• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.154-154
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• 2022

The frequency of natural disasters, including floods and drought events, driven by climate change has increased in recent times. Investigating the climate regimes and the roles of climate variables are indispensable to forestall future climate change-related disasters. This study compares the variability of two popular and widely used climate indices i.e., the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) aridity index and the Modified De-Martonne (MDM) index to assess the trend of climate change in the Chungcheong provinces of South Korea. The trend of annual and monthly climate indices was conducted using a non-parametric Mann-Kendall test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test with daily climate data of 48 years (1978-2020) from 10 synoptic stations. The findings indicate that UNEP and MDM indices had a wet climate regime for the annual trend, with the UNEP index indicating a relatively humid trend of 60% humid, 20% semi-arid, and 10% sub-humid for the 48-years study period. However, the MDM index showed a high frequency of a severe wet climatic condition followed by the semi-arid condition. The months of July and August had the highest occurring frequency of the wet climatic condition (90%) for both UNEP and MDM indices. Comparing the two provinces, Chungnam showed a relatively wetter climatic condition using the UNEP index, while the MDM index indicated no significant regional difference in climate regime between the two provinces. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test showed that all the 10 stations are normally distributed for monthly climate conditions at a 5% significant level in the two provinces except five stations for UNEP index and four stations for MDM index in the month of January.

• Atmosphere
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.123-138
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• 2024

Using 18 multi-model-based a Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) climate change scenarios, future changes in temperature and warmth index on the Korean Peninsula in the 21st century (2011~2100) were analyzed. In the analysis of the current climate (1981~2010), the ensemble averaged model results were found to reproduce the observed average values and spatial patterns of temperature and warmth index similarly well. In the future climate projections, temperature and warmth index are expected to rise in the 21st century compared to the current climate. They go further into the future and the higher carbon scenario (SSP5-8.5), the larger the increase. In the 21st century, in the low-carbon scenario (SSP1-2.6), temperature and warmth index are expected to rise by about 2.5℃ and 24.6%, respectively, compared to the present, while in the high-carbon scenario, they are expected to rise by about 6.2℃ and 63.9%, respectively. It was analyzed that reducing carbon emissions could contribute to reducing the increase in temperature and warmth index. The increase in the warmth index due to climate change can be positively analyzed to indicate that the effective heat required for plant growth on the Korean Peninsula will be stably secured. However, it is necessary to comprehensively consider negative aspects such as changes in growth conditions during the plant growth period, increase in extreme weather such as abnormally high temperatures, and decrease in plant diversity. This study can be used as basic scientific information for adapting to climate change and preparing response measures.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.643-656
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• 2014

The homogeneity analysis of temporal (monthly, seasonal and annual) climate aridity index trend was accomplished for 43 climate measurement stations in South Korea. Furthermore, 43 stations were grouped into 9 different regions and the temporal and regional homogeneity of climate aridity index trends in each region and entire 9 regions were analyzed. For analysis, monthly, seasonal and annual climate aridity indexes of 43 study stations were estimated using precipitation and potential evapotranspiration calculated from FAO Penman-Monteith equation. The Mann-Kendall statistical test for significant trend was accomplished using the estimated climate aridity indexes and the results of trend test (Z scores) were used to analyze the temporal and regional homogeneity of climate aridity index trends. The study results showed the temporal and regional homogeneity of climate aridity index trends for individual and entire 9 regions. However, the homogeneity and the extent of aridity index trend showed different patterns temporally and regionally.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.891-905
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• 2011

Climate vulnerability index is usually defined as a function of the climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, which requires adequate selection of proxy variables of each variable. We selected and used 9 proxy variables related to climate exposure in the literature, and diagnosed the adequacy of them for application in Korean peninsula. The selected proxy variables are: four variables from temperature, three from precipitation, one from wind speed, and one from relative humidity. We collected climate data over both previous year (1981~2010) and future climate scenario (A1B scenario of IPCC SERES) for 2020, 2050, and 2100. We introduced the spatial and temporal diagnostic statistical parameters, and evaluated both spatial and time variabilities in the relative scale. Of 9 proxy variables, effective humidity indicated the most sensitive to climate change temporally with the biggest spatial variability, implying a good proxy variable in diagnostics of climate change vulnerability in Korea. The second most sensitive variable is the frequency of strong wind speed with a decreasing trend, suggesting that it should be used carefully or may not be of broad utility as a proxy variable in Korea. The A1B scenario of future climate in 2020, 2050 and 2100 matches well with the extension of linear trend of observed variables during 1981~2010, indicating that, except for strong wind speed, the selected proxy variables can be effectively used in calculating the vulnerability index for both past and future climate over Korea. Other local variabilities for the past and future climate in association with climate exposure variables are also discussed here.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.46 no.7
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• pp.735-744
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• 2013

The effect of climate and landscape characteristics on hydrologic partitioning and vegetation response is analyzed in this study. After quantifying hydrologic partitioning using the Horton index, the relation between regional climate characteristics and the Horton index is investigated. In addition, using the comparison between the predictability of the Horton index with only regional climate characteristics and the predictability of the Horton index with landscape characteristics as well as regional climate characteristics, the relative contribution of landscape characteristics on hydrologic partitioning is analyzed. Finally, investigating the predictability of the aridity index and Horton index on the normalized difference vegetation index, the effect of climate and landscape characteristics on vegetation response is estimated.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.147-157
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• 2013

Rice is a main crop and rice field is the most important farmland in Korea. This study was conducted to propose the methodology assessing impact and vulnerability on rice production by climate change at the regional and national level in Korea. We evaluated a vulnerability of rice paddy according to the outbreak of a main disease and pest of a rice plant. As results, Jeju-do, Gyeongsangnam-do, and Jeollanam-do were more vulnerable area than others. In contrast, the southern central region including Gyeonggi-do was less vulnerable than others. The vulnerable index was significantly higher in 2050s (0.5589) than in present (0.3500). This result showed that the vulnerable to the disease and pest enlarge in the future. The adaptive capacity highly contributed to the vulnerability assessment index. The daily maximum temperature of June and the daily average temperature from May to August also contributed the climate exposure index. The area of occurring sheath blight, rice leaf blast and striped rice borer was related to the system sensitivity index. The ability of water supply (readjustment area of arable land per paddy field area) and rice production technique (rice yield per hectare) were the highly contributed variables to the adaption capacity index.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.146-146
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• 2019

The aridity index, which is determined as the ratio of potential evapotranspiration to precipitation, is one of key parameters in drought characterization. Whereas the evaporative index, which is defined as the ratio of actual evapotranspiration to precipitation, represents the fraction of available water consumed by the evapotranspiration process. This study investigates variation of the aridity and evaporative indexes due to climate change during the 21st century in South Korea. Estimations of the aridity and evaporative indexes are obtained using SWAT mode based on ensemble of 13 different GCMs over 5 large basins of South Korea for 2 RCP scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). The results shows the opposite trends of the two indexes, where the aridity index is projected as always increase, while the evaporative index is expected to decrease in all of 3 future period (2011-1940, 1941-1970, 1971-2099). The estimated results also suggest that land cover influenced significantly evapotranspiration along with the change of climate. The study indicates that South Korea will be facing with a high risk of water scarcity in future due to climate change, which is seriously challenging for water planing and management in the country.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1658-1663
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• 2021

Research on climate change and global warming on the power generation systems are rapidly increasing because of the Importance of the sustainable energy supply, thus the electricity supply since its growing share, in the end, uses energy supply. However, some researchers conducted this field, but many research gaps are not mentioned and filled in this field's literature since the lack of general statements and the quantitative models and formulation of the issue. In this research, an exergy-based model is implemented to model a set of six power generation technologies (combined cycle, gas turbine, nuclear plant, solar PV, and wind turbine) and use this model to simulate each technology's responses to climate change impacts. Finally, using these responses to define and calculate a formulation for the relationship between the system's energy performance in different environmental situations and a dimensionless index to quantize each power technology's reliability against the climate change impacts called the Pahlev reliability index (P-index) of the power technology. The results have shown that solar and nuclear technologies are the most, and wind turbines are the least reliable power generation technologies.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.427-441
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• 2011

This study developed the Climate Variability Index (CVI) to assess the water resources through adding detail indicators into the existing regional Water Poverty Index (WPI) to consider climate variability and flood damage. This study aims at selecting indicators of WPI focused on water availability and regional climate variability, assessing regional variability of the indices during 1998-2007, and providing information to help determining the priority of water sector policies, investment, and applications. The WPI represents the relationship between the level of welfare and the water use. Considered with flood management and climate variability, CVI added by regional characteristics may be used in water resources management as well as flood mitigation for coping with climate change.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.507-514
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• 2009

In this study, a dynamic modeling scheme is presented to describe the probabilistic structure of soil water and plant water stress index under stochastic precipitation conditions. The proposed model has the form of the Fokker-Planck equation, and its applicability as a model for the probabilistic evolution of the soil water and plant water stress index is investigated under a climate change scenario. The simulation results of soil water confirm that the proposed soil water model can properly reproduce the observations and show that the soil water behaves with consistent cycle based on the precipitation pattern. The simulation results of plant water stress index show two different PDF patterns according to the precipitation. The simple impact assessment of climate change to soil water and plant water stress is discussed with Korean Meteorological Administration regional climate model.