• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.37-52
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• 2020

Sensitivity analysis of hydrodynamic and reaction parameters in conceptual model reflecting aquifer characteristics of Korea was performed to evaluate the uncertainty in the predicted concentrations. Among the hydrodynamic input parameters, both hydraulic conductivity (K_x) and hydraulic gradient (I) affected transport behaviors of contaminants, and resulted in same convergence concentrations with continuous injections of contaminant. However, longitudinal dispervisity (α_L) affected both transport behaviors and the convergence concentrations of contaminants. Compared to the hydrodynamic parameters, growth kinetic and degradation parameters (μ_m & K_c) more significantly affected both transport behaviors and the convergence concentrations of contaminants, indicating those parameters had higher sensitivity indices causing the uncertainties of model predictions. Considering that the sensitivity indices of both hydrodynamic and reaction parameters were a function of transport distance of groundwater, the parameters with higher sensitivity indices, a priori, need to be investigated using conceptual model reflecting site-specific aquifer characteristics before field investigation. After determining the parameters with higher sensitivity indices, the detail field investigations for the selected hydrodynamic and reaction parameters were warranted to reduce the uncertainties of model predictions.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.539-547
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• 2018

Objectives: Ozone ($O_3$) advisories are issued by provincial/prefectural and city governments in Korea and Japan when oxidant concentrations exceed the criteria of the related country. Advisories issued only after exposure to high $O_3$ concentrations cannot be considered ideal measures. Forecasts of $O_3$ would be more beneficial to citizens' health and daily life than real-time advisories. The present study was undertaken to present a simplified forecasting model that can predict surface $O_3$ concentrations for the afternoon of the day of the forecast. Methods: For the construction of a simple and practical model, a multivariate regression model was applied. The monitored data on gases and climate variables from Japan's air quality networks that were recorded over nearly one year starting from April 2016 were applied as the subject for our model. Results: A well-known inverse correlation between $NO_2$ and $O_3$ was confirmed by the monitored data for Iksan, Korea and Fukuoka, Japan. Typical time fluctuations for $O_3$ and $NO_x$ were also found. Our model suggests that insolation is the most influential factor in determining the concentration of $O_3$. $CH_4$ also plays a major role in our model. It was possible to visually check for the fit of a theoretical distribution to the observed data by examining the probability-probability (P-P) scatter plot. The goodness of fit of the model in this study was also successfully validated through a comparison (r=0.8, p<0.05) of the measured and predicted $O_3$ concentrations. Conclusions: The advantage of our model is that it is capable of immediate forecasting of surface $O_3$ for the afternoon of the day from the routinely measured values of the precursor and meteorological parameters. Although a comparison to other approaches for $O_3$ forecasting was not carried out, the model suggested in this study would be very helpful for the citizens of Korea and Japan, especially during the $O_3$ season from May to June.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.183-196
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• 2015

Migration of leachate generated through embankment of construction waste soil (CWS) in low-lying areas was studied through physical and chemical analysis. A leachate solution containing soluble cations from CWS was found to have a pH above 9.0. To determine the distribution coefficients in the alkali solution, column and migration tests were conducted in the laboratory. The physical and chemical properties of CWS satisfied environmental soil criteria; however, the pH was high. The effective diffusion coefficients for CWS ions fell within the range of $0.725-3.3{\times}10^{-6}cm^2/s$. Properties of pore water and the amount of undissolved gas in pore water influenced advection-diffusion behavior. Contaminants migrating from CWS exhibited time-dependent concentration profiles and an advective component of transport. Thus, the transport equations for CWS contaminant concentrations satisfied the differential equations in accordance with Fick's 2nd law. Therefore, the migration of the contaminant plume when the landfilling CWS reaches water table can be predicted based on pH using the effective diffusion coefficient determined in a laboratory test.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.993-1003
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• 2008

Interior space in most buildings is divided into several zones. The most important factors relating to the indoor air environment are temperature, airflow, humidity, and contaminant concentration. An integrated multizone model to predict these environmental factors simultaneously was developed. Also, a computer program for this model was written by the language of VISUAL BASIC. The proposed model was applied to a apartment with five rooms that had been tested by Chung. Comparison of predicted results by this study with measured results by Chung showed that their variations were within 14% for airflow rates, 1% for temperatures, 12% for humidities, and 5% for concentrations. It was seen that the opening operation schedule of building has a significant effect on the air moisture md contaminant removal. Thus, this model may be available for predicting the indoor air environment and may be contributed to design the ventilation plan for controling of indoor air quality.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.2187-2195
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• 2000

A water treatment system using membrane separation technology can provide stable effluent quality and its maintenance is relatively easy comparing to the conventional water treatment system. In addition, the membrane filtration system is very compact such that it can replace existing water treatment processes of coagulation/sedimentation/filtration by only one process. However, a major problem associated with membrane filtration is flux decline with operating time due to concentration polarization and fouling, so a systematic study on evaluation of long-term filtration performance is necessary. A membrane filtration system using tubular type ultrafiltration membranes with MWCO of 30.000 Da was constructed for this study and it had been operated in a feed-and-discontinuous bleed mode. Flux was stabilized after operation of 1.500 hours and maintaining above 25 LMH until 4.000 hours. Contaminants causing SS and turbidity were almost completely removed while the $UV_{260}$ and DOC removals were 55% and 49%, respectively. A simple mass balance equation was developed to predict maximum concentrations of SS, turbidity, $UV_{260}$ and DOC in a operation cycle. For SS and turbidity the measured max, concentrations in each cycle agree well with the predicted values while the measured max, concentrations of $UV_{260}$ and DOC were 59% and 37% of the predicted values, respectively.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.28
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• pp.13.1-13.5
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• 2013

Objectives: Potential environmental risks caused by chemicals that could be released from a recycled plastic product were assessed using a screening risk assessment procedure for chemicals in recycled products. Methods: Plastic slope protection blocks manufactured from recycled plastics were chosen as model recycled products. Ecological risks caused by four model chemicals - di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), diisononyl phthalate (DINP), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb)-were assessed. Two exposure models were built for soil below the block and a hypothetic stream receiving runoff water. Based on the predicted no-effect concentrations for the selected chemicals and exposure scenarios, the allowable leaching rates from and the allowable contents in the recycled plastic blocks were also derived. Results: Environmental risks posed by slope protection blocks were much higher in the soil compartment than in the hypothetic stream. The allowable concentrations in leachate were $1.0{\times}10^{-4}$, $1.2{\times}10^{-5}$, $9.5{\times}10^{-3}$, and $5.3{\times}10^{-3}mg/L$ for DEHP, DINP, Cd, and Pb, respectively. The allowable contents in the recycled products were $5.2{\times}10^{-3}$, $6.0{\times}10^{-4}$, $5.0{\times}10^{-1}$, and $2.7{\times}10^{-1}mg/kg$ for DEHP, DINP, Cd, and Pb, respectively. Conclusions: A systematic ecological risk assessment approach for slope protection blocks would be useful for regulatory decisions for setting the allowable emission rates of chemical contaminants, although the method needs refinement.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.609-626
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• 2013

Air quality models have been widely used to study and simulate many air quality issues. In the simulation, it is important to raise the accuracy of meteorological predicted data because the results of air quality modeling is deeply connected with meteorological fields. Therefore in this study, we analyzed the effects of meteorological fields on the air quality simulation. This study was designed to evaluate MM5 predictions by using different initial condition data and different observations utilized in the data assimilation. Among meteorological scenarios according to these input data, the results of meteorological simulation using National Centers for Environmental Prediction (Final) Operational Global Analysis data were in closer agreement with the observations and resulted in better prediction on ozone concentration. And in Seoul, observations from Regional Meteorological Office for data assimilations of MM5 were suitable to predict ozone concentration. In other areas, data assimilation using both observations from Regional Meteorological Office and Automatical Weather System provided valid method to simulate the trends of meteorological fields and ozone concentrations. However, it is necessary to vertify the accuracy of AWS data in advance because slightly overestimated wind speed used in the data assimilation with AWS data could result in underestimation of high ozone concentrations.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.23-30
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• 2011

Risk based pollution level of Pb and Cd in metal contaminated soils depending on physicochemical properties of soil in a target site was assessed using biotic ligand model. Heavy metal activity in soil solution defined as exposure activity (EA) was assumed to be toxic to Vibrio fischeri and soil organisms. Predicted effective activity (PEA) determined by biotic ligand model was compared to EA value to calculate risk quotient. Field contaminated soils (n = 10) were collected from a formes area and their risk based pollution levels were assessed in the present study using the calculated risk quotient. Concentrations of Pb determined by aqua regia were 295, 258, and 268 mg/kg in B, H and J points and concentrations of Cd were 4.73 and 6.36 mg/kg in G and I points, respectively. These points exceeded the current soil conservation standards. However, risk based pollution levels of the ten points were not able to be calculated because concentrations of Pb and Cd in soil solution were smaller than detection limits or one (i.e., non toxic). It was because heavy metal activity in soil solution was dominant toxicological form to organisms, not a total heavy metal concentration in soil. In addition, heavy metal toxicity was decreased by competition effect of major cations and formation of complex with dissolved organic carbon in soil solution. Therefore, it is essential to consider site-specific factors affecting bioavailability and toxicity for estimating reliable risk of Pb and Cd.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.329-339
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• 2014

This study aims to estimate chlorophyll-a concentration in rivers using multi-spectral RapidEye imagery and Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) and assess the applicability of SMA for multi-temporal imagery analysis. Comparison between images (acquired on Oct. and Nov., 2013) predicted and ground reference chlorophyll-a concentration showed significant performance statistically with determination coefficients of 0.49 and 0.51, respectively. Two band (Red-RE) model for the October and November 2013 RapidEye images showed low performance with coefficient of determinations ($R^2$) of 0.26 and 0.16, respectively. Also Three band (Red-RE-NIR) model showed different performance with $R^2$ of 0.016 and 0.304, respectively. SMA derived Chlorophyll-a concentrations showed relatively higher accuracy than band ratio models based values. SMA was the most appropriate method to calculate Chlorophyll-a concentration using images which were acquired on period of low Chlorophyll-a concentrations. The results of SMA for multi-temporal imagery showed low performance because of the spatio-temporal variation of each end members. This approach provides the potential of providing a cost effective method of monitoring river water quality and management using multi-spectral imagery. In addition, the calculated Chlorophyll-a concentrations using multi-spectral RapidEye imagery can be applied to water quality modeling, enhancing the predicting accuracy.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.136-141
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• 2012

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate whether the ammonia nitrogen concentration of aqueous samples such as drinking water can be determined by measuring the saturation of the samples colored by indophenol method. Methods: A color saturation measurement system was constructed by connecting a notebook computer to an image acquisition device composed of a PC camera and a light source, and was then used to measure the saturation of samples colored by blue indophenol complex. Results: Between two available light sources, a fluorescent lamp was selected due to its demonstrating better linearity between color saturation and ammonia nitrogen concentration. Prediction by quadratic regression was more accurate than by linear regression, and prediction by quadratic regression in the concentration range of 0.1-1.0 $mg/l$ was more accurate than in the concentration range of 0.0-1.0 $mg/l$. Regression-based predictions over 0.25 $mg/l$, 0.55 $mg/l$ and 0.75 $mg/l$ concentrations were implemented both by spectrophotometric method and by measuring color saturation. In the case of 0.25 $mg/l$, the predicted concentration by spectrophotometric method was $0.256{\pm}0.0076\;mg/l$ and the predicted concentration by measuring color saturation was $0.246{\pm}0.0086\;mg/l$ (p=0.051). In the case of 0.55 $mg/l$, they were $0.561{\pm}0.0068\;mg/l$ and $0.564{\pm}0.0166\;mg/l$ (p=0.660). In the case of 0.75 $mg/l$, they were $0.755{\pm}0.0139\;mg/l$ and $0.762{\pm}0.0088\;mg/l$ (p=0.215). Conclusions: There were no statistically significant differences (p>0.05) between the data from the two methods in all three of the concentrations. Therefore, the color saturation measurement method proposed in this paper may be considered applicable for determining the ammonia nitrogen concentration of aqueous samples such as drinking water.