• Water Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.259-267
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• 2002

South Africa has developed a policy and law that calls and provides for the equitable and sustainable use of water resources. Sustainable resource use is dependent on effective resource protection. Rivers are the most important freshwater resources in the country, and there is a focus on developing and applying methods to quantify what rivers need in terms of flow and water quality. These quantified and descriptive objectives are then related to specified levels of ecological health in a classification system. This paper provides an overview of an integrated and systematic methodology, where, fer each river, and each river reach, the natural condition and the present ecological condition are described, and a level/class of ecosystem health is selected. The class will define long term management goals. This procedure requires each ecosystem component to be quantified, starting with the abiotic template. A modified flow regime is modelled for each ecosystem health class, and the resultant fluvial geomorphology and hydraulic habitats are described. Then the water chemistry is described, and the water quality changes that are likely to occur as a consequence of altered flows are predicted. Finally, the responses to the stress imposed on the biota (fish, invertebrates and vegetation) by modified flow and water quality are predicted. All of the predicted responses are translated into descriptive and/or quantitative management objectives. The paper concludes with the recognition of active method development, and the enormous challenge of applying the methods, implementing the law, and achieving river protection and sustainable resource-use.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.6-13
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• 2000

Water deficit is the primary constraint of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] yield, and a physiological understanding of processes affected by water deficit is a key step in identifying and improving drought tolerance in soybean. The objectives of this research were to evaluate biomass and nitrogen accumulation patterns and water use efficiency (WUE) as possible mechanisms associated with the drought tolerance of Jackson. Biomass accumulation of Jackson was contrasted with the PI416937, which also has demonstrated tolerance to drought. For water-deficit treatment, total biomass accumulation was negligible for PI416937, but biomass accumulation continued at approximately 64 % of the well-watered treatment of Jackson. Transpirational losses for Jackson and PI416937 were approximately the same for the water-deficit treatment, indicating that Jackson had superior WUE. Isotopic discrimination of $^{13}$ C relative to $^{12}$ C also indicated that Jackson had higher WUE. Results indicated that increased WUE for Jackson under water deficit showed it was tolerant to drought rather than had an avoidance mechanism.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.1017-1028
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• 2013

The purpose of this research is to develop an Integrated Water Resources Evaluation Index (IWREI) which can used to assess the performance of water resources projects in a regional perspective focusing on three major sectors including water use, flood, and river environment in water resources policies. The IWREI is estimated by integrating the Water Use Vulnerability Index (WUVI), the Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI), and the River Environment Vulnerability Index (REVI) which represent the vulnerability in each sector. These indices consist of total 26 indicators selected from the pressure indicators representing the causes of damages in water use, flood, and river environment, the state indicators and the response indicators. The estimated index describes the vulnerability and effectiveness of policies with five levels: Low, Medium Low, Medium, Medium High, and High. The results of evaluating total 115 hydrological units in Korea using the WUVI, FVI, REVI, and IWREI indicate that the project effectiveness in water resources policies is clearly verified by the improved index results compared to the past (early 1990s). Regional vulnerability and evaluation indices developed in this research could be used to establish goals of water resources policy and to select priority regions for project implementation.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.43 no.7
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• pp.625-633
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• 2010

An integrated water resources management is highly required to use efficient water and preserve water quality due to the limits of water resources development and water pollution. K-WEAP was developed, which supports the water resources planning and evaluation within a fully integrated interactive system. In this study, we present three applications of K-WEAP. First, we examined the usefulness of K-WEAP as a water resources planning tool through its application to the National Water Resources Plan. Second, the conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater in the Geum river basin with K-WEAP was evaluated, and its results show how to support to set up a sustainable groundwater management plan. Finally, we confirmed the function of the integrated water quantity and quality management in K-WEAP, which conducted by comparing the simulated results of water quality in both QUAL2E and K-WEAP.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.330-338
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• 1999

Extensive research has been conducted on effects of drought stress on growth and development of soybean but information is rather restricted on the limited-irrigation system by way of precaution against a long-term drought condition in the future. The experiment for limited-irrigation was conducted in transparent vinyl shelter at Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC), Taiwan in 1997. Two soybean varieties, Hwangkeum and AGS292, improved in Korea and AVRDC, respectively were used for this experiment. The relationships between normalized transpiration rate (NTR) and fraction of transpirable soil water (FTSW) in both varieties were similar that the NTR was unchanged until FTSW dropped to about 0.5 or 0.6. At FTSW less than those values, NTR declined rapidly. Days required to harvest in both varieties were significantly prolonged at IR6 treatment compared to any other treatments. Daily mean transpiration rate was significantly higher at IR5 treatment, as averaged over varieties. Similarly, water use efficiency was also high at 1R5 treatment. In both varieties, seed yield was the greatest at the IR5 treatment, as compared to any other limited-irrigation treatments, due to the increased seed number and high transpirational water use efficiency. The indices of input water and seed yield for the different limited-irrigation treatments against control indicated that Hwangkeum produced 59.6% or 60.7% of seed yield using 36.1% or 44.9% of input water, as compared to control, by irrigation at only R5 or R6 stages, respectively. The AGS292 produced 56.1% of seed yield with 35.4% of input water of control, when irrigated at R5 stage. The results of this study have elucidated that the limited irrigation at R5 stage in soybean can be minimized yield loss with such small quantity of water under the environment of long-term drought stress and the expected shortage of agricultural water in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.184-184
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• 2023

Globally, agriculture is one of the largest consumers and polluters of water resources, contributing to the unsustainable use of limited water resources. To reduce the resource use and environmental footprints associated with current and future food systems, researchers and policy makers have recommended the transition to sustainable and healthier diets and the reduction of food loss and waste along the food supply chain. However, there is limited information on the synergistic effects and trade-offs of adopting the two measures. In this study, we assessed the water-saving potential of the two measures in South Korea using environmentally extended input-output relying on the EXIOBASE database for the reference year 2020, along with scenario analysis to model the potential outcomes. Specifically, we analyzed scenarios where meat consumption was reduced by 30% and 50% and in combination with a 50% reduction in food waste at the consumption stage for each scenario. According to our findings, by considering individual measures of dietary change and food waste reduction, shifting to a diet with 30% and 50% less meat consumption could lead to reduction in water footprint by 6.9% and 7.5%, respectively, while 50% reduction in food waste at the consumption stage could save about 14% of water footprint. However, the synergistic effects of the two measures such as 30% less meat consumption and 50% food waste reduction, and 50% less meat consumption and 50% food waste reduction result to 20% and 24% reductions in water footprint, respectively. Moreover, our findings also showed that increasing food consumption with high environmental impacts could promote resources use inefficiency when waste occurs. Thus, policy strategies that address synergistic effects of both dietary change and food waste reduction should be strengthened to achieve sustainable food system. International and national policies can increase resource efficiency by utilizing all available reduction potentials while considering strategies interactions.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.246-253
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• 2019

Background: Water use efficiency (WUE) is an indicator of the trade-off between carbon uptake and water loss to the atmosphere at the plant or ecosystem level. Understanding temporal dynamics and the response of WUE to climatic variability is an essential part of land degradation assessments in water-limited dryland regions. Alternative definitions of and/or alternative methodologies used to measure WUE, however, have hampered intercomparisons among previous studies of different biomes and regions. The present study aims to clarify semantic differences among WUE parameters applied in previous studies and summarize these parameters in terms of their definition and methodology. Additionally, the consistency of the responses of alternative WUE parameters to interannual changes in moisture levels in Northeast Asia dryland regions (NADRs) was tested. Results: The literature review identified more than five different WUE parameters defined at leaf and ecosystem levels and indicates that major conclusions regarding the WUE response to climatic variability were partly inconsistent depending on the parameters used. Our demonstration of WUE in NADR again confirmed regional inconsistencies and further showed that inconsistencies were more distinct in hyper- and semi-arid climates than in arid climates, which might reflect the different relative roles of physical and biological processes in the coupled carbon-water process. Conclusions: The responses of alternative WUE parameters to drying and wetting may be different in different regions, and regionally different response seems to be related to aridity, which determines vegetation coverage.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1348-1351
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• 2006

Recently human beings face serious water crisis, namely water management at the critical moment because of rapid increasing in population, subordinate part of a national budget, water pollution by domestic use and industrial use or waste, agricultural water use by intensive market farming, excessive development and extraction of water sources, and etc. We become to recognize that water and sanitation is the one of most important part which is threatening us with a drain on the water resources and death around the world and then are making opportunities of discussion for water policies and solutions of water problems through international network such as Global Water Partnership(GWP), World Water council(WWC). World Water Forum(WWF), as one of main water-related activities, aims at sharing knowledge and experience among various stakeholders for accomplishing a holistic water resources management by making common thoughts regarding the necessity of integration among different organizations related with water management, problems and issues. Also the unity of each local area for the holistic approach focuses on showing present local actions and actively supporting them, and suggesting new ideas. With Korea's participation in the 4th WWF this year, Korean government should have consistency in its establishment and implementation of sustainable water resources policies as a more active and future-oriented member of international water network. Finally it will be necessary that we will set up an organization and system which does publicity activities about results of various local actions of Korea around the world through next WWF in the future and contribute to solving global water problems.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.60-70
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• 2017

As water sources become more vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as drought and contamination, the diversification of water sources is important for securing water supply. This study examines the properties of five water sources for public supply, including river and river-bed water, dams, reservoirs, and groundwater, while ensuring that the quantities available from such sources are stable and the water itself is safe for use. This study also analyzes the power, chemical, repair and maintenance, and labor costs associated with each water source. The results demonstrate that groundwater has high potential as a water source because it is readily available (about $12.89billion\;m^3/yr$), but only a small portion of it is currently used. Analyses indicated that groundwater is the most efficient source of water to meet water demand below $1,000,000m^3/yr$, which covers 62.5% of water supply facilicities. With the implementation of groundwater dams, groundwater can become cost-efficient even for larger water demand. Additionally, the water source protection areas are the smallest for groundwater among the five water sources. In conclusion, the use of groundwater as an alternative water source is feasible becasue it is readily available, safe, cost-efficient, and requires the lowest amount of environmental regulations for the diversification of water supply sources.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.49-59
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• 2022

Recently, Korea aimed to increase water use efficiency by implementing integrated management according to the water management unification policy. Considering the enormous use of water resources in the agricultural sector, it is necessary to efficiently conserve water in terms of demand management by intensifying the stakeholders' involvement and awareness campaigns. The existing agricultural water management system in Korea is based on a top-down approach by which the government agencies directly plan budgets and policies to be enforced on and implemented by farmers, with little to no involvement of farmers in the decision-making process. However, this process has hindered the desired water resources management and the water conservation goal at the field level. Moreover, the limited research on water governance operations focusing on agricultural water creates a knowledge gap, particularly in Korea. Thus, it is necessary to investigate water governance cases with successful implementations in agricultural and rural areas to identify the factors applicable to domestic governance in Korea. In addition, a more systematic governance model should be established by identifying the subjectivity of the stakeholders' involvement in agricultural water governance. Therefore, this study proposed a new bottom-up model for agricultural water governance, which aims to raise the problem of autonomous water governance while promoting stakeholders' voluntary participation in agricultural water management and reflecting farmers' involvement in the decision-making process. Moreover, if agricultural water governance is expanded nationwide by reflecting agricultural and water resource policies in the future, it is believed that positive effects can be achieved in increasing utilization efficiency and securing sustantiality through agricultural water saving.