• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.470-476
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• 2005

The Korean Water Quality Index (K-WQI) was applied to the rivers located in the watershed of Daecheong Lake to assess the status of river water quality, and propose potential target constituents for better water quality management in the watershed. The estimated K-WQI value for each river was varied from 70 to 90, and Youngdongcheon showed the worst score while Mujunamdeachen showed the best score. The total nitrogen (TN) and total coliform bacteria were identified as the most significant constituents that degrade the K-WQI values in the rivers. The correlation coefficients (r) were determined between K-WQI and the delivered specific load ($kg/km^2/yr$) of BOD, TN, and TP to justify potential target constituents that have a great influence on the improvement of K-WQI values. The results showed that TN (r=-0.86) and TP (r=-0.85) have a strong negative relationships with K-WQI, but BOD have almost no effect. This implies that BOD, the surrogate parameter for organic pollutants, is no more a feasible water quality variable for the water quality management in the study site.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.748-756
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• 2006

Accurate and timely information on status and trends in the environment is necessary to shape sound water quality management policy and to implement water quality improvement programs efficiently. One of the most effective ways to communicate information on water quality trends to policy-makers, scientists, and the general public is with comprehensive water quality indices. The derivation and structure of a water quality index (WQI) for the classification of surface water quality is discussed. The WQI generally developed through the selection, transformation and weighting of determinants with rating curves based on legal standards and quality directives or guidelines. The representative pollutants should be included in the index, and the relationship between the quantity of these pollutants in the water and the resulting quality of the water should be based on scientific results. The WQI be simply and meaningfully formulated that nonscientifically trained users can easily become familiar with the framework of the system and use the output data to evaluate their own pollution problems.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.221-234
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• 2016

In Korea, most industrial parks and major cities are located in coastal areas, which results in serious environmental problems in both coastal land and ocean. In order to effectively manage such problems especially in coastal ocean, water quality should be monitored. As there are many factors that influence water quality, the Korean Government proposed an integrated Water Quality Index (WQI) based on in situmeasurements of ocean parameters(bottom dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a concentration, secchi disk depth, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, and dissolved inorganic phosphorus) by ocean division identified based on their ecological characteristics. Field-measured WQI, however, does not provide spatial continuity over vast areas. Satellite remote sensing can be an alternative for identifying WQI for surface water. In this study, two schemes were examined to estimate coastal WQI around Korea peninsula using in situ measurements data and Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) satellite imagery from 2011 to 2013 based on machine learning approaches. Scheme 1 calculates WQI using estimated water quality-related factors using GOCI reflectance data, and scheme 2 estimates WQI using GOCI band reflectance data and basic products(chlorophyll-a, suspended sediment, colored dissolved organic matter). Three machine learning approaches including Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and a modified regression tree(Cubist) were used. Results show that estimation of secchi disk depth produced the highest accuracy among the ocean parameters, and RF performed best regardless of water quality-related factors. However, the accuracy of WQI from scheme 1 was lower than that from scheme 2 due to the estimation errors inherent from water quality-related factors and the uncertainty of bottom dissolved oxygen. In overall, scheme 2 appears more appropriate for estimating WQI for surface water in coastal areas and chlorophyll-a concentration was identified the most contributing factor to the estimation of WQI.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.102-114
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• 2013

The basin of Lake Shihwa is one of highly industrialized region of Korea and a current environmental issue of study area is the operation of tidal power plant (TPP) to improve water quality. The application of water quality index (WQI) which integrates five physiochemical parameters (transparency, DO, DIN, DIP and chlorophyll-a) of water quality in Lake Shihwa and outer sea during 2011~2012 were performed not only to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of the water quality but also to assess the effect of water quality improvement by the operation of tidal power plant. The higher WQI values were observed in monitored sites near the industrial complexes in Lake Shihwa and the outfall of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in outer sea. This indicates that the quality of seawater is influenced by diffuse non-point sources from industrial, municipal and agricultural areas in Lake Shihwa and by point sources from the effluence of municipal and industrial wastewater throughout WWTPs in outer sea. Mean WQI value decreased from 53.0 in 2011 to 42.8 in 2012 of Lake Shihwa. Water quality has improved significantly after TPP operation because enhancement of seawater exchange between Lake Shihwa and outer sea leads to improve a hypoxic condition which is primarily a problem in Lake Shihwa. Mean WQI of outer sea showed similar values between 2011 and 2012. However, the results of hierarchical cluster analysis and the deterioration of water quality in summer season indicate that the operation of tidal power plant was not improved the water quality in the upper most area of Lake Shihwa. To successfully improve overall water quality of Lake Shihwa, it is urgently necessary to manage and reduce of non-point pollution sources of the basin of Lake Shihwa.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.659-672
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• 2020

Water and sediment qualities were investigated in the Oncheon Stream and at the Wondong bridge of the Suyoung River, during the summer rainy season, 2019. Dissolved oxygen (DO) showed the lowest levels at 4.7 and 5.0 m/L, and biogeochemical oxygen demand (BOD) showed the highest at 5.3 mg/L downstream where the tributary flows into the main river. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) increased from 2.0 to 5.9 mg/L on average as it flowed downstream, The COD/BOD ratio decreased gradually as it flowed downstream, reaching 1.0. However, COD/BOD ratio at the Wondong bridge was 5.8-22.2, indicating that easily biodegradable and non-biodegradable organic matter flows into the Oncheon Stream and Suyoung River, respectively. Total nitrogen (T-N) / total phosphorus (T-P) ratio tended to decrease from 72 to 21 as it flowed downstream, measuring 71 to 86 at the Wondong bridge. The water quality index (WQI) generally improved better than grade IV after heavy rainfalls. However, DO and T-P were the parameters that deteriorated the WQI. Ignition loss (IL), COD, T-N, and T-P of sediments had distribution of 1.44 ± 1.01%, 0.35 ± 0.16%, 43 ± 63 mg/kg, and 10.9 ± 21.9 mg/kg, respectively. These were several times lower than the annual averages of IL, T-N, and T-P in 2017 before the dredging project was conducted in the first half of 2018.