• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.453-460
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• 2005

Since late 1970s, water quality monitoring had been performed in Korea by various agencies according to their own needs and objectives. Lacking of consistency in principles, such diverse operation has been producing difficulties in management of information on water quality parameters. These difficulties resulted from the fact that the expansion of monitoring networks had been based not on systematic methodology with considerations on scientifically established planning objectives but on personal experiences and subjective judgments in locating monitoring stations. This study aimed, therefore, to develop a selection methodology for locating monitoring stations to provide various informations on water quality to satisfy various monitoring objectives such as understanding short and long term trends of water quality, monitoring violations to water quality standards, identifying external causes and sources affecting water quality changes, supporting utilization of water resources, examining short-term variations in water quality through a concentrated investigation, estimating pollution loads from each unit watershed, supporting water quality modeling, and establishing informative systems for water resources management. Also, we applied the proposed methodology and presented an improved expansion plan for water quality monitoring networks in the Han River.