• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.834-840
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• 2010

To find out the toxin production characteristics of Korean harmful cyanobacteria, we isolated 14 cyanobacterial strains from Korean lakes and rivers and analyzed the kinds and cellular content of microcystins (MCYSTs) of cyanobacterial isolates using cultured biomass. And we measured the MCYSTs production by growth phase of two representative toxic strains, Microcystis aeruginosa (HG-015) and Anabaena planktonica (HG-012). Among seven cyanobacteral species, Microcystis wesenbergii showed the highest cellular MCYSTs content. MCYST-RR was the most dominant toxin reaching more than 85% of MCYSTs produced by isolated cyanbacterial strains. During the mass culture, Microcystis aeruginosa (HG-015) showed the highest yield and accumulation of MCYSTs in the exponential growth phase. However the cellular content of chlorophyll a and MCYSTs of Anabaena planktonica (HG-012) showed higher value in the stationary and early death phase than in the exponential growth phase. Our results suggest that control and removal of harmful cyanobacterial bloom before exponential growth phase may be effective to prevent health risk of cyanobacterial toxins in the drinking water sources.

• 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 Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.319-328
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• 2014

Dorang - the Korean term for headwater streams - occupy a large portion of the total stream length in a basin, and contribute significantly towards the quantitative and qualitative characteristics, and the ecosystem, of the main river. The Ministry of Environment of South Korea has supported the investigation of the status of Dorang in the nation's four major basins, since 2007. Without a widely accepted academic or legal definition of Dorang, however, there are limits to understand the distribution of Dorang at the national scale and to systematically compile a Dorang database. This paper, through a review of the stream classification system and Korean legal system delineating streams, defines Dorang as 1st and 2nd order streams according to the Strahler ordering method, in a 1:25,000 geographical scale. Analysis of the Geum River basin, with this definition, reveals that the total length of Dorang is 20,622.4 km (73.6% of total stream length), and the number of Dorang catchments is 23,639 (71.3% of the basin area). Further analysis of the geomorphological characteristics of Dorang catchments shows that the average total stream length is 1.1 km, average catchment length is 1.2 km, average drainage area is $0.4km^2$, and average drainage density is 3.08/km.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.42-51
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• 2012

This study investigated the characteristics of natural organic matter (NOM) with general water characteristics (pH, DO, electrical conductivity, BOD, COD, TN, TP, Chl-$a$, DOC, $UV_{254}$, SUVA) and the 3D fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (FEEM) in the Yeongsan River basin. FEEM was used to classify protein-like and fulvic & humiclike substances with fluorescence intensity in the matrix of excitation and emission wavelength. The concentration of BOD, COD, TN, electrical conductivity and DOC in the region of Gwangju city (Gwangju sewage treatment plant: GJS, Gwangjucheon: GJC, Gwangju 2: GJ2) was relatively higher than the upper reaches and lower reaches of the Yeongsan River basin. SUVA in most sites was lower than 3 L $mg^{-1}\;m^{-1}$ as the hydrophilic substances, except Damyang (DY) in the upper reaches of Yeongsan river was higher than 3 L $mg^{-1}\;m^{-1}$ as the hydrophobic substances during winter and autumn. In the FEEM investigation the fulvic and humic substances were found in most sites, and in sites regarding Gwangju city (GJS, GJC, GJ2) during winter and GJC in summer, protein-like substances were found. The trend of fluorescence intensities from the upper reaches to the lower reaches in most sites corresponded to that regarding the concentration of water characteristics (BOD, COD, TN, DOC). That is why the region of Gwangju city (GJS, GJC, GJ2) was relatively higher. This results were an equivalent trend to those of fluorescence index (FI) in most sites, and the higher FIs in the sites of Gwangju city indicate more microbial-derived substances due to enormous effluent organic matters (EfOM) from huge Gwangju sewage treatment plants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1996.11b
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• pp.43-67
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• 1996

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.539-548
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• 2014

This study was carried out to investigate algal community structures and their correlations with environmental factors on five weir areas in the Nakdong River, South Korea. Water qualities, hydrodynamics, meteorological conditions and algal species compositions were observed in studied sites from May 2010 to Dec. 2013. Results showed that average total phosphorus concentration of 2013 was decreased by 52.4% in comparing with that from 2010 to 2011. Chlorophyll.a concentrations were positive significant with water temperature, pH, total phosphorus and total nitrogen, but is not significant with turbidity and suspended solids. Seasonal successions of algae were observed that Stephanodiscus sp. was dominant species with 65.3% of dominant frequency in studied site. Large algal biomass of the low temperature-adapted diatoms were observed during temperature range of $4{\sim}9^{\circ}C$, but large cyanobacterial biomass mainly during high temperature period ranged from $22^{\circ}C$ to $32^{\circ}C$. Microcystis sp. dominated during high water temperature in summer. The yearly correlations of algal biomass with accumulated solar radiations were not significant but seasonal correlations of summer from June to August were significant with correlation coefficient 0.33 (p<0.05). There were not significant correlations between turbidities and algal biomass. Turbidity and suspended solids concentrations were not significant correlation with algal biomass. According to the results, algal communities had strong correlation with water temperature and had partially correlation with solar radiation. For an effective management of algal blooms, water managers should survey with more long-term monitoring of various environmental factors and algal communities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.11
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• pp.641-649
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• 2017

In the study, the water quality of the Imjin River basin with pollutants of changing characteristics it was determined through statistical analysis, correlation analysis, principle component and factor analysis, and cluster analysis. Among all analyzed data points, the average water quality concentration at the Sincheon 3 site shows high levels of BOD 13.4 mg/L, COD 19.9 mg/L, T-N 11.145 mg/L, T-P 0.336 mg/L, TOC 14.2 mg/L, indicating that Sincheon basin requires intersive water quality management out of the entire drainage basin. The correlational analysis of comprehensive water quality data shows statistically significant correlation between COD, TOC, BOD, T-N water quality factors, as well as finding of high correlation between organic and nutrients. The principal component analysis show that 2 main components being extracted at 81.221% from the measuring station's entire data, while seasonal data show 3 main components being extracted at 96.241%. Factor analysis of the entire data set and the seasonal data identify BOD, COD, T-N, T-P, TOC as the common factors influencing water quality. The spatial and temporal cluster analysis showed 4 groups and 3 groups, respectively, according to seasonal characteristics and land use. By analysing the water quality factors for the Imjin River basins over an 8 year period, with consideration to the spatial and temporal characteristics, this study will become the fundamental analytic data that will help understand the future changes of water quality in the Imjin River basin.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.243-251
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• 2010

Evapotranspiration and rainfall-runoff are the major components of hydrological cycle and thereby the changes of them can directly affect the wetness/dryness or runoff characteristics of basins. In this study the wetness/dryness in Geum river basin are classified by dint of cumulative probability density function of monthly moisture index and the long term changes of them are analyzed based on climatic water balance concept. The drought events in Geum river basin are selected through evaluation of monthly moisture index and the various hydrological properties of them are investigated in detail. Also the trends of time-series of climatic water balance components are examined by Seasonal Kendall test and the variability of hydrological cycle in Geum river basin during the recent decade is inquired. It is judged that the results of this study can be contributed to establishment of the counter plan against the future drought events as the fundamental information.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.351-356
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• 2002

Groundwater recharge rate was estimated by applying the groundwater level fluctuation method utilizing Theis (1937) approach with specific yield estimation technique of Shevenell (1996) and the temperature method using observed data from National Groundwater Observation Stations. Results based on analysis of water level observation data of 10 alluvium wells reveal that the recharge rates for 5 wells of Kum river area range 3.7~25.0% and those for 5 wells of Nakdong river area range 3.6~21.7%. Results obtained from the temperature method based on water temperature data indicated that the upward flow resulted from evapotranspiration is dominant for 4 wells of the Kum river area and 5 wells of the Nakdong river area. The other wells showed the downward flow which is related to groundwater recharge in these areas.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.12-17
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• 2006

Natural rivers have water purification functions called Gravel Contact Oxidation Process, which decontaminate river water by biological absorption, oxidation and degradation on riverbed gravels. This function has been developed and applied to many small/medium-sized urban rivers in Japan as one of the direct river water purification methods. However the method hasn't been verified in the tropics, which have different climate conditions and river characteristics. A preliminary experiment carried out at a polluted urban tributary in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where an increasing attention has been paid to river environment, showed a good applicability to the tropical conditions as a technically practical water purification measure with some maintenance cares for sludge management.