• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.34 no.E
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• pp.1-11
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• 1992

Increasing national concern on nonpoint source pollution of surface and ground water Systems has led researchers and policy makers to develop certain agricultural Best Management Practices. As an initial step of broad study program above mentioned, this study reflected the effects of different tillage practice on bulk density and degree of saturation on two regional soils, namely Tama silt loam and Catlin silt loam. Results may help to clarify some of the conflicting findings on the impact of tillage systems on these parameters and it may also explain some of the reasons for specific role that different tillage systems play regarding nonpoint source pollution from agricultural fields.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.29-42
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• 2023

Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is suggested and employed in the policy to conserve soil resources and to manage the impact of development, since soil loss is very essential to nonpoint source pollution management. The equation requires only five factors to estimate average annual potential soil loss, USLE is simplicity provides benefits in use of the equation. However, it is also limitation of the model, since the estimated results are very sensitive to the five factors. There is a need to examine the application procedures. Three approaches to estimate potential soil loss were examined, In the first approach, all factors were prepared with raster data, soil loss were computed for each cell, and sum of all cell values was determined as soil loss for the watersheds. In the second approach, the mean values for each factor were defined as representing USLE factors, and then the five factors were multiplied to determine soil loss for the watersheds. The third approach was same as the second approach, except that the Vegetative and Mechanical measure was used instead of the Cover and management factor and Support practice factor. The approaches were applied in 38 watersheds, they displayed significant difference, moreover no trends were detected for the soil loss at watersheds with the approaches. Therefore, it was concluded that there is a need to be developed and provided a typical guideline or public systems so that soil loss estimations have consistency with the users.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.55-66
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• 2009

The increase of pollutant loadings from nonpoint sources affect the water quality of the major rivers in Korea. Consequently, the need for managing the nonpoint source (NPS) pollution becomes the main concern of the Korean Ministry of Environment (MOE). Recently, the policy was changed from pollutant concentration-restricting approach to the total maximum daily load (TMDL) approach to improve the water quality and protect the aquatic ecosystem. Part of the program is the construction of Best Management Practice (BMP) pilot facilities basically to control NPS. Most of the BMPs adopted were foreign technologies which could not be properly employed in the country due to some limitations such as climate, watershed characteristics, etc. In other words, to be able to apply the BMPs, research on its applicability is necessary. In this study, a three-year monitoring has been conducted to assess the treatment performance of the BMP installed in highway toll plaza and parking lot. The data gathered aid in the characterization of NPS pollutants in runoff and estimation of the pollutant removal efficiency of the BMP. The results will be used for the future implementation of BMP in different land uses as well as for the determination of optimum operation and maintenance.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.145-151
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• 2009

Recently the water quality management policy has been changed from managing the point source to controlling the nonpoint sources (NPSs) because of TMDL program. Most NPSs are accumulated on the surface during dry periods. These accumulated pollutants are washed-off during a storm event and highly impairing the water quality of the receiving water bodies. Usually NPS has high uncertainty and is hard to control because of the variability of the rainfall and watershed characteristics. Also, NPS is derived from various land uses. The Ministry of Environment (MOE) is studying and monitoring the pollutant loads from each land use since 2007 to determine the unit pollutant loads. This research was a part of long-term monitoring program conducted to characterize the washoff and provide the mean EMC of artificial grassland. The average EMCs result of BOD, COD, DOC, SS, TN, NH4-N, NO3-N, TP, and PO4-P of the artificial grassland were deterined to 8.2, 17.5, 11.3, 110.1, 3.07, 0.20, 0.75, 0.86 and 0.08 mg/L, respectively. The results of statistical analysis conducted showed a low correlation to the contaminants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Environment and Ecology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.105-126
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• 2003

In Korea most of annual rainfall is concentrated in several episodic heavy rains during the season of summer monsoon and typhoon. Because of uneven rainfall distribution many dams have been constructed in order to secure water supply in dry seasons. The Han River system has the most dams among Korean rivers, and the river is a series of dams now. Reservoirs need different strategy of water quality control from river water. Autochthonous organic matter and phosphorus should be the major target to be controlled in lakes. In this Paper some problems are discussed that makes efforts of water quality improvement ineffective in lakes of Korea, even after the substantial investment to wastewater treatment facilities.1) Phosphorus is the key factor controlling eutrophication of lakes and the reduction ofphosphors should be the major target of water treatment. However, water quality management strategy in Korea is still stream-oriented, and focused on BOD removal from sewage. Phosphorus removal efficiency remains as low as 10-30%, because biological treatment is adopted for both secondary treatment and advanced treatment. The standard for TP concentration of the sewage treatment plant effluent is 6 mgP/l in most of regions, and 2 mg/l in enforced region near metropolitan water intake point. TP in the effluents of sewage treatment plants are usually 1-2 mg/1, and most of plants meet the effluent regulation without a further phosphorus removal process. The generous TP standard for effluents discourages further efforts to improve phosphorus removal efficiency of sewage treatment. Considering that TP standard for the effluent is below 0.1 mg/l in some countries, it should be amended to below 0.1 mg/l in Korea, especially in the watershed of large lakes.2) Urban runoff and combined sewer overflow are not treated, even though their total loading into lakes can be comparable to municipal sewage discharges on dry days. Chemical coagulation and rapid settling might be the solution to urban runoff in regard of intermittent operation on only rainy days.3) Aggregated precipitation in Korea that is concentrated on several episodic heavyrains per year causes a large amount of nonpoint source pollution loading into lakes. It makes the treatment of nonpoint source discharge by methods of other countries of even rain pattern, such as retention pond or artificial wetland, impractical in Korea.4) The application rate of fertilizers in Korea is ten times as high as the average ofOECD countries. The total manure discharge from animal farming is thought to be over the capacity of soil treatment in Korea. Even though large portion of manure is composted for organic fertilizer, a lot of nutrients and organic matter emanates from organic compost. The reduction of application rate and discharge rate of phosphorus from agricultural fields should be encouraged by incentives and regulations.5) There is a lot of vegetable fields with high slopes in the upstream region of the HanRiver. Soil erosion is severe due to high slopes, and fertilizer is discharged in the form of adsorbed phosphorus on clay surface. The reduction of soil erosion in the upland area should be the major preventive policy for eutrophication. Uplands of high slope must be recovered to forest, and eroded gullies should be reformed into grass-buffered natural streams which are wider and resistant to bank erosion.

• 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.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.303-310
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• 2015

Recently the water quality management policy gives priority to management the point source. Point pollution sources have definite emission points and are discharged to one point through a pipe. But Nonpoint pollution source (NPS) has uncertain pathway, pollutant load and runoff characteristics unlike point pollution sources, making them difficult to manage. Thus, the Korea government plans to develop and equip facilities that help reduce NPS so as to manage them more easily. But removal efficiency of Best Management Practice (BMPs) is in influenced by rainfall, hydrologic condition like natural phenomenon, so factors of removal efficiency are difficult. Thus there is a need for multilateral research about many factors that affect removal efficiency for removal facility design of proper non-point pollution. In this research, mapping, vegetation coverage and retention time were investigated in the case of factors that affect removal efficiency in grassed swale, a nature-type non-point removal facility. Grassed swale obtained changed of coverage using Braun-Blanquet within swale and retention time was obtained from point that rainfall effluent enters into swale to the time that first outflow starts. Besides, correlation analysis was obtained using pearson correlation analysis method. As a result, it was shown that removal efficiency increases as retention time is longer in grassed swale and that retention time increases as vegetation coverage is higher.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.849-854
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• 2009

Pollutant unit load (unit-load) reported by Ministry of Environment (MOE) in 1995 has been a useful method for watershed management and environmental policy decision. The unit-load has been estimated using effective rainfall ratio method. However, reliability of unit-load determined by the method has been criticized especially for paddy field and upland conditions. In this paper the unit-load of paddy field estimated by effective rainfall ratio method was compared with continuous monitoring data. Annual loads was simulated by the method choosing 5~6 storm events randomly from whole events collected. Probability distribution of difference between results by the method and measured data was investigated. The results showed that unit-load derived by the method was generally lesser than measured unit-load and showed wide variations. Therefore, unit-load estimation of paddy fields by effective rainfall ratio method need caution.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.37-58
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• 2013

In recently, the low impact development(LID) is discussed at various fields being related to urban stormwater, non-point source pollution, and quality of life. It is understood as an integrated development tool to induce sustainable development with various value-social, economic, and aesthetic. As concerning the development of waterfront area, the low impact development is interested in environmental planning. But the planning process and factors are not considered in precedent research. This study has two purposes. The one is to understand the planning process and factors of low impact development from literature review. The other is to apply the planning factors using case study and to know the effect of low impact development as the simulation plan. The simulation plan is based on some landuse planning. It is divided into the setting the region for environmental protection and the function of public facilities, spatial planning for enlarging permeable area, and spatial planning for circulation of water. The simulation model uses the LIDMOD2. The 14 planning factors of low impact development is applied to case region. And the effect is about 7~10 percent in reduction of nonpoint source pollution and surface runoff.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.291-296
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• 2008

Pollutant unit load developed by Ministry of Environment (MOE) in 1995 has been a tool commonly used for water quality management and environmental policy decision. In spite of the convenience of the method in application, the shortcoming of the method has been criticized especially for nonpoint source pollution from paddy field. In this paper the estimation procedures of pollutant unit load from paddy field in the major river basins (Han, Nakdong, Geum, and Youngsan river) were investigated, and some suggestions of improvement measures of the unit-load estimation were made. The investigation showed that the distributions of rainfall, run-off, and run-off ratio, which are the most important factors affecting discharge amount of pollutants, were not similar among river basins. Such differences seemed to result in a greater unit loads estimation at Han river and at Nakdong river watersheds compared to the others. Therefore, it is not likely to be rationale to compare unit load among the watersheds without consideration of such differences. We conclude that estimation of unit-load through an intensive monitoring of pollutant discharge is crucial for better estimation of unit-load. When such an intensive monitoring is not easy due to labor and expense restriction, we suggest that unit-load should be estimated based on the storm-events which is a representative rainfall-runoff event of the area.