• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.45-61
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• 2015

The river environment in Korea has changed significantly after the completion of the Four Major Rivers Project due to the outdated river management methods and thus, it is necessary to modify the current river management process. A typical example of this management is dredging but it is a method that usually results in socio-environmental side effects. Therefore, in order to minimize the socio-environmental impacts of dredging, Korea is currently applying the Environmental Windows, a management practice currently being used in the United States that eliminates the risk of potentially harmful impacts of dredging. The use of statistical methods was suggested to address the issue of data insufficiency and this methodology was applied in the downstream part of the Gangjeong-Goryeong weir located within the Nakdong river basin. The results show that when performing a month of dredging, the optimal period is March whereas the optimal month to start dredging is August in case of an eight-month dredging project. If Korea's flood season is also considered for an eight-month dredging process, then October is the optimal month to start dredging. Non-structural methods such as the Environmental Windows reduce maintenance costs and also bring only short-term side effects to the environment, as opposed to structural methods such as the development of environmentally-friendly dredging machine. Given that few studies have explored this topic in Korea, the findings and suggestions could serve as basic data in studying river dredging in the future.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.48 no.9
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• pp.743-756
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• 2015

It is necessary to evaluate the effect of dredging and weir operation on the flow and long-term bed change for river management. Especially, large scale river treatment project, with dredging or weir installation and operation, can increase the instability of riverbed in tributaries as well as mainstream. This study focuses on the effect of weir installation and dredging on the long-term bed change in Nakdong river (Gangjeong- Goryeong Weir~Dalseong Weir) and its tributary (Geumho river). HEC-6 model has been used to analyze the amount of long-term bed change and sediment transport resulted from the river treatment including dredging or weir installation. From the result, it was concluded that a large scale river treatment can accelerate and increase the long-term bed change both in mainstream and tributary.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.188-194
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• 2015

River channel dredging and riparian development have been influenced morphology and quantity of natural river habitat. We compared distribution of riverside land and alluvial island in the Nakdong River with field survey and remote sensing analysis after the 4 Large River Project in South Korea. We digitized geomorphological elements, includes main channel, riverside land, and alluvial island by using georeferenced aerial photos taken in pre-dredging (2008) and post-dredging (2012) periods. Field survey was followed in 2012 for a ground truth of digitized boundaries and identification of newly constructed wetland types such as pond, channel, branch, and riverine type. We found that during the dredging period, riverside land and alluvial island were lost by 20.2% and 72.7%, respectively. Modification rate of riverside land was higher in the section of river kilometer 50~90, 140~180, and 210~270. Alluvial island had higher change rate in the section of river kilometer 50~70, 190~210, and 270~310. Average change rate for the riverside land and alluvial island was $-1.02{\pm}0.14km^2{\cdot}10km^{-1}$ and $-0.05{\pm}0.05km^2{\cdot}10km^{-1}$, respectively. Channel shaped wetlands (72.5%) constituted large portion of newly constructed wetlands.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.137-148
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of water quality improvement due to dredging the bottom deposit at the downstream of a urban river. The finite difference method was used to analyze the water quality variations caused by the depths of dredging and intercepting ratios of the goal years. 21 boring points were selected along the 11.2km river reach running through a metropolitan city. The pollution levels of the deposits from the bored Points were examined by the leaching test. The improvement effect of the water quality, measured as changes of COD, were carried at under drought, minimal, and normal flow. The result indicates that the dredging of the contaminated sludge contributes the improvement of the water quality.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.4B
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• pp.405-411
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• 2008

The Nakdong River Estuary Barrage (NREB) was constructed in 1987 to prevent saltwater intrusion and to provide the sustainable water supply in the upstream channel. Sediment dredging has been conducted to eliminate deposited sediments in the approached upstream channel of the NREB. Fluvial changes and sedimentation problems have been continued due to urbanization and development in the watershed as well as construction of the NREB. However, the sufficient field monitoring and researches for sedimentation characteristics and bed changes have not been performed after construction of the NREB. Therefore, bed elevation changes and seasonal sediment concentration distribution were analyzed using the quasi-steady state model with historical field data in this study. The water surface elevation changes with and without sediment dredging operation were calculated using the developed quasi-steady state model and finally the sediment dredging effects were evaluated.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.74-86
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• 2008

To assessment the disturbances of the Namgang caused by dam construction, upstream area was selected for the reference reach and downstream area was selected for the comparison reach. And these reaches were surveyed and analyzed according to the assessment criteria of the river disturbances.The artificial factors of river disturbances were classified as river improvement works, dam construction and aggregate dredging. The indexes were physical factors as like epifaunal (bottom), embeddedness, velocity/depth regime, sediment deposition, channel flow status, channel alteration, frequency of riffles, bank stability, vegetative protection, riparian zone etc.The assessment results showed 46% of the assessment criteria which was serious status in dam downstream area and 89.5% of it which was excellent status in dam upstream.Finally, the results showed that physical river environment in downstream area was disturbed by the discharge control and the interception of sediment discharge by dam, consequently this disturbance give rise to impact of ecosystem in river.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.670-679
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• 2017

An experiment to study the effect of temperature, light, and dredging on release of nutrients downstream from Gongjicheon in the Uiam reservoir was carried out in the laboratory using sediments from different depths. At various water temperatures, dissolved total nitrogen was not released, but the average nutrient flux of dissolved total phosphorus was increased (0.034 at $15^{\circ}C$, 0.005 at $20^{\circ}C$, 0.154 at $25^{\circ}C$, $0.592mg/m^2/d$ at $30^{\circ}C$). Dissolved total phosphorous was released in controlled darkness. In contrast, in controlled light, the concentrations of dissolved total phosphorous and dissolved total nitrogen in the overlying water steadily decreased during the study period (70 d), because they were continuously consumed by the growth of photosynthetic algae. However, there was no significant relationship between water nutrient concentration, nutrient release, and the depth of the sediment. We concluded that the dredging of sediment would not affect the nutrient release rate of the sediment, because there were no significant differences in the nutrient concentrations released from the sediment. When the sediment was removed from the surface to 20 cm in depth, the nutrients were not transferred to the water body, implying that the sediment removal had little effect on secondary pollution.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.29-46
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• 2020

In this study, changes in the fluvial landforms of the Yeoju section of the Han River, which was made up of the Han River Restoration Project, were examined through existing previous research data, government's environmental impact assessment data, satellite images, and field observations. For example, In the vicinity of Dori Island, the most upstream part of the study section, the location of the confluence of the Han River and Cheongmi Stream was changed, and it was found that a significant portion of the sand sedimentary layer disappeared. In the Bawuinupgubi area, the wetland, which is the first class in the ecological nature, was greatly modified, and the elevation of the ground rose as Gangcheon island and it was completely separated from the river by dredging The confluence of Geumdangcheon and the point bar of Yeonyang-ri in the south were also dredged, turned into an artificial waterfront park, and a chute channel remained in the form of a wetland was also developed as a recreational park. The deposional forms around Baekseok-ri islands also disappeared as dredging was carried out. Among the areas adjacent to the confluence of Bokcheon and Yangchon-ri Island, some sedimentay forms remains, but the abandonned channel between Yangchon-ri and the northern river bank has been changed into a riverside reservoir through dredging and embankment construction, and the waterway of the tributary river(Yazoo) has been greatly changed.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.14-30
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• 2015

This paper attempted to analyze the hydraulic effects that the dredging can take as an alternative to reduce possible damages of flooding due to the overflow of river levee in meandering rivers, where riverbed aggradation, seepage and erosion may occur. In order to make a hydraulic analysis in a section of meandering rivers, a two-dimensional hydraulic analysis model, RMA-2, was selected. The GIS was applied to construct two-dimensional finite element grids to consider the hydraulic conditions before and after dredging. The water surface elevations, depths, velocities, and tractive forces were compared before and after the dredging. The difference of water surface elevation between the inside and outside of river was turned out to be the maximum value of 0.58m under the design flood condition. It could be evaluated that the tractive force at the bank decreased about 42 to 67% on average for all the sections. These results could give valuable information that the dredging of the stream channel at the meandering sections decreased the risk of overflow, seepage and erosion of the banks. The methodologies given in this study will contribute to mitigating the flood damages in the surrounding farmlands.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.50 no.9
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• pp.617-625
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• 2017

In this study, it was examined that a methodology for evaluating the design flood level reasonably at Imjin River estuary affected by the tide periodically. First of all, the change of the flood level was observed by performing unsteady simulation which can take into account the characteristics of the tidal rivers. And the variations of the flood level was analyzed by change of the Manning's roughness coefficient which is sensitive to the water level calculation. The results were compared with the design flood level at Imjin River estuary announced in the 2011 Imjin River Basic Plan Report. For reference, the design flood level reported in 2011 has been calculated by using a section of a huge riverbed dredging section as input data. From the simulation results, it was found that the flood level evaluated by this study was able to satisfy the freeboard of the levee without the riverbed dredging when the roughness coefficient was assigned to the same value as that of the Han river estuary in the calculation of the flood level, and the unsteady flow simulation was carried out to reflect on the tidal river.