• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.1-32
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• 2008

This study examined the income distribution effect of the environmental taxes in the energy sector by applying the Urban Family Survey and the Household Income and Expenditure Survey to the Kakwani index. The results analyzed are as follows: first, taxes of the non-transportation energy sector show progressive tax schemes, while those of transportation energy show regressive ones. Second, we calculated the scenario-specific progressivity index on basis of the existing energy price structure. Contrary to the previous works claimed to be regressive, the progressivity in scenario I got higher than before, except for the congestion taxes. Also, the index by the total sum of taxes in scenario II showed just a little bit higher progressive tax system. In scenario III, both the value added tax and the total sum of taxes have a little regressive structure, but the indexes in the environmental taxes, heat capacity taxes, and those which the environmental tax and the congestion tax and heat capacity taxes are summed up, are in general progressive. Third, subsidizing the tax revenues raised from the environmental taxes to the poor classes by a simulation approach shows more progressive as expected, implying the more subsidy the higher the progressivity index. As a result, it is said that the implementation of the environmental taxes has no negative impact on the income distribution, and the subsidy of the tax revenue raised from it to the poor can make the income inequality improve.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.24.1-24.15
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• 2023

Background: The construction workers are vulnerable to fatigue due to high physical workload. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between overwork and heart rate in construction workers and propose a scheme to prevent overwork in advance. Methods: We measured the heart rates of construction workers at a construction site of a residential and commercial complex in Seoul from August to October 2021 and develop an index that monitors overwork in real-time. A total of 66 Korean workers participated in the study, wearing real-time heart rate monitoring equipment. The relative heart rate (RHR) was calculated using the minimum and maximum heart rates, and the maximum acceptable working time (MAWT) was estimated using RHR to calculate the workload. The overwork index (OI) was defined as the cumulative workload evaluated with the MAWT. An appropriate scenario line (PSL) was set as an index that can be compared to the OI to evaluate the degree of overwork in real-time. The excess overwork index (EOI) was evaluated in real-time during work performance using the difference between the OI and the PSL. The EOI value was used to perform receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to find the optimal cut-off value for classification of overwork state. Results: Of the 60 participants analyzed, 28 (46.7%) were classified as the overwork group based on their RHR. ROC curve analysis showed that the EOI was a good predictor of overwork, with an area under the curve of 0.824. The optimal cut-off values ranged from 21.8% to 24.0% depending on the method used to determine the cut-off point. Conclusion: The EOI showed promising results as a predictive tool to assess overwork in real-time using heart rate monitoring and calculation through MAWT. Further research is needed to assess physical workload accurately and determine cut-off values across industries.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.27-38
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• 2015

This study is for deriving an evaluation system which fits to the domestic urban river. For this, two times of Delphi survey was conducted to various experts who are eminent for ecology, urban design, governance, landscape architecture, hydrology. The purpose was for analysing validity and getting extra opinion of evaluation items which were preferentially have chosen. Reflecting $1^{st}$ survey's opinions as changing the word or explaining more details, the second survey was conducted, In this time, all evaluation items were analysed as valid and experts agreed with that. In conclusion, the evaluation items, "Amenity", "Biodiversity", "Ecosystem service", "Governance", "Management", which are for evaluating domestic urban river environment were derived.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.648-660
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• 2012

Reliable response measurements are extremely important for proper bridge health monitoring but incomplete and unreliable data may be acquired due to sensor problems and environmental effects. In the case of a sensor malfunction, parts of the measured data can be missing so that the structural health condition cannot be monitored reliably. This means that the dynamic characteristics of natural frequencies can change as if the structure is damaged due to environmental effects, such as temperature variations. To overcome these problems, this paper proposes a systematic procedure of data analysis to recover missing data and eliminate the environmental effects from the measured data. It also proposes a health index calculated statistically using revised data to evaluate the health condition of a bridge. The proposed method was examined using numerically simulated data with a truss structure and then applied to a set of field data measured from a cable-stayed bridge.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.117-122
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• 2014

Indexes of safety, restoration, damage impact, and management reliability were developed to assess reliability of drinking water distribution networks (DWDNs) management. The developed indexes were applied to evaluate the reliability of the pipeline management stage during unexpected mechanical and hydraulic accidents of components. The results were used to support the decision-making process in effective management and maintenance by enhancing the administrator's system understanding and by helping to create appropriate maintenance and management policies. The results of this study indicated that application of a management reliability index to assess DWDNs reliability may help create a more effective plan for establishing DWDNs management and maintenance.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 2008

It is desirable that implementation assessment (IA) should be carried out efficiently in order to make successful progress of Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) in watershed management. There are many difficulties in the process of the implementation assessment because of the early stage in the application of TMDL in Korea. This study reviewed the present status of IA and proposed the methodology of its improvement such as flexible application of TMDL ledger, and standardization of assessment index and criteria. The deficient time for assessment period could be corrected by the consideration of the post-procedure after the submission of IA report.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.439-445
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• 2010

An emergy analysis of the main energy flows driving the economy of humans and life support systems consists of environmental energies, fuels, and imports, all expressed as solar emjoules. Total emergy use (371 E20 sej/yr) of the Western Nakdong River Basin is 97 per cent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. Emergy flows from the environment such as rain and geological uplift flux accounted for only 2.9 percent of total emergy use. Emergy yield ratio and environment loading ratio were 1.03 and 33.27, respectively. Emergy sustainability index, a ratio of emergy yield ratio to environment loading ratio, is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. It is necessary for an efficient management of Western Nakdong River Basin to reduce pollution load basically and to restructure economic activities into an environmental friendly industrial structure depending on renewable energy and resources.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.223-230
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• 2019

Purpose : Wellness tourism is defined as travel for the purpose of promoting health and well-being through physical, psychological, or spiritual activities. The development and verification of a comprehensive wellness program for health care for workers is needed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the wellness and skin health effects of skin health programs in order to develop high-value health care services. Methods : The subjects were 15 middle-aged women who understood the research and volunteered and participated in the two-day skin health wellness program. Participants were measured to determine their wellness index and skin health twice: before and after participating in the program. Wellness index measures include comprehensive wellness, physical wellness, mental wellness, emotional wellness, social/cultural wellness, financial wellness, and environmental wellness. Skin health measurement items consisted of skin oil, skin water, skin pore, skin elasticity, skin wrinkle, and skin pigment. The skin wellness program included aerobic exercise, endurance exercise, functional food, cosmetics, herbal tea, massages, spa treatments, meditation, and marine leisure sports. The t-test analysis was used to compare the difference between wellness index and skin health measurement items before and after the program. Results : Among the wellness index items, the comprehensive wellness index (p<.05), mental wellness index (p<.05) and environmental wellness index (p<.05) showed statistically significant differences. Among skin health items, skin oil (p<.05), skin elasticity (p<.01) and skin wrinkle (p<.01) all showed statistically significant differences. There was no statistically significant difference in physical wellness, emotional wellness, social/cultural wellness, financial wellness, skin water, skin pore and skin pigment. Conclusion : This study confirmed that the two-day complex wellness program is an effective program for some items of wellness index and skin health.

• 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 Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 2014

Objectives: The principal aim of this study was to compare the concentrations of gaseous pollutants emitted in enclosed pig buildings between different rates of general ventilation and determine the variations in the patterns of gaseous pollutants as affected by ventilation rate. Materials and Methods: The experiment was performed in the growing/finishing room($20.0m{\times}12.0m{\times}3.0m$) of a pig confinement building located on the experimental farm of Seoul National University. The conditions of the general ventilation rate for three treatments were 30%($4.12m^3s^{-1}$), 50%($6.87m^3s^{-1}$) and 70%($9.61m^3s^{-1}$). The data presented in the study were collected overa total of 45 days, 15 days for each of the three treatments from March to May 2011. A total of six air samplings were taken at 1.5m above the floor of the pig building. The environmental agents measured in the pig building were ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and odor concentration index for gaseous pollutants with temperature and hydrogen sulfide for thermal factors. Results: There were significant differences in the ammonia and odor concentration index in the pig building among the three general ventilation rate conditions(p<0.05), whereas hydrogen sulfide did not show a significant difference among three conditions of general ventilation rate(p>0.05). As the general ventilation rate applied to the pig building increases, it appears that all the indoor environmental agents measured in this study simultaneously decrease. Conclusions: The gaseous pollutants significantly affected by the general ventilation rate in pig building were ammonia and odor concentration index(p<0.05). However, it was found that hydrogen sulfide and thermal factors, temperature and relative humidity were not influenced significantly by variation in the general ventilation rate.