• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1085-1099
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• 2019

We investigated the spatial and temporal variation in characteristics and pollution assessment of sediments in the watersheds of Andong-Dam and Imha-Dam, in Korea. Surface sediments were collected from six sites once a year for three years (2015-2017), and analyzed for organic matter (water content, IL, COD, TOC, TN, and TP), grain size, and concentration of trace metals (Al, Li, Zn, Cr, Pb, Cu, Ni, and As). Organic matter generally tended to increase, and was higher in the Andong watershed compare to Imha watershed. Surface sediments were mainly composed of silt. Coarse sediments were mainly distributed at the site adjacent to Andong-Dam, and showed fining after coarsening. Fine sediment were mainly distributed at the site adjacent to Imha-Dam, and were gradually coarsening. Concentration of trace metals generally tended to increase, and was higher for sites in watershed of Andong watershed (PLI > 1) than for sites in Imha watershed (PLI < 1). Trace metals in the study area were considered to be affected by fine sediment (silt), and contamination of trace metals was somewhat affected by Pb, and greatly affected by Zn and As.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.699-709
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• 2017

We measured the grain size, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Pb, and Zn) in order to understand the spatial distribution and pollution level of organic matter and metals in surface sediment around Goseong Bay, a shellfish farming area, Korea. The surface sediments were composed of finer sediments such as mud and clay. The concentration of TOC, TN, and heavy metals were much higher in the innermost bay than in the mouth and outside of bay. The spatial distribution of organic matter and heavy metals and C/N ratio (5-10) in sediment showed that the organic matter and heavy metals in sediment of the study region were significantly influenced by oceanic origin organic matter and anthropogenic sources, respectively. Based on the results of four assessment techniques (sediment quality guideline, geoaccumulation index, pollution load index, ecological risk index), the sediments around the Goseong Bay were a little polluted for heavy metals and the high metal concentrations in the northern region of bay could adverse impact on benthic organisms in sediment. Thus, the systematic management plan for the improvement of water and sediment environment and the concentrated monitoring of pollutants for sustainable aquaculture and seafood safety around Goseong Bay are necessary in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.392-402
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• 2020

We investigated the concentrations of acid volatile sulfide (AVS), ignition loss (IL), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and metallic elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Pb, and Zn), in August 2015, to determine the spatial distribution and pollution status of organic matter and metals in the surface sediment of Jinju Bay, a spraying shellfish farming area, Korea. The concentrations of organic matter and metallic elements were significantly higher in the southern part of the bay than in the mouth and center of the bay. The C/N ratio (5.7~8.0) in the sediment represents the dominance of organic matter of oceanic origin in the surface sediment of the study area. The concentrations of AVS, TOC, and metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, and Zn) were much lower than the values of the sediment quality guidelines applied in Korea. Based on the results of the pollution load index (PLI) and ecological risk index (ERI), the metal concentrations in the surface sediment of Jinju Bay have a weakly negative ecological effect on benthic organisms although the sediments with high metal pollution status are distributed in the southern parts of the bay, with high dense shellfish farming areas. Thus, the surface sediments in Jinju Bay are not polluted with organic matter and are slightly polluted with metallic elements.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.11
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• pp.823-835
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• 2023

Recently, due to the increase in abnormal climate, rainfall intensity is increasing and drought periods are continuing. These environmental changes lead to prolonged drought conditions and difficulties in real-time recognition. In general, drought can be judged by the amount of precipitation and the number of days without rainfall. In determining the impact of drought, it is divided into meteorological drought, agricultural drought, and hydrological drought and evaluation is made using the drought index, but environmental drought evaluation is insufficient. The river water quality managed through the total water pollution cap system is vulnerable to the effects of such drought. In this study, we aim to determine the drought impact on river water quality and quantify the impact of prolonged drought on water quality. The impact of rain-free days and accumulated precipitation on river water quality was quantitatively evaluated. The Load Duration Curve (LDC), which is used to evaluate the water quality of rivers, was used to evaluate water pollution occurring at specific times. It has been observed that when the number of consecutive rainless days exceeds 14 days, the target water quality in the mid-basin is exceeded in over 60% of cases. The cumulative rainfall is set at 28 days as the criteria, with an annual average rainfall of 3%, which is 32.1 mm or less. It has been noted that changes in water quality in rivers occur when there are 14 or more rainless days and the cumulative rainfall over 28 days is 32.1 mm or less in the Gamcheon Mid-basin. Based on the results of this study, it aims to quantify the drought impact and contribute to the development of a drought water quality index for future environmental droughts.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2007

Simple regression models for pollutants load estimation of paddy developed by the Ministry of Environment in 1995 were tested with the data (T-N, T-P, $COD_{Mn}$, and SS) collected from Yeongsan and Seomjin river watersheds, and improvement measures were suggested. Overall, the simulated values showed a great difference from the measured values except for T-P according to the statistical analyses (RMSE, root mean square error; RMAE, root mean absolute error; RB, relative bias; EI, efficiency index). Such difference was assumed due to the fact that the models use only hydrologic factors (quantity factor) associated with precipitation and run-off as input parameters, but do not consider other factors which are likely to affect pollutant concentration (quality factor) including days after fertilization. In addition, in terms of accessibility of the models, some parameters in the models such as run-off depth and run-off amount which can not be obtained from the weather database but should be collected by on-site measurements need to be replaced with other variables.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.439-445
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• 2010

An emergy analysis of the main energy flows driving the economy of humans and life support systems consists of environmental energies, fuels, and imports, all expressed as solar emjoules. Total emergy use (371 E20 sej/yr) of the Western Nakdong River Basin is 97 per cent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. Emergy flows from the environment such as rain and geological uplift flux accounted for only 2.9 percent of total emergy use. Emergy yield ratio and environment loading ratio were 1.03 and 33.27, respectively. Emergy sustainability index, a ratio of emergy yield ratio to environment loading ratio, is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. It is necessary for an efficient management of Western Nakdong River Basin to reduce pollution load basically and to restructure economic activities into an environmental friendly industrial structure depending on renewable energy and resources.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.510-520
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• 2021

To understand the status of organic matter and heavy metal pollution in surface sediment of a fish farming area, we have measured the concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Pb, and Zn) in surface sediments of a fish farming area near Tongyoung-Geoje coast. The mean concentrations of TOC and TN were 22.7 mg/g and 3.4 mg/g, respectively, and were much higher than those in surface sediments of a semi-enclosed bay in the southern coast of Korea. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Pb, and Zn were 10.5 mg/kg, 0.37 mg/kg, 82.9 mg/kg, 127 mg/kg, 4.19%, 0.041 mg/kg, 596 mg/kg, 39.5 mg/kg, and 175 mg/kg, respectively, and the mean concentrations of Cd and Cu were three times higher than those in surface sediments of shellfish farming area in the southeastern coast of Korea. In addition, the concentrations of TOC and corrected Cu exceeded the values of sediment quality guidelines applied in Korea, and pollution load index (PLI) and ecological risk index (ERI) showed that the metal concentrations in the sediments of some fish farming area have a strongly negative ecological impact on benthic organisms, although most metal concentrations did not exceed the sediment quality guidelines. Based on overall assessment results, the surface sediments of fish farming areas in the study region are polluted with organic matter and some heavy metals. Thus, a comprehensive management plan is necessary to improve the sedimentary environments, identify primary contamination sources, and reduce the input of pollution load for organic matter and heavy metals in the sediments of fish farming areas.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.460-473
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• 2017

In order to certificate the contamination assessment of heavy metals in surface sediments from the Nakdong river. Surface sediments were collected of 24 sampling sites (main 14st., tributary 10st.) and analyzed for grain size heavy metals contents. Study area mainly composed of sand (avg. 94.1%) and mean grain size was $1.46{\Phi}$ on average. Heavy metals contents (avg. Al: 12.5%, Zn; 74.4, Cr: 45.3, Li: 26.0, Pb: 17.1, Ni: 10.5, Cu: 7.8, Cd: 0.22 mg/kg) were relatively high contents in the composed of fine sediments. In addition, the results of pearson's correlation coefficient showed that most heavy metals and grain size (silt and clay) were highly correlated. The contents of Zn (6st.) and Ni (1st.) evaluated as moderately polluted, Zn (6st.) evaluated as LEL when compared with sediment quality standard of USEPA and Ontario sediment quality guidelines. Most heavy metals contents were I levels that dose not affected the benthos when compared with sediment pollution evaluation standard of NIER. The results of EX, EF, Igeo and CF showed the contents of Zn, Pb and Cd exceed the background contents and distributing of anthropogenic pollution and evaluated as moderately polluted level. And Nm-08 were relatively high level of contamination in the study area. However as results of PLI (less than 1), all sampling sites were evaluated unpolluted level.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.16-31
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• 2003

The water quality environment in Youngsan and Seumjin river basins was investigated based on the concept of the comprehensive Water Quality Index (WQI) and a spacial pollution source. Artificial factors influencing to river water quality have been analyzed. The specific delivery load of Youngsan river basin was found to be 8.34~97.25 kg/day/$\textrm{km}^2$, Gomagwon stream and Gwangju stream showed the relatively high rates as 97.25 kg/day/$\textrm{km}^2$ and 86.06 kg/day/$\textrm{km}^2$, respectively. The specific delivery load in Seumjin river basin was estimated to be 10.98∼19.51 kg/day/$\textrm{km}^2$, Suggesting no Significant Contribution of pollution. WQI of Youngsan watershed revealed 1.36~3.45, whereas Seumjin watershed showed a relatively low value of 0.5~1.47 And it is concluded that the specific delivery load suggested in this study provides the essential core data of the upper limit of pollutants receptor in the watershed area studied. From this study, it is suggested that the integrated environmental management of river basin requires the analysis of pollutants generation rate of the basin and the receptor capability for the self-purification.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.453-464
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• 2013

Heavy metals in the mangrove sediments of Chuuk and Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia were analyzed to examine the pollution levels of heavy metals using enrichment factor (EF) and pollution load index (PLI). The mean concentrations of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb in surface mangrove sediments were 642, 125, 46.9, 149, 15.6, 0.14 and 8.55 ${\mu}g$, respectively. Kosrae mangrove sediments showed the highest concentrations of Cr and Ni while Chuuk contains more of other metals such as Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb. Compared to those from other mangrove regions of the world, Cr, Ni and As levels in mangrove sediments from Micronesia were at higher levels whereas Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb were at lower to median levels. In core sediment of Chuuk, metal concentrations in the upper part were higher than those in the lower part. Based on the EF and PLI values, As is evaluated as the heaviest contaminant in the surface sediment from Micronesia whilst other metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb) are present at slightly lesser levels.