• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.98-104
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• 2007

A survey was performed to evaluate the distribution of radon concentrations in groundwater of South Korea. Groundwaters of 615 wells were sampled for this study during the four years from 1999 to 2002. The results showed radon values ranging from 4 pCi/L to 40,010 pCi/L with a mean and a median of 1,862 pCi/L and 920 pCi/L, respectively. The samples were classified into five groups according to the rock types; granite, sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks, Ogcheon metamorphic rocks, and Cheju volcanics. Mean radon concentrations were highest (2,595 pCi/L) in granites and lowest (238 pCi/L) in Cheju volcanic rocks. The groundwaters generally showed the highest radon content (2,298 pCi/L) in the weathered and the fractured bedrock complex and the lowest level (672 pCi/L) in the alluvium. The results showed that the radon concentrations in South Korea are low relative to those reported from other countries. But further investigations are suggested to confirm our results.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.64-72
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• 2007

Nationwide occurrence of arsenic in groundwater of Korea was investigated with the data from the groundwater quality monitoring stations. During 2001-2006, As has been quantitatively detected in 3.0 % of the total wells $(5.0{\sim}188{\mu}g/L)$, and its geographical distribution suggests 3 groups: an urbanized and industrialized area (Seoul and its neighbouring province), and two naturally occurring areas (Chungbuk and Gyeongnam provinces). Natural occurrence of As appears to be geologically related with Ogcheon metasedimentary rocks and Cretaceous volcanic rocks. Based on the results of the previous studies in the high As sites, the oxidation of sulfides can be a major control on As concentrations in groundwater in the mineralized and altered zone within the area of Cretaceous volcanic rocks. Desorption process under slightly high pH conditions may also be responsible for high As in groundwater in areas of Ogcheon metasedimentary rocks.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.66-78
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• 2011

It is getting difficult to manage water resources in South Korea because more than half of annual precipitation is concentrated in the summer season and its intensity is increasing due to global warming and climate change. Artificial recharge schemes such as well recharge of surface water and roof-top rainwater harvesting can be a useful method to manage water resources in Korea. In this study, potential artificial recharge site is evaluated using geographic information system with hydrogeological and social factors. The hydrogeological factors include annual precipitation, geological classification based on geological map, specific capacity and depth to water level of national groundwater monitoring wells. These factors were selected to evaluate potential artificial recharge site because annual precipitation is closely related to source water availability for artificial recharge, geological features and specific capacity are related to injection capacity and depth to water is related to storage capacity of the subsurface medium. In addition to those hydrogeological factors, social aspect was taken into consideration by selecting the areas that is not serviced by national water works and have been suffered from drought. These factors are graded into five rates and integrated together in the GIS system resulting in spatial distribution of artificial recharge potential. Cheongsong, Yeongdeok in Gyeongsangbuk-do and Hadong in Gyeongsangnam-do, and Suncheon in Jeollanam-do were proven as favorable areas for applying artificial recharge schemes. Although the potential map for artificial recharge in South Korea developed in this study need to be improved by using other scientific factors such as evaporation and topographical features, and other social factors such as water-curtain cultivation area, hot spring resorts and industrial area where groundwater level is severely lowered, it can be used in a rough site-selection, preliminary and/or feasibility study for artificial recharge.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.31-40
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• 2015

Various types of inorganic and organic colloids are present in natural water including groundwater. Previous studies showed that Fe, Mn and Al are colloid-forming elements and dissolved concentrations can be erroneous for these elements if water samples are not properly filtered. Dissolved concentrations of elements including Ca, Na, Mg, K, Fe, Mn, Si and Al in groundwater from alluvial and bedrock aquifers, and surface water near Nakdong River were determined to evaluate effects of colloids on dissolved concentrations in natural water samples using various pore sizes of filters. Groundwater is mostly anoxic and have elevated concentrations of Fe and Mn, which provides a unique opportunity to observe the effects of colloids on dissolved concentrations of colloid-forming elements. Membrane filters with four kinds of pore sizes of 1000 nm, 450 nm, 100 nm, and 15 nm were used for filtration of water samples. Concentrations of dissolved concentrations in each filtrate did not show significant differences from 1000 nm to 100 nm. However, concentrations of all elements considered were decreased in the filtrates obtained using 15 nm pore size filters by 10 to 15% compared to those using 450 nm except for bedrock groundwater. Al in surface water showed a distinct linear decrease with the decrease of filter pore sizes. These results showed that 100 nm pore size had little effect to remove colloidal particles in alluvial groundwater and surface water in our study. In contrast, significant concentration decreases in 15 nm pore size filtrates indicate that the presence of 15 to 100 nm colloidal particles may affect determination of dissolved concentrations of elements in natural water.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.41-50
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• 2015

Hydrogeologic environment of the Mega City such as Seoul, suffers from rapid changes caused by urbanization, construction of underground subway or buildings, and contaminant loading by diverse anthropogenic activities. Understanding the present condition of groundwater environment and water budget is necessary to prevent natural and manmade disasters and to prepare for sustainable water resource management of urban environment. In this study, regional groundwater flow and water budget status of Seoul was analyzed using numerical simulation. Modeling result indicated that groundwater level distribution of Seoul generally followed the topography, but the significant decreases in groundwater level were observed around the subway network. Steady-state water balance analysis showed groundwater recharge by rainfall and leakage from the water supply network was about 550,495 m³/day. Surface water inflow and baseflow rate via Han River and major streams accounted for 799,689 m³/day and 1,103,906 m³/day, respectively. Groundwater usage was 60,945 m³/day, and the total groundwater leakage along the subway lines amounted to 114,746 m³/day. Modeling results revealed that the subway could decrease net groundwater baseflow by 40%. Our study result demonstrated that the subway system can have a significant influence on the groundwater environment of Seoul.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.74-82
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• 2015

A method to filter out the effect of river stage fluctuations on groundwater level was designed using an artificial neural network-based time series model of groundwater level prediction. The designed method was applied to daily groundwater level data near the Gangjeong-Koryeong Barrage in the Nakdong river. Direct prediction time series models were successfully developed for both cases of before and after the barrage construction using past measurement data of rainfall, river stage, and groundwater level as inputs. The correlation coefficient values between observed and predicted data were over 0.97. Using the time series models the effect of river stage on groundwater level data was filtered out by setting a constant value for river stage inputs. The filtered data were applied to the hybrid water table fluctuation method in order to estimate the groundwater recharge. The calculated ratios of groundwater recharge to precipitation before and after the barrage construction were 11.0% and 4.3%, respectively. It is expected that the proposed method can be a useful tool for groundwater level prediction and recharge estimation in the riverside area.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.149-163
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• 2020

This paper presents a logistic regression and GIS based urban ground sink susceptibility assessment using underground facility information considering soil particle loss. In the underground environment, the particle loss due to water flow or groundwater level change leads to the occurrence and expansion of cavities, which directly affect the ground sink. Four different contributory factors were selected according to the two underground facility domains (water pipeline area, sewer pipeline area) and subway line area. The logistic regression method was used to analyze the correlation and to derive the regression equation between the ground sink inventory and the contributory factors. Based on these results, three ground sink susceptibility maps were generated. The results obtained from this study are expected to provide basic data on the area susceptible to ground sink and needed to safety monitoring.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.10-21
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• 2015

The present study introduces a novel numerical approach for solving dispersion dominated problems with Cauchy boundary condition in an Eulerian-Lagrangian scheme. The study reveals the incapability of traditional Neuman approach to address the dispersion dominated problems with Cauchy boundary condition, even though it can produce reliable solution in the advection dominated regime. Also, the proposed numerical approach is applied to a real field problem of radioactive contaminant migration from radioactive waste repository which is a major current waste management issue. The performance of the proposed numerical approach is evaluated by comparing the results with numerical solutions of traditional FDM (Finite Difference Method), Neuman approach, and the analytical solution. The results show that the proposed numerical approach yields better and reliable solution for dispersion dominated regime, specifically for Peclet Numbers of less than 0.1. The proposed numerical approach is validated by applying to a real field problem of radioactive contaminant migration from radioactive waste repository of varying Peclet Number from 0.003 to 34.5. The numerical results of Neuman approach overestimates the concentration value with an order of 100 than the proposed approach during the assessment of radioactive contaminant transport from nuclear waste repository. The overestimation of concentration value could be due to the assumption that dispersion is negligible. Also our application problem confirms the existence of real field situation with advection dominated condition and dispersion dominated condition simultaneously as well as the significance or advantage of the proposed approach in the real field problem.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.111-122
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• 2014

Partitioning interwell tracer test (PITT) is a method to quantify and qualify a site contaminated with NAPLs (Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids). Analytical description of PITT assumes that the injection-pumping well pair is on the line of the ambient groundwater flow direction, but the test-well pair could frequently be off the line in a real field site, which could be an erroneous factor in analyzing PITT data. The purpose of this work is to study the influence of the angle of the test-well pair on the ambient groundwater flow direction based on the result from PITT. From the experiments, it was found that the obliqueness of the test-well pair to the ambient groundwater flow direction could affect the tracer test resulting in a decreased NAPL estimation efficiency. In case of an oblique arrangement of the test-well pair to the ambient flow direction, it was found that the injection of a chase fluid could enhance the estimation efficiency. An increase of the pumping rate could enhance the recovery rate but it cannot be said that a high pumping rate can increase the test efficiency because a high pumping rate cannot give partitioning tracers enough time to partition into NAPLs. The results have a implication that because the arrangement of the test-well pair is a controlling factor in performing and interpreting PITT in the field in addition to the known factors such as heterogeneity and the source zone architecture, flow direction should be seriously considered in arranging test-well pair.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.123-133
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• 2014

It is important to predict the groundwater level fluctuation for effective management of groundwater monitoring system and groundwater resources. In the present study, three different time series models for the prediction of groundwater level in response to rainfall were built, those are transfer function noise model (TFNM), artificial neural network (ANN), and adaptive neuro fuzzy interference system (ANFIS). The models were applied to time series data of Boen, Cheolsan, and Hongcheon stations in National Groundwater Monitoring Network. The result shows that the model performance of ANN and ANFIS was higher than that of TFNM for the present case study. As lead time increased, prediction accuracy decreased with underestimation of peak values. The performance of the three models at Boen station was worst especially for TFNM, where the correlation between rainfall and groundwater data was lowest and the groundwater extraction is expected on account of agricultural activities. The sensitivity analysis for the input structure showed that ANFIS was most sensitive to input data combinations. It is expected that the time series model approach and results of the present study are meaningful and useful for the effective management of monitoring stations and groundwater resources.