• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.759-770
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• 1998

biotic indices scoring with the benthic macroinvertebrates were assessed as pollution monitoring tools in the north branch of the Han River system, Korea. We investigated the temporal variability of water quality at unpolluted, moderately polluted and heavily polluted sites using several biotic indices and assessed appropriate biological monitoring indices for lotic systems in Korea. The following biotic and chemical indices were employed in order to compare their applicability to the lotic systems : Trent Biotic Index (TBI), Chandler's Biotic Index-Average Score per Taxon (CBI-ASPT), Modified Biological Monitoring Working Party Score System-Average Score per Taxon (BMWP-ASPT), Hilsenhoff's biotic Index (BI) and Family-level Biotic Index (FBI) models for biotic analyses and National Sanitation foundation's Water Quality Index (NSFWQI) and comprehensive Chemical Pollution Index (Pb/n) for chemical analyses of water quality. Index and score values were compared with each other and with 24 water chemistry parameters. All biotic indices were significantly auto-correlated (p<0.001) and BI and FBI/ROK among them were highly correlated (r=0.84). BI and BMWP-ASPT models were also highly correlated with NSFWQI, while TBI values showed high correlation with the Pb/n. The BI and BMWP-ASPT were highly correlated with the most water chemistry parameters. We conclude that the BI model, which includes indicator species and abundance of taxa, is best suited for the bioassessment of lotic systems in Korea. For rapid field-based assessments, FBI/ROK and BMWP-ASPT models are also appropriate.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.606-614
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• 2009

To evaluate the biological water quality, diatom-based biological indices (DAIpo and TDI) were examined in the Sum-River and the Dal-stream. Having BOD concentrations below $2mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ in most sites, water quality of both rivers was good. The DAIpo and TDI values ranged from 29.8 to 91.4 and from 38.7 to 93.0 respectively. From the biological water quality assessment, DAIpo and TDI for both rivers displayed fair to fairly poor water quality levels. However, the two indices showed more polluted conditions than expected from the BOD vlaues. In addition, DAIpo, having wider range of differences, appears to be more sensitive to the change in water quality when compared to TDI values. Statistical analysis using principal component analysis showed that Nitzschia palea and Diatoma vulgare might not be the appropriate indicators due to their low correlations with other indicators.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.784-795
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to assess biological river water quality by using epilithic diatoms at 40 selected sites in Geum, Youngsan, and Seomjin River systems. The sampling and analyses were performed during three seasons including January, April and June in 2005. Various water quality parameters also were analyzed. We attempted to classify the water quality condition by epilithic diatom indices (DAIpo and TDI) with the results of corresponding analyses of various chemical water quality parameters. A five class system was delivered to describe the water quality condition ranged from "very good" to "very poor." We also proposed a way of classifying water quality condition by combining two diatom indices of DAIpo and TDI. Our results showed that biomass of epilithic diatoms varied not only seasonally but spatially; it was not likely that winter diatoms represent average water quality condition, due to high concentration of nutrients. Water quality status assessed by diatom indices was generally worse than that assessed by BOD, indicating that BOD standard likely underestimates the biological condition of the water body. Importantly, nutrient-based diatom index (TDI) generally overestimated organic matter-based index (DAIpo) at most study sites, indicating that diatoms in studied rivers were likely more affected by nutrients than organic matter. Thus, management strategy to improve river water quality in Korea is suggested to emphasize more on the nutrients than organic matters.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.130-135
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• 2007

In order to examine the corrosiveness of tap water, we studied methods calculating various indices including calcium carbonate saturation indices, using RTW model and LPLWIN model. Indices such as LI, RI and AI could be computed using the RTW model, whereas the LPLWIN model could find indices as LI, LR and CCPP. With water quality data obtained from tap water of Han River and Nak-Dong River watersheds, based on the indices found from the models, the water quality of the Nak-Dong River is better than that of Han River in the point of resisting corrosiveness. Further, the water quality of winter is highly corrosive than that of summer, as long as the temperature rises up, the corrosiveness is reduced.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.612-615
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• 2007

Water quality modelling is an ideal tool of simulating physical, chemical and biological changes occurring in water systems. It has been utilized in a number of GIS-based water quality management and analysis applications. However, there is a need of a decision making process to translate the modelling result into an understandable form thereby implement the modelling results to the real world. This paper outlines a new water quality index called the QUAL2E's water quality index (QWQI) based on the water quality modelling using QUAL2E. The development mainly includes four steps: variable selection, sub-index development, weight assignment and sub-index aggregation. An experiment of applying the index and GIS to the Sapgyo River in Korea was implemented. Different from other water quality indices for general water uses, the index is specifically used for the simulated water quality indicators. The index can provide a simple and easy-to-understand decision support. Furthermore, interfacing with GIS, the decision analysis can be performed within a spatial environment. However, more study needs to be made in the future including the improvement of aggregation function.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.303-316
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• 2009

Benthic macroinvertebrate communities collected from eight different streams in South Korea were analyzed to compare community and biological indices across different levels of water pollution. The Self-Organizing Map (SOM) was utilized to provide overview on association of the proposed indices. The sample sites were accordingly clustered according to the gradient of pollution on the SOM. While the general trends of the indices were commonly observable according to different levels of pollution, the detailed differences among the indices were also illustrated on the SOM. The conventional diversity and evenness indices tended to be high even though the water quality state was poor representing relatively weak gradient at polluted sites, while the index presenting the saprobic degree such as family biotic index showed the stronger gradient at the polluted area and was robust to present the gradient. Our results also confirmed the general characterization of two indices: The Shannon index is more strengthened by the number of species occurring at the sample sites, while the Simpson index is more influenced by the degree of evenness among the species. The patterning based on the SOM was efficient in comparatively characterizing the proposed indices to present ecological states and water quality.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.760-768
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• 2011

Jinwi Stream is considerably polluted. The urban development in a Jinwi Stream basin can make state of aquatic ecosystem worse. However, researches for aquatic ecosystems in Jinwi Stream are insufficient. In this study, biotic indices of periphytic diatoms (DAIpo and TDI), benthic macroinvertebrates (EPT, KSI and ESB) and fish (IBI) were compared with the annual water quality data. Benthic macroinvertebrates indices showed highly significant correlations with concentrations of organic materials and nutrients, while DAIpo, TDI and IBI showed low correlations with them. In particular, ESB can be considered as an useful indicator that reflects the degree of diversity and abundance of biotic community as well as water quality. In polluted and disturbed streams as Jinwi Stream, DAIpo, TDI and IBI appeared to be not available for evaluating and discriminating the water quality, although they have been known as good indices in general streams.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2012

The Jinwi stream, which is located in the Gyeonggi Province, shows a large variation in water quality from the upper stream to downstream. Therefore the Jinwi stream is suitable for assessing changes to the benthic macroinvertebrate community structure according to saprobity. This study was conducted to find out the applicability of biotic indices for water quality pollution through an analysis of the correlation between water quality and benthic macroinvertebrate indices for the Jinwi stream. Along with the pollution of water, the species composition of Ephemeroptera decreased, while that of Annelida increased. The ecological score for the benthic macroinvertebrate community (ESB) showed more significant correlations than any other biotic index (H', DI, R1, J, EPT and KSI) with the water quality items.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.183-192
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• 2018

Applicability of corrosion inhibitor was evaluated using pilot scale water distribution pipe simulator. Calcium hydroxide was used as corrosion inhibitor and the corrosion indices of the water were investigated. Corrosion indices, Langelier saturation index (LI) increased by 0.8 and calcium carbonate precipitation potential (CCPP) increased by 9.8 mg/L. This indicated that corrosivity of water decreased by corrosion inhibitor and the effects lasted for 18 days. Optimum calcium hydroxide dose was found to be 3~5 mg/L for corrosion inhibition. We suggest that monitoring of CCPP as well as LI need to be conducted to control corrosivity of water.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.875-901
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• 2008

This article estimates the economic values of changes in water quality of the Paldang Watershed by using the Choice Experiment (CE). The conditional logit model estimation results show that a small improvement in water quality from the 'status quo' level to the level of 'very good' increases average household's monthly utility by 3,157 Won, whereas a water quality degradation down to the 'normal' level gives rise to an increase in the monthly average utility by 9,649 Won. The corresponding social gain and loss of water quality changes to the Metropolitan Area were thus estimated about 285 billion Won and 872 billion Won, respectively. This article seems meaningful in that it resorts to the new water ecosystem classification criteria and indices that are respondent-friendly. They help a CE study like this to overcome one of its critical weakness that the number and contents of attributes of a CE study can quickly add to the information overload problem, especially where the environmental good under investigation is hard for ordinary respondents to understand.