• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.10-26
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• 2018

This paper reviews the soil conservation policies (SCP) in the global community and suggests the improved options in SCP in Korea. Soil Environment Conservation Act in Korea states soil is a valuable natural resource and it's value should be enhanced to provide the benefits that soil ecosystem can offer to people. However, SCP in Korea limits its application to not only the scope of soil environment but also the issues on soil pollution. The SCPs in the advanced countries have shifted their scopes from soil environment to soil ecosystem, put emphasis on the conservation of soil health rather than soil quality, and set the goals to optimize the soil ecosystem services to people while minimizing the soil threats. In this context, the soil security initiative was recently proposed to accomplish this goal while employing the nexus concept to bridge the soil ecosystem services with water, atmosphere, climate and biodiversity. Therefore, the key policies in soil conservation in Korea should expand the scope from soil environment to soil ecosystem, focus on soil health management, and develop the holistic governance among diverse stakeholder to maximize the soil ecosystem services. Soil ecosystem should be secured by national soil policies for human health.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.10-17
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• 2022

Inorganic acids such as HCl, HNO₃, and H₂SO₄ have been commonly applied to soil washing of heavy metals-contaminated soil due to their cost-effectiveness. However, implementing the 'Chemical Substance Control Act' requires off-site risk assessment of the chemicals used in the soil washing. Therefore, in this study, organic acids or Fe(III)-based washing agents were evaluated to replace commonly used inorganic acids. Ferric removed heavy metals via H⁺ generated by hydrolysis, which is similar to the HCl used in the control group. Oxalic acid and citric acid were effective to remove Cu, Zn, and Cd from soil. Organic acids could not remove Pb because they could form Pb-organic acid complexes with low solubility. Furthermore, Pb could be adsorbed onto the iron-organic acid complex on the soil surface. Ferric could remove exchangeable-carbonate, Fe-Mn hydroxide, and organic matter and sulfides bound heavy metals (F1, F2, and F3). Organic acids could remove the exchangeable-carbonate and Fe-Mn hydroxide bound metals (F1&F2). Therefore, this research shows that the fractionation of heavy metals in the soil and the properties of washing agents should be considered in the selection of agents in the process design.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.11-15
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• 2006

Attempts were made to increase an efficiency of soil contamination investigation systems (SCISs) including Soil Network and Special Soil Contamination Management Facility Sites in Korea. In order to increase low efficiencies resulting from inappropriate SCISs, possible policy suggestions are driven based on the results from problem findings of Korean policy and comparisons of policies on industrialized countries including United States, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan. First, functions of Soil Environment Conservation Act (SECA) on liability should be updated and reinforced to initiate a soil contamination investigation process for stakeholders including an owner(s) or a responsible party(ies) of the potentially soil contamination sites positively. Second, appropriate SCISs should be emerged for implementing the Soil Network and Special Soil Contamination Management Facility Sites properly. Stakeholders for the potentially contaminated sites should easily access and raise the soil contamination issues, and soil contamination investigation implemented by liable and profit environment (consulting) companies should be encouraged. Third, the soil contamination reporting system of SECA needs to change legally responsible. Further more, public announcement system showing soil quality of a site which exceeds a certain scale would be considerable. Fourth, liable environment (consulting) companies should legally execute Soil Environment Assessment of SECA.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.209-212
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• 2004

Soil environment has not received much attention from the environmental impact assessor community although soil contamination may affect human health and the eco-system. This study was the first trial to discuss the role and importance of soil environment in the environmental impact assessment(EIA) and suggest possible environmental impact assessment schemes for soil. The objectives of the study were to show the effects of soil contamination on human health, the environment and the social community, suggest efficient EIA schemes in Korea and establish the basic concepts of soil environment assessment involving fate and transport of contaminants and its risk.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.57-60
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• 1999

Geochemical study was carried out to find out soil contamination at the heaped soil, moved from bottom of the storage pond in Pohang industrial complex, in Moondug, Chemical analysis showed that contents of heavy metals in the soil were higher than those of the ordinary soil. Contents of Cu and Cd in the soil exceeded Korean standard of soil contamination. Especially content of Cu exceeded Korean standard of soil contamination(50ppm) at the six points and at one point content of Cu was 113.3ppm. Contents of Be were so higher than U.S RCRA standard(0.2ppm) that they can affect soil environment. The followed research about relation between pollutant and soil and proper measures are required to prevent soil contamination from affecting environment of Moondug.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.103-107
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• 2008

In this work, soil environment policy which should be taken into account at brownfield redevelopment projects was deduced from investigation on their environmental impact assessment statements. Soil contamination sources such as small-scale factories were found at a few large-scale brownfield projects, so contaminated soils did often exist at these sites. Especially, military facilities within the sites caused severe soil contamination problems. Therefore, soil environment policy was presented in detail to solve soil contamination problem at brownfield redevelopment projects. Furthermore, land-use planning focusing on greening (soil and vegetation) should be pursued at brownfield redevelopment projects in order to maximize environmental benefits of greenspace.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.572-576
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• 2016

Soil quality assessment is an important tool for environmental management in an agricultural field. It can be used to evaluate the health of the soils and to establish the basis for sustainable urban agriculture and soil management. For this study, the chemical properties of the soils used for urban agriculture were examined. Results of the soil analysis for chemical properties were applied to soil quality assessment system, which is composed of principal component analysis, application to scoring function and derivation of soil quality index (SQI). Soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (T-N) were determined for minimum data set (MDS) according to principal component analysis. Based on the results of scoring for four indicators (pH, EC, OM, T-N), soil pH was the indicator that needs the most urgent management. Results of SQI derivation showed that many of the urban farms appeared to be insufficient score in comprehensive soil quality assessment. In conclusion, soil management practices based on scores derived from soil chemical indicators need to be carried out to maintain sustainable urban agricultural soil environment and to provide easy-to-understand information to urban farmers.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.85-93
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• 2017

In this study, the concepts of soil degradation, soil pollution and soil damage are defined, and the domestic and foreign administrative systems related to soil pollution and soil damage management are analyzed. In case of foreign countries, laws and regulations on the soil conservation and soil damage management were analyzed. In case of Korea, the present state of the legal system governing soil pollution and damage management was analyzed in each aspect. Through this study, suggestions for amendments of relevant laws were proposed by establishing policy direction for integrated management of soil pollution and soil damage. The results of this study will provide a basis for integrated management of soil pollution and damage, and it can be utilized in establishing integrated management strategy of long term soil conservation and sustaninable soil development at national level.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.145-146
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Professional Engineers Association
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.30-34
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• 2008

Recently problems of soil and groundwater contamination occur in major construction sites of highway, dam and railways. Contaminants of oil fuels are also detected in the former fuel storage facilities of railroad station and army troops of transportation, etc. These facilities are planned as the sites of commercial infrastructures after restoration from pollutants by the law of soil environment conservation of Korea. In this manuscript, the contents of soil environment conservation law including soil assessment and restoration technology are introduced. Recent changes of soil environment area are also analyzed.