• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.77-82
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• 2022

This study aims to understand how mobile and stationary air pollution sources affect the air quality and soil properties in urban parks. We selected three sites of urban parks in Seoul as follows: Ha-neul Park in Mapo-gu (Site_M), Ill-won Eco-Park in Gangnam-gu (Site_G), and Yangjae Citizen's Forest in Seocho-gu (Site_Y), and compared the results of each site's traffic volume, air quality concentration, and soil analysis. Traffic volume was high in Site_M, followed by Site_G and Y; Site_M and G were closer to the resource recovery facility than Site_Y. Hence, we hypothesized that PM and NO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere were higher in Site_M than Site_G and Y, causing different soil nitrogen content among sites due to different atmospheric deposition. Consistent with our hypothesis, the concentrations of PM2.5 and NO₂ were higher in Site_M and G than Site_Y, while Site_Y had higher PM10 than other sites. The soil NO₃^- contents showed no significant difference among three sites, whereas the soil NH₄+ content was extremely high in Site_Y. This high content of soil NH₄⁺ is thought to be due to acidification from excessive fertilization. Lower soil pH of Site_Y further supported the evidence of heavy fertilization in this site. Overall nitrogen dynamics implies that soil nitrogen status is more influenced by park management such as fertilization rather than atmospheric deposition. Despite of lower soil NH₄⁺ content of Site_M and G than Y, vegetation vitality looked similar among three sites. This indirectly indicates that excessive fertilizer input in urban park management needs to be reconsidered. This study showed that even if the air quality was different due to mobile and stationary sources, it did not directly affect the soil nitrogen nutrient status of the adjacent urban park.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2022

The total maximum daily load (TMDL) implemented in Korea mainly manages the mainstream considering a single common pollutant and river discharge, and the river system is divided into unit watersheds. Changes in the water quality of managed rivers owing to the water quality management in tributaries and unit watersheds are not considered when implementing the TMDL. In addition, it is difficult to consider the difference in the load of pollutants generated in the tributary depending on the conditions of the water quality change in each unit watershed, even if the target water quality was maintained in the managed water system. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the total maximum load management at tributaries to manage the pollution load of tributaries with a high degree of pollution. In this study, the HSPF model, a watershed runoff model, was applied to the target areas consisting of 53 sub-watersheds to analyze the effect of water quality changes the in tributaries on the mainstream. Sub-watersheds were selected from the three major areas of the Paldang water system, including the drainage basins of the downstream of the South Han-River, Gyeongan stream, and North Han-River. As a result, BOD ranged from 0.17 mg/L to 4.30 mg/L, and was generally high in tributaries and decreased in the downstream watershed. TP ranged from 0.02 mg/L - 0.22 mg/L, and the watersheds that had a large impact on urbanization and livestock industry were high, and the North Han-River basin was generally low. In addition, a pollution source reduction scenario was selected to analyze the change in water quality by the amount of pollution load discharged at each unit watershed. The reduction rate of BOD and TP according to the scenario changes was simulated higher in the watershed of the downstream of the North Han-River and downstream and midstream of the Gyeongan stream. It was found that the benefits of water quality reduction from each sub-watershed efforts to improve water quality are greatest in the middle and downstream of each main stream, and it is judged that it can be served as basic data for the management of total tributaries.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.306-314
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• 2023

Stream sediments are an important component of water quality management because they are receptors of various pollutants such as heavy metals and organic matters emitted from upland sources and can be secondary pollution sources, adversely affecting water environment. To effectively manage the stream sediments, identification of primary sources of sediment contamination and source-associated control strategies will be required. We evaluated the performance of machine learning models in identifying primary sources of sediment contamination based on the physico-chemical properties of stream sediments. A total of 356 stream sediment data sets of 18 quality parameters including 10 heavy metal species(Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, As, Zn, Cr, Hg, Li, and Al), 3 soil parameters(clay, silt, and sand fractions), and 5 water quality parameters(water content, loss on ignition, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorous) were collected near abandoned metal mines and industrial complexes across the four major river basins in Korea. Two machine learning algorithms, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers were used to classify the sediments into four cases of different combinations of the sampling period and locations (i.e., mine in dry season, mine in wet season, industrial complex in dry season, and　industrial complex in wet season). Both models showed good performance in the classification, with SVM outperformed LDA; the accuracy values of LDA and SVM were 79.5% and 88.1%, respectively. An SVM ensemble model was used for multi-label classification of the multiple contamination sources inlcuding landuses in the upland areas within 1 km radius from the sampling sites. The results showed that the multi-label classifier was comparable performance with sinlgle-label SVM in classifying mines and industrial complexes, but was less accurate in classifying dominant land uses (50~60%). The poor performance of the multi-label SVM is likely due to the overfitting caused by small data sets compared to the complexity of the model. A larger data set might increase the performance of the machine learning models in identifying contamination sources.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.715-728
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• 2023

Tracksite of pterosaurs, birds, and dinosaurs in Chungmugong-dong in Jinju was designated as a natural monument in 2011 and is known as the world's largest in terms of the number and density of pterosaur footprints. This site has been managed by installing protection buildings to conserve in 2018. About 17% of the footprints of pterosaur, theropod, and ornithopod in this site under management in the 2nd protection building are of great academic value, but observation of footprints has difficulties due to continuous physical and chemical damage. In particular, the accumulation of milk-white contaminants is formed by the gypsum and air pollutant complex. Gypsum remains evaporated with a plate or columnar shape in the process of water circulation around the 2nd protection building, and the dust is from through the inflow of the gallery windows. The aqueous solution of gypsum, consisting of calcium from the lower bed and sulfur from grass growth, is catchmented into the groundwater from the area behind the protection building. Pollen and a few minerals other constituents of contaminants, go through the gallery window, which makes it difficult to expel dust. To conserve the fossil-bearing beds from two contaminants of different origins, controlling the water and atmospheric circulation of the 2nd protection building and removing the contaminants continuously is necessary. When cleaning contaminants, the steam cleaning method is sufficiently effective for powder-shaped milk-white contaminants. The fossil-bearing bed consists of dark gray shale with high laser absorption power; the laser cleaning method accompanies physical loss to fossils and sedimentary structures; therefore, avoiding it as much as possible is desirable.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 2024

Fishing net waste (FNW) constitutes over half of all marine plastic waste and is a major contributor to the degradation of marine ecosystems. While current treatment options for FNW include incineration, landfilling, and mechanical recycling, these methods often result in low-value products and pollutant emissions. Importantly, FNWs, comprised of plastic polymers, can be converted into valuable resources like syngas and pyrolysis oil through pyrolysis. Thus, this study presents a process for generating high-purity hydrogen (H₂) by catalytically pyrolyzing FNW in a CO₂ environment. The proposed process comprises of three stages: First, the pretreated FNW undergoes Ni/SiO₂ catalytic pyrolysis under CO₂ conditions to produce syngas and pyrolysis oil. Second, the produced pyrolysis oil is incinerated and repurposed as an energy source for the pyrolysis reaction. Lastly, the syngas is transformed into high-purity H₂ via the Water-Gas-Shift (WGS) reaction and Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA). This study compares the results of the proposed process with those of traditional pyrolysis conducted under N₂ conditions. Simulation results show that pyrolyzing 500 kg/h of FNW produced 2.933 kmol/h of high-purity H₂ under N₂ conditions and 3.605 kmol/h of high-purity H₂ under CO₂ conditions. Furthermore, pyrolysis under CO₂ conditions improved CO production, increasing H₂ output. Additionally, the CO₂ emissions were reduced by 89.8% compared to N₂ conditions due to the capture and utilization of CO₂ released during the process. Therefore, the proposed process under CO₂ conditions can efficiently recycle FNW and generate eco-friendly hydrogen product.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.126-134
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• 1999

To provide the basic information for the water improvement and control of water resource in Nakdong river districts, the physico-chemical characteristics of water in four main streams and three branch streams of the river were investigated through 36 times totally, one time per each month from January in 1995 to November in 1997. The pH values of each sites in main or branch stream of Nakdong river was pH $6.3{\sim}9.3$ range, pH range of Jukpo and Namji area at spring and fall was almost over pH 8.5, which was exceeded the water quality standard for agriculture. DO values of Nakdong river was almost $8.0{\sim}13mg/l$, except for Kangchang area in downstream of Kumho river. BOD values in Dasa area where was prior to mixing of Kumho river was $1.5{\sim}4.8mg/l$, which was under the water quality standard for agriculture(8mg/l), but BOD values followed mixing of Kumho river was over the permit standard of agricultural water as $3.8{\sim}8.9mg/l$ in Koryung, $3.4{\sim}8.4mg/l$ in Jukpo and $3.3{\sim}7.8mg/l$ in Namji according to time or season. Especially, BOD values at Gangchang area in Kumho river were $7.6{\sim}18.5mg/l$, which was over the water quality standard for agriculture and so Kumho river was a main pollutant: source of Nakdong river. COD values of main stream of Nakdong river was over the permit standard of agriculture(8mg/l) as $5.2{\sim}13.5mg/l$ in Koryvng, $5.0{\sim}12.7mg/l$ in Jukpo and $5.0{\sim}12.2mg/l$ in Namji according to time or season. And COD values was much high rather than BOD values and its gap of concentration was increased along with downstream. $NH_4-N$ of main stream of Nakdong river followed mixing of Kumho river($0.5{\sim}13.1mg/l$) was the highest affected in Koryung($0.18{\sim}5.0mg/l$) and detected much more in winter than in summer. T-N in Koryung($4.96{\sim}12.06mg/l$) followed mixing of Kumho river was significantly high rather than $2.86{\sim}4.86mg/l$ in Dasa, $4.20{\sim}8.20mg/l$ in Jukpo and $3.18{\sim}8.64mg/l$ in Namji, which was almost over the permit standard of agricultural water(1.0mg/l). T-P in Koryung($0.10{\sim}0.58mg/l$) also was significantly high rather than those $0.07{\sim}0.36mg/l$ in Jukpo and $0.08{\sim}0.4mg/l$ in Namji as over the standard of agricultural water(0.1mg/l). The concentration of T-N or T-P in Nakdong districts was trended of increasing in every year.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.22
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• pp.54-62
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• 2004

We examined the impacts of anthyopogenic pollutant (benzo〔a〕pyrene) on the growth and photosynthesis of five marine phytoplankton species (Skeletonema costatum, Heterosigma akashiwo, Prorocentrum dentatum, P. minimum, Aknshiwo sanguinea), which are dominant in Korean coastal water. After the 72 h exposure to benzo〔a〕pyrene, the dramatic decrease in cell numbers was observed in the range of 1 to 10 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ for S. costatum, P. minimum, P. dentatum, whereas for A. sanguinea and H. akashiwo at the low concentrations 0.1 to 1 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ . Among the 5 phytoplankton species, the highest growth inhibition concentration ($IC_{50}$/) was 6.20 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ for P. minimum, followed by 2.14 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ for P. dentatum, 1.68 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ for S. costatum, 0.74 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ for H. akashiwo, 0.10 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ for A. sanguinea. The five species exposed to the low concentration of 1 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ were recovered after transferring to new media, but the species exposed to the high concentrations of 10 and 100 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ were not recovered, with the exception of P. minimum. Those results indicate that the thecate dinoflagellate P. minimum is most tolerant to the chemical and the athecate dinoflagellate A. sanguinea is not. Geneyally, the cell-specific photosynthetic capacity of H. akashiwo exposed to the low concentrations of 0.1 and 1 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ was higher than that of the cells in the control, whereas the cells exposed to the high concentrations of 5 and 10 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ showed the negligible photosynthetic level by the first few days of the experiment. In the case of the cells exposed to the concentration of 5 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$^{-1}$ , after 12 days of the experiment the photosynthetic capacity was increased toward the end of the experiment. This indicates that H. akashiwo may utilize the benzo〔a〕pyrene as a carton source for its growth when exposed to low concentrations. Results suggest that anthropogenic pollutants such as benzo〔a〕pyrene may have significant influence on the succession of phytoplankton species composition and the primary production in coastal marine environments.