• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.291-298
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• 2015

There are many landslides occurred by typhoons and intense rainfall during the summer seasons in Korea. To predict a landslide triggering it is important to understand mechanisms and potential areas of landslides by the geological approaches. However, recent climate changes make difficult to predict landslide based on only conventional prediction methods. Therefore, the importance of a real-time monitoring of landslide using various sensors is emphasized in recent. Many researchers have studied monitoring techniques of landslides and suggested several monitoring systems which can be applicable to the natural terrain. Most sensors of landslide monitoring measure slope displacement, hydrogeologic properties of soils and rocks, changes of stress in soil and rock fractures, and rainfall amount and intensity. The measured values of each sensor are transmitted to a monitoring server in real-time. The ultimate goal of landslide monitoring is to warn landslide occurrence in advance and to reduce damages induced by landslides. This study introduces the current situation of landslide monitoring techniques in each country.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.71-89
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• 2023

A groundwater potential map (GPM) was built for the Nakdonggang River Basin based on ten variables, including hydrogeologic unit, fault-line density, depth to groundwater, distance to surface water, lineament density, slope, stream drainage density, soil drainage, land cover, and annual rainfall. To integrate the thematic layers for GPM, the criteria were first weighted using the Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) and then overlaid using the Technique for Ordering Preferences by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) model. Finally, the groundwater potential was categorized into five classes (very high (VH), high (H), moderate (M), low (L), very low (VL)) and verified by examining the specific capacity of individual wells on each class. The wells in the area categorized as VH showed the highest median specific capacity (5.2 m³/day/m), while the wells with specific capacity < 1.39 m³/day/m were distributed in the areas categorized as L or VL. The accuracy of GPM generated in the work looked acceptable, although the specific capacity data were not enough to verify GPM in the studied large watershed. To create GPMs for the determination of high-yield well locations, the resolution and reliability of thematic maps should be improved. Criterion values for groundwater potential should be established when machine learning or statistical models are used in the GPM evaluation process.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.77-91
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• 2008

In this study, we developed a technique of applying DRASTIC, which is the most widely used tool for estimation of groundwater vulnerability to the aqueous phase contaminant infiltrated from the surface, and a groundwater flow model jointly to assess groundwater contamination potential. The developed technique is then applied to Buyeo-eup area in Buyeo-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea. The input thematic data of a depth to water required in DRASTIC model is known to be the most sensitive to the output while only a few observations at a few time schedules are generally available. To overcome this practical shortcoming, both steady-state and transient groundwater level distributions are simulated using a finite difference numerical model, MODFLOW. In the application for the assessment of groundwater vulnerability, it is found that the vulnerability results from the numerical simulation of a groundwater level is much more practical compared to cokriging methods. Those advantages are, first, the results from the simulation enable a practitioner to see the temporally comprehensive vulnerabilities. The second merit of the technique is that the method considers wide variety of engaging data such as field-observed hydrogeologic parameters as well as geographic relief. The depth to water generated through geostatistical methods in the conventional method is unable to incorporate temporally variable data, that is, the seasonal variation of a recharge rate. As a result, we found that the vulnerability out of both the geostatistical method and the steady-state groundwater flow simulation are in similar patterns. By applying the transient simulation results to DRASTIC model, we also found that the vulnerability shows sharp seasonal variation due to the change of groundwater recharge. The change of the vulnerability is found to be most peculiar during summer with the highest recharge rate and winter with the lowest. Our research indicates that numerical modeling can be a useful tool for temporal as well as spatial interpolation of the depth to water when the number of the observed data is inadequate for the vulnerability assessments through the conventional techniques.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.619-629
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• 2020

The National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGMN) in South Korea has been implemented in alluvial/ bedrock aquifers for efficient management of groundwater resources. In this study, aquifer types were reclassified with unconfined and confined aquifers based on water-level fluctuation and water quality characteristics. Principal component analysis (PCA) of water-level data from paired monitoring wells of alluvial/bedrock aquifers results in the principal components of both aquifers showing similar water-level fluctuation pattern. There was no significant difference in the rate of water-level rises responding to precipitations and in the NO₃-N concentrations between the alluvial and bedrock aquifers. In contrast, in the results classified with the hydrogeological type, the principal components of water level were different between unconfined and confined conditions. The water-level rises to precipitation events were estimated to be 4.6 (R²=0.8) in the unconfined and 2.1 (R²=0.4) in the confined aquifers, respectively, indicating less impact of precipitation recharge to the confined aquifer. The confined aquifers have the average NO₃-N concentration below 3 mg/L, implying the natural background level protected from the sources at surface. In summary, reclassification of aquifers into hydrogeological types clearly shows the differences between unconfined and confined aquifers in the water-level fluctuation pattern and NO₃-N concentrations. The hydrogeologic condition of aquifer could improve groundwater resource management by providing critical information on groundwater quantity through recharge estimation and quality for protection from potential contamination sources.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.40-53
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• 2008

Groundwater pollution prediction methods have been developed to plan the sustainable groundwater usage and protection from potential pollution in many countries. DRASTIC established by US EPA is the most widely used groundwater vulnerability mapping method. However, the DRASTIC showed limitation in predicting the groundwater contamination because the DRASTIC method is designed to embrace only hydrogeologic factors. Therefore, in this study, three different methods were applied to improve a groundwater pollution prediction method: US EPA DRASTIC, Modified-DRASTIC suggested by Panagopoulos et al. (2006), and LSDG (Land use, Soil drainage, Depth to water, Geology) proposed by Rupert (1999). The Modified-DRASTIC is the modified version of the DRASTIC in terms of the rating scales and the weighting coefficients. The rating scales of each factor were calculated by the statistical comparison of nitrate concentrations in each class using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test; while the weighting coefficients were modified by the statistical correlation of each parameter to nitrate concentrations using the Spearman's rho test. The LSDG is a simple rating method using four factors such as Land use, Soil drainage, Depth to water, and Geology. Classes in each factor are compared by the Wilcoxon rank-sum test which gives a different rating to each class if the nitrate concentration in the class is significantly different. A database of nitrate concentrations in groundwaters from 149 wells was built in Keumsan area. Application of three different methods for assessing the groundwater pollution potential resulted that the prediction which was represented by a correlation (r) between each index and nitrate was improved from the EPA DRASTIC (r = 0.058) to the modified rating (r = 0.245), to the modified rating and weights (r = 0.400), and to the LSDG (r = 0.415), respectively. The LSDG seemed appropriate to predict the groundwater pollution in that it contained land use as a factor of the groundwater pollution sources and the rating of each class was defined by a real pollution nitrate concentration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.119-120
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• 2004

Urban groundwater has a unique hydrologic system because of the complex surface and subsurface infrastructures such as deep foundation of many high buildings, subway systems, and sewers and public water supply systems. It generally has been considered that increased surface impermeability reduces the amount of groundwater recharge. On the other hand, leaks from sewers and public water supply systems may generate the large amounts of recharges. All of these urban facilities also may change the groundwater quality by the recharge of a myriad of contaminants. This study was performed to determine the factors controlling the recharge of deep groundwater in an urban area, based on the hydrogeochemical characteristics. The term ‘contamination’ in this study means any kind of inflow of shallow groundwater regardless of clean or contaminated. For this study, urban groundwater samples were collected from a total of 310 preexisting wells with the depth over 100 m. Random sampling method was used to select the wells for this study. Major cations together with Si, Al, Fe, Pb, Hg and Mn were analyzed by ICP-AES, and Cl, N $O_3$, N $H_4$, F, Br, S $O_4$and P $O_4$ were analyzed by IC. There are two groups of groundwater, based on hydrochemical characteristics. The first group is distributed broadly from Ca-HC $O_3$ type to Ca-C1+N $O_3$ type; the other group is the Na+K-HC $O_3$ type. The latter group is considered to represent the baseline quality of deep groundwater in the study area. Using the major ions data for the Na+K-HC $O_3$ type water, we evaluated the extent of groundwater contamination, assuming that if subtract the baseline composition from acquired data for a specific water, the remaining concentrations may indicate the degree of contamination. The remainder of each solute for each sample was simply averaged. The results showed that both Ca and HC $O_3$ represent the typical solutes which are quite enriched in urban groundwater. In particular, the P$CO_2$ values calculated using PHREEQC (version 2.8) showed a correlation with the concentrations of maior inorganic components (Na, Mg, Ca, N $O_3$, S $O_4$, etc.). The p$CO_2$ values for the first group waters widely ranged between about 10$^{-3.0}$ atm to 10$^{-1.0}$ atm and differed from those of the background water samples belonging to the Na+K-HC $O_3$ type (<10$^{-3.5}$ atm). Considering that the p$CO_2$ of soil water (near 10$^{-1.5}$ atm), this indicates that inflow of shallow water is very significant in deep groundwaters in the study area. Furthermore, the P$CO_2$ values can be used as an effective parameter to estimate the relative recharge of shallow water and thus the contamination susceptibility. The results of our present study suggest that down to considerable depth, urban groundwater in crystalline aquifer may be considerably affected by the recharge of shallow water (and pollutants) from an adjacent area. We also suggest that for such evaluation, careful examination of systematically collected hydrochemical data is requisite as an effective tool, in addition to hydrologic and hydrogeologic interpretation.ion.ion.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.201-216
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• 2013

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys were conducted in a sand tank model in a laboratory and at an alluvial field site to detect the groundwater table and to investigate the influence of saturation on GPR response in the unsaturated zone. In the sand tank model, the groundwater table and saturation in the sand layer were altered by injecting water, which was then drained by a valve inserted into the bottom of the tank. GPR vertical reflection profile (VRP) data were obtained in the sand tank model for rising and lowering of the groundwater table to estimate the groundwater table and saturation. Results of the lab-scale model provide information on the sensitivity of GPR signals to changes in the water content and in the groundwater table. GPR wave velocities in the vadose zone are controlled mainly by variations in water content (increased travel time is interpreted as an increase in saturation). At the field site, VRP data were collected to a depth of 220 m to estimate the groundwater table at an alluvial site near the Nakdong river at Iryong-ri, Haman-gun, South Korea. Results of the field survey indicate that under saturated conditions, the first reflector of the GPR is indicative of the capillary fringe and not the actual groundwater table. To measure the groundwater table more accurately, we performed a GPR survey using the common mid-point (CMP) method in the vicinity of well-3, and sunk a well to check the groundwater table. The resultant CMP data revealed reflective events from the capillary fringe and groundwater table showing hyperbolic patterns. The normal moveout correction was applied to evaluate the velocity of the GPR, which improved the accuracy of saturation and groundwater table information at depth. The GPR results show that the saturation information, including the groundwater table, is useful in assessing the hydrogeologic properties of the vadose zone in the field.