• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.779-793
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• 2023

Intensive and long-term aquaculture activities in Korea have generated considerable amounts of organic matter, deteriorating the sedimentary environment and ecosystem. The Korean government enacted the Fishery Management Act to preserve and manage the environment of fish farms. Based on this, a fisheries environment assessment has been conducted on fish cage farms since 2014, necessitating the development of a scientific and objective evaluation method suitable for the domestic environment. Therefore, a benthic health index (BHI) was developed using the relationship between benthic polychaete communities and organic matter, a major source of pollution in fish farms. In this study, the development process and calculation method of the BHI have been introduced. The BHI was calculated by classifying 225 species of polychaetes appearing in domestic coastal and aquaculture areas into four groups by linking the concentration gradient of the total organic carbon in the sediment and the distributional characteristics of each species and assigning differential weights to each group. Using BHI, the benthic fauna communities were assigned to one of the four ecological classes (Grade 1: Normal, Grade 2: Slightly polluted, Grade 3: Moderately polluted, and Grade 4: Heavily polluted). The application of the developed index in the field enabled effective evaluation of the Korean environment, being relatively more accurate and less affected by the season compared with the existing evaluation methods like the diversity index or AZTI's Marine Biotic Index developed overseas. In addition, using BHI will be useful in the environmental management of fish farms, as the environment can be graded in quantified figures.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.1-26
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• 2009

We conclude the following with air pollution data measured from city measurement net administered and managed in Gwangju for the last 7 years from January in 2001 to December in 2007. In addition, some major statistics governed by Gwangju city and data administered by Gwangju as national official statistics obtained by estimating the amount of national air pollutant emission from National Institute of Environmental Research were used. The results are as follows ; 1. The distribution by main managements of air emission factory is the following ; Gwangju City Hall(67.8%) > Gwangsan District Office(13.6%) > Buk District Office(9.8%) > Seo District Office(5.5%) > Nam District Office(3.0%) > Dong District Office(0.3%) and the distribution by districts of air emission factory ; Buk District(32.8%) > Gwangsan District(22.4%) > Seo District(21.8%) > Nam District(14.9%) > Dong District(8.1%). That by types(Year 2004~2007 average) is also following ; Type 5(45.2%) > Type 4(40.7%) > Type 3(8.6%) > Type 2(3.2%) > Type 1(2.2%) and the most of them are small size of factory, Type 4 and 5. 2. The distribution by districts of the number of car registrations is the following ; Buk District(32.8%) > Gwangsan District(22.4%) > Seo District(21.8%) > Nam District(14.9%) > Dong District(8.1%) and the distribution by use of car fuel in 2001 ; Gasoline(56.3%) > Diesel(30.3%) > LPG(13.4%) > etc.(0.2%). In 2007, there was no ranking change ; Gasoline(47.8%) > Diesel(35.6%) > LPG(16.2%) >etc.(0.4%). The number of gasoline cars increased slightly, but that of diesel and LPG cars increased remarkably. 3. The distribution by items of the amount of air pollutant emission in Gwangju is the following; CO(36.7%) > NOx(32.7%) > VOC(26.7%) > SOx(2.3%) > PM-10(1.5%). The amount of CO and NOx, which are generally generated from cars, is very large percentage among them. 4. The distribution by mean of air pollutant emission(SOx, NOx, CO, VOC, PM-10) of each county for 5 years(2001~2005) is the following ; Buk District(31.0%) > Gwangsan District(28.2%) > Seo District(20.4%) > Nam District(12.5%) > Dong District(7.9%). The amount of air pollutant emission in Buk District, which has the most population, car registrations, and air pollutant emission businesses, was the highest. On the other hand, that of air pollutant emission in Dong District, which has the least population, car registrations, and air pollutant emission businesses, was the least. 5. The average rates of SOx for 5 years(2001~2005) in Gwangju is the following ; Non industrial combustion(59.5%) > Combustion in manufacturing industry(20.4%) > Road transportation(11.4%) > Non-road transportation(3.8%) > Waste disposal(3.7%) > Production process(1.1%). And the distribution of average amount of SOx emission of each county is shown as Gwangsan District(33.3%) > Buk District(28.0%) > Seo District(19.3%) > Nam District(10.2%) > Dong District(9.1%). 6. The distribution of the amount of NOx emission in Gwangju is shown as Road transportation(59.1%) > Non-road transportation(18.9%) > Non industrial combustion(13.3%) > Combustion in manufacturing industry(6.9%) > Waste disposal(1.6%) > Production process(0.1%). And the distribution of the amount of NOx emission from each county is the following ; Buk District(30.7%) > Gwangsan District(28.8%) > Seo District(20.5%) > Nam District(12.2%) > Dong District(7.8%). 7. The distribution of the amount of carbon monoxide emission in Gwangju is shown as Road transportation(82.0%) > Non industrial combustion(10.6%) > Non-road transportation(5.4%) > Combustion in manufacturing industry(1.7%) > Waste disposal(0.3%). And the distribution of the amount of carbon monoxide emission from each county is the following ; Buk District(33.0%) > Seo District(22.3%) > Gwangsan District(21.3%) > Nam District(14.3%) > Dong District(9.1%). 8. The distribution of the amount of Volatile Organic Compound emission in Gwangju is shown as Solvent utilization(69.5%) > Road transportation(19.8%) > Energy storage & transport(4.4%) > Non-road transportation(2.8%) > Waste disposal(2.4%) > Non industrial combustion(0.5%) > Production process(0.4%) > Combustion in manufacturing industry(0.3%). And the distribution of the amount of Volatile Organic Compound emission from each county is the following ; Gwangsan District(36.8%) > Buk District(28.7%) > Seo District(17.8%) > Nam District(10.4%) > Dong District(6.3%). 9. The distribution of the amount of minute dust emission in Gwangju is shown as Road transportation(76.7%) > Non-road transportation(16.3%) > Non industrial combustion(6.1%) > Combustion in manufacturing industry(0.7%) > Waste disposal(0.2%) > Production process(0.1%). And the distribution of the amount of minute dust emission from each county is the following ; Buk District(32.8%) > Gwangsan District(26.0%) > Seo District(19.5%) > Nam District(13.2%) > Dong District(8.5%). 10. According to the major source of emission of each items, that of oxides of sulfur is Non industrial combustion, heating of residence, business and agriculture and stockbreeding. And that of NOx, carbon monoxide, minute dust is Road transportation, emission of cars and two-wheeled vehicles. Also, that of VOC is Solvent utilization emission facilities due to Solvent utilization. 11. The concentration of sulfurous acid gas has been 0.004ppm since 2001 and there has not been no concentration change year by year. It is considered that the use of sulfurous acid gas is now reaching to the stabilization stage. This is found by the facts that the use of fuel is steadily changing from solid or liquid fuel to low sulfur liquid fuel containing very little amount of sulfur element or gas, so that nearly no change in concentration has been shown regularly. 12. Concerning changes of the concentration of throughout time, the concentration of NO has been shown relatively higher than that of $NO_2$ between 6AM~1PM and the concentration of $NO_2$ higher during the other time. The concentration of NOx(NO, $NO_2$) has been relatively high during weekday evenings. This result shows that there is correlation between the concentration of NOx and car traffics as we can see the Road transportation which accounts for 59.1% among the amount of NOx emission. 13. 49.1~61.2% of PM-10 shows PM-2.5 concerning the relationship between PM-10 and PM-2.5 and PM-2.5 among dust accounts for 45.4%~44.5% of PM-10 during March and April which is the lowest rates. This proves that particles of yellow sand that are bigger than the size $2.5\;{\mu}m$ are sent more than those that are smaller from China. This result shows that particles smaller than $2.5\;{\mu}m$ among dust exist much during July~August and December~January and 76.7% of minute dust is proved to be road transportation in Gwangju.