• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제49권3호
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• pp.134-148
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• 2023

Background: The conducting of health effect surveys (HESs) in environmentally contaminated vulnerable areas (ECVAs) by the central and local governments has been increasing apace with the increase in demand for HESs since the Environmental Health Act was enacted in South Korea in 2008. Objectives: This study aimed to review the HESs of residents in ECVAs conducted in South Korea. Methods: An analysis was performed on 125 reports obtained from the Environment Digital Library, PRISM, and local government websites after selecting from 803 projects obtained as ECVAs from the Korea ON-Line E-Procurement System (1997~2021), National Institute Environment Research (2000~2021), and Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (2009~2021). The reports were classified by background (residents' demand, HES, and more), research design (cross-sectional study, cohort, ecological study, and panel), pollution source (abandoned metal mine (AMM), industrial complex (IC), and more), and assessment method of exposure and health effects. The survey area was converted into administrative district codes for geographical mapping. Results: There were 37, 34, 18, and 10 cases associated with AMM, IC, waste incinerators, and coal-fired power plants, respectively. Most of the studies conducted were cross-sectional studies and ecological studies. The proportion of epidemiological investigations by residents' demand showed an increase from 0.0% to 8.9% for the central government while decreasing from 16.7% to 14.3% for local governments after 2008 compared to before 2008. HESs increased at both the central and local government levels since 2014. For the evaluation method, 365 environmental hazards, 319 health outcomes, and 302 biological markers were investigated, with the most commonly investigated items being metals, cancer, and blood metals. Conclusions: HESs of residents in ECVAs in South Korea have been continuously developed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Future improvements are expected, and systematic review and classification of the HESs is warranted.

• 환경영향평가
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.1-11
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• 1993

Most developing countries are experiencing rapid urbanization and the associated growth of industry and services. Cities are currently absorbing two-thirds of the total population in the developing world. Korea has about 85 percent of urban dwellers. World population will shift from being predominantly rural to predominantly urban around the turn of the century. Although cities play a key role in development process and make more than a proportionate contribution to national economic growth, especially cities are also the main catalysts of economic growth in developing countries, they can also be unhealthy, inefficient, and inequitable places to live. Most developing countries are increasingly unable to provide basic environmental infrastructure and services, whether in the megacities or in secondary urban centers. Of particular concern is the strain on natural resources brought by the increasing number of people, cars, and factories. They are generating ever greater amounts of urban wastes and emissions. They also exceed the capacity of regulatory authorities to control them and of nature to assimilate them. The environmental consequences are translated into direct negative impacts on human health, the quality of life, the productivity of the city, and the surrounding ecosystems. Environmental degradation threatens the long tenn availability and quality of natural resources critical to economic growth. Cities, with their higher and growing per capita energy use for domestic, industrial, and transport purpose also contribute a disproportionate share of the emission leading to global warming and acid rain. An important priority is to develop strategic approaches for managing the urban environment. The design of appropriate and lasting strategic responses requires first an understanding of the underlying causes of urban environmental deterioration, it is necessary that longer tenn objectives should be set for urban area to avoid irreversible ecological damage and to ensure lasting economic development. As a means to the preventive policies against the adverse effect, environmental impact assessment (EIA) serve to identify a project's possible environmental consequences early enough to allow their being taken into consideration in the decision making process for urban planning. This paper describes some considerations of EIA for urban planning-scoping, assessment process, measurement and prediction of impacts, pollution controls and supervision, and system planning for environmental preservation.

• 환경영향평가
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.225-233
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• 2008

An Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) is an archive for samples that can be used to document and assess the quality of the environment in which we live. An ESB program looks at changes in the concentration of human and environmental specimens over long periods of time through retrospective analysis of archived samples of a particular area collected at regular intervals. The idea of ESB was first proposed by German and American scientists in the early 1970s and has been established since 1979 in Germany, USA, and Japan. Korea plans to establish a National Environmental Specimen Bank (NESB) in 2010. The NESB will be able to assess and improve the quality of analytical measurements as well as to compare the past and current environmental quality as a time capsule. The concept and design for the NESB facility was developed and its Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) are being developed based on an evaluation of ESBs and SOPs of Germany, USA, and Japan. Environmental specimens proposed for banking are based on typical representatives of every level of the food chain from each type of ecosystem that are widely distributed thus enabling comparisons between different sampling areas. Through retrospective analysis of environmental specimens, the NESB will improve the reliability of environmental monitoring, ecological risk assessment, and health impact assessment.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제60권11호
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• pp.337-343
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• 2017

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in childhood. This disorder, in addition to its main symptoms, creates significant difficulties in education, social performance, and personal relationships. Given the importance of rehabilitation for these patients to combat the above issues, the use of virtual reality (VR) technology is helpful. The aim of this study was to highlight the opportunities for VR in the rehabilitation of children with ADHD. This narrative review was conducted by searching for articles in scientific databases and e-Journals, using keywords including VR, children, and ADHD. Various studies have shown that VR capabilities in the rehabilitation of children with ADHD include providing flexibility in accordance with the patients' requirements; removing distractions and creating an effective and safe environment away from real-life dangers; saving time and money; increasing patients' incentives based on their interests; providing suitable tools to perform different behavioral tests and increase ecological validity; facilitating better understanding of individuals' cognitive deficits and improving them; helping therapists with accurate diagnosis, assessment, and rehabilitation; and improving working memory, executive function, and cognitive processes such as attention in these children. Rehabilitation of children with ADHD is based on behavior and physical patterns and is thus suitable for VR interventions. This technology, by simulating and providing a virtual environment for diagnosis, training, monitoring, assessment and treatment, is effective in providing optimal rehabilitation of children with ADHD.

• 환경영향평가
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.381-389
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• 2012

This study was conducted to analyze the weight factors for siting the electric facilities using Analytic Heirarchy Process technique participating the stakeholders. Siting the electric facilities has been a dispute of long standing because of landscape damage, geological deformation and various environmental problems such as electromagnetic effect to human health. For analyzing the weight factors by AHP technique, the questionnaire process was applied to the fifteen committee members including representatives of resident, academic experts, members of local assembly, officers of local government, journalists, etc. in Gangwondo, Korea. Weight factors for siting the electric facilities by AHP committee members resulted in residential areas 35.06%, cultural assets 16.68%, landscape conservation 13.11%, large-scale ecological corridor 10.17%, connectability of electric transmission line 8.32% respectively. The distance from residential areas was the most important factor preferred by committee members for siting the electric facilities.

• 환경영향평가
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.417-423
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• 2006

The purification ability of indoor plants for volatile organic compounds was investigated. Philodendron selloum and Spathiphyllum sp. were tested for removal of toluene and trichloroethylene in the artificially contaminated reactor under laboratory conditions. Each plant was placed in right side of the reactor and the TCE and toluene concentration change with time were monitored. In the reactor with Philodendron, the TCE concentrations of left and right sides were compared to examine the removal effects by plant. In the reactor with Spathiphyllum, air was circulated before sampling, and thus average removal effects by plants on target VOC were observed. Both plants showed clear effects on removal of VOCs from contaminated indoor air. The removal efficiency of Philodendron and Spathiphyllum were similar and showed 30 - 46% and 31 - 47% of purification effects, respectively. The results of this study showed that air purification using plants is an effective means of reduction on indoor VOCs concentration level and reduce related health risk though, supplementary purifying aids or proper ventilation were also suggested.

• 한국환경복원기술학회지
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.73-92
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to establish the conservation and restoration areas for sustainable stream management by reflecting the ecological health, cultural characteristics, and the citizens' needs for stream uses. Therefore, we extended spatial ranges of stream evaluation to riparian areas in addition to stream sections. The evaluation indexes are stream naturalness, availability, biota assessment, and riparian characteristics such as land uses and legally protected areas. The grading system was unified with five classes. The spatial evaluation units for stream section are classified as right and left for laterally and 500m for longitudinally. For riparian areas, 30m and 100m of distance from the edge of stream are applied as spatial evaluation units. The six types of stream sections for management are conservation sections(priority/general) and restoration sections(priority/general) for ecological landscape and core and general sections for cultural landscape. The established system for evaluation and designating areas for stream management was applied to Jeonjucheon and Samcheon in Jeonju-si, and the conservation and restoration areas were designated reflecting the characteristics of urban and non-urban areas and left and right of stream sections. The results of this study will provide detailed guidelines for designating stream sections and practical management strategies for sustainable urban stream management.

• 한국환경과학회지
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• 제32권11호
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• pp.745-756
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• 2023

Growing stringent global regulations in Korea poses a threat to corporate sustainability. Companies must respond strategically to navigate these regulations and avoid greenwashing. Objective of this research was to analyze how Korean companies are responding to the global trend of reducing plastic use and propose improved management strategies. Seven indicators were developed to assess companies' post-plastic strategies and applied to analyze the sustainability reports of Amore Pacific and LG Household & HealthCare. These indicators included, 1) disclosure of plastic raw materials used by weight or volume, 2) disclosure of recycled plastic raw materials used by weight or volume, 3) disclosure of waste recycling, reuse amounts, and disposal using waste treatment method 4) strategies to reduce environmental impact of plastics, 5) plastic packaging, reduce, recycle, reuse, and composting (in the real environment), 6) plastic management roadmap for the circular economy, and 7) education for sustainable plastic management. Based on the review of considered companies, we propose in-listed sustainable plastics management strategies: disclosing the ratio of plastic raw materials and recycled raw materials for all products, considering recycling rate throughout the product value chain, and not only for the production phase, reviewing carbon dioxide emissions based on life cycle assessment rather than reducing plastic consumption, studying the biodegradability of biodegradable plastics in natural environment such as soil, considering the consumer's perspective.

• 디지털융복합연구
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.469-482
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• 2022

본 연구의 목적은 코로나19에서 고혈압 치료율의 지역 간 변이요인을 분석하는 것이다. 이를 위해 생태학적 분석에 적합한 데이터를 2020년 질병관리청 지역건강통계, 각 지자체 코로나19 확진자 현황 자료, 국민건강보험공단, 건강보험심사평가원의 건강보험통계, 한국사회보장정보원의 복지통계, 한국교통연구원의 교통접근성 지표 자료를 수집하였다. 고혈압 치료율의 지역 간 변이와 관련 요인을 SPSS Statistics 23을 활용하여 기술통계, 상관분석을 실시하였으며, 지역 간 변이 요인을 Arc GIS를 이용하여 지리적 가중회귀분석을 실시하였다. 연구결과로 지리적 가중회귀모형의 전반적인 설명력은 27.6%였으며, 지역별로는 23.1%에서 33.4%까지 분포하는 것으로 나타났고, 고혈압 치료율에 영향을 미치는 요인으로 기초생활보장 의료급여 수급자 비율, 당뇨병 치료율, 인구10만 명당 보건기관 수가 높을수록 고혈압 치료율이 높았으며, 코로나19 확진자수, 코로나19 유행으로 감소된 신체활동 비율, 코로나19 유행으로 감소된 음주 비율이 낮을수록 고혈압 치료율이 높은 것으로 분석되었다. 이러한 결과를 기반으로 코로나19에서 고혈압 치료율의 지역 간 변이요인 분석은 효과적인 고혈압 치료율 관리 사업을 기대할 수 있을 것이며, 더 나아가 지역사회 중심의 건강증진 정책 수립에 활용될 것으로 기대된다.

• 한국해양학회지:바다
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.116-138
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• 2024

본 연구는 '해양교란유해종'이 해양 환경과 사회경제적 측면에 미치는 영향을 평가하기 위한 새로운 도구와 프로토콜을 제시한다. 한국의 해양생태계 보전 및 관리법에서 발견된 한계점을 보완하기 위해, 본 연구는 해양 환경과 사회경제 그룹(영역)으로 나누어진 영향 평가 프레임워크를 도입하였다. 각 그룹은 6개의 영향 평가 카테고리(범주)로 구성되어 있으며, 준정량적인 5단계 척도를 사용하여 생태계의 교란에서 건강과 재산에 대한 영향에 이르는 폭넓은 이슈들을 다루는 유연한 방식을 제공한다. 이 영향평가 도구의 실행은 델파이 방법을 기반으로 한 체계적인 5단계 프로세스를 통해 진행된다. 이 접근법은 다양한 전문가와 이해관계자 간의 협력을 촉진하며, 다양한 관점을 통합하는 포괄적인 평가를 가능하게 한다. 또한 이 연구는 불확실성을 효과적으로 관리하고 결과의 일관성을 향상시키는 전략도 모색되었다. 본 평가 프로토콜의 적용은 '해양교란유해종'에 의한 생태학적 피해의 정도를 계량화하고 관리 대상 및 예방 조치의 우선순위를 정립하는 데 결정적인 역할을 할 것으로 기대된다. 평가 과정의 궁극적인 목표는 의사결정자가 해양생태계 보전과 사회경제적 영향을 완화하기 위한 전략을 수립하도록 지원하는 것이다.