• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.497-509
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• 2009

Records on natural hazards such as droughts, floods, smallpox and attacks of grasshoppers are classified and analyzed during the Ancient Times(BC 57$\sim$AD 935) based on the Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms Age(Samguksaki main record), and influences on human activities and relationships of each natural hazard are studied. The strongest influences on the agricultural productivity were the drought and the influences of floods were weak. The most floods were not destructive hazards because the cultivated lands were distributed in the valley plains and the towns and villages were constructed in the area free from the floods during the Ancient Times. The attacks of grasshoppers have the high frequencies with the droughts. The smallpox of the Ancient Times has no relationships with the dearth, floods and droughts. This means that the waterborne infections happened periodically and after the unification, the infectious diseases happened continuously due to the urbanization leading the concentration of population on the capital. Two cycles of droughts are recognized, and they happened with the time intervals of approximately 500 years during approximately 1000 years in Shilla dynasty.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.85-98
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• 2010

The natural hazards such as droughts, floods and frost injuries, and their relationships with the social unrest phenomena such as years of famine, smallpox and revolutions during the Medieval times(AD 936~1391) in Korea are compared and analyzed based on the History of Goryeo containing astronomical weather and climate events during the Goryeo Dynasty. Among the natural hazards during the Goryeo Dynasty, the droughts with a period of 4~5 years on average are recorded most frequently. By time series analysis, the most frequency of droughts can be found in AD 286~335, AD 786~835 and AD 1261~1320 during the Ancient and Medieval times. It is suggested that three cycles of the droughts during approximately 1,500 years of the Ancient and Medieval times are recognized and they had happened with the time intervals of approximately 500 years. The frequency of droughts increased in the late Goryeo Dynasty is consistent with those of the social chaos factors such as years of famines, smallpox and revolutions. These records suggest that the natural hazard such as years of famines was one of the most important factors influencing on the collapse of the Goryeo Dynasty, agrarian country.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.580-599
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• 2013

After the unification of Three Kingdoms, Silla Dynasty had been on the prosperity with continuous population growth during approximately 120 years. However, Unified Silla Dynasty experienced 11 times of famine and bad year by frequent droughts during 50 years since the late 8th century, and these caused to political, economic and social changes. It is evident that Silla Dynasty slowly declined by the droughts and famines, although ancient records described as still on glory days. Since then, national power of Unified Silla Dynasty was abruptly weakened by migration of residents, and 9 times of rebellion or revolt occurred during 50 years in the late 9th century. As a result, political and social agitations reached the maximum. These led to the collapse of the Unified Silla Dynasty, and King Gyeongsoon handed over the dynasty to King Wanggeon, a founder of Goryeo Dynasty. These resulted from the 500-year-cycle droughts and human activities that seriously devastated the vegetations by using trees as an energy source for hundreds of thousands people during several centuries. The devastation of vegetation destroyed farm lands and led to large changes in river and groundwater systems, and eventually, increased damages by droughts.