• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.275-291
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• 2023

Global warming has made the polar regions more accessible, leading to increased demand for the construction of new resource-development plants in oil-rich permafrost regions. The selection of locations of resource-development plants in permafrost regions should consider the surface displacement resulting from thawing and freezing of the active layer of permafrost. However, few studies have considered surface displacement in the selection of optimal locations of resource-development plants in permafrost region. In this study, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis using a range of geospatial information variables was performed to select optimal locations for the construction of oil-sands development plants in the permafrost region of southern Athabasca, Alberta, Canada, including consideration of surface displacement. The surface displacement velocity was estimated by applying the Small BAseline Subset Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar technique to time-series Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar images acquired from February 2007 to March 2011. ERA5 reanalysis data were used to generate geospatial data for air temperature, surface temperature, and soil temperature averaged for the period 2000~2010. Geospatial data for roads and railways provided by Statistics Canada and land cover maps distributed by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation were also used in the AHP analysis. The suitability of sites analyzed using land cover, surface displacement, and road accessibility as the three most important geospatial factors was validated using the locations of oil-sand plants built since 2010. The sensitivity of surface displacement to the determination of location suitability was found to be very high. We confirm that surface displacement should be considered in the selection of optimal locations for the construction of new resource-development plants in permafrost regions.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.247-253
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• 2023

As climate change problem has recently become serious, studies are being conducted to identify carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission dynamics based on satellite data to reduce emissions. It is also very important to analyze spatial patterns by estimating and mapping CO₂ emissions dynamic. Therefore, in this study, CO₂ emissions in the Korean Peninsula from 2013 to 2020 were estimated and mapped. To spatially estimate and map emissions, we use the enhanced vegetation index adjusted nighttime light index, an index that combines nighttime light (NTL) and vegetation index, to map both areas where NTL is observed and areas where NTL is not observed. In order to spatially estimate and map CO₂ emissions, the total annual emissions of the Korean Peninsula were calculated, resulting in an increase of 11% from 2013 to 2017 and a decrease of 13% from 2017 to 2020. As a result of the mapping, it was confirmed that the spatial pattern of CO₂ emissions in the Korean Peninsula were concentrated in urban areas. After being divided into 17 regions, which included the downtown area, the metropolitan area accounted for roughly 40% of CO₂ emissions in the Korean Peninsula. The region that exhibited the most significant change from 2013 to 2020 was Sejong City, showing a 96% increase.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.207-221
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• 2023

This study suggests deep neural network models for estimating air temperature with Level 1B (L1B) datasets of GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK-2A). The temperature at 1.5 m above the ground impact not only daily life but also weather warnings such as cold and heat waves. There are many studies to assume the air temperature from the land surface temperature (LST) retrieved from satellites because the air temperature has a strong relationship with the LST. However, an algorithm of the LST, Level 2 output of GK-2A, works only clear sky pixels. To overcome the cloud effects, we apply a deep neural network (DNN) model to assume the air temperature with L1B calibrated for radiometric and geometrics from raw satellite data and compare the model with a linear regression model between LST and air temperature. The root mean square errors (RMSE) of the air temperature for model outputs are used to evaluate the model. The number of 95 in-situ air temperature data was 2,496,634 and the ratio of datasets paired with LST and L1B show 42.1% and 98.4%. The training years are 2020 and 2021 and 2022 is used to validate. The DNN model is designed with an input layer taking 16 channels and four hidden fully connected layers to assume an air temperature. As a result of the model using 16 bands of L1B, the DNN with RMSE 2.22℃ showed great performance than the baseline model with RMSE 3.55℃ on clear sky conditions and the total RMSE including overcast samples was 3.33℃. It is suggested that the DNN is able to overcome cloud effects. However, it showed different characteristics in seasonal and hourly analysis and needed to append solar information as inputs to make a general DNN model because the summer and winter seasons showed a low coefficient of determinations with high standard deviations.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.19-31
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• 2024

Ports are vital social infrastructures that significantly influence both people's lives and a country's economy. In South Korea, the aging of port infrastructure combined with the increased frequency of various natural disasters underscores the necessity of displacement monitoring for safety management of the port. In this study, the time-series displacements of Yeongilman Port and surrounding areas in Pohang, South Korea, were measured by applying Permanent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PSInSAR) to Sentinel-1 SAR images collected from the satellite's ascending (February 2017-July 2023) and descending (February 2017-December 2021) nodes, and the displacement associated with the 2017 Pohang earthquake in the port was analyzed. The southern (except the southernmost) and central parts of Yeongilman Port showed large displacements attributed to construction activities for about 10 months at the beginning of the observation period, and the coseismic displacement caused by the Pohang earthquake was up to 1.6 cm of the westward horizontal motion and 0.5 cm of subsidence. However, little coseismic displacement was observed in the southernmost part of the port, where reclamation was completed last, and in the northern part of the oldest port. This represents that the weaker the consolidation of the reclaimed soil in the port, the more vulnerable it is to earthquakes, and that if the soil is very weakly consolidated due to ongoing reclamation, it would not be significantly affected by earthquakes. Summer subsidence and winter uplift of about 1 cm have been repeatedly observed every year in the entire area of Yeongilman Port, which is attributed to volume changes in the reclaimed soil due to temperature changes. The ground of the 1st and 2nd General Industrial Complexes adjacent to Yeongilman Port subsided during the observation period, and the rate of subsidence was faster in the 1st Industrial Complex. The 1st Industrial Complex was observed to have a westward horizontal displacement of 3 mm and a subsidence of 6 mm as the coseismic displacement of the Pohang earthquake, while the 2nd Industrial Complex was analyzed to have been little affected by the earthquake. The results of this study allowed us to identify the time-series displacement characteristics of Yeongilman Port and understand the impact of earthquakes on the stability of a port built by coastal reclamation.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.258-266
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• 2023

This study analyzed methodologies for estimating carbon stocks of perennial woody crops and the research cases in overseas countries. As a result, we found that Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, and Japan are using the stock-difference method, while Austria, Denmark, and Germany are estimating the change in the carbon stock based on the gain-loss method. In some overseas countries, the researches were conducted on estimating the carbon stock change using image data as tier 3 phase beyond the research developing country-specific factors as tier 2 phase. In South Korea, convergence studies as the third stage were conducted in forestry field, but advanced research in the agricultural field is at the beginning stage. Based on these results, we suggest directions for the following four future researches: 1) securing national-specific factors related to emissions and removals in the agricultural field through the development of allometric equation and carbon conversion factors for perennial woody crops to improve the completeness of emission and removals statistics, 2) implementing policy studies on the cultivation area calculation refinement with fruit tree-biomass-based maturity, 3) developing a more advanced estimation technique for perennial woody crops in the agricultural sector using allometric equation and remote sensing techniques based on the agricultural and forestry satellite scheduled to be launched in 2025, and to establish a matrix and monitoring system for perennial woody crop cultivation areas in the agricultural sector, Lastly, 4) estimating soil carbon stocks change, which is currently estimated by treating all agricultural areas as one, by sub-land classification to implement a dynamic carbon cycle model. This study suggests a detailed guideline and advanced methods of carbon stock change calculation for perennial woody crops, which supports 2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy of Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs and activate related research in agricultural sector.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.643-654
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• 2023

The West Philippine Basin, an oceanic basin half the size of the Philippine Sea Plate, lies in the western part of the plate and south of the Korean Peninsula on the Eurasian Plate. It subducts beneath the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Islands bordering the Ryukyu Trench and the Philippine Trench with 25-50% of this basin already consumed. However, the history of the opening of the basin's southern region has been a topic of debate. The non-transform discontinuity formed during the seafloor spreading is similar to the transform fault boundaries normally perpendicular to mid-ocean ridge axes; however, it was created irregularly due to ridge propagations caused by variations of mantle convection attributable to magma supply changes. By analyzing high-resolution multi-beam echo-sounding data, we confirmed that the non-transform discontinuity due to the propagating rift evolved in the entire basin and that the abyssal hill strike direction changed from E-W to NNW-SSE from the fossil spreading center. In the early stage of basin extension, the Amami-Sankaku Basin was rotated 90 degrees clockwise from its current orientation, and it bordered the Palau Basin along the Mindanao Fracture Zone. The Amami-Sankaku Basin separated from the Palau Basin while the spreading of the West Philippine Basin began with a counter-clockwise rotation. This indicates that the non-transform discontinuities formed by a sudden change in magma supply due to the drift of the Philippine Sea Plate and simultaneously with the rapid changes in the spreading direction from ENE-WSW to N-S. The Palau Basin was considered to be the sub-south of the West Philippine Basin, but recent studies have shown that it extends into an independent system. Evidence from sediment layers and crustal thickness hints at the possibility of its existence before the West Philippine Basin opened, although its evolution continues to be debated. We performed a combined analysis using high-resolution multi-beam bathymetry and satellite gravity data to uncover new insights into the evolution of the West Philippine Basin. This information illuminates the complex plate interactions and provides a crucial contribution toward understanding the opening history of the basin and the Philippine Sea Plate.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.589-597
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• 2023

Floating debris in large quantities from land during heavy rainfall has adverse social, economic, and environmental impacts, but the monitoring system for the concentration area and amount is insufficient. In this study, we proposed an efficient monitoring method for floating debris entering the river during heavy rainfall in Daecheong Lake, the largest water supply source in the central region, and applied remote sensing techniques to estimate the standing-stock of floating debris. To investigate the status of floating debris in the upper of Daecheong Lake, we used a tracking buoy equipped with a low-orbit satellite communication terminal to identify the movement route and behavior characteristics, and used a drone to estimate the potential concentration area and standing-stock of floating debris. The location tracking buoys moved rapidly during the period when the cumulative rainfall for 3 days increased by more than 200 to 300 mm. In the case of Hotan Bridge, which showed the longest distance, it moved about 72.8 km for one day, and the maximum moving speed at this time was 5.71 km/h. As a result of calculating the standing-stock of floating debris using a drone after heavy rainfall, it was found to be 658.8 to 9,165.4 tons, with the largest amount occurring in the Seokhori area. In this study, we were able to identify the main concentrations of floating debris by using location-tracking buoys and drones. It is believed that remote sensing-based monitoring methods, which are more mobile and quicker than traditional monitoring methods, can contribute to reducing the cost of collecting and processing large amounts of floating debris that flows in during heavy rain periods in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.112 no.4
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• pp.426-441
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• 2023

This study investigated the predictive accuracy of a model of landslide displacement in Jecheon-si, where a great number of landslides were triggered by heavy rain on both natural (non-clear-cut) and clear-cut slopes during August 2020. This was accomplished by applying three flow direction methods (single flow direction, SFD; multiple flow direction, MFD; infinite flow direction, IFD) and the degree of root cohesion to an infinite slope stability equation. The application assumed that the soil saturation and any changes in root cohesion occurred following the timber harvest (clear-cutting). In the study area, 830 landslide locations were identified via landslide inventory mapping from satellite images and 25 cm resolution aerial photographs. The results of the landslide modeling comparison showed the accuracy of the models that considered changes in the root cohesion following clear-cutting to be improved by 1.3% to 2.6% when compared with those not considered in the area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) analysis. Furthermore, the accuracy of the models that used the MFD algorithm improved by up to 1.3% when compared with the models that used the other algorithms in the AUROC analysis. These results suggest that the discriminatory application of the root cohesion, which considers changes in the vegetation condition, and the selection of the flow direction method may influence the accuracy of landslide predictive modeling. In the future, the results of this study should be verified by examining the root cohesion and its dynamic changes according to the tree species using the field hydrological monitoring technique.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1341-1352
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• 2023

The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from satellite images is a crucial tool to monitor forests and agriculture for broad areas because the periodic acquisition of the data is ensured. However, optical sensor-based vegetation indices(VI) are not accessible in some areas covered by clouds. This paper presented a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) based approach to retrieval of the optical sensor-based NDVI using machine learning. SAR system can observe the land surface day and night in all weather conditions. Radar vegetation indices (RVI) from the Sentinel-1 vertical-vertical (VV) and vertical-horizontal (VH) polarizations, surface elevation, and air temperature are used as the input features for an automated machine learning (AutoML) model to conduct the gap-filling of the Sentinel-2 NDVI. The mean bias error (MAE) was 7.214E-05, and the correlation coefficient (CC) was 0.878, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed method. This approach can be applied to gap-free nationwide NDVI construction using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images for environmental monitoring and resource management.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_3
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• pp.933-948
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• 2023

Atmospheric aerosols not only have adverse effects on human health but also exert direct and indirect impacts on the climate system. Consequently, it is imperative to comprehend the characteristics and spatiotemporal distribution of aerosols. Numerous research endeavors have been undertaken to monitor aerosols, predominantly through the retrieval of aerosol optical depth (AOD) via satellite-based observations. Nonetheless, this approach primarily relies on a look-up table-based inversion algorithm, characterized by computationally intensive operations and associated uncertainties. In this study, a novel high-resolution AOD direct retrieval algorithm, leveraging machine learning, was developed using top-of-atmosphere reflectance data derived from the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager-II (GOCI-II), in conjunction with their differences from the past 30-day minimum reflectance, and meteorological variables from numerical models. The Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LGBM) technique was harnessed, and the resultant estimates underwent rigorous validation encompassing random, temporal, and spatial N-fold cross-validation (CV) using ground-based observation data from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) AOD. The three CV results consistently demonstrated robust performance, yielding R²=0.70-0.80, RMSE=0.08-0.09, and within the expected error (EE) of 75.2-85.1%. The Shapley Additive exPlanations(SHAP) analysis confirmed the substantial influence of reflectance-related variables on AOD estimation. A comprehensive examination of the spatiotemporal distribution of AOD in Seoul and Ulsan revealed that the developed LGBM model yielded results that are in close concordance with AERONET AOD over time, thereby confirming its suitability for AOD retrieval at high spatiotemporal resolution (i.e., hourly, 250 m). Furthermore, upon comparing data coverage, it was ascertained that the LGBM model enhanced data retrieval frequency by approximately 8.8% in comparison to the GOCI-II L2 AOD products, ameliorating issues associated with excessive masking over very illuminated surfaces that are often encountered in physics-based AOD retrieval processes.