-stage washing step by step, hydrochloric acid, 1.0M, 1: 3, 200rpm, 60min was analyzed as the optimal washing factor. Most of the contaminated sediments were found to satisfy the Soil Environmental Conservation Act's standards. Therefore, as a result of the applicability test of this study, soil with high heavy metal contamination was used as aggregate by applying soil cleaning after pre-treatment. It was possible to verify that it was efficient to use organic and oil-contaminated soil as compost Maturity after exterminating contaminants and E. coli by applying composting.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.434-451
• /
• 2017

For this study, groundwater samples for 3 years from 2011 through 2013 were collected at 106 groundwater monitoring site in Korea. These groundwater samples were analyzed for 13 pesticides such as cabofuran, pentachlorobenzene, hexachlorobenzene, simazine, atrazine, lindane (gamma-HCH), alachlor, heptachlor, chlordane (total), endosulfan (1, 2), dieldrin, endrin, 4,4-DDT. The objectives of this study were to determine the detection frequency and their concentrations of 13 pesticides and evaluate the health risk level considering ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact using concentrations of 13 pesticides in groundwater samples. An analysis was used for the simultaneous determination for 13 pesticides using GC-MS. GC-MS was performed on HP-5ms, using helium ($1ml\;min^{-1}$) as carrier gas. The average recoveries of the pesticides were from 92.8% to 120.8%. The limits of detection (LODs) were between $0.004{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ and $0.118{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were between $0.012{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ and $0.354{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$. 106 groundwater wells were selected. 54 wells were from well to monitor background groundwater quality and 52 wells were from well to monitor groundwater quality in industrial or contamination source area. Eight pesticides including pentachlorobenzene, lindane (Gamma-HCH), heptachlor, chlordane (total), Endosulfan (1, 2), dieldrin, endrin, and 4,4-DDT were not detected in groundwater samples. The detection frequency for hexachlorobenzene, alachlor, carbofuran and simazine was 23.4%, 11.4%, 7.3%, and 1.0%, respectively. Atrazine was detected once in 2011. The average concentrations were $0.00423{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ for carbofuran, $0.000243{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ for alachlor, $0.00015{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ for simazine, and $0.00001{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ for hexachlorobenzene. The detection frequency of hexachlorobenzene was high, but the average concentration was low. In the contaminated groundwater, the detection frequency for hexachlorobenzene, alachlor, carbofuran, simazine and atrazine was 26.1%, 21.3%, 7.1%, 1.9% and 0.3%, respectively. In the uncontaminated groundwater, detection frequency for hexachlorobenzene, carbofuran and alachlor were 20.2%, 7.5%, and 1.9% respectively. Simazine and atrazine were not detected at uncontaminated groundwater wells. According to the purpose of groundwater use, atrazine was detected for agricultural groundwater use. Hexachlorobenzene showed high detection frequency at agricultural groundwater use area where the animal feeding area and golf course area were located. Alachlor showed more than 50% detection frequency at cropping area, pollution concern river area, and golf course area. Atrazine was detected in agricultural water use area. By land use, the maximum detection frequency of alachlor was found near an orchard. For human risk assessment, the cancer risk for the 5 pesticides was between $10^{-7}$ and $10^{-10}$, while the non-cancer risk (HQ value) was between $10^{-4}$ and $10^{-6}$. For conclusion, these monitoring study needs to continue because of the possibility of groundwater contamination based on various purpose of groundwater use.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.118-130
• /
• 2007

The steep-sloped agricultural land was severely damaged by rainfall events during July and August every year. The objective of this study was to investigate an effects of intensive rainfall to the soil properties of the steep-sloped agricultural land. Survey sites including the Sacheon myeon area were located in Gangneung, those were severely damaged from a forest fire in April 2000. Surveys were taken at these sites after two years of forest fire and severe rainfall events in August 2002, which included an event that poured with 870 mm of rainfall in a day. After this storm, soil erosion, burying, and flooding were observed. Severe soil loss was found at lower soil-depths, greater slopes, longer slope lengths, and concave landscapes. Soil loss and land slides were often found at areas with having a coarser textures, higher bulk densities, lower water holding capacity, and lower rates of soil aggregation. Crop growth stagnation was found at the site of crop restoration because of low soil fertility and poor drainage caused by the abrupt textural changes. In conclusion, it is necessary to manage the steep-slope agricultural land based on environmental impact assessment data of macro morphological and physical characteristics by intensive rainfall.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.37-48
• /
• 2011

Some industrial minerals used in domestic industries such as monazite, apatite, bauxite, and ilmenite belong to NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials) because they show a high radioactivity. Products, semi-products, wastes, and by-products which show higher radioactivity than NORM belong to TENORM (Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials). Apatite used for manufacturing phosphate fertilizer in Namhae Chemical company belongs to NORM, and its by-product, phospo-gypsum, belongs to TENORM. A geological investigation is needed for the future environmental impact assessment of the Namhae Chemical company's site. According to survey results of the Namhae Chemical company's site, soil mineral composition indicated the mixture of minerals derived from the country rock (quartz, feldspar, mica, $l4{\AA}$ mineral, kaolin and amphibole) and minerals from the gypsum open-air storage yard (gypsum and apatite). Soil samples showed average content of U 4.6 ppm and Th 10 ppm, which are similar to average crustal abundances. They also show average contents of $^{40}K$ 191-1,166 Bq/kg, $^{226}Ra$ 15.6-710 Bq/kg, and $^{232}Th$ 17.4-72.7 Bq/kg, which indicate moderate levels of radio nuclide. But $^{226}Ra$ anomaly in the gypsum open storage yard is clearly confirmed and $^{232}Th$ anomaly is also confirmed in the east road side of the factory and nearby mountain areas. Soil external hazard indices ranged 0.24-2.01 with the average 0.54. Although most external hazard indices were lower than 1, which means radiation hazard index to be negligible, 5 samples out of total 40 samples showed higher values than 1, and further detailed investigation is needed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.175-186
• /
• 2019

Efforts have been made to introduce the climate smart agriculture (CSA) for adaptation to future climate conditions, which would require collection and management of site specific meteorological data. The objectives of this study were to identify requirements for construction of agricultural meteorology information service system (AMISS) using technologies that lead to the fourth industrial revolution, e.g., internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. The IoT sensors that require low cost and low operating current would be useful to organize wireless sensor network (WSN) for collection and analysis of weather measurement data, which would help assessment of productivity for an agricultural ecosystem. It would be recommended to extend the spatial extent of the WSN to a rural community, which would benefit a greater number of farms. It is preferred to create the big data for agricultural meteorology in order to produce and evaluate the site specific data in rural areas. The digital climate map can be improved using artificial intelligence such as deep neural networks. Furthermore, cloud computing and fog computing would help reduce costs and enhance the user experience of the AMISS. In addition, it would be advantageous to combine environmental data and farm management data, e.g., price data for the produce of interest. It would also be needed to develop a mobile application whose user interface could meet the needs of stakeholders. These fourth industrial revolution technologies would facilitate the development of the AMISS and wide application of the CSA.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.11
• /
• pp.947-956
• /
• 2009

Residual petroleum hydrocarbons after an oil spill may accumulate in the marine benthic ecosystem due to their high hydrophobicity. A lot of monitoring data are required for the estimation of ecosystem exposure to residual petrochemicals in an ecological risk assessment in the affected region. To save time and cost, the environmental exposure to them in the affected ecosystem can also be assessed using a simple food-web bioaccumulation model. In this study, we evaluated residual concentrations of four selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, and benzo[a]pyrene) in a hypothetic benthic ecosystem composed of six species under two exposure scenarios. Body-residue concentration ranged 5~250 mg/kg body depending on trophic positions in an extreme scenario in which the aqueous concentrations of PAHs were assumed to be one-tenth of their aqueous solubility. In addition, bioconcentration factors (BCFs) and bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were evaluated for model species. The logarithm of bioconcentration factor (log BCF) linearly increased with increasing the logarithm of 1-octanol-water partition coefficient (log $K_{OW}$) until log $K_{OW}$ of 7.0, followed by a gradual decrease with further increase in log $K_{OW}$ without metabolic degradation. Biomagnification became significant when log $K_{OW}$ of a pollutant exceeded 5.0 in the model ecosystem, indicating that investigation of food-web structure should be critical to predict biomagnifications in the affected ecosystem because log $K_{OW}$ values of many petrochemicals are higher than 5.0. Although further research is required for better site-specific evaluation of exposure, the model simulation can be used to estimate the level of the ecosystem exposure to residual oil contaminants at the screening level.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.34-40
• /
• 2008

Underwater seismic refraction with advanced interpretation approaches makes important contributions to shallow marine exploration and geotechnical investigations in Australia's coastal areas. A series of case studies are presented to demonstrate the recent applications of continuous and static USR methods to river crossing and port infrastructure projects at various sites around Australia. In Sydney, static underwater seismic refraction (USR) with bottom-placed receivers and borehole seismic imaging assisted the development of improved geotechnical models that reduced construction risk for a tunnel crossing of the Lane Cove River. In Melbourne, combining conventional boomer reflection and continuous USR with near-bottom sources and receivers improved the definition of a buried, variably weathered basalt flow and assisted dredging assessment for navigation channel upgrades at Geelong Ports. Sand quality assessment with continuous USR and widely spaced borehole information assisted commercial decisions on available sand resources for the reclamation phase of development at the Port of Brisbane. Buried reefs and indurated layers occur in Australian coastal sediments with the characteristics of laterally limited, high velocity, cap layers within lower velocity materials. If these features are not recognised then significant error in depth determination to deeper refractors can occur. Application of advanced refraction inversion using wavefront eikonal tomography to continuous USR data obtained along the route of a proposed offshore pipeline near Fremantle allowed these layers and the underlying bedrock refractor to be accurately imaged. Static USR and the same interpretation approach was used to image the drowned granitic regolith beneath sediments and indurated layers in the northern area of Western Australia at a proposed new berthing site where deep piling was required. This allowed preferred piling sites to be identified, reducing overall pile lengths. USR can be expected to find increased application to shallow marine exploration and geotechnical investigations in Australia's coastal areas as economic growth continues and improved interpretation methods are developed.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.7-18
• /
• 2019

This study aimed to assess the impact of livestock excreta discharged from an Intensive Livestock Farming Area (ILFA) on river water quality during a rainfall event. The Bangcho River, which is one of the 7 tributaries in the Cheongmi River watershed, was the study site. The Cheongmi River watershed is the second largest area for livestock excreta discharge in Korea. Our results clearly showed that, during the rainfall event, the water quality of the Bangcho River was severely deteriorated due to the COD, $NH_4-N$, T-N, $PO_4-P$, T-P, and heavy metals (Cu, Zn, and Mn) in the run-off from nearby farmlands, where the soil comprised composted manure and unmanaged livestock excreta. In addition, stable isotope analysis revealed that most of nitrogen ($NH_4-N$ and $NO_3-N$) in the run-off was from the ammonium and nitrate in the livestock excreta. The values of ${\delta}^{15}N_{NH4}$ and ${\delta}^{15}N_{NO3}$ for the Bangcho River water sample, which was obtained from the downstream of mixing zone for run-off water, were lower than those for the run-off water. This indicates that there were other nitrogen sources upstream river in the river. It was assumed from ${\delta}^{15}N_{NH4}$ and ${\delta}^{15}N_{NO3}$ stable isotope analyses that these other nitrogen sources were naturally occurring soil nitrogen, nitrogen from chemical fertilizers, sewage, and livestock excreta. Therefore, the use of physicochemical characteristics and nitrogen stable isotopes in the water quality impact assessment enabled more effective analysis of nitrogen pollution from an ILFA during rainfall events.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.604-617
• /
• 2018

As the depletion of forests became more widespread due to the increase in the number of roads, the research was conducted on the relationship between temperature and humidity in the forests, assuming that the forests around the roads were affected. Through the forest monitoring, the temperature and humidity of coniferous forests and broadleaf forests in Sedong and Gongju areas were observed at three point of 10m, 20m and 30m from the road boundary to the inside of the forest, respectively. In Yeongdong area, for more reliable results, it was observed from the point of 0m, 10m, and 20m. During the study period, so it was expected the change in tree growth was small, the change of temperature and humidity inside the forest by the road was compared with the temperature and humidity from the road to the inside of the forest from September 2017 to January 2018, the changes of temperature and humidity inside the forest due to linear development such as roads were quantitatively analyzed. Using the HOBO data logger (MX2301, Onset Corp.), the temperature and humidity changes of each site were measured, and the average of the changes have been analyzed monthly. In the case of Gongju coniferous forests in September 2017, the average weekly temperature is $0.57^{\circ}C$ higher than the forest outside from the forest boundary and $1.23^{\circ}C$ higher than the inside of the forest, at night in November 2017, in Sedong broadleaf forests. That is, the ability to control the temperature and humidity of the forests along the road was larger and less variable as the distance from the road boundary to the inside of the forest increased. In this study, it is considered that the high degree of change in temperature and humidity of the forest and the surrounding area due to artificial linear development such as roads will affect the growth of trees. This results could serve as a basis for studying the quantitative scope of linear development affecting forest growth and for managing forest change caused by linear development.