• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.46 no.7
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• pp.755-765
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• 2013

This study developed a real-time dam's hydrologic variables prediction model (DHVPM) and evaluated its performance for simulating historical dam inflow and outflow in the Chungju dam basin. The DHVPM consists of the Sejong University River Forecast (SURF) model for hydrologic modeling and an autoreservoir operation method (Auto ROM) for dam operation. SURF model is continuous rainfall-runoff model with data assimilation using an ensemble Kalman filter technique. The four extreme events including the maximum inflow of each year for 2006~2009 were selected to examine the performance of DHVPM. The statistical criteria, the relative error in peak flow, root mean square error, and model efficiency, demonstrated that DHVPM with data assimilation can simulate more close to observed inflow than those with no data assimilation at both 1-hour lead time, except the relative error in peak flow in 2007. Especially, DHVPM with data assimilation until 10-hour lead time reduced the biases of inflow forecast attributed to observed precipitation error. In conclusion, DHVPM with data assimilation can be useful to improve the accuracy of inflow forecast in the basin where real-time observed inflow are available.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.75-88
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• 2024

It would be advantageous to predict acreage and yield of crops in major grain-exporting countries, which would improve decisions on policy making and grain trade in Korea. A climate suitability model can be used to assess crop acreage and yield in a region where the availability of observation data is limited for the use of process-based crop models. The objective of this study was to determine the climate suitability index of wheat by province in Ukraine, which would allow for the spatial assessment of acreage and yield for the given crop. In the present study, the official data of wheat acreage and yield were collected from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. The EarthStat data, which is a data product derived from satellite data and official crop reports, were also gathered for the comparison with the map of climate suitability index. The Fuzzy Union model was used to create the climate suitability maps under the historical climate conditions for the period from 1970 to 2000. These maps were compared against actual acreage and yield by province. It was found that the EarthStat data for acreage and yield of wheat differed from the corresponding official data in several provinces. On the other hand, the climate suitability index obtained using the Fuzzy Union model explained the variation in acreage and yield at a reasonable degree. For example, the correlation coefficient between the climate suitability index and yield was 0.647. Our results suggested that the climate suitability index could be used to indicate the spatial distribution of acreage and yield within a region of interest.

• Atmosphere
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.199-208
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• 2012

This study was conducted in order to analyze weather characteristics during the reign of King Sejo in the Chosun Dynasty based on The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty. For this purpose, first of all, we need to determine whether The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty is a reliable material for research on weather characteristics. Thus, we compared weather phenomena during the reign of King Sejo with those in China and Japan in the same period. From the results, it was found that The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty is a useful material at least to grasp macroscopic trends in weather phenomena. Based on this assumption, we analyzed weather characteristics during the reign of King Sejo using data from The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty. During the days of King Sejo, the climate was not changed violently and there were not many disasters caused by abnormal climate such as bad harvests. This suggests that the climate was relatively stable during the period of King Sejo. As a consequence of stable weather, famine decreased markedly. However, this was not only because of stable climate but also because of the government's active efforts to reduce disasters. As droughts and floods were not frequent, social costs for recovery from disasters also decreased considerably and the saved money could be invested in the construction of social safety nets for the prevention of disasters. One of factors supporting the enthronement of King Sejo was a series of heavily damaging bad harvests during the reign of Kings Munjong and Danjong. The prevention of bad harvests was a historical mission given to the regime of King Sejo. During his reign, King Sejo promoted various policies in order to stop bad harvests. Such efforts included the government's active construction of embankments, introduction of seeds suitable for reclaimed lands, and inspiration of the consciousness of forceful farming enduring natural disasters such as floods. As a result, abnormal weathers such as floods and droughts did not lead directly to bad harvests.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.108-125
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• 2015

The agro-climatic index is one of the ways to assess the climate resources of particular agricultural areas on the prospect of agricultural production; it can be a key indicator of agricultural productivity by providing the basic information required for the implementation of different and various farming techniques and practicalities to estimate the growth and yield of crops from the climate resources such as air temperature, solar radiation, and precipitation. However, the agro-climate index can always be changed since the index is not the absolute. Recently, many studies which consider uncertainty of future climate change have been actively conducted using multi-model ensemble (MME) approach by developing and improving dynamic and statistical downscaling of Global Climate Model (GCM) output. In this study, the agro-climatic index of Korean Peninsula, such as growing degree day based on $5^{\circ}C$, plant period based on $5^{\circ}C$, crop period based on $10^{\circ}C$, and frost free day were calculated for assessment of the spatio-temporal variations and uncertainties of the indices according to climate change; the downscaled historical (1976-2005) and near future (2011-2040) RCP climate sceneries of AR5 were applied to the calculation of the index. The result showed four agro-climatic indices calculated by nine individual GCMs as well as MME agreed with agro-climatic indices which were calculated by the observed data. It was confirmed that MME, as well as each individual GCM emulated well on past climate in the four major Rivers of South Korea (Han, Nakdong, Geum, and Seumjin and Yeoungsan). However, spatial downscaling still needs further improvement since the agro-climatic indices of some individual GCMs showed different variations with the observed indices at the change of spatial distribution of the four Rivers. The four agro-climatic indices of the Korean Peninsula were expected to increase in nine individual GCMs and MME in future climate scenarios. The differences and uncertainties of the agro-climatic indices have not been reduced on the unlimited coupling of multi-model ensembles. Further research is still required although the differences started to improve when combining of three or four individual GCMs in the study. The agro-climatic indices which were derived and evaluated in the study will be the baseline for the assessment of agro-climatic abnormal indices and agro-productivity indices of the next research work.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.61-71
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• 2009

Most deciduous trees in temperate zone are dormant during the winter to overcome cold and dry environment. Dormancy of deciduous fruit trees is usually separated into a period of rest by physiological conditions and a period of quiescence by unfavorable environmental conditions. Inconsistent and fewer budburst in pear orchards has been reported recently in South Korea and Japan and the insufficient chilling due to warmer winters is suspected to play a role. An accurate prediction of the flowering time under the climate change scenarios may be critical to the planning of adaptation strategy for the pear industry in the future. However, existing methods for the prediction of budburst depend on the spring temperature, neglecting potential effects of warmer winters on the rest release and subsequent budburst. We adapted a dormancy clock model which uses daily temperature data to calculate the thermal time for simulating winter phenology of deciduous trees and tested the feasibility of this model in predicting budburst and flowering of Niitaka pear, one of the favorite cultivars in Korea. In order to derive the model parameter values suitable for Niitaka, the mean time for the rest release was estimated by observing budburst of field collected twigs in a controlled environment. The thermal time (in chill-days) was calculated and accumulated by a predefined temperature range from fall harvest until the chilling requirement (maximum accumulated chill-days in a negative number) is met. The chilling requirement is then offset by anti-chill days (in positive numbers) until the accumulated chill-days become null, which is assumed to be the budburst date. Calculations were repeated with arbitrary threshold temperatures from $4^{\circ}C$ to $10^{\circ}C$ (at an interval of 0.1), and a set of threshold temperature and chilling requirement was selected when the estimated budburst date coincides with the field observation. A heating requirement (in accumulation of anti-chill days since budburst) for flowering was also determined from an experiment based on historical observations. The dormancy clock model optimized with the selected parameter values was used to predict flowering of Niitaka pear grown in Suwon for the recent 9 years. The predicted dates for full bloom were within the range of the observed dates with 1.9 days of root mean square error.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.1-24
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• 2014

This study uses geo-spatial crop modeling to quantify the biophysical impact of weather extremes. More specifically, the study analyzes the weather extreme which affected maize production in the USA in 2012; it also estimates the effect of a similar weather extreme in 2050, using future climate scenarios. The secondary impact of the weather extreme on food security in the developing world is also assessed using trend analysis. Many studies have reported on the significant reduction in maize production in the USA due to the extreme weather event (combined heat wave and drought) that occurred in 2012. However, most of these studies focused on yield and did not assess the potential effect of weather extremes on food prices and security. The overall goal of this study was to use geo-spatial crop modeling and trend analysis to quantify the impact of weather extremes on both yield and, followed food security in the developing world. We used historical weather data for severe extreme events that have occurred in the USA. The data were obtained from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In addition we used five climate scenarios: the baseline climate which is typical of the late 20th century (2000s) and four future climate scenarios which involve a combination of two emission scenarios (A1B and B1) and two global circulation models (CSIRO-Mk3.0 and MIROC 3.2). DSSAT 4.5 was combined with GRASS GIS for geo-spatial crop modeling. Simulated maize grain yield across all affected regions in the USA indicates that average grain yield across the USA Corn Belt would decrease by 29% when the weather extremes occur using the baseline climate. If the weather extreme were to occur under the A1B emission scenario in the 2050s, average grain yields would decrease by 38% and 57%, under the CSIRO-Mk3.0 and MIROC 3.2 global climate models, respectively. The weather extremes that occurred in the USA in 2012 resulted in a sharp increase in the world maize price. In addition, it likely played a role in the reduction in world maize consumption and trade in 2012/13, compared to 2011/12. The most vulnerable countries to the weather extremes are poor countries with high maize import dependency ratios including those countries in the Caribbean, northern Africa and western Asia. Other vulnerable countries include low-income countries with low import dependency ratios but which cannot afford highly-priced maize. The study also highlighted the pathways through which a weather extreme would affect food security, were it to occur in 2050 under climate change. Some of the policies which could help vulnerable countries counter the negative effects of weather extremes consist of social protection and safety net programs. Medium- to long-term adaptation strategies include increasing world food reserves to a level where they can be used to cover the production losses brought by weather extremes.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 2013

The ancient sailing routes between Silla Korea and Tang China have been a hot issue among the researchers. Some assert that the Korean seafarers under Chang Po-go sailed the East China Sea directly from China to the Korean Peninsula with the assistance of mariner's compass on boarding V-shaped vessels in the 9th century. As we all know, Chinese used the mariner's compass in the 11th century and Europeans in the 12th century. In this paper, the author analyzed the maritime meteorological condition for sailing ships to navigate in the East China Sea and retraced the rafting route by Yun in 1997. As the results of analysis, the author confirmed that the maritime meteorological condition might be favorable for the seafarers to be capable of navigating in the East China Sea from China to Korea in June and July. But even the sea condition might be favorable, it must be God's will for the ancient seafarers to reach the Korean Peninsula. On Yun's rafting account, the author found out that there is a difference between the sailing route drawn by Yun himself and the actual drifted route and the raft drifted at 1.7~2.0 knots. This was quite an extraordinary speed considering the unfavorable sea condition and raft itself without keel. In conclusion, the author reaffirms that it was after the year 1068 for the seafarers to navigate in the East China Sea directly from China to Korea without any historical proofs or evidences.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.271-271
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• 2015

The Ecuadorian coast has two different climate regions. One is humid region where the annual rainfall is above 2000 mm and rain falls in almost all months of the year, and the other is dry region where the annual rainfall can fall below 50 mm and rainfall can be very seasonal. The agriculture is frequently limited by the seasons during the year and the availability of rainfall amounts. The corn fields in Ecuador are cultivated during the rainy season, due to this reason. The weather conditions for optimum development of corn growth require a monthly average rainfall of 120 mm to 140 mm and a temperature range of $22^{\circ}C{\sim}32^{\circ}C$ for the dry region, and a monthly average rainfall of 200 mm to 400 mm and a temperature range of $25^{\circ}C{\sim}30^{\circ}C$ for the humid area. The objective of this study is to predict how the weather conditions are going to change in corn fields of the coastal region of Ecuador in the future decades. For this purpose, this study selected six General Circulation Models (GCM) including BCC-CSM1-1, IPSL-CM5A-MR, MIROC5, MIROC-ESM, MIROC-ESM-CHEM, MRIC-CGC3 with different climate scenarios of the RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0, and RCP 8.5, and applied for the period from 2011 to 2100. The climate variables information was obtained from the INAMHI (National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology) in Ecuador for the a base line period from 1986 to 2012. The results indicates that two regions would experience significant changes in rainfall and temperature compared to the historical data. In the case of temperature, an increment of $1^{\circ}C{\sim}1.2^{\circ}C$ in 2025s, $1.6^{\circ}C{\sim}2.2^{\circ}C$ in 2055s, $2.1^{\circ}C{\sim}3.5^{\circ}C$ in 2085s were obtained from the dry region while less increment were shown from the humid region with having an increment of $1^{\circ}C$ in 2025s, $1.4^{\circ}C{\sim}1.8^{\circ}C$ in 2055s, $1.9^{\circ}C{\sim}3.2^{\circ}C$ in 2085s. Significant changes in rainfall are also projected. The rainfall projections showed an increment of 8%~11% in 2025s, 21%~33% in 2055s, and 34%~70% in 2085s for the dry region, and an increment of 2%~10%, 14%~30% and 23%~57% in 2025s, 2055s and 2085s decade respectively for humid region.