• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.3
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• pp.419-430
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• 2021

This study investigated spatiotemporal trends of sediment-related disasters in North Korea from 1960 to 2019 and post-disaster recovery cases based on a literature review and satellite images. Results showed that occurrence status of sediment-related disasters was initially externally reported in 1995 (during the Kim Jongil era); their main triggering factor was heavy summer rainfall. Furthermore, forest degradation rate was positively correlated with population density (R² = 0.4347, p = 0.02) and occurrence number of sediment-related disasters was relatively high on the west coast region, where both variables showed high values. This indicates that human activity was a major cause of forest degradation and thus, significantly affected sediment-related disasters in mountain regions. Finally, sediment- related disasters due to shallow landslides, debris flow, and slow-moving landslides were observed in undisturbed forest regions and human-impacted forest regions, including terraced fields, opencast mines, forest roads, and post-wildfire areas, via satellite image analysis. These disaster-hit areas remained mostly abandoned without any recovery works, whereas hillside erosion control work (e.g., treeplanting with terracing) or torrent erosion control work (e.g., check dam, debris flow guide bank) were implemented in certain areas. These findings can provide reference information to expand inter-Korean exchange and cooperation in forest rehabilitation and erosion control works of North Korea.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.629-647
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• 2018

This study was carried out to investigate the economic value of organic rice production using gelatin chitin microorganisms in eco-friendly complex, Gongsan, Naju city. The soil condition of experiment paddy field was Jeonbuk series and silt loam with a slightly poor drainage. Except for the high effective silicate, the chemical characteristics of soils used were included in the optimum range of paddy soils in Korea. In growth, plant length, tiller number, ear number, and ear length were observed to be higher in conventional paddy fields than organic paddy fields. However, number of grain per panicle and grain filling ratio (%) were higher in organic paddy fields than conventional paddy fields. Incidences of diseases and insect pests were slightly higher in the organic paddy fields. Water weevil, sheath blight, rice leaf roller and rice blast were more occurred in organic paddy field. On the other hand, false smut was higher occurred in conventional paddy field. There was a significant negative correlation between rice sheath blight and rice leaf roller, and rice yield. In the milled rice quality, the quality of organically cultivated milled rices was lower by the increase of broken rice than that of conventionally cultivated milled rices. The quality and palatability of rice were higher in organic cultivation with decreasing of protein content. Net income of conventionally and organically cultivated rice was 360,000 won/10a and 610,000 won/10a, respectively. Premium net income of the organically cultivated rice was 68%.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.3-14
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• 2018

An apartment complex is a building use with great potential to contribute to solving problems related to urban ecological environment and climate change. The first goal of this study is to grasp the current situation of application and limitations of the ecological area rate, which is a representative evaluation index used to evaluate the environmental performance of the external space of an apartment complex in Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design (G-SEED). The second goal is to propose a prototype of the evaluation index for evaluating greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction performance in order to supplement the evaluation index for the environmental performance of the external space in terms of response to climate change. We analyzed 43 cases of apartment complexes certified according to G-SEED, which was enforced since July 1, 2010, and found application characteristics of each space type and the limitations of ecological area rate. We analyzed overseas green building certification systems such as LEED and BREEAM that derived implications for supplementing the limitations of ecological area rate, which is focused on the evaluation of soil and water circulation function, and set up a development direction of complementary measures. Through analysis of previous studies, relevant regulations and standards, and technical documents of the manufacturer, the heat island mitigation performance of the pavement and roof surfaces of the apartment complex and the carbon uptake performance of the trees in the apartment complex was selected as parameters to yield the GHG reduction performance of the external space of the apartment complex. Finally, a quantitative evaluation method for each parameter and a prototype of the evaluation index for the GHG reduction performance were proposed. As a result of applying the prototype to an apartment complex case, the possibility of adoption and applicability as an evaluation index of G-SEED were proved.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.354-366
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• 2022

To analyze the distribution of plant communities growing in river wetlands and the relationship between biotic and abiotic environmental factors, plant communities and environmental factors were investigated in river wetlands in the Boseong River. The Boseong River Wetland, the research site, consists of Hwapyeong Wetland, Bangujeong Wetland, and Seokgok Wetland. From June to September 2022, a plant community survey was conducted from the perspective of physiognomical vegetation, and the coverage of the emerging species followed the Braun-Blanquet scale. Plant species and the coverage of each species were recorded in the quadrant for plant community survey, and the cover of the quadrant, the total number of species, and the number of exotic species were measured as biological factors. As abiotic factors, altitude, orientation, inclination, soil texture, litter layer depth, dominant species diameter at breast height, and topography were recorded. In a total of 50 square plots, the most common Salix koreensis and Phragmites japonicus communities were found, and the community with the highest Shannon species diversity index was Phragmites japonicus-Echinochloa caudata community. As a result of ordination analysis by DCCA, the most significant clusters were separated according to topographic factors such as leeve, leeve slope, upper floodplain, lower floodplain, upper waterside, middle waterside, lower waterside, river island and opem water. As rare plants that need to be preserved in river wetlands, Hydrocharis dubia and Penthorum chinense were found in lower waterside, and it was found that the management of the river in the reservoir is necessary in line with the topographical distribution of ecosystem-disrupting plants, such as Paspalum distichum var. indutum.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.321-333
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• 2022

In this study, the concentration and distribution characteristics of BTEX (benzene toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) emitted from Daesan Petrochemical Industrial Complex were examined to determine their potential hazards to local residents. Residents living nearby the complex areas may be exposed to the chemicals through various media (air, water, and soil), especially by air. This study evaluated human health risks by inhalation using both deterministic and probabilistic risk assessment approaches. As a result of the deterministic risk assessment, the non-cancer risk was much lower than the regulation limit of hazard index (HI 1.0) for all the points. However, in case of cancer risk evaluation, it was found that the risk of excess cancer for benzene at point A located in the industrial complex was 2.28×10^-6, which slightly exceeded the standard regulatory limit of 1.0×10^-6. In addition, the probabilistic risk assessment revealed that the percentile exceeding the standard of 1.0×10^-6was found to be 45.3%. The sensitivity analysis showed that exposure time (ET) had the greatest impact on the results. Based on the risk assessment study, it implied that ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylene had little adverse effects on potential human exposure, but benzene often exceeded the cancer risk standard (1.0×10^-6). Further studies on extensive VOCs monitoring are needed to evaluate the potential risks of industrial complex areas.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.94-103
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• 2023

Built in urban ares tunnels is necessary to accurately grasp not only the above-ground environment of the tunnel but also the below-ground environment of the tunnel for design and construct. However, fully coupled analysis of stress and flow is very difficult due to the limited function of the tunnel numerical analysis program and difficulty in using program. This can lead to excessive design that increases the construction cost or occur problems that can lead to accidents during construction. In particular, in the case of an urban tunnel has a low layer soil section above the tunnel and the groundwater level exists in the upper layer of the tunnel. Therefore, a reduction in the groundwater level during underground construction may increase the effective stress of the upper layer and cause the ground to subsidence. So It is necessary to design after accurately evaluating the change in the groundwater level. In this study, the tunnel's behavioral characteristics were analyzed through fully coupled analysis of stress and flow according to the drainage type for an urban underground tunnel.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.99-109
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• 2008

The standard consolidation tests using the incremental loading technique test (IL) were performed on remolded normal consolidation and undisturbed clay samples to find out the effects of plastic index and loading period on consolidation in this study. The remolded samples used were prepared by mixing Gunsan-Samangum clay with bentonite so that they may have plasticity indexes of 15, 30, 45, and 60%, respectively. The undisturbed clay samples were collected from Inchon, Kwangyang, and Uoolsan. The samples were tested at the condition of 4 different loading periods (1, 2, 4, and 8 days). Settlement, coefficient of consolidation, compression index, secondary compression index, and pore water pressure characteristics were investigated from the plastic index and loading period aspects, and the compression index, coefficient of consolidation, and secondary compression index were formulated in terms of the plastic index and loading. To verify the applicability of proposed equations, the settlements obtained from Terzaghi's theory, modified Cam-Clay model (elasto-plastic model), and the Sekiguchi model (elasto-viscoplastic mode) were compared with the test results. The comparison indicates that the Sekiguchi model incorporating the secondary consolidation characteristic well predicts the results.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-76
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• 2009

The unsaturated characteristics of Korean weathered granite soils have been studied to investigate the influence of saturated permeability, rainfall intensity and soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) on the slope stability. The upper, average and lower SWCCs were estimated from the publication and experimental results using the statistical concept. The roughly estimated SWCC can be used for the soils without experimental results by relating SWCC with the particle size distribution curve. An appropriate ratio between the saturated permeability and the rainfall intensity ($k_s$/i) was also suggested for practical use in designing the slopes by investigating the time-dependent variation of slope instability during the rainfall. The slope stability was deteriorated from the initiation of rainfall and recovered again after the factor of safety reached the critical value. The FS of the slope decreased at first and then increased after reaching the critical value during the rainfall. As a result, the slope instability was not related with an absolute rainfall intensity but with the ratio between the saturated permeability and the rainfall intensity. In case of the upper SWCC, the critical condition occurred when the ratio between the saturated permeability and the rainfall intensity was in the range of $1.0{\sim}2.0$.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.325-334
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• 2022

Paspalum distichum and P. distichum var. indutum are perennial weeds of the family Poaceae that prefer moist environments such as waterfronts and waterways. The origin of both species is North America. P. distichum is distributed all over the world. However, P. distichum var. indutum occurs only in the United States, Japan, and Korea. For this reason, in many countries, P. distichum and P. distichum var. indutum are classified as the same species. In other words, P. distichum var. indutum is a different ecological type of P. distichum. Both species can reproduce and spread mainly by rhizome fragments rather than seeds. This rhizome has a characteristic that it does not germinate if it is buried in the ground with depth of more than 3 cm. As a management method for P. distichum and P. distichum var. indutum in agricultural lands (paddy fields), it is effective to combine cultural control and chemical control methods. In other words, combining deep plowing and harrowing can suppress the budding of water sparrow that has invaded paddy fields or fallow paddy fields. After that, these two species that germinate can be controlled by spraying soil treatment herbicides such as butachlor and thiobencarb or foliar treatment herbicides such as cyhalofop-butyl and fenoxaprop-p-ethyl.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1B
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• pp.153-160
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• 2008

To estimate microbial contaminant loading discharged from diffuse sources, rainfall runoff of six rainfall events were monitored at three study watersheds of forestry and agricultural land use. Monitored indicator microorganism constituents were total coliform (TC), fecal coliform (FC), Escherichia coli (EC), and fecal streptococcus (FS). Soil loss during elevated flow rate caused higher suspended solid concentrations. Indicator microorganism concentrations were closely related with flow rate. TC event mean concentration (EMC) from unpolluted forestry was $5.3{\times}10^3CFU/100ml$, FC EMC was $1.4{\times}10^3CFU/100ml$, EC EMC was $1.1{\times}10^3CFU/100ml$, and FS EMC was $2.9{\times}10^2CFU/100ml$. From a watershed with agricultural-forestry land use, TC EMC was $1.7{\times}10^5CFU/100ml$, FC EMC was $8.5{\times}10^4CFU/100ml$, EC EMC was $8.9{\times}10^4CFU/100ml$, and FS EMC was $3.4{\times}10^4CFU/100ml$. Mixed land use of agricultural-forestry with bigger area, TC EMC was $1.9{\times}10^5CFU/100ml$, FC EMC was $9.6{\times}10^4CFU/100ml$, EC EMC was $7.0{\times}10^4CFU/100ml$, and FS EMC was $5.1{\times}10^4CFU/100ml$.