• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2020.06a
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• pp.379-379
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• 2020

The influence of drought has increased due to global warming. In addition, forest fires have occurred more frequently due to droughts and resulted in property losses and casualty. In this study, the effects of drought on Goseong-Sokcho Forest Fire in 2019 were analyzed using high-resolution synthetic precipitation data. In order to determine the severity of drought, the average, 20%tile and 80%ile values were calculated using the synthetic precipitation data of the past 30 years and compared with the current climatology. We have investigated the multi-year accumulated precipitation data to determine the persistence of drought. In Goseong-Sokcho forest fire case, the two-year cumulative synthetic precipitation data shows a similar value to the climate, but the three-year cumulative synthetic precipitation data was close to the 20%ile lines of the climate value. It may expose that the shortage of precipitation in 2017 had persisted until 2019, despite abundant precipitation during the summer in 2018. Therefore, Goseong-Sokcho forest fire might be spread more rapidly by drought which has been persisted since 2017.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2020

Natural drought is a three-dimensional phenomenon that simultaneously evolves in time and space. To evaluate the link between meteorological and hydrological droughts, we defined a drought event from a three-dimensional perspective and analyzed the propagation characteristics in time and spaces. Overall results indicated that 77 % of the total cases of spatio-temporal droughts was propagated based on the single category relationship between meteorological and hydrological drought events, while 23 % was affected by multiple meteorological drought events to the occurrence of hydrological drougts. Especially, it turned out that the hydrological drought was caused by the spatio-temporal effects of the propagation of four meteorological drought events generated due to long-term lack of precipitation in 1994-1995. In addition, the meteorological drought caused by the lack of precipitation in the summer of 2001 lasted for several months, and was propagated to the hydrological drought in April 2002.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.13-24
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• 2023

Due to recent climate change, the amount of rainfall during the summer season in South Korea has been decreasing, leading to an increase in areas affected by frequent droughts. Droughts have the characteristic of occurring over a wide area and being unpredictable in terms of their onset and end, necessitating proactive research to cope with them. In this study, we conducted an assessment of agricultural drought vulnerability in Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, focusing on irrigation facilities and paddy fields. The assessment criteria were meteorological impact, drought occurrence status, supplementary water supply capacity, and drought response capability, with nine specific indicators selected. The drought response capability was analyzed by applying a scoring system as a key component of the agricultural drought vulnerability assessment, while the other indicators were quantified using an entropy weighting technique. The results of the assessment showed that Anmyeon-eup and Taean-eup were the safest areas, while Wonbuk-myeon, Nam-myeon, and Gonam-myeon were the most vulnerable. It is expected that the findings can be utilized to enhance understanding and proactive measures for coping with agricultural drought, and to determine the priority of drought response in different regions.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_3
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• pp.1319-1327
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• 2018

Korea has a terrain vulnerable to drought due to the concentration of precipitation in summer and the large amount of groundwater discharge. Quantified drought indices are used to determine these droughts. Among these, drought index is mainly used for analysis of precipitation, and recently, researches have been conducted to monitor drought using satellite images. In this study, we used the KOMPSAT-2/3 image to calculate the water surface area and compare with the drought index in order to monitor the drought in the Upper Soyang River. As a result, it was confirmed that the tendency of the water surface area change and the trend of the drought index were similar in the satellite images. Future research could be used as a basis for judging drought.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.3-25
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• 2011

As extremes of climate such as heavy storms, rainfalls, and droughts tend to be routine in recent years, global climate change becomes a serious concern not only for natural scientists but also for scholars of the human sciences. Efforts to tackle the anthropogenic climate change certainly require not only scientific knowledge about it but also a new sociocultural paradigm for valorizing and respecting nature in its own right. The huge casualties and mass destruction caused by recent climate disasters also remind us that nature has been an important factor to bring about changes in human history-a fact largely ignored in traditional history. This again validates the ecocritical request to prioritize place, physical setting, or the relationship characters hold with the natural world in understanding literary works. In this context this paper aims to demonstrate the importance of the meteorological vision in creating as well as understanding literary and cultural texts by examining such works as Shelley's "The Cloud," Byron's "Darkness," Keats's "To Autumn," all produced during the period of dramatic climate change including "the year without summer." It also briefly discusses Roland Emmerich's 2004 movie The Day after Tomorrow as a way of understanding recent cultural responses to the crisis of global warming.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.195-205
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• 2018

Drought is a complex phenomenon caused by various factors which can be classified into natural and anthropogenic causes. In Korea, the natural drought typically occurs when the high pressure of the Pacific Ocean develops rapidly or becomes stronger than usual in summer, resulting in a short-lived monsoon season. Drought also can be classified into meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and socioeconomic drought depending on the development process and consequences. Each type of droughts can influence the other drought types directly or indirectly. Drought propagation refers a phenomenon that changes from meteorological drought to agricultural or hydrological drought. In this study, the occurrence and patterns of drought propagation are evaluated. The relationship between meteorological and agricultural droughts was assessed using hydrometeorological data. We classified the types of drought into five categories to evaluate the occurrence and characteristics of drought propagation. As results, we found drought propagation did not occur or delayed until three months, depending on the type of drought. The further generalized relationship of drought propagation is expected to be used for predicting agricultural drought from the preceding meteorological drought.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.140-152
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• 2017

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) regularly publishes various drought indices. However, most of these are meteorological drought indices that are not only difficult but often inappropriate to apply to agriculture. In this study, the meteorological drought index and the agricultural drought index were calculated for the representative points of South Korea during the same period, and the differences in geographical distribution were analyzed according to the characteristics of drought. Although the overall drought patterns estimated by multiple drought indices were similar, the differences were also confirmed due to the different simulation methods depending on the character of drought. Especially, agricultural drought index (ADI) showed higher accuracy in the agricultural sector than that of meteorological drought index (e.g., SPI, PN). In addition, the drought patterns in recent years analyzed by ADI were more severe in spring and early summer compared with normal year. In autumn and winter, drought was weaker than normal year. For the recent periods, inland areas had more droughts than coastal areas. Considering the specific drought indices for the individual sectors, it will be helpful to take measures against drought according to the individual characteristics.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.241-249
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• 2023

Background: This study analyzed the drought responses of five forest tree species grown in Korean peninsula, Korean fir Abies koreana (Ak), eastern white pine Pinus strobus (Ps), keyaki Zelkova serrata (Zs), tulip tree Liriodendron tulipifera (Lt), and Japanese elm Ulmus japonica (Uj). Physiological (chlorophyll, root collar diameter [RCD]) and biochemical responses (non-structural carbohydrates, proline, lipid peroxidase and abscisic acid [ABA]) of the plants grown under mild (MD) and severe drought (SD) were compared. Results: In this study, three soil moisture regimes: control (100% precipitation), MD (60% reduction in precipitation) and SD (20% reduction in precipitation) were applied. Soil moisture content showed high water content in control site compared to MD and SD. A decline in RCD was found for Korean fir, keyaki, and tulip plants, with eastern white pine and Japanese elm showing no significant decline to the prolonged drought exposure (both MD and SD). Total chlorophyll showed a significant decline in Korean fir and tulip, with the sugar levels indicating a significant increase in Korean fir and keyaki species under SD compared to control plants. Non-significant decline in sugar level was noted for eastern white pine and Japanese elm. High accumulation of ABA, malondealdehyde and proline was noted in Korean fir, tulip, and keyaki under SD compared to control. Signs of tree mortality was only observed in Korean fir under MD (38%) and SD (43%). Conclusions: The observed findings indicate the drought responses of five tree species. The majority of the morpho-physiological (especially mortality) and biochemical variables assessed in our study indicate superior long-term drought resistance of Ps and Uj compared to the highly sensitive Ak, and moderately sensitive Lt and Zs. The results provided will help species selection for afforestation programs and establishment of sustainable forests, especially of drought-tolerant species, under increased frequency and intensity of spring and summer droughts.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.887-900
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• 2012

Drought is a non-negligible disaster of nature and it is mainly caused by rainfall shortage for a long time though there are many definitions of drought. 'Standard Precipitation Index' (SPI) that is widely used to express the level of meteorological drought intensity has a limit of not being able to consider the hydrological changes such as rainfall and evapotranspiration caused by climate change, because it does not consider the temperature-related variables other than the precipitation. Recently, however, 'Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index' (SPEI), a drought index of new concept which is similar to SPI but can reflect the effect of temperature variability as well as the rainfall change caused by climate variation, was developed. In this study, the changes of drought occurrence in South Korea were analyzed by applying SPEI for meteorological data (1973~2011) of 60 climate observatories under Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). As the result of application, both of SPI and SPEI showed the trend of deepening drought in spring and winter and mitigating drought in summer for the entire nation, with SPI showing greater drought intensity than SPI. Also, SPI and SPEI with 12 months of duration showed that severe droughts with low frequency of around 6 years are generally being repeated.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.161-161
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• 2003

During the last century, most scientific questions related to climate change were focused on the evidence of anthropogenic global warming (IPCC, 2001). There are robust evidences of warming and also human-induced climate change. We now understand the global, mean change a little bit better; however, the uncertainties for regional climate change still remains large. The purpose of this study is to understand the past climate change over Korea based on the observational data and to project future regional climate change over East Asia using ECHAM4/HOPE model and MM5 for downscaling. There are significant evidences on regional climate change in Korea, from several variables. The mean annual temperature over Korea has increased about 1.5∼$1.7^{\circ}C$ during the 20th century, including urbanization effect in large cities which can account for 20-30% of warming in the second half of the 20th century. Cold extreme temperature events occurred less frequently especially in the late 20th century, while hot extreme temperature events were more common than earlier in the century. The seasonal and annual precipitation was analyzed to examine long-term trend on precipitation intensity and extreme events. The number of rainy days shows a significant negative trend, which is more evident in summer and fall. Annual precipitation amount tends to increase slightly during the same period. This suggests an increase of precipitation intensity in this area. These changes may influence on growing seasons, floods and droughts, diseases and insects, marketing of seasonal products, energy consumption, and socio-economic sectors. The Korean Peninsular is located at the eastern coast of the largest continent on the earth withmeso-scale mountainous complex topography and itspopulation density is very high. And most people want to hear what will happen in their back yards. It is necessary to produce climate change scenario to fit forhigh-resolution (in meteorological sense, but low-resolution in socio-economic sense) impact assessment. We produced one hundred-year, high-resolution (∼27 km), regional climate change scenario with MM5 and recognized some obstacles to be used in application. The boundary conditions were provided from the 240-year simulation using the ECHAM4/HOPE-G model with SRES A2 scenario. Both observation and simulation data will compose past and future regional climate change scenario over Korea.