• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.886-894
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• 2023

During the rhizoremediation of diesel-contaminated soil, methane (CH₄), a representative greenhouse gas, is emitted as a result of anaerobic metabolism of diesel. The application of methantrophs is one of solutions for the mitigation CH₄ emissions during the rhizoremediation of diesel-contaminated soil. In this study, CH₄-oxidizing rhizobacteria, Methylocystis sp. JHTF4 and Methyloversatilis sp. JHM8, were isolated from rhizosphere soils of tall fescue and maize, respectively. The maximum CH₄ oxidation rates for the strains JHTF4 and JHM8 were 65.8 and 33.8 mmol·g-DCW^-1·h^-1, respectively. The isolates JHTF4 and JHM8 couldn't degrade diesel. The inoculation of the isolate JHTF4 or JHM8 significantly enhanced diesel removal during rhizoremediation of diesel-contaminated soil planted with maize for 63 days. Diesel removal in the tall fescue-planting soil was enhanced by inoculating the isolates until 50 days, while there was no significant difference in removal efficiency regardless of inoculation at day 63. In both the maize and tall fescue planting soils, the CH₄ oxidation potentials of the inoculated soils were significantly higher than the potentials of the non-inoculated soils. In addition, the gene copy numbers of pmoA, responsible for CH₄ oxidation, in the inoculated soils were significantly higher than those in the non-inoculated soils. The gene copy numbers ratio of pmoA to 16S rDNA (the ratio of methanotrophs to total bacteria) in soil increased during rhizoremediation. These results indicate that the inoculation of Methylocystis sp. JHTF4 and Methyloversatilis sp. JHM8, is a promising strategy to minimize CH₄ emissions during the rhizoremediation of diesel-contaminated soil using maize or tall fescue.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.269-285
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• 2022

The pressure-mitigating effects of a high-speed train passing through a tunnel with a partially reduced cross-section are investigated via the numerical approach. A compressible, three-dimensional RNG k-ε turbulence model and a hybrid mesh strategy are adopted to reproduce that event, which is validated by the moving model test. Three step-like tunnel forms and two additional transitions at the tunnel junction are proposed and their aerodynamic performance is compared and scrutinized with a constant cross-sectional tunnel as the benchmark. The results show that the tunnel step is unrelated to the pressure mitigation effects since the case of a double-step tunnel has no advantage in comparison to a single-step tunnel, but the excavated volume is an essential matter. The pressure peaks are reduced at different levels along with the increase of the excavated earth volume and the peaks are either fitted with power or logarithmic function relationships. In addition, the Arc and Oblique-transitions have very limited gaps, and their pressure curves are identical to each other, whereas the Rec-transition leads to relatively lower pressure peaks in C_Pmax, C_Pmin, and ΔC_P, with 5.2%, 4.0%, and 4.1% relieved compared with Oblique-transition. This study could provide guidance for the design of the novel railway tunnel.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1B
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• pp.33-40
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• 2010

In this study, a two-dimensional hydrodynamic and sediment transport modeling system, HSCTM-2D is employed to simulate the amounts of long-term cohesive sediment deposition in two study bays, and its applicability is evaluated. The modeling system's two modules for hydrodynamic modeling and sediment transport modeling are calibrated, comparing the simulated results and the observed tidal levels, tidal current velocities, and suspended sediment concentrations in the Asan and the Cheonsu Bays, South Korea. It is found that there are good agreements between the simulation results and the observed values. The amounts of long-term cohesive sediment deposition of the two study bays are estimated using the modeling system, taking the suspended sediment concentrations from the open ocean in the tide-dominated environment into account. And, in the case of the Asan Bay, the annual deposition rate reaches 8.1 cm/yr; the Cheonsu Bay, 14.5 cm/yr. Overall, it is concluded that the modeling system is useful to understand the physical process of cohesive suspended sediment transport and deposition in tidal water bodies and to establish the mitigation strategy.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.763-771
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• 2010

The rapid increase of wildlife passage installation since the late 2000s was aimed to reduce roadkill caused by habitat fragmentation and losses related to road construction, but wildlife-vehicle collisions are now still occurred even near the wildlife passage area. This is the reason that the effectiveness of wildlife passage have not been evaluated in combination with absence of monitoring data and management strategy of the wildlife passage. The AHP method are used, in this study, to identify the evaluation factors affecting the effectiveness of the present 367 wildlife passages in a mitigation measures to reduce road effects on wildlife species. Ten evaluation factors are derived from third levels in the AHP analysis. Priority setting to identify appropriate management strategies in first level is selected among four second levels on facility, environment, wildlife species and management tool. The AHP analysis suggested that neighboring environments are the most important factor at the second level, and passage structure, harmony with natural surroundings, wildlife occurrence and monitoring of the passage are also important factors at the third levels. In summary, effective measurements of wildlife passage management is based on managing the passage with neighboring topography and natural surrounding. This is useful to establish wildlife passage management strategy in order to reduce the negative effects of roads on wildlife species.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.95-107
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• 2014

The 'Green Start Movement' is a practical movement of green living to efficiently reduce the greenhouse gases originating from non-industrial fields such as household, commerce, transportation, etc. for the 'materialization of a low carbon society through green growth (Low Carbon, Green Korea)'. When the new government took office, following the Lee Myeongbak Administration that had presented 'Low Carbon, Green Growth' as a national vision, it was required to set up the direction of the practical movement of green life to respond to climate change persistently and stably as well as to evaluate the performance of the green start movement over the past 5 years. A questionnaire survey was administered to a total of 265 persons including public servants, members of environmental and non-environmental NGOs, participants of the green start movement and professionals. In the results of the questionnaire survey, many opinions have indicated that the awareness of the green start movement is increasing and the green start movement has had a positive impact on individual behavior and group behavior in terms of green living. The result shows, however, that the environmental NGOs don't cooperate sufficiently to create a 'green living' effect on a national scale. Action needs to be taken on the community level in order to generate a culture of environmental responsibility. The national administration office of the Green Start Movement Network should play the leading role between the government and environmental NGOs. The Green Start National Network should have greater autonomy and governance of the network needs to be restructured in order to work effectively. Also the Green Start Movement should identify specific local characteristics to support activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Best practices can be shared to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a substantial amount.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.481-493
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• 2023

In high-density urban areas, the urban heat island effect increases urban temperatures, leading to negative impacts such as worsened air pollution, increased cooling energy consumption, and increased greenhouse gas emissions. In urban environments where it is difficult to secure additional green spaces, rooftop greening is an efficient greenhouse gas reduction strategy. In this study, we not only analyzed the current status of the urban heat island effect but also utilized high-resolution satellite data and spatial information to estimate the available rooftop greening area within the study area. We evaluated the mitigation effect of the urban heat island phenomenon and carbon sequestration capacity through temperature predictions resulting from rooftop greening. To achieve this, we utilized WorldView-2 satellite data to classify land cover in the urban heat island areas of Busan city. We developed a prediction model for temperature changes before and after rooftop greening using machine learning techniques. To assess the degree of urban heat island mitigation due to changes in rooftop greening areas, we constructed a temperature change prediction model with temperature as the dependent variable using the random forest technique. In this process, we built a multiple regression model to derive high-resolution land surface temperatures for training data using Google Earth Engine, combining Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 satellite data. Additionally, we evaluated carbon sequestration based on rooftop greening areas using a carbon absorption capacity per plant. The results of this study suggest that the developed satellite-based urban heat island assessment and temperature change prediction technology using Random Forest models can be applied to urban heat island-vulnerable areas with potential for expansion.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.17-35
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• 2016

Earthquake-induced disasters are often more severe in locations with soft soils than firm soils or rocks due to differences in ground motion amplification. On a regional scale, such differences can be estimated by spatially predicting subsurface soil thickness over the entire target area. In general, soil deposits are generally deeper in coastal or riverside areas than in inland regions. In this study, a coastal metropolitan area, Incheon, was selected to assess site effects and provide information on seismic hazards. Spatial prediction of geotechnical layers was performed for the entire study area within the GIS framework. Approximately 7,000 existing borehole drilling data in the Incheon area were gathered and archived into the GIS Database (DB). In addition, surface geotechnical data were acquired from a walkover survey. Based on the built geotechnical DB, spatial zoning maps of site-specific seismic response parameters were created and presented for use in a regional seismic strategy. Site response parameters were performed to determine site coefficients for seismic design over the entire target area and compared with each other. Site classifications and subsequent seismic zoning were assigned based on site coefficients. From this seismic zonation case study in Incheon, we verified that geotechnical GIS-DB can create spatial zoning maps of site-specific seismic response parameters that are useful for seismic hazard mitigation particularly in coastal metropolitan areas.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.292-297
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• 2007

Global warming and climate changes have been major issues for decades andvarious researches have reported their impact on our environment. According to recent researches, increased carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) concentration in the atmosphere is considered as a dominant contributor to global climate changes and thus numerous researches were conducted to control $CO_2$ concentration in the atmosphere. Soil management practices, such as reducing tillage intensity, returning plant residues, and enhancing cropping system have recommended for restoring organic carbon into the soils effectively. However, few studies on soil carbon sequestration have reported for Korean paddy soils. Therefore, evaluation of soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics in the long-term single rice cropping system is essential in order to find out potential capacity of paddy field as a carbon sink source. The objective of this research was to evaluate SOC dynamics on the long-term single rice cropping system. Research was conducted in the research farm at National Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, Rural Development Administration, Suwon. Long-term phosphorus and potassium fertilization and lime application didn't significantly affect on SOC compared to controls. We found that SOC contents were increased continually at the long-term composting plots with enhanced rate of carbon storage. In conclusion, continuous incorporation of plant residues (i.e., composting) is recommended to effectively sequester soil carbon for Korean paddy soils. This result implies that continuous composting in a paddy field may contributenot only for increasing SOC in the soils but also for mitigating global warming through reducing carbon dioxide emission into atmosphere. Therefore, we recommend that a strategy or policy measures to encourage farmers to return plant residues continuously for mitigation of global warming as well as soil fertility is being developed.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.38-50
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• 2008

The site-specific seismic responses and corresponding seismic hazards are influenced mainly by the subsurface geologic and geotechnical dynamic characteristics. To estimate reliably the seismic responses in this study, a geotechnical information system (GTIS) within GIS framework was developed by introducing new concepts, which consist of the extended area containing the study area and the additional site visit for acquiring surface geo-knowledge data. The GIS-based GTIS was built for Gyeongju area, which has records of abundant historical seismic hazards reflecting the high potential of future earthquakes. At the study area, Gyeongju, intensive site investigations and pre-existing geotechnical data collections were performed and the site visits were additionally carried out for assessing geotechnical characteristics and shear wave velocity ($V_S$) representing dynamic property. Within the GTIS for Gyeongju area, the spatially distributed geotechnical layers and $V_S$ in the entire study area were reliably predicted from the site investigation data using the geostatistical kriging method. Based on the spatial geotechnical layers and $V_S$ predicted within the GTIS, a seismic zoning map on site period ($T_G$) from which the site-specific seismic responses according to the site effects can be estimated was created across the study area of Gyeongju. The spatial $T_G$ map at Gyeongju indicated seismic vulnerability of two- to five-storied buildings. In this study, the seismic zonation based on $T_G$ within the GIS-based GTIS was presented as regional efficient strategy for seismic hazard prediction and mitigation.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.272-278
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• 2016

Porous pavements are recommended as a Low-Impact Development (LID) method which is a strategy to develop a water cycle as close to a natural state as possible, and to solve the urban impervious surface problems. Porous pavements can yield a solution if it provides a more permeable surface with extra space to contain extra water from building roofs. But there are few applications in Korea because of a lack of recognition and experience. Highway engineers are mainly concerned about the infiltration of water into pavement structures. They worry about the weakening of the asphalt mixture and subgrade, and freezing during the winter season due to the infiltration of water. Meanwhile, hydrological experts doubt the effects of the amount of water to control during the flooding season, and environmental experts prefer a non-point pollution treatment system established beside highway. In this study, from reviewing the history and the body of literature about porous pavements, conclusions regarding the most advanced technologies were made. First, traditional thickness designs can be used for porous pavement, no extra distresses was found by weakening and freezing during the winter season. Second, hydrological design can be made by controlling the thickness of the pavement and the outlet of water. Third, the treatment efficiency of non-point pollution of porous pavements is not worse than any other method. Importantly, it's a more eco-friendly solution because of its lower requirement for de-icing agents.