• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.179-188
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• 2022

Global warming causes climate change and increases extreme weather events worldwide, and the occurrence of heatwaves and droughts is also increasing in Korea. For the monitoring of extreme weather, various satellite data such as LST (Land Surface Temperature), TCI (Temperature Condition Index), NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), VCI (Vegetation Condition Index), and VHI (Vegetation Health Index) have been used. VHI, the combination of TCI and VCI, represents the vegetation stress affected by meteorological factors like precipitation and temperature and is frequently used to assess droughts under climate change. TCI and VCI require historical reference values for the LST and NDVI for each date and location. So, it is complicated to produce the VHI from the recent satellite GK2A (Geostationary Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-2A). This study examined the retrieval of VHI using GK2A AMI (Advanced Meteorological Imager) by referencing the historical data from VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) NDVI and LST as a proxy data. We found a close relationship between GK2A and VIIRS data needed for the retrieval of VHI. We produced the TCI, VCI, and VHI for GK2A during 2020-2021 at intervals of 8 days and carried out the interpretations of recent extreme weather events in Korea. GK2A VHI could express the changes in vegetation stress in 2020 due to various extreme weather events such as heatwaves (in March and June) and low temperatures (in April and July), and heavy rainfall (in August), while NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) VHI could not well represent such characteristics. The GK2A VHI presented in this study can be utilized to monitor the vegetation stress due to heatwaves and droughts if the historical reference values of LST and NDVI can be adjusted in a more statistically significant way in the future work.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.581-600
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• 2013

The current status of atmospheric environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been summerized and future prospective for effective and accurate atmospheric EIA has been proposed by reviewing available papers and reports for the atmospheric EIA. The number of reports for the EIA in the EIA support system which is operated by the Korean Environmental Institute have been dramatically decreased from 282 reports in 2008 to 113 reports in 2012 during recent five years. This is partially due to simplification of the EIA procedure, the contraction of the public development and economic recession. We analyzed details of the EIA report to review how actual atmospheric EIA has preformed according to the EIA guidelines from the Korean Ministry of Environment. The 264 reports of EIA published in 2011 and 2012 had been reviewed especially focusing on the atmospheric evaluation items such as meteorology, air quality measurement and modeling, odor measurement and modeling, wind corridor in urban planning, and climate change. In overall sense, the atmospheric EIA has been performed quite well by abiding the guidelines except for local meteorological data measurement, permit standard for air quality and wind corridor. The new approaches to improve the procedure of atmospheric EIA and to reflect future of national air quality standard of $PM_{2.5}$ have been proposed. The guidelines on how to evaluate the wind corridor, to implement atmospheric EIA for $PM_{2.5}$ permit, and how to acquire local meteorological data by combining local measurement and model prediction are required for the effective and future oriented atmospheric EIA.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.436-445
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• 2020

The number of protected areas has been steadily increased in Korea to achieve Aichi Target 11, and there are studies on potential protected areas that required additional designation. However, there has been an insufficient assessment of the complementarity of protected areas to conserve biodiversity effectively. This study identified the potential habitat areas using the species distribution model for plant species from the 3rd National Ecosystem Survey and compared the plant species abundance in the existing protected area and the potential protected areas using the similarity indices, such as the Jaccard index, Sorenson index, and Bray-Curtis index. As a result, we found that the complementarity of the existing protected areas and most potential protected areas were low, leading to the preservation of similar plant species. Only the buffer zone for Korea National Arboretum had high complementarity and thus is important to conserve some species with the other protected areas. This study confirmed that it was necessary to select additional protected areas outside the existing or potential protected areas to protect plant species with a low inclusion ratio of potential habitats within the protected area. This study is significant because it identified the ecological representativeness of each protected area to examine if the individual protected area can conserve unique and various species and proposed a method of finding candidate areas for additional conservation spatially. The findings of this study can be a valuable reference for the qualitative improvement of protected areas through the complementarity assessments, including animals and the effectiveness assessment study of protected areas using the National Ecosystem Survey data in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.51-65
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• 2015

The flora distributed around Mt. Hwangseok were summarized as 495 taxa including 97 families, 295 genera, 394 species, 4 subspecies, 80 varieties and 17 forms. In the component ratio of taxa, pteridophyta was 4.2%, 1.2% of gymnospermae, 78.8% of dicotyledonae and 15.8% of monocotyledonae. The rare plants were 9 taxa including Aconitum chiisanense, Eranthis stellata, Aristolochia contorta, Viola albida and so forth. The Korean endemic plants were 13 taxa including Populus tomentiglandulos, Pseudostellaria coreana, Aconitum pseudolaeve, Thalictrum actaefolium var. brevistylum and so forth. The specific plants by floristic region were 16 taxa including Cimicifuga heracleifolia, Sanguisorba longifolia, Symplocarpus renifolius, Betula davurica and so forth. The plants adaptable to climate change were 11 taxa including Aconitum pseudolaeve, Ajuga spectabilis, Carex okamotoi, Rhynchosia volubilis and so forth. The naturalized plants were 20 taxa including Fallopia convolvulus, Rumex crispus, Phytolacca amrericana, Robinia pseudoacacia and so forth. The invasive alien plant was Aster pilosus. The emergence of local ecologically important species, set the correct range for the core and buffer zone, transition zone, coded will be necessary, the distribution of the specialty plant areas and rare plants, an area management plan should be organized by nature. In addition, a variety of assessment techniques and accurate data to establish the validity of the core area is also set to acquire.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.506-513
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• 2020

Due to climate change, there is an increasing risk of complex (hybrid) disasters, comprising rising sea-levels, typhoons, and torrential rains. This study focuses on Marine City, Busan, a new residential city built on a former landfill site in Suyeong Bay, which recently suffered massive flood damage following a combination of typhoons, storm surges, and wave overtopping and run-up. Preparations for similar complex disasters in future will depend on risk impact assessment and prioritization to establish appropriate countermeasures. A framework was first developed for this study, followed by the collection of data on flood prediction and socioeconomic risk factors. Five socioeconomic risk factors were identified: (1) population density, (2) basement accommodation, (3) building density and design, (4) design of sidewalks, and (5) design of roads. For each factor, absolute criteria were determined with which to assess their level of risk, while expert surveys were consulted to weight each factor. The results were classified into four levels and the risk level was calculated according to the sea-level rise predictions for the year 2100 and a 100-year return period for storm surge and rainfall: Attention 43 %, Caution 24 %, Alert 21 %, and Danger 11 %. Finally, each level, indicated by a different color, was depicted on a complex disaster risk map.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.256-262
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• 2011

Currently among the several methods to estimate an environmental impact of products, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique is mostly used. The Ministry of Environment has been performed the carbon footprint labelling to give the carbon record of product by using this method. But the calculation of carbon footprint in primary agricultural product which is raw material of the processed food cannot be made because there is lack of methodology and LCI DB at agriculture sector. Therefore, LCA carried out to estimate carbon footprint, and established LCI DB for complex fertilizers (21-17-17 1 kg, 17-21-17 1 kg, 15-15-15 1 kg, Unspecified 1 kg) in the production system. The result of LCI DB analysis focussed on the GHG, and it was observed that the values of carbon footprint were $2.42E+00kg\;CO_2-eq.kg^{-1}$ for 21-17-17, $2.10E+00kg\;CO_2-eq.kg^{-1}$ for 17-21-17, $2.23E+00kg\;CO_2-eq.kg^{-1}$ for 15-15-15 and $3.56E+00kg\;CO_2-eq.kg^{-1}$ for Unspecified. For the analysis of LCIA (Life Cycle Impact Assessment) on complex fertilizers in the production system, the carbon footprint from pre-manufacturing phase is contributed to 98.96%, 98.81%, 98.88% and 99.30% on each complex fertilizer with 21-17-17, 17-21-17, 15-15-15, and Unspecified, respectively. These results will be used in basic data for estimation of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.3-23
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• 2014

TThe CCS, gathering attention as a practical measure against climate change, has various potential risks within itself. Identifying those risks and developing proper countermeasures for each one, therefore, is essential. Failure to take proper measures against such risks may result in significant damages and accidents, causing social anxiety and unwillingness to accept CCS. This study proposes the precautionary principle as a fundamental principle for CCS risk management. While the justifications for the precautionary principle are acceptable, there have been criticisms on its limitations including its impracticality. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to identify detailed application strategies to overcome those limitations. The risk factors related to CCS consist of quantifiable risk domains as well as a number of those with high uncertainty and ambiguity. Thus, there is a need to develop differentiated coping measures, meaning that the precautionary principle should be applied. The risk assessment and management applying the precautionary principle has implication of social appraisal based on wide participation and communication among the interested parties, which may be a useful approach for expanding social applicability.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.800-805
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• 2016

Rapid growth in nanotechnologies promises novel benefits through the exploitation of their unique industrial applications. However, as the production volume of nanomaterials increases, their unintentional exposure to the environment has been occured. Potential impacts of nanoproducts on the environment can be evaluated in the life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is the systematic analysis of the resource usages and emissions over the life time from the primary resources to the moment of disposal. In this study, we performed LCA for fabrication processes of superhydrophilic oil/water separator using nano-$TiO_2$. $TOTAL^{TM}$ freeware was used to analyze for all fabrication processes, and 6-environmental impact factors (resource depletion, climate change, ozone depletion, acidification, eutropication, and photochemical oxidation) were introduced. In addition, the use of nano-$TiO_2$ in the fabrication of superhydrophilic oil/water separator was actively contributed to the environmental impact factors, compared to the bulk-$TiO_2$.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.sup
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

Korean Government announced 'The Roadmap to realize a low carbon green society on year 2020' on July 12, 2011 in order to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Non-energy category of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (FAFF) should mitigate 1,349 kilo $CO_2$-equivalent ($CO_2$-eq.) tonnes which is 7.1% of Business-As-Usual on year 2020. The mitigation from animal manure treatment system (AMTS) comprises ca. 45% of the total mitigated amount of Non-energy category of FAFF. Hence, the precise evaluation of GHG emissions from AMTS is important to find effective mitigation measures. Life cycle assessment was used to evaluate GHG emissions from AMTS. The most GHG emitter was a composting/liquid fertilizer/activated sludge system (1,649.45 kg $CO_2$-eq./head/year) and the least GHG emitter was a activated liquid fertilizer system (1,024.46 kg $CO_2$-eq./head/year). Thermophilic oxic process showed the highest ratio (34.9%) of GHG emissions by the use of electricity to total GHG emissions from systems. Energy efficiency should be considered to mitigate GHG emissions from AMTS.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.760-767
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• 2020

Sustainable growth of hydroelectric power plants is expected in consideration of climate change and energy security. However, hydroelectric power plants always have a risk of water hammer damage, and safety assurance is very important. The water hammer phenomenon commonly occurs during operations such as rapid opening and closing of the valves and pump/turbine shutdown in pipe systems, which is more common in cases of emergency shutdown. In this study, a computational numerical model was developed using the MOC-FDM scheme to reflect the mechanism of water hammer occurrence. The proposed model was implemented in boundary conditions such as reservoir, pipeline, valve, and pump/turbine conditions and then applied to simulate hypothetical case studies. The analysis results of the model were verified using the analysis results at the main points of the pipe systems. The model produced reasonably good performance and was validated by comparison with the results of the SIMSEN package model. The model could be used as an efficient tool for the safety assessment of hydroelectric power plants based on accurate prediction of transient behavior in the operation of hydropower facilities.