• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.14-27
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• 2024

Unlike the shelf sand ridges moribund in motion, nearshore sand ridges are highly mobile, sensitive to changes in ocean environments, thereby becoming of particular interest with respect to morphological changes. About 5 km off the Daesan port, the Jangan Sand Ridge has been undergoing severe subsea morphological change over the past two decades. Understanding the nature of sand ridges is critical to elucidate the causes of morphological changes. In this context, this study aims at understanding the characteristics and distribution patterns of surface sediments of the ridge and its vicinity. For this purpose, 227 sediment samples were acquired using a grab-sampler, the grain sizes being analysed by the sieve-pipette method. In addition, comparison of grain sizes in sediments between 1997 and 2021 was made in order to investigate the 25-years change in sediment composition. Surface sediments along the ridge axis are fine to medium sands with 2-3 phi in mean grain size, whereas, in the trough of ridge, the sediments are composed of gravels and muddy sandy gravels with mean sizes of -2 to -6 phi. Sediments in the crest of the ridge are well-sorted with normal distribution, on the other hand, the basal sediments are poorly-sorted and positively skewed. Along the ridge crest, the sediments are negatively skewed. From 1997 to 2021, the ridge sediments became largely coarser about 0.5 phi. Such coarsening trend in mean grain size can be explained either by elimination of fine sediments during high waves in winter or elimination of fines suspended during sand mining activities in the past. Spatial distribution pattern of surface sediments shows that ca. 30 m thick of the sand ridge itself overlies the thin relict gravels. The strong asymmetry of sand ridge, the exposure of ridge base, and reworked gravel lags suggest that Jangan sand ridge is probably sediment-deficit and hence erosive in nature at present.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.221-230
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• 2016

This paper presents a preliminary study on the influence of laterite soil replacing conventional fine aggregates on the strength properties of GGBS-blended-concrete. For this purpose, GGBS-blended-concrete samples with 40% GGBS, 60% Portland cement (PC), and locally available laterite soil was used. Laterite soils at 0, 25, 50 and 75% by weight were used in trails to replace the conventional fine aggregates. A control mix using only PC, river sand, course aggregates and water served as bench mark in comparing the performance of the composite concrete mix. Test blocks including 60 cubes for compression test; 20 cylinders for split tensile test; and 20 beams for flexural strength test were prepared in the laboratory. Results showed decreasing trends in strength parameters with increasing laterite content in GGBS-blended-concrete. 25% and 50% laterite replacement showed convincing strength (with small decrease) after 28 day curing, which is about 87-90% and 72-85% respectively in comparison to that achieved by the control mix.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2002

The wetland is a biologically integrated system consisting of water, soil, bacteria, plants, and animals. The wetland helps sustain the ecosystem, control the micro-climate and flood, maintain the ground water level, and provide fishing grounds. From the environmental standpoint, the wetland plays a vital role in reducing water pollution by filtering out sand and other polluted matters, producing oxygen, absorbing chemicals and nutrients. For these reasons, interest in restoring the wetlands has been steadily increasing. Artificial wetland, which is also referred to as created wetland or constructed wetland, is an alternative to natural wetland. Like natural wetland, artificial wetland is environmentally friendly and can effectively lower pollutant levels. The Korea government is actively reviewing the construction of artificial wetlands in mining and water supply areas to decrease nonpoint pollutant sources. This paper attempts to develop a pollutant removal model for the water quality improvement function of artificial wetlands. Artificial wetland can improve the quality of the water; however, depending on the type of water inflow, vegetation and hydrology, its effect can be different.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.271-281
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• 2001

The characteristics of the heavy metal contamination in the soils affected by the tailings of the Palbong mine have been studied. The soils in the studied area consist mostly of loam by the particle size analysis, but a little of it, located near the stream, consist of loamy sand to sandy loam, finally to loam downward. The organic contents of soils are significantly low aoom 2 percent and the pH is in acidic ranging 6.0 $\pm$ 0.1. The samples of the parent rocks, the normal soils, the tailings and the channel deposits from the studied area were chemically analysed. From the result, the heavy metal concenlration of the soils is a little Jow compared with that of the parent rocks, shows the hydrologic process of the surface and the groundwater. The contamination of the tailings from the ore mining are high in lead, copper and arsenic. In the channel deposits the concenlrations of lead and copper are abnormally high but that of arsenic is uniquely low. And most of heavy metal contamination are decreased with the distance from the mine. It is caused by the properties of the surface and the ground water during the process of the heavy metal migration. The correlation-coefficient between sand and silt contents and the concentrations of Cd, Cu and Pb are significant but the amounts of As and Hg are increased with the clay contents. The dispersion of the heavy metals with the distance shows that the concentrations of them in the soils sampled at distance of 100 m to 200 m along the stream started near the Palbong mine are extremely high compared with those from other distances. These discrepancies are significant in Cd, Cu, Pb and Hg, but low in As. All the samples contain below detection limit of Cr+6 In the present stream water the concentrations of the heavy metals are not detected. So, it is interpreted that the concentrations in the soils are caused by the activities of the mining during the operation and have been continued by the dispersion from the tailings since after the closure of the mining, especially by the surface and ground water. The concentrations are diminished with the distance from the mining site, but in the interval of 800-2000 m increases abruptly. In the soil samples counted on the dispersion direction by wind, the lowering of the concentration is relatively uniform with the distance from the mining site. So, the rapid increase of the heavy metal concentrations is presumed to have been caused by the ground-water movement. In the migration of the heavy metals, the groundwater conditions, such as pH, Eh, the contents of colloidal particles, and Mn and Fe oxides are closely involveo. Integrating with these factors, it is interpreted that the groundwater conditions which have caused the heavy metal contamination of the studied area are those that the pH is about 3 in oxidized conditions, the contents of the colloidal particles are low, and Mn and Fe oxides are not involved in the migration of the heavy metals. Meanwhile, the vegetables growing on the soils in the studied area are not affected by the contamination of the heavy metals.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.495-524
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• 2014

To investigate the soil-pile interactive performance under lateral loads, a set of laboratory model tests was conducted on remoulded test bed of soft clay and medium dense sand. Then, a simplified boundary element analysis had been carried out assuming floating pile. In case of soft clay, it has been observed that lateral loads on piles can initiate the formation of a gap, soil heave and the tension crack in the vicinity of the soil surface and the interface, whereas in medium dense sand, a semi-elliptical depression zone can develop. Comparison of test and boundary element results indicates the accuracy of the solution developed. However, in the boundary element analysis, the possible shear stresses likely to be developed at the interface are ignored in order to simplify the existing complex equations. Moreover, it is unable to capture the influence of base restraint in case of a socketed pile. To bridge up this gap and to study the influence of the initial stress state and interface parameters, a field based case-study of laterally-loaded pile in layered soil with socketed tip is explored and modelled using the finite element method. The results of the model have been verified against known field measurements from a case-study. Parametric studies have been conducted to investigate the influence of the coefficient of lateral earth pressure and the interface strength reduction factor on the results of the model.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.523-539
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• 2017

Clay soils are typical for their swelling properties upon absorption of water during rains and development of cracks during summer time owing to the profile desorption of water through the inter-connected soil pores by water vapour diffusion leading to evaporation. This type of unstable soil phenomenon by and large poses a serious threat to the strength and stability of structures when rest on such type of soils. Even as lime and cement are extensively used for stabilization of clay soils it has become imperative to find relatively cheaper alternative materials to bring out the desired properties within the clay soil domain. In the present era of catastrophic environmental degradation as a side effect to modernized manufacturing processes, industrialization and urbanization the creative idea would be treating the waste products in a beneficial way for reuse and recycling. Bottom ash and ecosand are construed as a waste product from cement industry. An optimal combination of bottom ash-eco sand can be thought of as a viable alternative to stabilize the clay soils by means of an effective dispersion dynamics associated with the inter connected network of pore spaces. A CATIA model was created and imported to ANSYS Fluent to study the dispersion dynamics. Ion migration from the bottom ash-ecosand pile was facilitated through natural formation of cracks in clay soil subjected to atmospheric conditions. Treated samples collected at different curing days from inner and outer zones at different depths were tested for, plasticity index, Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS), free swell index, water content, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), pH and ion concentration to show the effectiveness of the method in improving the clay soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.63-71
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• 2023

The extreme cold regions, including the South and North Poles, are rich in resources, but there are many constraints on resource development projects due to difficult access and a construction environment that is completely different from that of Korea. In recent years, global warming has increased the demand for the construction of resource exploitation plants. For resource development construction activities, a preliminary site analysis is required to minimize the risk of project implementation. In this study, the factors were analyzed to be considered in construction activities in extreme cold and optimal location selection system based on Geographic information system(GIS) has been developed. As a result of applying the development system to Alberta, Canada, where oil sand development is actively underway, it was confirmed that the results were consistent with the currently operating oil sand mining area.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.181-188
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• 2009

The macro tidal flat of the Gochanggun Myongsasipri, located on the southwestern coast of Korea, is studied in terms of seasonal variations of surface sediment and sedimentary environment. Surface sediments of 45 sites in the winter (February) and the summer (August) are sampled across three survey lines (15 sites in each survey line), respectively. The tidal flat of open-coast Myongsasipri is mainly composed of fine to medium sand, the distribution of which shows a coast-parallel trend. Grain-size distribution has a bi-modal trend, and grain size in the winter is coarser than that in the summer. During the winter, the upper tidal flat is dominated by medium sand, while the lower tidal flat is dominated by find sand. Such a feature is attributed to wave-dominated sedimentation in the winter. The finer grains of the summer rather than that of the winter and relationship between texture parameters suggest that tidal energy plays an important role in tidal-flat sedimentation during the summer. This study represents an environmental change from wave-dominated conditions in the winter to tide-dominated conditions in the summer as a result of the seasonal variation in the intensity of onshore-directed winds and waves in the Myongsasipri tidal flat.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.143-156
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• 2014

We reviewed investigation status on turbidity plume in the statement of marine environmental survey(2008 to 2012) associated with marine sand extraction projects. The survey statement from seven marine sand extraction sites (extraction area of Southern EEZ, extraction area of Western EEZ, relocation zone in the Western EEZ, sea area under jurisdiction of Taean-gun, sea area under jurisdiction of Ansan City, and two discrete sea areas under jurisdiction of Ongjin-gun) in the nearshore and offshore of Korea showed that in situ observations were carried out for the dispersion and transport of suspended sediments on two areas (One is a extraction area in the EEZs, the other is an area of coastal sites). However, sampling station and range have not been selected considering physical, geographical factors (tide, wave, stratification, water depth, etc.) and weather conditions (wind direction and velocity, fetch, duration, etc). Especially turbidity plumes originating from three sources, which include suspended sediments in overflow(or overspill) discharged from spillways and reject chutes of dredging vessel, and resuspended sediments from draghead at the seabed, may be transported to a far greater distance outside the boundary of the extraction site and have undesirable impacts on the marine environment and ecosystem. We address that behaviour of environmental pollutants such as suspended solids, nutrients, and metals should be extensively monitored and diagnosed during the dispersion and transport of the plume. Finally we suggest the necessity to supplement the current system of the sea area utilization consultation and establish the combined guidelines on marine sand extraction to collect basic data, to monitor cumulative effects, and to minimize environmental damages incurred by the aftermath of sand extraction.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.226-232
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• 2016

Rainfall is one of crucial factors that impact on our environment. Rainfall data is important in water resources management, flood forecasting, and designing hydraulic structures. However, it is not available in some rural watersheds without rain gauges. Thus, effective ways of interpolating the available records are needed. Despite many widely used spatial interpolation methods, few studies have investigated rainfall center characteristics. Based on the theory that the spatial distribution of convective rainfall event has a definite center with maximum rainfall, we present a mathematical interpolation method to estimate convective rainfall distribution and indicate the rainfall center location and the center rainfall volume. We apply the method to estimate three convective rainfall events in Santa Catalina Island where reliable hydrological data is available. A cross-validation technique is used to evaluate the method. The result shows that the method will suffer from high relative error in two situations: 1) when estimating the minimum rainfall and 2) when estimating an external site. For all other situations, the method's performance is reasonable and acceptable. Since the method is based on a continuous function, it can provide distributed rainfall data for distributed hydrological model sand indicate statistical characteristics of given areas via mathematical calculation.