• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.147-153
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• 2023

Urbanization has been causing such new pollutants as micro-plastic, thus the environmental impact of new pollutants on ecosystem is rapidly increasing. When it comes to micro-plastic, a representative artificial trace pollutant, its risk has been increased at a much faster rate, however the depth study associated with stormwater sediment and wetland was relatively rare. In this research, soil samples from storm water sediment were analyzed for distribution characteristics of micro-plastics in the J wetland (registered as Ramsar wetland, May 2021 and a representative environmental site in South Korea). Analyzed soil samples found approximately 201 ± 93 particle/kg (based on unit weight, Total micro plastic particles / Total Sample weight) micro-plastics in the samples. When considering the total quantitative numbers in stormwater sediment in the entire area of the J wetland, over 15,000 micro-plastics were estimated to be contaminating such area. In addition, in terms of qualitative numbers, micro-plastics were contaminating the J wetland with 94.7 % ratio of styrofoam type (43.9%) and polyethylene type (50.8%). These research results can be used as base data sets for controlling micro-plastics in the J wetland.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.284-292
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• 2016

Background: In Ghana, fire incidents have become a regular occurrence, with thousands of lives and millions of dollars lost every year. Hardly a day passes without news of a fire outbreak in some part of Ghana, causing fear and panic among the people. This generates much discussion centering on rumors relating to politics, sabotage, misfortune, religious differences, etc. This article seeks to discuss the trend of fire incidents occurring in Ghana from 2000 to 2013 and the different ways to prevent these incidents. Methods: The pattern of fire incidence in Ghana as a whole as well as in each region is discussed. The study took into consideration the causes, mechanisms, as well as preventive measures against the fire menace. Data were obtained from the head office of Ghana's national fire service. Results: It was noticed that in general the rate of fire incidence increased each year. This increase was attributed to several factors: rate of population growth and industrialization, unstable electricity, urbanization, negligence, illegal electrical connection, etc. The cause of fire was categorized into domestic, industrial, vehicular, institutional, electrical, commercial, bush, and others. Among these causes, domestic fire accounted for 41% of the total number of fire incidents in the country. Conclusion: Finally, this study presents several recommendations to help prevent and mitigate fire incidents in Ghana.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.78-83
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• 2018

Recently, due to the rapid industrialization and urbanization, a great number of infrastructure and population were concentrated in urban areas. These changes have resulted in unprecedent runoff characteristics in urban basins, and the increase in impermeable areas leads to the growth of the runoff and the peak flow rate. Although many cities have made a lot of efforts to check and expand the stormwater network, the flash flood or the local torrential rain caused a growing number of casualty and property damage. This study analyzed the stormwater passage rate in a target area using SWMM. By incorporating the flow quantity surpassing the storm sewer capacity, a 2D inland flooding analysis model was applied to route the inundated area and velocity.

• Korean Journal of Hydrosciences
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• v.3
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• pp.11-29
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• 1992

Recently, rapid industrialization, urbanization and higher living standards accelerate to increase groundwater consumption resulting in continuously dropping groundwater elevations. To maintain enough groundwater volume without dropping groundwater elevations, the proper groundwater rechatge is necessary. The groundwater rechatge can be classified into two categories which are natural rechatge and artiticial rechatge. Even though the natural rechatge through by dired infiltration from the rainfall is desirable, the artificial groundwater rechatge is necessaty when the increment of groundwater consumption exceeds natural recharge rate. Well method and scattering method are utilized as artificial rechatging method, a severe disadvantage, which is the reduction of the void of soil surface, is indicated in the well method. Recently, the underground piping method, which is a scattering method, is receiving increasing attention as a proper recharging method. The method is indirectly to supply water to the underground using an underground piping system. Therefore, the void of soil surface is not severely reduced and better infiltration rate can be achieved. In this paper, the artificial groundwater rechatge using underground piping method is investigated through experiments and numerical analysis. The influence of the groundwater by underground piping method is evaluated through comparing recharging heights. Good agreements between experiments and numerical analysis are obtained and the artificial groundwater recharge by underground piping method is well tested and verified.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.45-52
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• 1999

As a traditional agricultural society changes into an industrial society due to an industrialization policy since the 1960's, there is a tendency of decrease in population and being old in a rural area. Also there has been a remarkable decrease in the rate of large family and families of over three generations as a family type changes from a large family system to a nuclear family one. According to resent studies, the rate of families of the old over 65 in a dong area is 17.0%, While that in eup and myon areas is 35.3% This shows the rural exodus of the young caused by urbanization. The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze consciousness of residence by studying satisfaction of each room of a house by type of living-together in a rural area. On the basis of this, to provide data for planning various residential environment by change of type of living-together in a rural area.

• KCID journal
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.50-63
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• 2012

Many reclaimed tideland projects in Korea have been conducted to secure the food self-sufficiency. In fact, the domestic food self-sufficiency has been greatly improved and reclaimed tideland projects contribute to Korea's economic and social development directly or indirectly replacing agricultural lands from urbanization, industrialization. As result, current self-sufficiency of rice reach the demand(104.6%) while rate of upland crops has less than 30% of self-sufficiency rate and corn, wheat, soybeans, etc. are virtually dependent on imports. Domestic price of crop is expected to be unstable by trend of international grain prices. Therefore, developing reclaimed tidelands as upland which is originally constructed for paddy fields could be a good option to become steady in domestic crop market and dedicate to ensure a stable food security. The study to prepare measures for dealing with disasters in reclaimed tidelands of west coast district is required in order to utilize those sites for infra construction of multi-utilization in those sites and The result of flooding analysis in this study can suggest policy direction for practical utilization of reclaimed tidelands in yellow sea area.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.319-336
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• 2022

Evaluating the temporal and spatial changes in the ecosystem service value (ESV) of the Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve is important for understanding the impact of human activities on natural ecosystem and guiding ecosystem restoration and environmental pollution control. In this study, remotely sensed land-cover data and the equivalent factor method were used to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of the ESV in Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve from 1992 to 2015, and regression analysis was employed to determine the factors driving changes in the ESV. The results show that grassland was the main type of ecosystem in the study area, and the transformation of grassland into bare areas was the primary change in land cover. Additionally, the ESV in the study area first decreased and then increased, with an annual growth rate of 0.69%. The ESV mainly increased in the north of the Yellow River's source area, and mainly decreased in the northwest of the Yangtze River's source area. Finally, the gross output value of agriculture, urbanization rate and proportion of secondary industry were found to be the main factors driving the ESV in the study area.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.387-402
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• 2005

In this study, we tried to predict the change of future land-cover and relationships between land-cover change and geo-spatial information in the Gongju area by using fuzzy logic operation. Quantitative evaluation of prediction models was carried out using a prediction rate curve using. Based on the analysis of correlations between the geo-spatial information and land-cover change, the class with the highest correlation was extracted. Fuzzy operations were used to predict land-cover change and determine the land-cover prediction maps that were the most suitable. It was predicted that in urban areas, the urban expansion of old and new towns would occur centering on the Gem-river, and that urbanization of areas along the interchange and national roads would also expand. Among agricultural areas, areas adjacent to national roads connected to small tributaries of the Gem-river and neighboring areas would likely experience changes. Most of the forest areas are located in southeast and from this result we can guess why the wide chestnut-tree cultivation complex is located in these areas and the possibility of forest damage is very high. As a result of validation using the prediction rate curve, it was indicated that among fuzzy operators, the maximum fuzzy operator was the most suitable for analyzing land-cover change in urban and agricultural areas. Other fuzzy operators resulted in the similar prediction capabilities. However, in the prediction rate curve of integrated models for land-cover prediction in the forest areas, most fuzzy operators resulted in poorer prediction capabilities. Thus, it is necessary to apply new thematic maps or prediction models in connection with the effective prediction of changes in the forest areas.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.312-322
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• 2019

Background: Since 2003, Korea has consistently shown the highest suicide rate among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, and suicide remains the major cause of death. In particular, men are 2-3 times more likely to commit suicide than women, which called the 'gender paradox of suicide.' The areas with frequent suicide have spatially clustered patterns because suicide with a social contagion spreads around the neighborhood. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to estimate the hotspot areas of age-standardized male suicide mortality from 2008 to 2015. The second was to analyze the relationship between the hotspot areas and the regional characteristics for study years. Methods: The data was collected through the Korean Statistical Information Service. The study areas were 227 si gun gu administrative districts in Korea. The hotspot area was used as a dependent variable. Socio-demographic variables (number of marriages per 1,000 population, number of divorces per 1,000 population, and urbanization rate), financial variables (financial independence and social security budget), and health behaviors (EuroQol-5 dimension [EQ-5D], and depression experience rate) were used as independents variables. Results: The hotspot areas were commonly located in Gangwon-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Chungceongbuk-do. According to the results of panel logit regression, the number of divorces per 1,000 population, social security budget, and EQ-5D were statistically significant variables. Conclusion: The results of hotspot analysis showed the need for establishing a prevention zone of suicide using hotspot areas. Also, medical resources could be considered to be preferentially placed in the prevention zone of suicide. This study could be used as basic data for health policymakers to establish a suicide-related policy.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.421-431
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• 2023

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to socio-economic issues, highlighting the importance of strengthening health systems for future infectious diseases. This study aims to analyze the relationship between health system preparedness, response levels, and COVID-19 fatality rates across 194 countries. Methods: This study examined various indicators of national health system preparedness and response, including health service delivery, health workforce, health information systems, essential medicines and health products, health financing, and leadership and governance. Results: A correlation was found between the health system and the COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR). Further examination of specific indicators within health service delivery, health workforce, health information systems, health financing, and leadership/governance showed significant correlations with the CFR. Multiple regression analysis, considering aging and urbanization rates, identified reproductive/maternal/newborn and child health, infectious diseases, nursing and midwifery personnel density, birth registration coverage, and out-of-pocket health expenditure as significant factors affecting the CFR. Conclusion: Countries with strong health system indicators experience lower case fatality rate from COVID-19. Strengthening access to essential health services, increasing healthcare personnel and resources, ensuring reliable health information, and bolstering overall health systems are crucial for preparedness against future infectious diseases.