• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.399-406
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• 2022

In line with the megatrend of 2050 carbon neutrality, the amount of critical minerals used in clean-energy technology is expected to increase fourfold and sixfold, respectively, according to the Paris Agreement-based scenario as well as the 2050 carbon-neutrality scenario. And, in the case of Korea, in terms of the battery supply chain used for secondary batteries, the midstream that manufactures battery materials and battery cell packs shows strength, but the upstream that provides and processes raw materials is experiencing difficulties. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources has established a strategy to secure lithium, nickel, and cobalt and is conducting surveys to respond to the upstream risk of these types of battery raw materials. In the case of lithium, exploration has been carried out in Uljin, Gyeongsangbuk-do since 2020, and by the end of 2021, the survey area was selected for precision exploration by synthesizing all exploration data and building a 3D model. Potential resources will be assessed in 2022. In the case of nickel, the prospective site will be selected by the end of 2022 through a preliminary survey targeting 10 nickel sulfide deposits that have been prospected in the past. In the case of cobalt, Boguk cobalt is known only in South Korea, but there is only a record that cobalt was produced as a minor constituent of hydrothermal deposit. According to the literature, a cobalt ore body was found in the contact area between serpentinite and granite, and a protocol for cobalt exploration in Korea will be established.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.11-24
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• 2022

This study aimed to investigate the flora of Jinjosan Mt. (Uljin-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do). The vascular plants were surveyed 9 times between March 2019 and April 2020. The results of this survey revealed a total of 414 taxa comprising of 87 families, 274 genera, 365 species, 12 subspecies, 32 varieties, and 5 forms. Among them, 9 taxa were Korean endemic plants and 5 taxa were rare plants of Korea. In addition, the specific plants by floristic region were 66 taxa including 1 taxon of grade IV, 18 taxa of grade III, 24 taxa of grade II, and 23 taxa of grade I. Additionally, eight taxa were classified as plants adaptable to climate change. Thirty-one taxa were of alien plants and three taxa were of ecosystem disturbance species, which were also investigated. The percentage of naturalized plants species and the urbanization index were estimated to be 7.5% and 5.0%, respectively. Our results provide basic data on vascular plants flora, and will guide the conservation processes of plant resources such as plant diversity and distributional changes in Jinjosan Mt.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.5B
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• pp.519-524
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• 2010

This study was carried out to select suitable plants for beach revegetation as a preliminary study for quantifying the effect of decreasing sand movement. After planting some herbal plants in field, monitoring of temporal change of vegetation coverage which was index of the growth rate was conducted. Through literature reviews, 24 candidate plants for beach revegetation were selected, then seven species of them, Peucedanum japonicum Thunb., Dianthus japonicus Thunb. ex Murray, Sedum oryzifolium Makino, Sedum takesimense Nakai, Sedum spectabile Boreau, Farfugium japonicum (L.) Kitam., Aster sphathulifolius Maxim. were picked through salinity tolerance experiments in laboratory. Seven species selected by salinity tolerance experiments and two additional herbal plants, Prunella vulgaris var. lilacina Nakai and Linaria vulgaris Mill., not the candidates, were nine final species which were planted in the beach around Osan port, Uljin, Korea. The changes of vegetation coverage of each species were investigated from photos periodically taken for about a year using image processing methods. As a result of the monitoring, Sedum takesimensei, Dianthus japonicus and Aster sphathulifolius were observed with high coverages during the whole monitoring while Prunella vulgaris var. lilacina and Linaria vulgaris were observed with low coverage during the same period. Consequently, Sedum takesimensei, Dianthus japonicus and Aster sphathulifolius were concluded as the most suitable plants for beach revegetation. Furthur study to quantify the effects of decreasing sand movement by the selected species is needed.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1235-1243
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• 2023

This study proposes the detection algorithm for the cold water mass (CWM) along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula using sea surface temperature (SST) data provided by the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST). Considering the occurrence and distribution of the CWM, the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula is classified into 3 regions("Goseong-Uljin", "Samcheok-Guryongpo", "Pohang-Gijang"), and the K-means clustering is first applied to SST field of each region. Three groups, K-means clusters are used to determine CWM through applying a double threshold filter predetermined using the standard deviation and the difference of average SST for the 3 groups. The estimated sea area is judged by the CWM if the standard deviation in the sea area is 0.6℃ or higher and the average water temperature difference is 2℃ or higher. As a result of the CWM detection in 2022, the number of CWM occurrences in "Pohang-Gijang" was the most frequent on 77 days and performance indicators of the confusion matrix were calculated for quantitative evaluation. The accuracy of the three regions was 0.83 or higher, and the F1 score recorded a maximum of 0.95 in "Pohang-Gijang". The detection algorithm proposed in this study has been applied to the KIOST SST system providing a CWM map by email.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.94-101
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• 2007

Analysis of population structure of Oncorhynchus keta, the most abundant salmon in the East Sea of Korea, has not been much carried out despite its importance as a fishery resource in the North Pacific. Currently, molecular methods are being applied to stock identification and a method of using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) is getting more popular. In this study, we analyzed the 720 bp long sequence of the mtDNA COIII-ND3-ND4L region in order to examine genetic similarity-dissimilarity among the Korea chum salmons of each stream and their relationship with the Japan chum salmons. A total of 152 individuals were analyzed, 108 from 3 locations of Korea and 44 from 2 locations of japan, which resulted in as many as 29 different haplotypes. Pairwise $F_{ST}$ and AMOVA tests of the populations show that there is no significant population-level genetic difference among the chum salmons analyzed ($F_{ST}<0.07$). On the other hand, haplotype relationships among the individuals reveal that approximately 25% of the Korea salmons consist genetic lineages independent of Japan salmons and also that a genetic lineage exists in the Puk river and the Namdae river salmons independent of the Wangpi river salmons of Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.1-18
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• 2024

The study aims to establish a direction for forest ecological restoration by classifying forest types and understanding the ecological characteristics of the Uljin forest area damaged by a large fire in 2022. Hierarchical cluster analysis and indicator species analysis were conducted on 78 survey plots located in the forest fire-affected area, and four forest cover types were derived: P. densiflora pure forests, P. densiflora dominant forests, mixed broad-leaved forests, and Q. variabilis dominant forests. As a result of visually comparing changes in forest types before and after forest fire damage, by classifying data according to whether or not upper dead trees are included, it was confirmed that pine forests, which have a high proportion of pine trees, spread widely due to forest fire damage. However, broad-leaved mixed forests and oyster oak dominant forests showed characteristics of maintaining concentration, indicating that pine forests were severely damaged. As a result of the important value analysis, during the process of natural recovery after a forest fire, the species that appear early in the lower layer are the sprouts of existing species such as Quercus mongolica Fisch. ex Ledeb., Quercus variabilis Blume, Fraxinus sieboldiana Blume, Rhododendron mucronulatum Turcz. The distribution of diameter at breast height by forest cover type showed that among areas with extreme forest fire damage, the proportion of dead trees was relatively high and structural changes were large in P. densiflora pure forests and P. densiflora dominant forests where pine trees had a high distribution ratio. However, if continuous monitoring is carried out in the future with reference to the results of this study and plant data is collected and analyzed from a mid- to long-term perspective, it is believed that it will be used as useful data to promote forest ecological restoration projects in forest fire-affected areas.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.127-134
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• 2008

Potential economic impact of a hypothetical severe accident at a nuclear power plant(Uljin units 3/4) was estimated by applying the Delphi method, which is based on the expert judgements and opinions, in the process of quantifying uncertain factors. For the purpose of this study, it is assumed that the radioactive plume directs the inland direction. Since the economic risk can be divided into direct costs and indirect effects and more uncertainties are involved in the latter, the direct costs were estimated first and the indirect effects were then estimated by applying a weighting factor to the direct cost. The Delphi method however subjects to risk of distortion or discrimination of variables because of the human behavior pattern. A mathematical approach based on the Bayesian inferences was employed for data processing to improve the Delphi results. For this task, a model for data processing was developed. One-dimensional Monte Carlo Analysis was applied to get a distribution of values of the weighting factor. The mean and median values of the weighting factor for the indirect effects appeared to be 2.59 and 2.08, respectively. These values are higher than the value suggested by OECD/NEA, 1.25. Some factors such as small territory and public attitude sensitive to radiation could affect the judgement of panel. Then the parameters of the model for estimating the direct costs were classified as U- and V-types, and two-dimensional Monte Carlo analysis was applied to quantify the overall economic risk. The resulting median of the overall economic risk was about 3.9% of the gross domestic products(GDP) of Korea in 2006. When the cost of electricity loss, the highest direct cost, was not taken into account, the overall economic risk was reduced to 2.2% of GDP. This assessment can be used as a reference for justifying the radiological emergency planning and preparedness.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.84 no.4
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• pp.479-488
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• 1995

Relationships between pine-mushroom(Tricholoma matsutake) yield and important climatic factors for the yield(such as monthly precipitation, relative humidity, temperature, and radiation percentage) were examined to find out limiting factors for pine-mushroom production and to develop a method for overcoming the factors by analyzing the yield and climate data for 17 years collected from 18 main regions of pine-mushroom production. Although there were variations among the production regions, climatic condition of September was the most significant factor for pine-mushroom yield in general, and the degrees of importance of each climatic factors were different among the production regions. Mean minimum temperature of September was positively correlated with pine-mushroom yield($$r^2{\geq_-}0.41$$) at the 1% level, of which were 9 regions such as Youngduck, Uljin, Samchuck, Bongwha arid so on. In these regions, vegetation control was expected to be effective for pine-mushroom production by allowing much sunlight penetration to the pine stand, which may increase soil temperature and keeping the temperature around the fungal colony in soil. Precipitation during September was positively correlated with pine-mushroom yield($$r^2{\geq_-}0.41$$) at Namwon, Moonkyung and Sangju. Thus, irrigation around fungal colony in dry soil during September would be effective for enhancing mushroom yield at the regions. Pine-mushroom yield of 1994 was quite low, similar to that of 1993, due to serious drought. In this period, we could manifest the possibility of enhancing pine-mushroom yield by irrigation for overcoming drought at Moonkyung and Keochang regions.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.399-412
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• 2011

A DEM (digital elevation model) is produced using a digital topographic map and is now a commonly used tool in geologic surveys. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between knickpoints and faults in the Namdae stream by analyzing a DEM of the area. The Namdae drainage basin was divided into three subbasins (S1, S2 and S3) and their knickpoints developed for the middle to mid-upper regions were extracted from the DEM. The relative steepness Ks and concavity depending on the incision rate was higher in S1 than in S2 and S3 regions. We assumed that the incision rate caused by active erosion resulted from several faults crossing the basins rather than differences in rock types. There are 77 knickpoints in the Namdae drainage area, including the low-ranking branch, and 24 of thses are on the main river system (S1, S2, S3). Of these 77 knickpoints, 27 (38%) are matched by faults, and from the three basins, 13 (54%) correspond with faults, indicating that the knickpoints are connected closely with the faults. For example the average Ks (relative steepness), was 38.8, but in the overlapping area of the Samdang and Doocheon faults the Ks value was 42.99~43.39. We suggest that the faults resulted in geomorphic deformation such as the high-Ksn knickpoints. There was little evdence of relationship between the knickpoints and rock boundaries, with 54% of the knickpoints distributed on the S1, S2, and S3 subbasins. We concluded that the drainage basin knickpoints are the result of fault movement and are a type of geomorphologic deformation that could be useful for surveying Quaternary faults or fault extension.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.89 no.3
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• pp.310-322
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• 2000

The objectives of this study were to classify the types of vegetation in Pinus densiflora for. erecta stands. The study sites were located at Sokwang-Ri, Mt. Chungok(1,276m), Uljin, Mt. Kumma(1,017m) and Mt. Eungbong(1,267m). Two hundred thirty releves were classified and explained by phytosociological analysis(the method of ZM schools), and the results were summarized as follows. Pinus densiflora for. erecta stands were classified into Vaccinium koreanum community, Rhododendron micranthum community, Quercus dentata community, Acer pseudosieboldianum community, and Typical community. Quercus dentata community was divided into Festuca ovina group, Robinia pseudoacacia group, and Typical group, and Acer pseudosieboldianum community was divided into Hydrangea serrata for. acuminata group, Disporum smilacinum group, Magnolia sieboldii group, Carpinus laxiflora group, and Typical group, and Typical community was divided into Melampyrum roseum group and Typical group. And some groups were divided into 7 subgroups. Therefore, Pinus densiflora for. erecta stands had total of 16 vegetation units, out of those units, Vaccinium koreanum community distributed all over the studied areas. While Rhododendron micranthum community distributed mainly at Sokwang-Ri and Mt. Chungok. Therefore it was considered to be useful indicator in determining the range of afforestation and natural distribution of Pius densiflora for. erecta stands. The classified vegetation units were investigated by using of coincidence method. The results indicated that Quercus dentata community distributed mainly below 100 meters at the sea level, while other communities distributed above 350 meters at the sea level. According to the correlations between vegetation units and topography, Vaccinium koreanum and Rhododendron micranthum communities distributed mainly above middle slope areas, Quercus dentata community distributed mainly from lower slope to upper slope areas, Acer pseudosieboldianum community distributed mainly between valley and lower slope areas, and Typical community distributed mainly above upper slope areas. According to the correlations between vegetation units and 5 study areas, Quercus dentata community was distributed in the region of Uljin, and other communities were evenly distributed over other studied areas. According to the correlations between the units and aspects, all communities occurred all aspects, but most of the communities tended to be more distributed at south slopes than at north slopes, which meant that the relic stands of Pinus densiflora for. erecta were remained largely as patch phase status at south slopes.