• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.205-217
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• 2019

The aim of this study was to identify land resources because food production and supply in North Korea have been at risk due to variations in its seasonal climate. More than three-fifths of the soils are locally derived from the weathering of granitic rocks or various kinds of schists developed from crystalline rocks. Well-developed reddish brown soils derived from limestone are found in the North Hwanghae province and in the southern part of the South Pyeongan province. Additionally, a narrow strip of similarly fertile land runs through the eastern seaboard of the Hamgyong and Kangwon Provinces. The loss of clay particles and organic matter are major causes of degradation in the soil physical and chemical properties in North Korea. 75% of the areas converted from forests became croplands, and 69% of the land converted to croplands came from forests. The net forest loss was quite small from the 1990s to the 2000s. However, deforestation in areas with a slightly lower elevation and gentler slope between 1997 and 2014 led to severe soil erosion resulting in a drastic change in the physical and chemical properties of the soil which influenced cropland stability and productivity. Therefore, the drastic changes in land cover as well as in the physical and chemical properties of the soil caused by various geographical features have seriously influenced the productivity of crops in North Korea.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.329-329
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• 2022

Accurate characterization of terrestrial precipitation variation from high spatial resolution satellite sensors is beneficial for urban hydrology and microscale agriculture modeling, as well as natural disasters (e.g., urban flooding) early warning. However, the widely-used top-down approach for precipitation retrieval from microwave satellites is limited in several hydrological and agricultural applications due to their coarse spatial resolution. In this research, we aim to apply a novel bottom-up method, the parameterized SM2RAIN, where precipitation can be estimated from soil moisture signals based on an inversion of water balance model, to generate high spatial resolution terrestrial precipitation estimates at 0.01º grid (roughly 1-km) from the C-band SAR Sentinel-1. This product was then tested against a common reanalysis-based precipitation data and a domestic rain gauge network from the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA) over central South Korea, since a clear difference between climatic types (coasts and mainlands) and land covers (croplands and mixed forests) was reported in this area. The results showed that seasonal precipitation variability strongly affected the SM2RAIN performances, and the product derived from separated parameters (rainy and non-rainy seasons) outperformed that estimated considering the entire year. In addition, the product retrieved over the mainland mixed forest region showed slightly superior performance compared to that over the coastal cropland region, suggesting that the 6-day time resolution of S1 data is suitable for capturing the stable precipitation pattern in mainland mixed forests rather than the highly variable precipitation pattern in coastal croplands. Future studies suggest comparing this product to the traditional top-down products, as well as evaluating their integration for enhancing high spatial resolution precipitation over entire South Korea.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.47-53
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• 2012

Recently many developed countries have used satellite images for classifying cropland areas to reduce time and efforts put into field survey. Korea also has used satellite images for the same purpose since KOMPSAT-2 was successfully launched and operated in 2006, but still far way to go in order to achieve the required accuracy from the products. This study evaluated the accuracy of the calculated croplands by using the objected classification method with various satellite images including ASTER, Spot-5, Rapid eye, Quickbird-2, Geo eye-1. Also, their usability and effectiveness for the cropland survey were verified by comparing with field survey data. As results. Geo eye-1 and Rapid eye showed higher accuracy to calculate the paddy field areas while Geo eye-1 and Quickbird-2 showed higher accuracy to calculate the upland field areas.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.453-462
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• 2005

The study deals with surface erosion patterns due to the development of cropland toward hillslope and hilltop in the Oncheon-gun, pyeongbuk province and Nampo city of west coast area in the North Korea, using Quick Bird satellite images with 60cm resolution. In North Korea, for national economic difficult after 1980 year, newly developed croplands have been along the gentle hillslope, in which it is possible for individual man power different from the tideland which needs large scaled man-power and equipment. The new croplands are named Darakbat(terraced farm with embankment) and Bitalbat(titled farm developed on the original hill slope), neighboring with orchard and grouped settlement in lower valley. For supplying agricultural water, irrigation ditches and temporal crop storages have been constructed, connecting Darakbat, Bitalbat and orchard. These cropland developments have caused surface erosion composed of 3 types such as pit, linear and headward erosion, together with rill and gully. Owing to poor management of cropland and irrigation system, topsoil erosion and, collapse and sedimentation of ditch and pool, caused the decrease of agricultural productivity. These analysis using Quick Bird images can suggest original raw data about geographical facts on North Korea agriculture and help to recover their agricultural system and plan future national unified land.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.334-342
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: To quantify carbon exchange at agricultural ecosystems in South Korea, net ecosystem exchange (NEE) at three croplands including a rice paddy, a bean field and an apple orchard was measured on the basis of the eddy covariance technique. METHODS AND RESULTS: NEE of CO2 during the growing season (June to September) averaged over the recent two years (2018-2019) was the highest at rice (-4.49 g C m-2 day-1), followed by the bean (-3.12 g C m-2 day-1) and apple (-0.93 g C m-2 day-1). The diurnal variation of NEE was the highest at the rice, while the seasonal variation of it was the highest at the bean than others. In terms of yearly variation, the rice paddy and the bean field absorbed more CO2 in 2019 compared to 2018, while the apple orchard absorbed less. CONCLUSION: Our results confirmed that these croplands consistently acted as net sinks for CO2 during the growing season because an amount of CO2 uptake from photosynthesis was larger than one of its emissions from respiration. The quantification of net CO2 exchange at agricultural ecosystems may help to better understand the local carbon cycle over various time scales.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.87-95
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• 2012

Land surface temperature (LST) is an important factor in human health, thermal environment, heat balance, global change studies, and as control for climate change. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effects on the LST and NDVI in Cheongju, Korea. The aim was to evaluate the effect of urban thermal environment for LST comparison of satellite-derived and in situ measured temperature. In this study, LANDSAT TM and KOMPSAT scene were used. The results indicated that the minimum LST is observed over dense forest as about $21{\sim}25^{\circ}C$ and maximum LST is observed over industrial area of about $28{\sim}32^{\circ}C$. The estimated LST showed that industrial area, bare soils and built-up areas exhibit higher surface temperatures, while forest, water bodies, agricultural croplands, and dense vegetations have lower surface temperatures during the summer daytime. Result corroborates the fact that LST over land use/land cover (LULC) types are greatly influenced by the amount of vegetation and water bodies present. The LST of industrial area and urban center is higher than that of suburban area, so it is clearly proved that there are obvious UHIE in Cheongju.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.575-578
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• 2013

Rice cultivation in the paddy field and the burning of crop residues have been identified as the important sources of methane emission in agricultural sector. This study aimed at assessment of the methane emission from croplands in the year of 2011 with the IPCC guideline methodology. Methane from rice cultivation was emitted 6,813 $CO_2$-eq Gg in 2011. According to the water management, methane emission amounts by continuously flooded and intermittently flooded were 1,499 and 5,314 $CO_2$-eq Gg, respectively. Methane emission by crop residues burning was highest in red pepper and followed by rice straw, pulses and barely in 2011. Methane emission by field burning was very little compared with rice cultivation.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.22-31
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• 2016

Active fire products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite observation during the 16 years from 2000-2015 were analyzed to estimate spatial and temporal variations of wildland fires over East Asia (region of interest: $20^{\circ}N-55^{\circ}N$, $100^{\circ}E-150^{\circ}E$). GLOBCOVER 2009 land cover data were also used to investigate the trend in wildfire occurrence with respect to each land cover type. Statistical analysis showed that the highest number of wildland fires occurred in the evergreen and vegetation covered areas, and strong seasonal variations were found in these areas. Total numbers of fires were 283,683 and 202,543, respectively. In particular, the wildland fires in croplands occurred mainly during summer season and distinguishable increasing trends were found. The correlations between number of wildland fires and air pollutants, such as black carbon, organic matter, and carbon monoxide, were also calculated in order to investigate the intensity of the air pollution caused by the wildland fires. Positive correlation between total column carbon monoxide contents and the occurrence of wildland fire was found. In addition, this correlation was higher than the correlation between fire occurrence and black carbon or organic matter. These results indicate that a significant amount of carbon monoxide originated from the wildland fires and influenced the regional atmospheric environment in East Asia.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.203-214
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• 2017

Environmental toxicity due to cadmium (Cd) pollution in croplands causes critical problems worldwide. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important crop in Asia, including South Korea, and numerous studies have evaluated the relationship between Cd and antioxidants to alleviate Cd uptake from the soil into plants. However, information about the relationship between phosphorus (P) and antioxidants in rice seedlings is still limited with regard to Cd phytotoxicity. We therefore investigated the physiological responses of rice (Oryza sativa L. cv 'Dongjin') seedlings to Cd toxicity and the effect of P application on reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant changes. The exposure of rice seedlings to $30{\mu}M$ Cd inhibited plant growth; increased the contents of superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and malondialdehyde; and induced Cd uptake by the roots and leaves. Application of P to Cd-exposed seedlings decreased Cd-induced oxidative stress by enhancing the capacity of ascorbate (AsA) production and ROS-scavenging, and decreased Cd transfer from the roots to the leaves. These results suggest that P application alleviated Cd-induced growth inhibition and oxidative damage by restricting Cd translocation from the roots to the leaves and maintaining sufficient levels of AsA.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2008

During the summer season, more than half of the annual precipitation in Korea occurs during the summer season due to the geographical location in the Asian monsoon belt. So, this causes severe soil erosion from croplands, which is directly linked to the deterioration of crop/land productivity and surface water quality. Therefore, much attention has been given to develop accurate estimation tools of soil erosion. The aim of this study is to assess the performance of using the empirical Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and the physical-based model of the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) to quantify eroded amount of soil from agricultural fields. Input data files, including climate, soil, slope, and cropping management, were modified to fit into Korean conditions. Chuncheon (forest) and Jeonju (level-plain) were selected as two Korean cities with different topographic characteristics for model analysis. The results of this current study indicated that better soil erosion prediction can be achieved using the WEPP model since it has better power to illustrate a higher degree of spatial variability than USLE in topography, precipitation, soils, and crop management practices. These present findings are expected to contribute to the development of the environmental assessment program as well as the conservation of the agricultural environment in Korea.