• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 2019

Frost heave is one of the representative engineering characteristics in cold regions. In South Korea, which is located in seasonal frost area, structural damage caused by frost heave and thaw happens and the need for research on the frost heave is increasing. In this paper, newly developed transparent temperature-controllable cell is used to focus on the frost heave. Frost susceptible artificial soil is used to analyze water intake rate which is one of the important factors in frost susceptibility criteria. Frost heave rate and water intake rate have similar behavior after heave by freezing of pore water converges. O-ring installed in the upper pedestal to measure water intake rate generates side friction between the inner wall of the freezing cell and O-ring, thereby hindering frost heave. Therefore, the frost susceptibility criteria using the water intake rate is not reliable. It is appropriate to use frost heave rate which has similar behavior with water intake rate. Frost heave tests were performed under two different specimen heights. Overburden pressure, temperature gradient and dry unit weight were set under similar state. Based on laboratory testing results, frost heave is independent on the specimen height.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.184-191
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• 2023

With increasing corrosion in RC (Reinforced Concrete) structures, cracks occurred due to corrosion products and bearing load resistance decreased. In this study, corrosion was induced through an accelerated corrosion test (ICM: Impressed Current Method) with 140 hours of duration, and changes in USV (Ultra-Sonic Velocity), flexural failure load, and corrosion weight were evaluated before and after corrosion test. Three levels of cover depth (20 mm, 30 mm, and 40 mm) were considered, and the initial cracking period increased and the rust around steel decreased with increasing cover depth. In addition, the USV linearly decreased with decreasing cover depth and increasing amount of corrosion. In the flexural loading test, the bending capacity decreased by more than 10% due to corrosion, but a clear correlation could not be obtained since the corrosion ratio was small, so that the effect of slip was greater than that of reduced cross-sectional area of steel due to corrosion. As cover depth increased, the produced corrosion amount and USV changed with a clear linear relationship, and the cracking period due to corrosion could be estimated by the gradient of the measured corrosion current.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.323-330
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• 2023

The development of an analysis model that reflects the microstructure characteristics of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber-reinforced cementitious composites, which have a highly complex microstructure, enables synergy between efficient material design and real experiments. PVA fiber orientations are an important factor that influences the mechanical behavior of PVA fiber-reinforced cementitious composites. Owing to the difficulty in distinguishing the gray level value obtained from micro-CT images of PVA fibers from adjacent phases, fiber segmentation is time-consuming work. In this study, a micro-CT test with a voxel size of 0.65 ㎛³ was performed to investigate the three-dimensional distribution of fibers. To segment the fibers and generate training data, histogram, morphology, and gradient-based phase-segmentation methods were used. A U-net model was proposed to segment fibers from micro-CT images of PVA fiber-reinforced cementitious composites. Data augmentation was applied to increase the accuracy of the training, using a total of 1024 images as training data. The performance of the model was evaluated using accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score. The trained model achieved a high fiber segmentation performance and efficiency, and the approach can be applied to other specimens as well.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.426-433
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• 2024

The environmental stress that plants are most susceptible to is water stress. Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant hormone synthesized by plants to counteract environmental stress. The role of stomata in plants is to allow the synthesis of sucrose by absorbing CO₂, which greatly affects photosynthetic activity. In addition, stomata are pathways for transpiration, which releases H₂O and help establish a water potential gradient that allows plant roots to continuously absorb water and inorganic substances from the soil. Plants have a mechanism to minimize water loss by closing their stomata when exposed to water-stressed environments. The most well-studied hypothesis concerning the mechanism of stomatal closure is the response to water stress. When a plant receives sufficient water, its stomata open during the day and close at night due to its circadian rhythm. In addition, stomatal closure occurs when the concentration of CO₂ in the intercellular space increases. However, the mechanism of stomatal closure due to circadian rhythm and increased CO₂ concentration in the intercellular space is not well understood. When plants undergo water stress, the increased concentration of ABA in the guard cell cytoplasm induces an increase in Ca²⁺ concentration, resulting in cytoplasmic depolarization. As a result, the outward K⁺-channel of the tonoplast and the slow-type anion channels SLAC1 and SLAH3 are activated, releasing K⁺, Cl^-, and malate^2-, causing the stomata to close. Therefore, in this paper, the mechanism of stomatal closure caused by water stress was investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.67-84
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• 2023

In some areas of the Republic of Korea, the designation and management of conservation areas do not adequately reflect regional characteristics and often impose behavioral regulations without considering the local context. One prominent example is the Busan EDC area. As a result, conflicts may arise, including large-scale civil complaints, regarding the conservation and utilization of these areas. Therefore, for the efficient designation and management of protected areas, it is necessary to consider various ecosystem factors, changes in land use, and regional characteristics. In this study, we specifically focused on the Busan EDC area and applied machine learning techniques to analyze the habitat of regional species. Additionally, we employed Explainable Artificial Intelligence techniques to interpret the results of our analysis. To analyze the regional characteristics of the waterfront area in the Busan EDC district and the habitat of migratory birds, we used bird observations as dependent variables, distinguishing between presence and absence. The independent variables were constructed using land cover, elevation, slope, bridges, and river depth data. We utilized the XGBoost (eXtreme Gradient Boosting) model, known for its excellent performance in various fields, to predict the habitat probabilities of 11 bird species. Furthermore, we employed the SHapley Additive exPlanations technique, one of the representative methodologies of XAI, to analyze the relative importance and impact of the variables used in the model. The analysis results showed that in the EDC business district, as one moves closer to the river from the waterfront, the likelihood of bird habitat increases based on the overlapping habitat probabilities of the analyzed bird species. By synthesizing the major variables influencing the habitat of each species, key variables such as rivers, rice fields, fields, pastures, inland wetlands, tidal flats, orchards, cultivated lands, cliffs & rocks, elevation, lakes, and deciduous forests were identified as areas that can serve as habitats, shelters, resting places, and feeding grounds for birds. On the other hand, artificial structures such as bridges, railways, and other public facilities were found to have a negative impact on bird habitat. The development of a management plan for conservation areas based on the objective analysis presented in this study is expected to be extensively utilized in the future. It will provide diverse evidential materials for establishing effective conservation area management strategies.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.1 s.106
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• pp.1-11
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• 2004

The limnological characteristics of a coastal lagoon were studied in Lake Hyangho, one of a series of brackish lagoons along the eastern coast of Korea. Phytoplankton community structure, physical factors, and chemical factors were surveyed from May 1998 through November 2002 on a two-month interval basis. Temperature, salinity, Secchi disc transparency, TN, TP, organic matter content of sediment, chlorophyll a concentration, dominant phytoplankton species, and phytoplankton cell density were measured. Salinity gradient was formed between the overlying freshwater stream water and the permeated seawater at the bottom. The chemocline was persistent at the depth of 2 ${\sim}$ 5 m that caused discontinuities of salinity, DO, and temperature profiles. The inversion of vertical temperature profiles with higher temperature in deeper layer was observed in early winter. Secchi disc transparency was very low with the range of 0.1 to 1.1m. TP, TN, and Chl. a concentration in the epilimnion was 0.011 ${\sim}$ 0.238 mgP $L^{-l}$, 0.423 ${\sim}$ 2.443 mgN $L^{-l}$, and 0.7 ${\sim}$ 145.2 mg $m^{-3}$, respectively. Sediment was composed of silt and coarse silt. COD, TP, and TN content of dry sediment were 19.7 ${\sim}$ 73.3 mg$O_2\;g^{-1}$, 0.61 ${\sim}$ 1.32 mgP $g^{-l}$ and 0.64 ${\sim}$ 0.88 mgN $g^{-l}$, respectively. Dominant phytoplankton species were chlorophytes (Ankistrodesmus falcatus) and cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria sp. and Merismopedia tennuissima). The total cell density was in the range of 560 ${\sim}$ 35,255 cells $mL^{-l}$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2010

The capacity of natural purification was limited by the interruption of natural flow and the problems such as eutrophication were occurred by nutritive salts accumulation in stagnant stream. Moreover, the inflow of non-point sources causes non-degradable materials to increase in stagnant stream. In this study, an upflow biological activated carbon (BAC) biofilm process comprised of anoxic, aerobic 1, and aerobic 2 reactors were introduced for treatment of stagnant stream and SS, $BOD_5$, $COD_{Mn}$, $COD_{Cr}$, TN, and TP were monitored in the upflow BAC biofilm reactors with continuous cycling. In order to simulate stagnant stream, the lake water of amusement park and golf course were stored as influent in a tank of $2m^3$ and hydraulic retention time (HRT) was changed into 6, 4, and 2 hours. At HRT 4hr and the lake water of amusement park as influent, the removal efficiencies of SS, $BOD_5$, $COD_{Mn}$, $COD_{Cr}$, TN, and TP showed the best water quality improvement and were 69.8, 83.0, 91.3, 74.1, 74.7, and 88.9%, respectively. At HRT 4hr and the lake water of golf course as influent, the removal efficiencies of SS, $BOD_5$, $COD_{Mn}$, $COD_{Cr}$, TN and TP were 78.5, 78.0, 80.2, 74.9, 55.6 and 97.5%, respectively. As the results of polymerase chain reaction - denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE), microbial community was different depending on influent type. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) showed that nitrifying bacteria was dominant at HRT 4 hr. The biomass amount and microbial activities by INT-DHA test were not decrease even at lower HRT condition. In this study, the upflow BAC biofilm process would be considered to the water quality improvement of stagnant stream.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.422-429
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• 2013

It is generally known that the increase of the Earth surface temperature due to the global warming together with the land desertification by rapid urban development has caused severe climate and weather change. In desert or desertification land, it is observed that there are always severe flooding phenomena, even if desert sand has the high porosity, which could be believed as the favorable condition of rain water infiltration into ground water. The high runoff feature causes possibly another heavy rain by quick evaporation with the depletion of underground water due to the lack of infiltration. The basic physics of desert flooding is reasonably assumed due to the thermal buoyancy of the higher temperature of the soil temperature than that of the rain drop. Considering the importance of this topic associated with water resource management and climate disaster prevention, no systematic investigation has, however, been reported in literature. In this study, therefore, a laboratory scale experiment together with the effort of numerical calculation have been performed to evaluate quantitatively the basic hypothesis of run-off mechanism caused by the increase of soil temperature. To this end, first, of all, a series of experiment has been made repeatedly with the change of soil temperature with well-sorted coarse sand having porosity of 35% and particle diameter, 2.0 mm. In specific, in case 1, the ground surface temperature was kept at $15^{\circ}C$, while in case 2 that was high enough at $70^{\circ}C$. The temperature of $70^{\circ}C$ was tested as this try since the informal measured surface temperature of black sand in California's Coachella Valley up to at 191 deg. $^{\circ}F$ ($88^{\circ}C$). Based on the experimental study, it is observed that the amount of runoff at $70^{\circ}C$ was higher more than 5% compared to that at $15^{\circ}C$. Further, the relative amount of infiltration by the decrease of the surface temperature from 70 to $15^{\circ}C$ is about more than 30%. The result of numerical calculation performed was well agreed with the experimental data, that is, the increase of runoff in calculation as 4.6%. Doing this successfully, a basic but important research could be made in the near future for the more complex and advanced topic for this topic.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.333-343
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• 2015

This research aims at identifying the goshawk's possible and replaceable breeding ground by using the MaxEnt prediction model which has so far been insufficiently used in Korea, and providing evidence to expand possible protection areas for the goshawk's breeding for the future. The field research identified 10 goshawk's nests, and 23 appearance points confirmed during the 3rd round of environmental research were used for analysis. 4 geomorphic, 3 environmental, 7 distance, and 9 weather factors were used as model variables. The final environmental variables were selected through non-parametric verification between appearance and non-appearance coordinates identified by random sampling. The final predictive model (MaxEnt) was structured using 10 factors related to breeding ground and 7 factors related to appearance area selected by statistics verification. According to the results of the study, the factor that affected breeding point structure model the most was temperature seasonality, followed by distance from mixforest, density-class on the forest map and relief energy. The factor that affected appearance point structure model the most was temperature seasonality, followed by distance from rivers and ponds, distance from agricultural land and gradient. The nature of the goshawk's breeding environment and habit to breed inside forests were reflected in this modeling that targets breeding points. The northern central area which is about $189.5 km^2$(2.55 %) is expected to be suitable breeding ground. Large cities such as Cheongju and Chungju are located in the southern part of Chungcheongbuk-do whereas the northern part of Chungcheongbuk-do has evenly distributed forests and farmlands, which helps goshawks have a scope of influence and food source to breed. Appearance point modeling predicted an area of $3,071 km^2$(41.38 %) showing a wider ranging habitat than that of the breeding point modeling due to some limitations such as limited moving observation and non-consideration of seasonal changes. When targeting the breeding points, a specific predictive area can be deduced but it is difficult to check the points of nests and it is impossible to reflect the goshawk's behavioral area. On the other hand, when targeting appearance points, a wider ranging area can be covered but it is less accurate compared to predictive breeding point since simple movements and constant use status are not reflected. However, with these results, the goshawk's habitat can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. In particular, it is necessary to apply precise predictive breeding area data based on habitat modeling results when enforcing an environmental evaluation or establishing a development plan.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.210-220
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• 2019

Population growth and the increase of energy consumption due to civilization caused global warming. Temperature on the Earth rose about $0.7^{\circ}C$ for the last 100 years, the rate is accelerated since 2000. Temperature is a factor, which determines physiological action, growth and development, survival, etc. of the plant together with light intensity and precipitation. Therefore, it is expected that global warming would affect broadly geographic distribution of the plant as well as structure and function ecosystem. In order to understand the effect of global warming on the ecosystem, a study about the effect of temperature rise on germination and growth in the plant is required necessarily. This study was carried out to investigate the effects of experimental warming on the germination and growth of two oak species(Quercus mongolica and Q. serrata) in temperature gradient chamber(TGC). This study was conducted in control, medium warming treatment($+1.7^{\circ}C$; Tm), and high warming treatment ($+3.2^{\circ}C$; Th) conditions. The final germination percentage, mean germination time and germination rate of two oak species increased by the warming treatment, and the increase in Q. serrata was higher than that in Q. mongolica. Root collar diameter, seedling height, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, root dry weight, and total biomass were the highest in Tm treatment. Butthey were not significantly different in the Th treatment. In the Th treatment, Q. serrata had significantly higher H/D ratio, S/R ratio, and low root mass ratio (RMR) compared with control plot. Q. mongolica had lower RMR and higher S/R ratio in the Tm and Th treatments compared with control plot. Therefore, growth of Q. mongolica are expected to be more vulnerable to warming than that of Q. serrata. The main findings of this study, species-specific responses to experimental warming, could be applied to predict ecosystem changes from global warming. From the result of this study, we could deduce that temperature rise would increase germination of Q. serrata and Q. mongolica and consequently contribute to increase establishment rate in the early growth stage of the plants. But we have to consider diverse variables to understand properly the effects that global warming influences germination in natural condition. Treatment of global warming in the medium level increased the growth and the biomass of both Q. serrata and Q. mongolica. But the result of treatment in the high level showed different aspects. In particular, Q. mongolica, which grows in cooler zones of higher elevation on mountains or northward in latitude, responded more sensitively. Synthesized the results mentioned above, continuous global warming would function in stable establishment of both plants unfavorably. Compared the responses of both sample plants on temperature rise, Q. serrata increased germination rate more than Q. mongolica and Q. mongolica responded more sensitively than Q. serrata in biomass allocation with the increase of temperature. It was estimated that these results would due to a difference of microclimate originated from the spatial distribution of both plants.