• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.257-273
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• 2023

Hydrochemical characteristics and microbial communities of spring (Samtong), surface water, and groundwater in Cheorwon, Korea, were analyzed. Field surveys and water quality analyses were undertaken at 10 sampling points for five spring, two surface, and three groundwater samples on 15 December 2022. Hydrochemical analysis revealed that most water samples were Ca-HCO₃ type and that water-rock interactions were the predominant mineral source. Radon concentrations were <1 kBq m^-3 for surface water, 1~10 kBq m^-3 for spring water, and 1~1,000 kq m^-3 for groundwater. Microbial cluster analysis showed that the main phyla were Proteobacteria, Planctomyceta, Verrucomicrobia, Acidobacteria, and Actinomycetota.Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis indicated that water temperature, pH, and Si content were closely related to microorganism content. NMDS and canonical correspondence analysis results revealed that environmental factors affecting spring water were temperature, and Mg and Si concentrations, particularly for Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria, and Pseudomonas brenneri. Both hydrochemical and microbial community analyses yielded similar results at some spring and groundwater sampling points, likely due to the effects of a basalt aquifer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.434-437
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• 2003

The fate and the behavior of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals in the environment are mainly controlled by their interactions with various components of soils and sediments. Due to their large surface area and abundance in many soils, smectites may greatly influence the fate and transport of the contaminants in the environment. In our experiment, PAH sorption by hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA)-modified smectite linearly increased in proportion to the amount of HDTMA added on the clay. However, trimethylammonium (TMA)-modified smectite did not show superiority in its sorption of PAH compared with the HDTMA-smectite or dodecyltrimethylammonium (DTMA)-smectite. Meanwhile, the smectites modified with the same cationic surfactants adsorbed Cd$^{2+}$ (heavy metal) significantly from water at low surfactant loading level, but the Cd$^{2+}$ adsorption linearly decreased as the loading of surfactant increased. The result shows that the sorption tendency of organoclays for organic or inorganic contaminants was significantly influenced by the amount and size of the surfactants added on the clay. It means that the stabilization and configuration of cationic surfactant formed on the clay interlayer according to the loading amount of each surfactant of different sizes may be an important factor in effectively sorbing environmental pollutants.nts.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.30-58
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• 2022

The deep geological repository for high-level radioactive waste disposal is a multi barrier system comprised of engineered barriers and a natural barrier. The long-term integrity of the deep geological repository is affected by the coupled interactions between the individual barrier components. Erosion and piping phenomena in the compacted bentonite buffer due to buffer-rock interactions results in the removal of bentonite particles via groundwater flow and can negatively impact the integrity and performance of the buffer. Rapid groundwater inflow at the early stages of disposal can lead to piping in the bentonite buffer due to the buildup of pore water pressure. The physiochemical processes between the bentonite buffer and groundwater lead to bentonite swelling and gelation, resulting in bentonite erosion from the buffer surface. Hence, the evaluation of erosion and piping occurrence and its effects on the integrity of the bentonite buffer is crucial in determining the long-term integrity of the deep geological repository. Previous studies on bentonite erosion and piping failed to consider the complex coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical behavior of bentonite-groundwater interactions and lacked a comprehensive model that can consider the complex phenomena observed from the experimental tests. In this technical note, previous studies on the mechanisms, lab-scale experiments and numerical modeling of bentonite buffer erosion and piping are introduced, and the future expected challenges in the investigation of bentonite buffer erosion and piping are summarized.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.81-88
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• 1996

To study the Cd adsorption in the presence of competing ions in soil-solution interphase, three soil samples from the Bt horizon were taken and analyzed for their physical and chemical properties. Adsorption of ethylene glycol monoethyl ether(EGME) and N, were determined to establish the specific surface area of the soils. We attempted to establish a qeneralizing competitive sorption isotherms for soils of entirely different composition of the solid phase, resulting in the routine use as a guidelines for the fate of reactive solute in soil profiles. Many physicochemical factors including competitive adsorption bettween solutes will affect the general adsorption phenomena as shown in a single not only on the soil:solution ratio used, but also on the surface areas of its respective soil samples. This phenomenon was attributed to competition Cd for sorption sites with Mg by different soil constituents. These adsorption isotherms are able to use as examples to demonstrate that this phenomenon can complicate the development of a standardized batch adsorption procedure as well as interpreting fate and adsorption of toxic inorganic compounds.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.27-40
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• 1997

The hydrogeochemical study on the 15 natural waters was carried out in the vicinity of tunnel excavation site of Donghae largely composed of granite and limestone. The water samples can be classified based on their chemical characteristics into two groups; waters draining in the granitic region(group 1) and the limestone region(group 2). This classification was also confirmed by statistical examination through cluster analysis, and the tunnel seepage waters collected at the same site appear to be included in group 1 and 2 by their sampling period, respectively. According to factor analysis, the waters of group 1 art mainly represented by the weathering of plagioclase to kaolinite and those of group 2 are characterized by the dissolution of calcite. Different properties of the tunnel seepage waters are thought to be resulted from the effective waterproofing processes conducted during the sampling interval to the surface and subsurface leakage zones at the granitic region, which contributed to the change of groundwater flow system. However both the tunnel seepage waters seem to have thermodynamically interacted with rock-forming minerals in their wallrocks. The mixing ratio of the waters from two groups and water-rock interactions are evaluated quantitatively for the tunnel seepage waters through the mass balance approach, and the results are identical with the previous conclusions in this study.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.329-338
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to identify the temporal and spatial variation of stable isotopic compositions of surface waters and shallow ground waters at a local watershed(100$Km^2$) near the Muju area. For oxygen and hydrogen isotope analysis, water samples were collected from 19-22 sites during August, October 2001, through April 2002. Seasonal variation in the isotopic compositions of surface waters was clearly shown. However, the degree of such isotopic variation was highly attenuated in shallow ground waters because of mixing with preexisting ground waters. Isotope values of surface waters and ground waters were very similar in each season, indicating that precipitation/ground water/surface water interactions were very active and continuous in the watershed. Stable isotopic ratios of surface waters in the study area were lighter than those of the downstream reach of Geum River on south, indicating “latitude effect”. Both “altitude effect” and “amount effect” were also shown in the stable isotopic ratios of surface waters in the study area as well as seasonal variation of stable isotopes.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.157-184
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• 2010

Global climate change is destroying the water circulation balance by changing rates of precipitation, recharge and discharge, and evapotranspiration. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) makes "changes in rainfall pattern due to climate system changes and consequent shortage of available water resource" a high priority as the weakest part among the effects of human environment caused by future climate changes. Groundwater, which occupies a considerable portion of the world's water resources, is related to climate change via surface water such as rivers, lakes, and marshes, and "direct" interactions, being indirectly affected through recharge. Therefore, in order to quantify the effects of climate change on groundwater resources, it is necessary to not only predict the main variables of climate change but to also accurately predict the underground rainfall recharge quantity. In this paper, the authors selected a relevant climate change scenario, In this context, the authors selected A1B from the Special Report on Emission Scenario (SRES) which is distributed at Korea Meteorological Administration. By using data on temperature, rainfall, soil, and land use, the groundwater recharge rate for the research area was estimated by period and embodied as geographic information system (GIS). In order to calculate the groundwater recharge quantity, Visual HELP3 was used as main model for groundwater recharge, and the physical properties of weather, temperature, and soil layers were used as main input data. General changes to water circulation due to climate change have already been predicted. In order to systematically solve problems associated with how the groundwater resource circulation system should be reflected in future policies pertaining to groundwater resources, it may be urgent to recalculate the groundwater recharge quantity and consequent quantity for using via prediction of climate change in Korea in the future and then reflection of the results. The space-time calculation of changes to the groundwater recharge quantity in the study area may serve as a foundation to present additional measures for the improved management of domestic groundwater resources.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.361-374
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• 2007

Rare earth elements(REEs) have been used as an useful tool in understanding the various geological processes such as evolution and differentiation in the crust. The REEs also have been used as an analog of actinides for radioactive wastes at the water-rock interactions. Using physicochemical properties of the REEs and actinides, we have shown that Eu is an optimum analogue for understanding the behavior of Am in subsurface environments. Factors affecting sorption behavior of radioactive nuclides in groundwater were investigated by batch experiments. Four nuclides such as $^{241}Am,\;^{152}Eu,\;^{160}Tb\;and\;^{60}Co$ were selected to test our hypothesis, and $^{160}Tb$ and $^{60}Co$ were specifically used to compare to the sorption behavior between $^{241}Am-^{152}Eu$ and other radioactive nuclides. Four different rock samples and one groundwater were used in the batch experiments where solution pH for all experiments was fixed at 5.5. Our results demonstrate that $^{241}Am,\;^{152}Eu,\;and\;^{160}Tb$ show similar sorption behavior whereas $^{60}Co$ is different in sorption behavior at the mineral-water interface, suggesting that the sorption behavior of $^{60}Co$ is affected by different rock types. Our results also show that 1) Eu in REEs is optimum analogue of fate and transport of Am in subsurface environments, and 2) mineral compositions such as $SiO_2,\;TiO_2,\;P_2O_5$ and distribution of REEs such as Eu anomaly play key roles in affecting sorption behavior of radioactive nuclides even though physicochemical properties of geological materials such as specific surface area and cation exchange capacity can not be ruled out.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.53-60
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• 2015

This study suggested the new site classification system according to land use, type of contamination and contaminants. Because the present site classification system can not cover all the areas, we changed the concept of land use to more detail one and enlarged the concept of other areas to cover all the areas not defined as certain land use. In case of the present industrial area, it was merged as other areas to avoid the confusion with oil and toxic material storage tank farm area. Accident area was separated from other areas and defined as only accident area caused by the mobile storage facility. In addition to classify the sites according to the basic land use, we classify the sites again in lower level according to the type of contamination and contaminants. With this classification system, we proposed different soil sampling strategy with the consideration of the origin of contamination and the interactions between soil and contaminants. We removed the surface soil sample (0~15 cm depth) around above storage tank because it was not a effective sample to assess whether that area contaminated or not. We also proposed to take the deeper soil samples at minimum three sampling points to confirm the depth of contamination in exploratory soil survey. We also proposed to remove the one point of 15 m depth sampling because it is not effective to confirm contaminated soil depth and needs the exhausted labor and cost. Instead of doing this, we added the continuous sampling to uncontaminated subsoil. Soil sampling points and depth in detailed soil survey is determined based on the results of exploratory soil survey. Therefore, effectiveness and reinforcements of exploratory soil survey would play an important role in improving the reliability of detailed soil survey.