• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.39-47
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• 2010

Annually, the scale of agricultural areas in Korea were being reduced as the lands were converted to other land uses. While the rate of productivity were either being maintained or increased, the pollution load from these areas were still greater in magnitude. Although the levels of pollutant concentration released in the agricultural watersheds were minimal, the combined quantities mostly from diffuse sources were high. As a consequence, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) in Korea adopted the use of free water surface (FWS) flow constructed wetlands to reduce the pollutant loadings emitted from agricultural watersheds for the improvement of water quality and protection of aquatic ecosystems. In this study, a constructed wetland treating stream water in an agricultural watershed was monitored since April 2009 subsequent to its completion in December 2008. Satisfactory performance was achieved for TSS, BOD and TP with 26%, 28% and 39% pollutant removal rates, respectively. In addition, the effluent water quality was improved and achieved compliance the national water quality criteria. Results of this study can be useful to establish design parameters and employ proper removal techniques of similar natural treatment systems for future implementation in the country.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.218-225
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• 2016

Various strategies and management plans have been established in order to conserve water quality as well as ecosystem, prevent deterioration of scenic area, and more importantly, retain drinking water securely. However, due to the introduction of numerous small-scale development projects on the waterside area outside protection area of source water and reparian area, river water quality and landscape are severely deteriorated. In this study, We analyzed the expected environmental impacts on the ecosystem, topograph, geology, landscape, water quality according to development type, and assigned different environmental points to each development type depend on environmental impacts, which is able to divide small-scale development project into three categories such as projects with rigorous review, projects with general review and projects with simple review. Finally, we suggested the appraisal basement is to avoid or minimize the expected environment impacts of the small-scale development projects in riparian areas so that make them sustainable development by reasonable restriction.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.229-236
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• 2009

A habitat model was developed to delineate potential habitat of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in a mountainous region of Kangwon Province, Korea. Between 1997 and 2005, 224 leopard cat presence sites were recorded in the province in the Nationwide Survey on Natural Environments. Fifty percent of the sites were used to develop a habitat model, and the remaining sites were used to test the model. Fourteen environmental variables related to topographic features, water resources, vegetation and human disturbance were quantified for 112 of the leopard cat presence sites and an equal number of randomly selected sites. Statistical analyses (e.g., t-tests, and Pearson correlation analysis) showed that elevation, ridges, plains, % water cover, distance to water source, vegetated area, deciduous forest, coniferous forest, and distance to paved road differed significantly (P < 0.01) between presence and random sites. Stepwise logistic regression was used to develop a habitat model. Landform type (e.g., ridges vs. plains) is the major topographic factor affecting leopard cat presence. The species also appears to prefer deciduous forests and areas far from paved roads. The habitat map derived from the model correctly classified 93.75% of data from an independent sample of leopard cat presence sites, and the map at a regional scale showed that the cat's habitats are highly fragmented. Protection and restoration of connectivity of critical habitats should be implemented to preserve the leopard cat in mountainous regions of Korea.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.53-66
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• 2008

The construction technologies for development and urbanization diversely effect on the water qualities, hydraulics and aquatic ecosystems in watershed areas. Usually, the landuse changes in watershed areas by human activities are known as the main sources of pollutants to aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, in order to protect the aquatic ecosystems and to improve the water quality, the construction technologies should be improved with environmental technologies. In this paper, several applicable technologies for construction projects and protection of aquatic ecosystem will be summarized, which are the low impact developments (LID), buffer zones, watershed management practices, etc. Also the 21st sustainable environmental policies concerning watershed management will be discussed for watershed managers.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.586-594
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• 2017

This study was carried out to identify the potential protected areas recognized by experts to conform to the international definition of protected areas for effective implementation of CBD Aichi Target-11. A policy forum of 13 experts on the protected area was formed and conducted four forums, two surveys, and examination in the context of international perspective to identify four potential protected areas including the water source protection area, riparian buffer zone, fishery resources protected area, and urban natural park area. Excluding the existing protected areas, the total size of the potential protected areas was about $5,643.9km^2$ composed of the terrestrial areas of $3,117.9km^2$ and the marine areas of $2,526km^2$. As such, we can expect the expansion of coverage of national protected areas by up to 3.11% of the terrestrial land and up to 0.67% of the terrestrial marine area. This study is meaningful in that it provides the fundamental information to achieve the national target of protected areas in response to CBD Aichi Target-11. Further research on improving the protected areas qualitatively and quantitatively and identifying and linking with other effective regional OECM are required to enhance the national protected area system.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.597-606
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• 2019

Due to climate change, coastal areas are being flooded with torrential rain, typhoons, and tsunamis. In addition, non-point source pollutants (NPSs) that accumulated on the ground, streets, and buildings during the dry season are washed off by rain and stormwater runoff, which adds to the damage associated with environmental pollution, e.g., pollution that makes its way into the ocean. Recently, low impact development (LID) has been considered as a means of controlling water circulation and NPSs. In the coastal area, permeable blocks have been constructed mainly to reduce the flood damage caused by waves. Some important design factors that must be considered to ensure long-term performance are the permeability coefficient, clogging, and the efficiency of the removal of total suspended solids (TSS), but currently there are no standardized design criteria or testing techniques that are used worldwide. Herein, we analyzed the permeability coefficient and the TSS removal efficiency tendency according to the permeability area ratio with an easily-detachable, permeable block filled with calcinated yellow soils as the filter media. Our lab-scale tests indicated that, when the permeability area ratio was 25%, the reduction of the permeability coefficient after clogged was 11%, which was a significant decrease compared to other cases. Permeability persistence increased when the permeability area ratio increased from 50% to 75%. The TSS removal efficiency decreased as the permeability area ratio increased. Our pilot-scale test indicated that the TSS removal efficiency was more than 80% higher in all cases. We also found that the permeability persistence was excellent as the permeability area ratio increased, and, in actual construction, it is effective to set 5.3% of the total area as permeable area in terms of permeability and economic feasibility.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.43 no.12
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• pp.1029-1038
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• 2010

In meteorology Korea has 2/3 of rain of annual total rainfall at the month of Jun through Sept and it has possibility to have serious flood damage because geographically it is composed of mountainous area with steep slope which account for 70% of its country. Also, the increase of impervious layer due to industrialization and urbanization causes direct runoff, which deteriorates contamination of rivers by moving the contaminated material on the surface at the beginning of rain. In particular, the area of leisure facilities needs the management of water quality absolutely because dense population requires space of park function and place to relax and increases moving capability of non-point pollution source. For disposition of rainfall & runoff, the standard of initial rainfall, which is to be used for the computation of disposition volume, is significant factors for the runoff study of non-point pollution source, Until now, a great deal of study has been done by many researchers. However, it is the current reality that the characteristics of runoff varies according to land protection comprising river basin and the standard of initial rainfall by each researcher is not clearly defined yet. Therefore, in this research, it is suggested that, with the introduction of SOM (Self-Organizing Map), the standard of initial rainfall be determined after analyzing each sectional data by executing pattern classification about runoff and water quality data measured at the test river basin for this research.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.117-138
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• 2006

Plasmas can be made by electrical discharge on earth. Most of the plasmas on earth have been generated in low pressure environments where the pressure is less than one millionth of the atmospheric pressure. However, there are many plasma applications which require high pressure plasmas. Therefore, scientists start research on plasma generation at high pressure to avoid use of expensive vacuum equipments. Large-volume inexpensive plasmas are needed in the areas of material processing, environmental protection and improvement, efficient energy source and applications, etc. We therefore developed new methods of plasma generations at high pressure and carried out research of applying these plasmas to high tech industries representing 21 century. These research fields will play pivotal roles in material, environmental and energy science and technology in future.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.1-13
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• 2006

The aim of the study is to assess groundwater pollution hazard of Pohang city using the DRASTIC system developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Hydrogeological spatial databases of the system include information on depth to groundwater, net recharge, aquifer media, soil media, topographic slope, hydraulic conductivity, lineament and potential pollution source. With GIS based on these hydrogeological databases and the DRASTIC system, the regional groundwater vulnerability of the study area was assessed. Then the vulnerability was overlaid with potential pollution source and the regional groundwater pollution hazard was assessed by administrative district. From the results of the study, areas where need the counter plan for groundwater pollution and where should be managed for the groundwater pollution, are identified.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.2_spc
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• pp.28-54
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• 2020

Even though a systematic sampling approach is very crucial in both the general and detailed investigation phases to produce the best conceptual site model for contaminated sites, the concept is not yet established in South Korea. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the 'Strategic Sampling Approaches Technical guide' in 2018 to help environmental professionals choose which sampling approaches may be needed and most effective for given site conditions. The EPA guide broadly defines strategic sampling as the application of focused data collection across targeted areas of the conceptual site model (CSM) to provide the appropriate amount and type of information needed for decision-making. These strategic sampling approaches can prevent the essential data from missing, minimize the uncertainty of projects and secure the data which are necessary for the important site-decisions. Furthermore, these provide collaborative data sets through the life cycle phases of projects, which can generate more positive proofs on the site-decisions. The strategic sampling approaches can be divided by site conditions. This technical guide categorized it into eight conditions; High-resolution site characterization in unconsolidated environments, High-resolution site characterization in fractured sedimentary rock environments, Incremental sampling, Contaminant source definition, Passive groundwater sampling, Passive sampling for surface water and sediment, Groundwater to surface water interaction, and Vapor intrusion. This commentary paper introduces specific sampling methods based on site conditions when the strategic sampling approaches are applied.