• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.315-322
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• 2000

Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA) was first formally established in the Korea in 1981. Subsequently there has been a rapid growth in EIA activity, and over one hundred fifty environmental impact statements are now published in Korea each year. Although EIA now has almost 20 years of history in the Korea, elsewhere the development of roles and practice is more recent. Development is moving apace in many countries, including the Japan and the EU Member States. Such progress has not been without its problems, and a number of the current issues in EIA-scope of the assessment, the relative roles, the quality of assessment and monitoring and auditing after decision, and so on- are highlighted. So the purpose of this article is to reform the EIA roles and process, in extending the scope of activity, and assessing effectiveness. This article suggested improving the effectiveness of project assessment, widening the scope: stretegic environmental assessment, and extending EIA to project design process, environmental monitoring and feedback system.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.112-116
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• 2022

Background/Aims: The Gachon Regional Occupational Cohort Study (GROCS) is a large-scale longitudinal study of occupational safety and health data (covering Work Environment Monitoring, Workers' Health Surveillance, and Occupational Health Service) conducted by the Gachon University Gil Medical Center (GUGMC) in Incheon, Republic of Korea. We conducted GROCS to identify the health effects of workers' occupational risks, behavior, socioeconomic status, and life style. Methods: The GROCS includes data from Work Environment Monitoring, Workers' Health Surveillance, and Occupational Health Service. The baseline year for all data collection was 2018. Work Environment Monitoring was conducted in 240 companies located in Incheon. General Health Examination and Special Health Examination were performed on 32,725 and 9,504 workers, respectively. Occupational Health Services were provided to 16,883 workers in 171 companies. These data have been collected and operated at an external data management institution and were provided as a retrospective cohort after removing personal identification information. Results: In 2018, the total number of companies was 2,854, among which which 488 special Health Examination, 171 Work Environment Monitoring, and 240 Occupational Health Service. The proportion of companies undergoing Special Health Examination was 17.1%, the proportion of companies undergoing Work Environment Monitoring was 8.4%, and the proportion of Companies undergoing Occupational Health Service was 6.0%. Conclusion: GROCS expects researchers to utilize its useful and reliable resource for occupational health and surveillance with for academic or political purposes to lead to improved workers' health and working environment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2158-2165
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• 2023

Marine radioactivity monitoring is critical for taking immediate action in case of unexpected nuclear accidents at nuclear facilities located near coastal areas. Especially when the level of contamination is not predictable, mobile monitoring systems will be useful for wide-area ocean radiation survey and for determination of the level of radioactivity. Here, we used a silicon photomultiplier and a high-efficiency GAGG crystal to fabricate a compact, battery-powered gamma spectroscopy that can be used in an ocean environment. The developed spectroscopy has compact dimensions of 6.5 × 6.5× 8 cm³ and weighs 560 g. We used LoRa, a low-power wireless protocol for communication. Successful data transmission was achieved within 1.4 m water depth. The developed gamma spectroscopy was able to detect radioactivity from a ¹³⁷Cs point source (3.7 kBq) at a distance of 20 cm in water. Moreover, we demonstrated an unmanned radioactivity monitoring system in a real sea by combining unmanned surface vehicle with the developed gamma spectroscopy. A hidden ¹³⁷Cs source (3.07 MBq) was detected by the unmanned system at a distance of 3 m. After successfully testing the developed mobile spectroscopy in an ocean environment, we believe that our proposed system will be an effective solution for mobile real-time marine radioactivity monitoring.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.1525-1532
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• 2008

An instrument was developed for the simultaneous determination of gas- and aerosol-phase nitrous acid (HONO). Gaseous HONO (HONO(g)) was sampled by a diffusion scrubber and particulate nitrite ($NO_2\;^-$(p)) was collected by a particle growth chamber. The collected samples were analyzed in time-sharing manner, based on the peroxynitrite-induced luminol chemiluminescence. The automated system was found to be sensitive with 13 pptv of detection limit, fast with 4 min. of sampling frequency, and simple and affordable to construct and operate. The system was optimized by adjusting the experimental parameters. The system was applied to the field measurement of gas- and particle-phase HONO during the springtime of 2004 in Gwangju, South Korea. HONO(g) concentrations varied diurnally from 200 pptv around 3 P.M. to 800 pptv at 5 A.M. The variation of $NO_2\;^-$(p) was not significant with the maximum of 240 pptv at 11 P.M. and the minimum of 170 pptv at 4 P.M., not displaying distinct characteristics.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2014

Objectives: The purpose of this review is to suggest future directions for the Korean Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) in terms of an environmental health monitoring system and recent environmental health issues in Korea. Methods: The national scale biomonitoring program and environmental health researches which conducted by Ministry of Environment was reviewed for this study. The scope, contents and utilization of results of KoNEHS as a biomonitoring program and other basic function for environmental health monitoring was analyzed. Results: Biomonitoring survey was conducted for basic functions, such as evaluating exposure levels of environmental chemicals and analyzing exposure factors. In order to expand the basic purposes of KoNEHS, the biomonitoring function should be strengthened by enlarging the range of chemicals analyzed and including all age groups in the biomonitoring and health status monitoring functions by using official health-care and mortality data. Exposure factors such as time-activity patterns and micro-environmental pollution levels were studied. The data from the environmental health study were established into a standardized database system for supporting environmental health policy. A definition and concept of environmental health services should be established. Conclusion: To achieve the aims of environmental health, changes in environmental health status and related factors must be observed and predicted reflecting real conditions. In this regard, improving the methodology and system through diverse approaches is necessary for KoNEHS.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.378-380
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• 2005

Remote sensing of atmospheric aerosol using MODIS satellite data has been proven to be very useful in global/regional scale aerosol monitoring. Due to their large spatial resolution of $10km^2$ MODIS aerosol optical thickness (AOT) data have limitations for local/urban scale aerosol monitoring applications. Modified Bremen Aerosol Retrieval (BAER) algorithm developed by von Hoyningen-Huene et al. (2003) and Lee et al. (2005) has been applied in this study to retrieve AOT in fe resolutions of $500m^2$ over Korea. Look up tables (LUTs) were constructed from the aerosol properties based on sun-photometer observation and radiation transfer model calculations. It was found that relative error between the satellite products and the ground observations was within about $15\%$. Resulting AOT products were correlated with surface PMIO concentration data. There was good correlation between MODIS AOT and surface PM concentration under certain atmospheric conditions, which supports the feasibility of using the high-resolution MODIS AOT for local and urban scale air quality monitoring

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.63-76
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• 2006

Multivariate analysis and batch monitoring on a pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) are described for integrated wastewater treatment management system, where a batchwise multiway independent component analysis method (MICA) are used to extract meaningful hidden information from non-Gaussian wastewater treatment data. Three-way batch data of SBR are unfolded batch-wisely, and then a non-Gaussian multivariate monitoring method is used to capture the non-Gaussian characteristics of normal batches in biological wastewater treatment plant. It is successfully applied to an 80L SBR for biological wastewater treatment, which is characterized by a variety of error sources with non-Gaussian characteristics. The batchwise multivariate monitoring results of a pilot-scale SBR for integrated wastewater treatment management system showed more powerful monitoring performance on a WWTP application than the conventional method since it can extract non-Gaussian source signals which are independent and cross-correlation of variables.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.941-952
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• 2009

The urban microscale wind field around the air quality monitoring station was investigated in order to check how a building complex influences it. For this study as the high density areas Jwa-dong and Yeonsan-dong monitoring sites in Busan were chosen. As the direction of inflow which is perpendicular to the building of the monitoring station was expected to cause the considerable variation of the wind field, that direction was selected. The model Envi-met was used as the diagnostic numerical model for this study. It is suitable for this investigation because Envi-met has the microscale resolution. After simulating it, on the leeward side around a building complex the decrease of flow velocity and some of vortexes or circulation area were discovered. In addition, on the edge of the top at the building and at the back of the building the upward flow was developed. If the sampling hole of monitoring site were located in this upward flow, it would be under the influence of upward flow from the near street.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.3_4
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• pp.465-482
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• 2013

Recently, a novel stress sensor, which utilizes the elasto-magnetic (EM) effect of ferromagnetic materials, has been developed to measure stress in steel cables and wires. In this study, the effectiveness of this EM based stress sensors for monitoring of the cable tension force of a real scale cable-stayed bridge was investigated. Two EM stress sensors were installed on two selected multi-strand cables in Hwa-Myung Bridge, Busan, South Korea. Conventional lift-off test was conducted to obtain reference cable tension forces of two test cables. The reference forces were used to calibrate and validate cable tension force measurements from the EM sensors. Tension force variations of two test cables during the second tensioning work on Hwa-Myung Bridge were monitored using the EM sensors. Numerical simulations were conducted to compare and verify the monitoring results. Based on the results, the effectiveness of EM sensors for accurate field monitoring of the cable tension force of cable-stayed bridge is discussed.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.673-681
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• 2016

The adequacy of urban air quality monitoring networks in the largest metropolitan city, Seoul was evaluated using multivariate analysis for $SO_2$, $NO_2$, CO, PM10, and $O_3$. Through cluster analysis for 5 air pollutants concentrations, existing monitoring stations are seen to be clustered mostly by geographical locations of the eight zones in Seoul. And the stations included in the same cluster are redundantly monitoring air pollutants exhibiting similar atmospheric behavior, thus it can be seen that they are being operated inefficiently. Because monitoring stations groups representing redudancy were different depending on measurement items and several pollutants are being measured at the same time in each air monitoring station, it is seemed to be not easy to integrate or transmigrate stations. But it may be proposed as follows : the redundant stations can be integrated or transmigrated based on ozone of which measures are increasing in recent years and alternatively the remaining pollutants other than the pollutant exhibiting similar atmospheric behavior with nearby station's can be measured. So it is considered to be able to operate air quality monitoring networks effectively and economically in order to improve air quality.