• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.152-164
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• 2019

In this study, a Benthic Macroinvertebrates Family Index (BMFI) was developed using 100 indicator groups (99 families including Chironomidae with 2 phena). Families were assigned a score between 1 and 10 depending on their sensitivity to organic pollution. The BMFI was composed of the sensitivity and relative abundance of the indicator taxa. Sensitivity values of each group were generally similar to Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) scores or Walley, Hawkes, Paisley, Trigg (WHPT) scores of UK, Japanese BMWP scores, and the FBI tolerance values of North America. However, sensitivity values of some taxa were significantly different from those of foreign countries, which seemed to have resulted from discrepancy in species composition, difference of taxonomic classification system, or methodological difference for estimation of sensitivity. As an annual average level, BMFI showed significant correlation with concentration of 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) (correlation coefficient r = -0.80, n = 569 sites), total suspended solids (r = -0.68), and total phosphorus (r = -0.79). In addition, BMFI revealed strong correlation with Shannon-Weaver's species diversity (r = 0.85), Margalef's species richness (r = 0.85) and McNaughton's dominance (r = -0.84). Correlation between BMFI and water quality parameters or community indices such as species diversity did not show significant difference compared to that of species-level indices such as BMI (Benthic Macroinvertebrates Index). This means that BMFI is a more useful indicator in terms of easy identification of organisms. BMFI was used to assess the environmental status of 3,017 sites of Stream Ecosystem Survey conducted by the Korean Ministry of Environment between 2016 and 2018. As a result, about half of all sites appeared to be in good condition, and a quarter in poor condition.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.631-635
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• 2015

Water quality investigation was conducted for small/medium sized reservoirs in A city in June and November 2014 as a preliminary step for further use. Water quality analysis experiments were conducted for 21 reservoirs managed by a local government and water quality data were obtained from Korea Rural Community Corporation for 12 reservoirs. It was found that relatively poor water quality, not satisfied with the regulation level (somewhat poor(IV)) for agricultural use, was observed for some reservoirs and worse water quality (poor(V) and very poor(VI) grade) was observed for more reservoirs during autumn /winter season due to the decrease in water volume. Correspondingly, the trophic state was obtained as "Eutrophic" or "Hypertrophic" using the Korean trophic state index for most reservoirs. It was also revealed that significant contamination in sediments was not observed for selected 8 reservoirs considering water quality in each reservoir. The results in this study could be useful for the use of small/medium sized reservoirs as alternative water resources, tourism resources, inland fishery resources, renewable energy production sites, and anti-flooding reservoirs.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.385-392
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• 2005

The control of nonpoint source pollution is essentially needed to successfully perform the Total Maximum Daily Load program. Of the various land uses in the nonpoint source, the paved areas such as a parking lot and a bridge are stormwater intensive land uses because of high imperviousness and high pollutant mass emissions. This research was performed to understand the magnitude and nature of the stormwater emissions with the purposes of quantifying stormwater pollutant concentrations and mass emission rates from a parking lot and a bridge. Two monitoring sites in Kongju city were equipped with an automatic rainfall gages and an automatic flow meter for accumulating the data such as rainfall, water quality and runoff flow rates. This paper will summarize the metal concentration changes during the storm duration and metal EMCs to characterize the concentration profiles in a parking lot and a bridge. Also a new concept, dynamic EMC, will be proposed to find the relationship between EMC and first flush effect. It can be used to determine the economical treatment criteria in best management practices.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.73-87
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• 2011

An abnormal mono-specific bloom of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa had developed at a specific location (transitional zone, monitoring station of Hoenam) in Daecheong Reservoir from middle of July to early August, 2001. The maximum cell counts during the peak bloom reached 1,477,500 cells/mL, which was more than 6~10 times greater than those at other monitoring sites. The hypothesis of this study is that the timing and location of the algal bloom was highly correlated with the local environmental niche that was controled by physical processes such as hydrodynamic mixing and pollutant transport in the reservoir. A three-dimensional, coupled hydrodynamic and ecological model, ELCOM-CAEDYM, was applied to the period of development and subsequent decline of the bloom. The model was calibrated against observed water temperature profiles and water quality variables for different locations, and applied to reproduce the algal bloom event and justify the limiting factor that controled the Microcystis bloom at R3. The simulation results supported the hypothesis that the phosphorus loading induced from a contaminated tributary during several runoff events are closely related to the rapid growth of Microcystis during the period of bloom. Also the physical environments of the reservoir such as a strong thermal stratification and weak wind velocity conditions provided competitive advantage to Microcystis given its light adaptation capability. The results show how the ELCOM-CAEDYM captures the complex interactions between the hydrodynamic and biogeochemical processes, and the local environmental niche that is preferable for cyanobacterial species growth.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.255-264
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• 2017

To evaluate the water quality changes in agricultural reservoir covered with floating photovoltaic solar-tracking systems, the water quality variations with time and depth were monitored on both six sites for light blocking zones and four sites for light penetration zones after the installation of floating photovoltaic solar-tracking systems in Geumgwang reservoir at Anseong-si, Kyeonggi province. For one year with 16 monitoring events, water quality parameters [i.e., water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), and blue-green algae (BGA)] were monitored at depths of 0.3 m, 1 m, 3 m, and 5 m, while chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were monitored at depths of 0.3 m. Statistically, the difference in all water quality parameters was not significantly different (p > 0.05) at the level of significance of 0.05. Based on these results, the water quality data from light blocking zones (site 1~6) and light penetration zones (site 7~10) were clustered, and were compared with time and depth. As a result, the difference in water temperature, pH, DO, COD, TN, TP, Chl-a, and BGA between light blocking zones and light penetration zones was not significant (p > 0.05) with different time and depth. For Chl-a and BGA, some data from light blocking zones greater than light penetration zones were temporary observed due to the severe drought, low water storage rate, and over growth of periphyton. However, this temporal phenomenon did not impact the water quality. Considering the small water surface area (${\leq}0.5%$) covered by floating photovoltaic solar-tracking systems, the mixing effect of whole Geumgwang reservoir caused by Ekman current and continuous discharge were more dominant than the effect of reduced solar irradiance. Further study is warranted to monitor the changes in water quality and aquatic ecosystems with greater water surface area covered by floating photovoltaic solar-tracking systems for a long time.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.38-55
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• 2018

Hourly measurements of $PM_{2.5}$ mass, organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC), and water-soluble ionic species were made at the air quality intensive monitoring stations in Baengryeongdo (BR) and Seoul (SL) during the winter (December 01~31, 2013) and summer (July 10~23, 2014) periods, to investigate the increase of $PM_{2.5}$ and secondary ionic species and the reasons leading to their increase during the two seasons. During winter, $PM_{2.5}$ and its major chemical species concentrations were higher at SL than at BR. Contribution of organic mass to $PM_{2.5}$ was approximately 1.7 times higher at BR than at SL, but the $NO_3{^-}$ contribution was two times higher at SL. Total concentration of secondary ionic species ($SO{_4}^{2-}$, $NO_3{^-}$, and $NH_4{^+}$) at BR and SL sites accounted for 29.1 and 40.1% of $PM_{2.5}$, respectively. However, during summer, no significant difference in chemical composition of $PM_{2.5}$ was found between the two sites with the exception of $SO{_4}^{2-}$. Total concentration of the secondary ionic species constituted on average 43.9% of $PM_{2.5}$ at BR and 53.0% at SL. A noticeable difference in chemical composition between the two sites during summer was attributed to $SO{_4}^{2-}$, with approximately twofold concentration and 10% higher contribution in SL. Low wind speed and high relative humidity were important factors in secondary formation of water-soluble ionic species during winter at SL, resulting in $PM_{2.5}$ increase. While the secondary formation during summer was attributed to strong photochemical processes in daytime and high relative humidity in nighttime hours. The increase of $PM_{2.5}$ and its secondary ionic species during the winter haze pollution period at SL was mainly caused either by long-range transport (LTP) from the eastern Chinese regions, or by local pollution. However, the increased $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ during summer at SL were mainly caused by LTP, photochemical processes in daytime hours, and heterogeneous processes in nighttime hours.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1156-1163
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• 2008

We performed RT-nested PCR to study the distribution of human enteric viruses in urban rivers in Korea. During 2002-2003, water samples were collected from four rivers in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Among 58 samples, 45 (77.6%), 32 (55.2%), 12 (20.7%), 2 (3.4%), 4 (6.9%), and 4 (6.9%) showed positive results with adenoviruses (AdVs), enteroviruses (EVs), reoviruses (ReVs), hepatitis A viruses (HAVs), rotaviruses (RoVs), and sapoviruses (SVs), respectively. According to the binary logistic regression model, the occurrence of each enteric virus, except ReVs and HAVs, was not statistically correlated with the water temperature and levels of fecal coliforms (P<0.05). AdVs were most often detected; only 4 samples (6.9%) were negative for AdVs while positive for other enteric viruses in the studied sites. Our results indicated that monitoring human enteric viruses is necessary to improve microbial quality, and that AdVs detection by PCR can be a useful index for the presence of other enteric viruses in aquatic environments.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.271-280
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to analyze spatial and temporal patterns of bacterial pollution levels and the relationship between bacterial pollutants and environmental parameters at the main stream and tributaries of Nakdong River. Water quality data including total coliform and fecal coliform were compiled from a total of 50 monitoring sites (30 at the main stream and 20 at the tributaries) along with rainfall and discharge data for three consecutive years from 2012 to 2014. During the study periods, the geometric mean values of total coliforms and fecal coliforms in the main stream were 74 (22~465) CFU/100 mL and 8 (3~42) CFU/100 mL, respectively. The geometric mean values of total coliforms and fecal coliforms in the tributaries were 275 (36~5,145) CFU/100 mL and 6 (1~1,352) CFU/100 mL, respectively. High concentrations of fecal coliforms were observed at Gumi (M 10), Hyeonpung (M 19), Hapcheon (M 23), and Namji (M 25) in the main stream, whereas Gamcheon (T 6), Bakcheon (T 7), Geumho-gang (T 8), and Gyeseongcheon (T 16) were identified as pollution hot spots in the tributaries. Although bacterial pollution levels showed complex behavior across monitoring sites and time, the highest coliform concentrations were routinely observed in the monsoon season between July and September of each year, indicating that the pollution levels were strongly dependent on precipitation in addition to other physiochemical parameters. Statistically significant correlations were found between fecal coliform concentrations and precipitation (r=0.403, p<0.01), followed by SS (r=0.425, p<0.01), nutrient TP (r=0.388, p<0.01), organic matter COD (r=0.322, p<0.01), and PO₄-P (r=0.317, p<0.01) in the main stream in the order of correlation coefficient from high to low.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.377-386
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• 2015

The purpose of this research was to suggest the water quality improvement in streams by evaluating the distribution characteristics of organics and ammonia nitrogen discharged by pollution sources from human living. The public sewage treatment plants'(PSTPs) effluents and the waters from streams in Gyeonggi-do were sampled and analyzed. Nitrogenous oxygen demand (NOD) was measured for the stream waters as well as the PSTPs effluents, and the correlations of NOD and $NH_3$-N, $NH_3$-N and water temperature in the PSTPs effluents were confirmed. In the case of the stream waters, the ratios of NOD to BOD and $NH_3$-N increased in the downstream sites after discharging the PSTPs effluents. As a result of statistical analysis of $NH_3$-N concentrations for the national water quality monitoring streams in Gyeonggi-do, $NH_3$-N showed the non-normal distribution which were biased to the left, but showed the considerable level because of higher coefficient of variation. Therefore, it is required to establish the water quality standard for the $NH_3$-N as a new parameter for judging the quality of the streams. In addition, inducing complete nitrification and introducing a logical standard setting system are needed to improve the water quality of streams by identifying distribution of the nitrogen components from PSTPs effluents.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.140-150
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• 2023

The Hangang River^* is necessary to manage the water environment of severe pollution due to the high density of residential areas, parks, and agriculture and the large population concentrated there. Benthic macroinvertebrates, such as chironomids larvae, are bioindicator species that reflect environmental changes and are crucial for water quality monitoring. In this study, we investigated morphological characteristics and molecular analysis of the chironomids larvae inhabiting the Hangang River area for water environment surveys. For this research, 20 rivers, lakes, and urban area in the Hangang River basin were selected. Chironomids larvae were collected from July to September 2022, and their appearance and characteristics were identified through morphological identification. In addition, phylogenetic analysis was performed based on the mtCOI gene sequences of the collected chironomids larvae, and identification at the genus level was confirmed. As a result, 32 species and 18 genera of 3 subfamilies of Chironomidae larvae were identified, and Stictochironomus sp. dominated most sites(6 sites). The morphological characteristics of the identified chironomids larvae, such as the mentum, ventromental plate, and antenna, were organized into table and pictorial keys, and a Bayesian inference molecular phylogeny was presented. These results provide basic morphological information for genus-level identification and can be used as fundamental information for water quality management.