• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.412-419
• /
• 2012

This study assessed the impacts of land use types on water quality in the tributary of the Yeongsan river basin. Temporal changes in water quality parameters (BOD, COD, TOC, T-P, T-N, SS) were investigated. 13 water sampling sites were selected; they were then collected and analyzed according to the standard method. The results showed that water quality parameters of the study sites ranged as follows : BOD, from 0.3 to $21.9mg\;L^{-1}$ (mean $3.3mg\;L^{-1}$); COD, from 1.0 to $38.0mg\;L^{-1}$ ($6.4mg\;L^{-1}$); TOC, from 0.6 to $20.0mg\;L^{-1}$ ($4.5mg\;L^{-1}$); T-P, from 0.009 to $1.973mg\;L^{-1}$ ($0.144mg\;L^{-1}$); T-N, from 0.6 to $17.1mg\;L^{-1}$ (mean $3.5mg\;L^{-1}$); SS, from 0.3 to $292.0mg\;L^{-1}$ ($20.3mg\;L^{-1}$). Generally, the paddy and upland dominated region had high concentrations of water quality parameters, whereas the forest dominated region had low concentrations. In addition, water quality parameters were positively correlated with paddy and upland, whereas the parameters were negatively correlated with forest. The result implies that paddy and upland are the dominant factors leading to stream pollution in the study sites, while a higher percentage of forest area contributes to improved water quality. Therefore, it is important to manage paddy and upland in order achieve efficient management of water quality.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.143-160
• /
• 2002

Since the 1990s, arable lands in mountainous areas of South Korea have widely been abandoned due to the serious depopulation for the last few decades. Abandonment of arable lands causes not only a decline in production functions of mountainous villages, but also landscape desolation and environmental problems. Due to same cause, Japan has also experienced the serious abandonment of arable lands in mountainous areas since the 1960s. For the last decade, Japanese government has poured investment to the conservation of terraced paddy fields in hilly and mountainous areas in order to restore those environment values. The attempts of Okayama prefecture for the conservation of terraced paddy fields are well known as a successful story in Japan. In order to suggest an effective conservation means far arable lands in mountainous areas in the context of Korea, this paper examines the background and the implementation means of Japanese conservation policy of terraced paddy fields in hilly and mountainous area, focusing on the case of Okayama prefecture.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 2006.04a
• /
• pp.398-401
• /
• 2006

Two landfills of this study containing municipal wastes without any bottom liner and leachate treatment system have different landfill age, waste volume and most importantly different hydrogeologic settings. The one (Cheonan) is situated in an open flat area while the other (Wonju) is located in a valley. In the interior of the landfills, typical anaerobic conditions revealed by low DO and ${NO_3}^-$ concentrations, negative ORP values, high $NH_3$, alkalinity and $Cl^-$ concentrations were observed. Generally higher levels of contaminants were detected in the dry season while those were greatly lowered in the wet season. Significantly large decrease of Cl concentration in the wet season indicates that the dilution or mixing is one of dominant attenuation mechanisms of leachate. But detailed variation behaviors in the two landfills are largely different and they were most dependent on permeability of surface and subsurface layers. The intermediately permeable surface of 1.he landfills receives part of direct rainfall infiltration but most rainwater is lost to fast runoff. The practically impermeable surface of clayey silt (paddy field) at immediately adjacent to the Cheonan landfill boundary prevented direct rainwater infiltration and hence redox condition of the groundwaters were largely affected by that of the upper landfill and the less permeable materials beneath the paddy fields prohibited dispersion of the landfill leachate into downgradient area. In the Wonju landfill, there exist three different permeability divisions, the landfill region, the sandy open field and the paddy field. Roles of the landfill and paddy regions are very similar to those at the Cheonan. The very permeable sandy field receiving a large amount of rainwater infiltration plays a key role in controlling redox condition of the downgradient area and contaminant migration.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.91-104
• /
• 2013

The objectives of this study were to monitor and assess the environmental impacts of indirect wastewater reuse on water quality and soil in paddy fields. Yongin monitoring site (YI) irrigated from agricultural reservoir and Osan monitoring site (OS) irrigated with treated wastewater diluted with stream water were selected as control and treatment, respectively. Monitoring results for irrigation water quality showed a significant statistical difference in salinity, exchangeable cation and nutrients. Pond water quality showed a similar tendency with irrigation water except for the decreased difference in nutrients due to the fertilization impact. Soil chemical properties mainly influenced by fertilization activity such as T-N, T-P, and $P_2O_5$ were changed similarly in soil profiles of both monitoring sites, while the properties, EC, Ca, Mg, and Na, mainly effected by irrigation water quality showed a considerable change with time and soil depth in treatment plots. Heavy metal contents in paddy soil of both control and treatment did not exceed the soil contamination warning standards. This study could contribute to suggest the irrigation water quality standards and proper agricultural practices including fertilization for indirect wastewater reuse, although long-term monitoring is needed to get more scientific results.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.45 no.5
• /
• pp.792-797
• /
• 2012

Glomalin-related soil protein has been suggested as an enhancer for soil stability by promoting the aggregation. In this study, we examined the concentrations of glomalin and characteristics of microbial community in 20 paddy soils sampled from Gyeongnam Province. Total soil glomalin as glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) had a significant positive correlation with soil organic matter (p<0.01) and soil dehydrogenase activity (p<0.01). The concentration of GRSP significantly correlated to soil microbial biomass carbon (p<0.001) and the total bacterial community (p<0.01) in paddy soils. In addition, the GRSP had a significant positive correlation with gram-negative bacteria community (p<0.05) and ratio of cy19:0 to 18:$1{\omega}7c$ (p<0.05) in paddy soils. In conclusion, the concentration of GRSP could be an indicator of soil health that simplify the inspection steps for sustainable agriculture in paddy soils.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.62 no.2
• /
• pp.134-142
• /
• 2017

Crop production in rice paddy fields is of great importance because of declining rice consumption and the low self-sufficiency ratio for field crops in Korea. A controlled drainage system (CDS) is recognized as an effective means to adjust water table (WT) levels as needed and control soil water content to improve the soil environment for optimum crop growth. The present study evaluated the effects of a CDS on soil characteristics, including soil water distribution and soybean development in paddy fields. The CDS was installed with two drain spacing (3 m and 6 m) at the experimental paddy field at the National Institute of Crop Science, Miryang, Korea. It was managed with two WT levels (0.3 m and 0.6 m) during the growing season. Soil water content, electrical conductivity and plant available nitrogen content in the soil were significantly greater in the 0.3 m WT management plots than in the 0.6 m plot and the control. At the vegetative stage, chlorophyll content was significantly lower with higher WT control because of excess soil moisture, but it recovered after the flowering stage. Soybean yield increased with WT management and the 0.6 m WT treatment produced the greatest grain yield, $3.38ton\;ha^{-1}$, which was 50% greater than that of the control. The CDS directly influenced outflow through the drains, which significantly delayed nutrient loss. The results of this study indicated that WT management by CDS can influence soil characteristics and it is an important practice for high yielding soybean production in paddy fields, which should be considered the crop growth stages for stable crop production.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.143-156
• /
• 2018

Evapotranspiration is a key element in designing and operating agricultural hydraulic structures. The profound effect of climate change to local agro-hydrological systems makes it inevitable to study the potential variability in evapotranspiration rate in order to develop policies on future agricultural water management as well as to evaluate changes in agricultural environment. The APEX-Paddy model was used to simulate local evapotranspiration responses to climate change scenarios. Nine Global Climate Models(GCMs) downscaled using a non-parametric quantile mapping method and a Multi?Model Ensemble method(MME) were used for an uncertainty analysis in the climate scenarios. Results indicate that APEX-Paddy and the downscaled 9 GCMs reproduce evapotranspiration accurately for historical period(1976~2005). For future periods, simulated evapotranspiration rate under the RCP 4.5 scenario showed increasing trends by -1.31%, 2.21% and 4.32% for 2025s(2011~2040), 2055s(2041~2070) and 2085s(2071~2100), respectively, compared with historical(441.6 mm). Similar trends were found under the RCP 8.5 scenario with the rates of increase by 0.00%, 4.67%, and 7.41% for the near?term, mid?term, and long?term periods. Monthly evapotranspiration was predicted to be the highest in August, July was the month having a strong upward trend while. September and October were the months showing downward trends in evapotranspiration are mainly resulted from the shortening of the growth period of paddy rice due to temperature increase and stomatal closer as ambient $CO_2$ concentration increases in the future.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.317-323
• /
• 2018

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to evaluate the water-dispersible clay content of paddy soils over the country in the summer rainy season as affected by cultivated years using heavy agro-machinery and soil properties such as texture and exchangeable sodium percentage. METHODS AND RESULTS: Water-dispersible clay content of 16 soil series of Korean paddy soils over the country were investigated in summer rainy season from July to August, 2006 by Middleton's method. Water-dispersible clay content ranged from non-detected to 4.8%, showing maximum value from the fine textured soils and high clay dispersibility in average from the coarse textured soils. Longer cultivated years using agro-machinery more than 40 hp result in higer water-dispersible clay content for 60% of studied paddy soils with less than 5% of exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP). Exceptionally, soils with relatively big difference of ESP at about 10 percent showed higher water-dispersible clay content with higher ESP. CONCLUSION: Long years of cultivation using agro-machinery with more than 40 hp enhanced water-dispersiblility of clay in approximately 60% of the studied paddy fields except for salt-affected soils.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.99-119
• /
• 2018

Unit load factor, which is used for the quantification of non-point pollution in watersheds, has the limitation that it does not reflect spatial characteristics of soil, topography and temporal change due to the interannual or seasonal variability of precipitation. Therefore, we developed the method to estimate a watershed-scale non-point pollutant load using seasonal forecast data that forecast changes of precipitation up to 6 months from present time for watershed-scale water quality management. To establish a preemptive countermeasure against non-point pollution sources, it is possible to consider the unstructured management plan which is possible over several months timescale. Notably, it is possible to apply various management methods such as control of sowing and irrigation timing, control of irrigation through water management, and control of fertilizer through fertilization management. In this study, APEX-Paddy model, which can consider the farming method in field scale, was applied to evaluate the applicability of seasonal forecast data. It was confirmed that the rainfall amount during the growing season is an essential factor in the non-point pollution pollutant load. The APEX-Paddy model for quantifying non-point pollution according to various farming methods in paddy fields simulated similarly the annual variation tendency of TN and TP pollutant loads in rice paddies but showed a tendency to underestimate load quantitatively.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.57 no.6
• /
• pp.125-130
• /
• 2015

Field study was carried out to assess the effect of automatic inlet and filtration outlet to reduce non-point source discharge and save agricultural irrigation water from paddy. The comparison of control and treated plots showed that irrigation water was saved up to 58 mm and discharge water was reduced up to 110 mm. The filtration outlet improved the discharge water quality for SS, COD, TN and TP up to 60.1 %, 0.1 %, 4.5 %, and 26.0 %, respectively. Overall, the findings of this study indicated that non-point source pollution discharged from paddy fields where automatic inlet and filtration outlet were installed could be reduced 266.3 kg/ha/yr in SS, 10.3 kg/ha/yr in COD, 1.22 kg/ha/yr in TN, and 0.10 kg/ha/yr in TP, respectively. This clearly showed that the automatic inlet and filtration outlet are effective management method for saving of agricultural water and protecting water environment.