• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Environment and Ecology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.105-126
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• 2003

In Korea most of annual rainfall is concentrated in several episodic heavy rains during the season of summer monsoon and typhoon. Because of uneven rainfall distribution many dams have been constructed in order to secure water supply in dry seasons. The Han River system has the most dams among Korean rivers, and the river is a series of dams now. Reservoirs need different strategy of water quality control from river water. Autochthonous organic matter and phosphorus should be the major target to be controlled in lakes. In this Paper some problems are discussed that makes efforts of water quality improvement ineffective in lakes of Korea, even after the substantial investment to wastewater treatment facilities.1) Phosphorus is the key factor controlling eutrophication of lakes and the reduction ofphosphors should be the major target of water treatment. However, water quality management strategy in Korea is still stream-oriented, and focused on BOD removal from sewage. Phosphorus removal efficiency remains as low as 10-30%, because biological treatment is adopted for both secondary treatment and advanced treatment. The standard for TP concentration of the sewage treatment plant effluent is 6 mgP/l in most of regions, and 2 mg/l in enforced region near metropolitan water intake point. TP in the effluents of sewage treatment plants are usually 1-2 mg/1, and most of plants meet the effluent regulation without a further phosphorus removal process. The generous TP standard for effluents discourages further efforts to improve phosphorus removal efficiency of sewage treatment. Considering that TP standard for the effluent is below 0.1 mg/l in some countries, it should be amended to below 0.1 mg/l in Korea, especially in the watershed of large lakes.2) Urban runoff and combined sewer overflow are not treated, even though their total loading into lakes can be comparable to municipal sewage discharges on dry days. Chemical coagulation and rapid settling might be the solution to urban runoff in regard of intermittent operation on only rainy days.3) Aggregated precipitation in Korea that is concentrated on several episodic heavyrains per year causes a large amount of nonpoint source pollution loading into lakes. It makes the treatment of nonpoint source discharge by methods of other countries of even rain pattern, such as retention pond or artificial wetland, impractical in Korea.4) The application rate of fertilizers in Korea is ten times as high as the average ofOECD countries. The total manure discharge from animal farming is thought to be over the capacity of soil treatment in Korea. Even though large portion of manure is composted for organic fertilizer, a lot of nutrients and organic matter emanates from organic compost. The reduction of application rate and discharge rate of phosphorus from agricultural fields should be encouraged by incentives and regulations.5) There is a lot of vegetable fields with high slopes in the upstream region of the HanRiver. Soil erosion is severe due to high slopes, and fertilizer is discharged in the form of adsorbed phosphorus on clay surface. The reduction of soil erosion in the upland area should be the major preventive policy for eutrophication. Uplands of high slope must be recovered to forest, and eroded gullies should be reformed into grass-buffered natural streams which are wider and resistant to bank erosion.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.296-314
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• 2014

In recent years, Ministry of Environment (MOE) has been implementing a phased strengthening of the effluent standards for sewage treatment plants. In this regard, a comprehensive system should be developed to help check the appropriateness of such standards by specifying the grounds for standard-setting and investigating the current operation of sewage treatment plants clearly. It is necessary to establish a new standard-setting system for the effluent that is in a closer connection with the environmental criteria and rating systems. In the United States, the federal government provides guidelines on the least provisions and requirements for the Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs). Local governments set the same or stricter guidelines that reflect the characteristics of each state. In Japan, the sewage treatment plants are subject to both the effluent standards and the discharge acceptable limits to pubic waters under the sewerage law. Specific requirements and limits are set in accordance with local government regulations. The European Union imposes sewage treatment plants with different provisions for effluent standards, depending on the sensitivity of public waters to eutrophication. The effluent standards for sewage treatment plants are classified by pollutant loads discharged to receiving waters. MOE also needs to introduce systems for setting new parameter standards on a POTW effluent by applying statistical means and treatment efficiencies or optimal treatment techniques, as seen in the cases of the US National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) or the EU Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC).

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.945-950
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• 2007

The stormwater runoff from paved area are highly polluted because of particulate materials as well as metals from various vehicular activities. The Division of Road Maintenance in Ministry of Construction and Transportation was recently developed the Guidelines of Environment-kindly Road Maintenance. It is actually requiring the BMP construction to control the nonpoint source pollution as based on the TMDL program. This research is carried out in order to define the characteristics of stormwater runoff from the toll-gate of highways since 2006, which is actually one of the main pollutant sources of paved areas. This monitoring is the first phase work for establishing the treatment facilities in the toll-gates. The one of the main characteristics from toll-gate runoff is the first flush phenomenon containing lots of sediments and metal compounds at the beginning of a storm event. Usually it is used to determine the size of treatment facilities and to calculate the reduced pollutant mass in the facility. The research results shows that the mean EMC vaules for heavy metals are determined to $274.3{\mu}g/L$ for Cd, $1,273.4{\mu}g/L$ for Cr, $1,822.0{\mu}g/L$ for Cu, $6,504.9{\mu}g/L$ for Fe, $14,930.3{\mu}g/L$ for Pb, and $714.1{\mu}g/L$ for Zn. Also the metal mass loadings from the toll-gates are calculated using EMC, watershed area and storm duration.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.89-95
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• 2020

Livestock facilities in Korea are on their way of enlargement resulting in increment of livestock manure. When the livestock manure treated inappropriate way during application to the agricultural area, environmental damage can be occurred such as bad smell, water and air pollution. Therefore it is important to make a good management plan for livestock manure treatment. In order to effectively apply organic fertilizer made by livestock manure in terms of quantity and quality, the current status of nutrient in agricultural land should be calculated quantitatively by scientific way. The OECD suggest member countries to calculate the nutrient balance as an agricultural environment indicator which represents the difference between nutrient inputs and outputs of the amount of nutrients in various ways. In this paper, we calculated the nutrient balances according to three cities which have different characteristics such as urban or rural areas. To reduce the nutrient balance, we considered how to reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer by using organic fertilizer made by livestock manure. And public treatment facilities for livestock manure can be a good solution except civil complaints for location selection. Among the options, manure fertilizer application to the agricultural area for cultivation of forage crops was mainly considered to reduce the nutrient balance by decreasing input of chemical fertilizers and increasing output of crop production. Using the field monitoring data, it can be calculated that the daily nitrogen reductions by 116.5 kg/ha and the daily phosphorus increments by 2.7 kg/ha.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.12 no.4 s.27
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• pp.293-300
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• 2006

Domestic laws such as Korea Marine Pollution Prevention Law (KMPPL) which has been mae and amended according to the conclusions and amendments of various international conventions for the prevention a marine pollution such as MARPOL 73/78 were reviewed and compared with the major contents of the relevant international conventions. Alternative measures for legislating new laws or amending existing laws such as KMPPL for the acceptance of major contents of existing international conventions were proposed. Annex VI of MARPOL 73/78 into which the regulations for the prevention of air pollution from ship have been adopted has been recently accepted in KMPPL which should be applied to ships which are the moving sources of air pollution at sea rather tlnn in Korea Air Environment Conservation Law which should be applied to automobiles and industrial installations in land. The major contents of LC 72/95 have been accepted in KMPPL However, a few of substances requiring special care in Annex II of 72LC, a few of items in characteristics and composition for the matter in relation to criteria governing the issue of permits for the dumping of matter at sea in Annex III of 72LC, and a few of items in wastes or other matter that may be considered for dumping in Annex I of 96 Protocol have not been accepted in KMPPL yet. The major contents of OPRC 90 have been accepted in KMPPL. However, oil pollution emergency plans for sea ports and oil handling facilities, and national contingency plan for preparedness and response have not been accepted in KMPPL yet. The waste oil related articles if Basel Convention, which shall regulate and prohibit transboundary movement of hazardous waste, should be accepted in KMPPL in order to prevent the transfer if scrap-purpose tanker ships containing oil/water mixtures and chemicals remained on beard from advanced countries to developing and/or underdeveloped countries. International Convention for the Control if Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems on the Ships should be accepted in KMPPL rather tlnn in Korea Noxious Chemicals Management Law. International Convention for Ship's Ballast Water/Sediment Management should be accepted in KMPPL or by a new law in order to prevent domestic marine ecosystem and costal environment from the invasion of harmful exotic species through the discharge of ship's ballast water.

• Journal of the Speleological Society of Korea
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• v.59
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• pp.21-36
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• 1999

Most scholars calssify caves into natural resource, but caves possess values of natural and human resource, mix up the features of natural resources and human resources. Now, caves are distributed 260 in Korea. Seongryu Cave is showed in 1967 for the first time, till 1997 12 caves is opened to tourist. But since 1996 the 12 show caves of all is not launched the safety and environment-protection check-up adduced reason for IMF. Then caves must maintain environment of the normal temperature, humidity and dark. But the environment of caves are destroyed by tourism development. Thus to maintain environment of caves, it used to consider the counterplan as follows in restraint of the environmental change. Firstly, in case of development work to open caves, it must keep up with the prototype. Secondly, it must establish a freight depositary to prevent the influence of the caves's stain and damage due to tourist's objects. Thirdly, to maintain the normal temperature and humidity, it must install artificial poultice equipment of the inner parts of caves. Fourthly, in order to prevent the occurrence of $CO_2$, it must assessment of the optimum number of the greatest stayer. Fifthly, the control of closure for a given period of time is useful of the restoration to the cave's original state. Sixthly, by means of make narrow entrance, it should not influence the outer's air on the inner parts on caves. Seventhly, to keep the temperature of the inner part of caves, the lightening should be maintained moderately considering the convenience of a tour. Eightly, when water-proof cables for the lightening bulbs are connected each other, silicon tape is suitable and circuit breakers should be installed at the diverging points of the cables. Ninthly, the direction and angle of the lightening must be changed periodically to prevent green-pollution at the lightening spot. Lastly, when facilities and arrangements are equipped, corrosive materials should be excluded if circumstances allow.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.251-256
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• 2019

In the upstream and nearby areas of the water source, there are many areas where the sewerage penetration rate is relatively low due to development restrictions. This has been continuously affecting the pollution of the water source. As a measure to prevent this, method of distributing sewage and improving existing facilities are suggested. In this study, A MWTP(Municipal Watewater Treatment Plant) using the Air-vent SBR process located at upstream of An-dong and Im-ha Dam was selected as a modeling facility. And, the retrofit method to improve the effluent from RCSTP(Rural Community Sewage Tratment Plant) was induced based on A MWTP modeling result. The model construction and verification were carried out based on the operating data for 5 years (2012 ~ 2016). As a result, it was analyzed that the water quality of the effluent during the winter could be improved through control of cycle time in Air-vent SBR process and decreasing SRT (BOD: 1.8%, COD: 54.5%, SS: 4.3%, T-N; 0.8% and T-P: 7.7%). This research suggests that result of this research can be utilized as a retrofit method to improve the effluent overall treatment efficiency of the MWTP and the RCSTP which have similar operation process.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.305-313
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• 2015

After Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, study and maintenance of monitoring systems have been made at home and abroad. As concerns about radioactive contamination of water have increased in Korea, update of maintenance of managing radioactive materials in water is being made mainly by Ministry of Environment. In this study, we analysed current state of monitoring system modification in Japan, the country directly involved and neighboring country. According to the result, Japan modified the legislations first. Then Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) provides theoretical background of radiological monitoring. And Ministry of the Environment actually watches state of water pollution in public waters and underground water. Finally related agencies like local government are monitoring current state of radioactive contamination in water environment. By region, local monitoring stations share the investigation of the whole country. Also, additional monitoring is running around nuclear facilities. After Fukushima disaster, monitoring for area near Fukushima is added. Among the reference levels, management target value of drinking water and tap water is 10 Bq/kg, and those of public water and underground water are 1 Bq/L. Measuring intervals varied from every hour to once a year, regularly or irregularly depending on the investigation. The main measuring items are air dose rate, gross ${\alpha}$, gross ${\beta}$, ${\gamma}$ radionuclide, Cs-134, Cs-137, Sr-89, Sr-90, I-131, and so on. In comparison, regulations about general public water in Korea need to be modified, while those about area near nuclear facility and drinking water are organized well. In future, therefore, domestic system would be expected to be modified with making reference to the guidelines like WHO's one. As good case of applying international guideline to domestic environment, Japanese system could be a reference when general standard of radioactivity in public water is made in Korea.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.428-435
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• 2015

Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been accepted as an attractive and economic alternative to a variety of pollution control and provided potentially valuable wildlife habitat in urban and suburban areas, as well as esthetic value within the local natural environment. CWs are known eco-friendly technology to solve the problem of the climate change and urbanization issues. Numerous studies have been published on the various aspects of a CW. However, there are current limitations about the CW operations such as few design guidelines, poor performance results regarding the simple construction. Therefore, the objective of this research was to suggest an appropriate design and maintenance guidelines for a CW by thorough investigation of site monitoring results. The research also concentrated in redefining and reclassifying CWs, based on literatures made by the Ministry of Environment (MOE) and other organizations. Investigation at 43 CWs in Korea was performed by using collected data and by performing site survey from 2013 to 2014. Based on the results, the best practices among the investigated CWs provided water treatment, wildlife habitat, environmental education, and leisure. Also these CWs conducted a regular maintenance such as vegetation, sediment dredging and cleaning of facilities. Results obtained are intended for use by academics and any organizations involved in CW management.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.29-43
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• 2007

For effective management of water quality on the southern coast of korea, a three-dimensional eco-hydrodynamic model is used to predict water quality in summer and to estimate the reduction rate in pollutant loads that would be required to restore water quality. Under the current environmental conditions, in particular, pollutant loadings to the study area were very high, chemical oxygen demand (COD) exceeded seawater quality criteria to comply with current legislation, and water quality was in a eutrophic condition. Therefore, we estimated reduction rates of current pollutant loads by modeling. The model reproduced reasonably the flow field and water quality of the study area. If the terrestrial COD, inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus loads were reduced by 90%, the water quality criteria of Region A were still not satisfied. However, when the nutrient loads from polluted sediment and land were each reduced by 70% simultaneously, COD and $Chl-{\alpha}$ were restored. When we reduced the input COD and nutrient loads from the Nakdong River by 80%, $Chl-{\alpha}$ and COD of Region B decreased below $10\;{\mu}g\;1^{-1}$ and $2\;mg\;1^{-1}$, respectively. The water quality criteria of Region C were satisfied when we reduced the terrestrial COD and nutrient loads by 70%. Total allowable loadings of COD and inorganic nutrients in each region were determined by multiplying the reduction rates by current pollutant loads. Estimated high reduction rates, although difficult to achieve at the present time under the prevailing environmental conditions, suggest that water pollution is very severe in this study area, and pollutant loads must be reduced within total allowable loads by continuous and long-term management. To achieve the reduction in pollutant loads, sustainable countermeasures are necessary, including the expansion of sewage and wastewater facilities, polluted sediment control and limited land use.