• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.3B
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• pp.221-230
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• 2009

In Korea, many water intake plants are easily affected by effluents of sewage treatment plants because sewage treatment plants are usually located upstream or nearby the plants of the same riverine area. Furthermore, the inflow of harmful contaminants owing to pollutant spills or transportation accidents of vehicles using the roads and bridges intersecting the river causes significant impact on the management of water intake plants. Paldang lake, the main water intake plants in Korea, is especially exposed to various water pollution accidents, because the drainage basin area is significantly large compared to the water surface area of the lake. Therefore it is necessary to predict the possible pollutant spill in advance and consider measurements in case of water pollution. In this study, water quality prediction was performed in Paldang Lake in Korea durig the dry season using two-dimensional numerical models. In order to represent the cases of pollutant accidents, the difference of pollutant transport patterns with varying injection points was analyzed. Numerical simulations for hydrodynamics of water flow and water quality predictions were performed using RMA-2 and RAM4 respectively. As a result of simulation, the difference of pollutant transport with the injection points was analyzed. As a countermeasure against the pollutant accident, the augmentation of the flow rate is proposed. In comparison with the present state, the rapid dilution and flushing effects on the pollutant cloud could be expected with increase of flow rate. Thus, increase of flow rate can be used for operation of water intake plants in case of pollutant spill accidents.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.743-752
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• 2009

One of the major problems associated with operation of domestic sewer lines involves hydraulic problems such as insufficient conveyance capacity, exceeding maximum velocity, and deficiency of minimum velocity. It has also been pointed out that influent concentration lower than design concentration of pollutants, which is mainly caused by unidentified inflow and infiltration, degrades the operational efficiency of many sewage treatment plants (STPs). A computer-added analysis method supporting a coupled simulation of sewage quality and quantity is essentially required to evaluate the status of existing STPs and to improve their efficiency by a proper sewer rehabilitation work. In this study, dynamic water quality simulations were conducted using MOUSE TRAP to investigate the principal parameters that governs the changes of BOD, ${NH_4}^+$, and ${PO_4}^{3-}$3- concentrations within the sewer networks based on data acquired through on-site and laboratory measurements. The BOD, ${NH_4}^+$ and ${PO_4}^{3-}$3- concentrations estimated by MOUSE TRAP was lower than theoretical pollution loads because of sedimentation and decomposition in the sewer. The results revealed that sedimentation is a most important factor than other biological reactions in decreasing pollutant load in the sewers of C-city. The sensitivity analysis of parameters pertaining to water quality changes indicated that the effect of the BOD decay rate, the initial DO concentration, the half-saturation coefficient of dissolved BOD, and the initial sediment depth is marginal. However, the influence of settling rate and temperature is relatively high because sedimentation and precipitation, rather than biological degradation, are dominant processes that affect water quality in the study sewer systems.

• ALGAE
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.169-176
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• 2003

Algal growth potential test (AGPT) bioassay were conducted to evaluate the stream and reservoir water in the Okchon Stream Watershed during May to September 2002. The water quality of the stream water was clean in the upstream, deteriorating toward the downstream. In particular, SRP and $NH_4$ significantly increased due to treated wastewater. The average AGPT value of the Okchon Stream watershed was 22.4 mg dw ${\cdot}l^{-1}$, with the range of 0- 195.7 mg dw ${\cdot}l^{-1}$. AGPT value was the highest immediately after inflow of treated wastewater, averaging 91.3 mg dw${\cdot}l^{-1}$. AGPT was highly correlated with SRP, $NH_4$ and TIN factors, with P having the greatest effect on the growth of algae. Among N components, $NH_4$ was preferred to $NO_3$ for the growth of algae. Likewise, AGPT was closely linked to meteological and hydrological effects and development of natural phytoplankton. In survey stations, mesotrophic, eutrophic and hypertrophic conditions accounted for 43%, 21% and 36%, respectively. On the other hand, hypertrophic condition focused on the downstream reaches. AGPT was useful in determining not only the limiting nutrients but also the water fertility for the growth of algae. Based on the AGPT results, the management of point sources for water pollution in treated wastewater was important in the protection of aquatic environment in the stream and embayment.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.330-338
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• 2010

In this study, removal characteristics of nitrogen oxides $(NO_x)$ from road transport by using peat as the packing media for biodegradation have been investigated in the long term. Physicochemical and biological treatment of peatmixed media eliminates any requirement to use chemical substances and also facilitates the biodegradable actions of microorganism. Safe biodegradation of pollutants, no need to apply additional microbes owing to their active growth, and no generation of secondary pollutants were found in this experiment. It was concluded that average removal efficiencies of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide $(NO_2)$ were 80% and 97% respectively with respect to the linear velocity 35~40 mm/s and 0.3 ppm ozone concentration in the long period operation. Inflow concentration of nitric oxide over 0.05 ppm was suitable when pretreated with ozone. Non-ozone stage was performed with linear velocity 20~100 mm/s and then the average removal efficiency of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide were 38% and 94% respectively. Other results showed that the apparent static pressure was raised with increases in applied water content and aerial velocity in mixed media during fan operation.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.523-544
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• 2009

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of foreign direct investment on environmental performance for 27 OECD countries using endogenous environmental policy model. The empirical test shows that with 1% increase in the ratio of inflow stock of foreign direct investment over domestic capital stock, emission on NOx and $CO_2$ will increase by 0.0071%(NOx) and 0.0165%($CO_2$) and 1% increase in the ratio of foreign capital stock induces 0.044%(fixed effect) and 0.047%(random effect) of economic growth. 1% increase of per labor total output increases 2.038%(fixed effect) or 1.890%(random effect) in reinforcement of environmental regulation. However, we could not confirm the Porter's hypothesis that the more strong environmental regulation leads technical innovation. The scale effects (0.0119, 0.0172) are estimated higher than the technical effects (-0.0048, -0.0007) in two pollutants (NOx, $CO_2$). It implies that each country needs to increase pollution abatement and control expenditure more aggressively to protect environment.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.470-480
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• 2019

The Doam lake watershed was designated as a non-point pollution management area in 2007 to improve water quality based on watershed management implementation. There have been studies of non-point source reduction with respect to the watershed management impacting the pollutant transport of the reservoir. However, a little attention has been focused on the impact of water quality improvement by the management of the dam operation or the guidelines on the dam operation. In this study, the impact of in-lake management practices combined with watershed management is analyzed, and the appropriate guidelines on the operation of the dam are suggested. The integrated modeling system by coupling with the watershed model (HSPF) and reservoir water quality model (CE-QUAL-W2) was applied for analyzing the impact of water quality management practices. A scenario implemented with sedimentation basin and suspended matter barrier showed decrease in SS concentration up to 4.6%. The SS concentration increased in the scenarios adjusting withdrawal location from EL.673 m to the upper direction(EL.683 m and EL.688 m). The water quality was comparably high when the scenario implemented all in-lake practices with water intake at EL.673 m. However, there was improvement in water quality when the height of the water intake was moved to EL.688 m during the summer by preventing sediments inflow after the rainfall. Therefore, to manage water quality of the Doam lake, it is essential to control the water quality by modulating the height of water intake through consistent turbidity monitoring during rainfall.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.65-76
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate economical ventilation effectiveness to reduce hazardous materials exposure and damage of workers by analyzing exposure amount of noxious substances under various ventilation conditions of nail salon for indoor environments. Research design, data, and methodology - This study was carried out with cooperation of Nail shop located in SeongNam city to involve an analysis of the environmental impact indoor air quality, pollutant exposure and economical cost-effectiveness in the nail workplace. The hazardous substances were PM-10(Particulate Matter-10㎛), VOCs(Volatile Organic Compounds) and Formaldehyde, which are the major materials of nail workplace. Results - PM-10 is reduced by about 60% with air cleaner, forced artificial ventilation by 32%, and natural ventilation by about 12%. TVOCs and Formaldehyde showed similar efficiency (80~100%) after natural ventilation and ventilation after 60 minutes. The removal efficiencies of VOCs and formaldehyde were similar to those of natural ventilation and mechanical ventilation system. However, in case of dust, natural ventilation was reduced by artificial ventilation system due to inflow of external dust during natural ventilation. Conclusions - If the pollution degree of outdoor air is not high, air volume is high, and natural ventilation is performed when the air conditioning and heating system is not operated. Even at the end of the work, it keeps operating for 60 minutes to remove the pollutants generated. Results of this analysis demonstrated that the worker environment can be improved by adopting institutional legislation and guidelines for ventilation.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.27-35
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• 2012

Various Best Management Practices (BMPs) have been suggested to reduce Nonpoint source pollutant loads from agricultural fields. However, very little research regarding water quality improvement with sediment trap has been performed in Korea. Thus, effects of sediment trap were investigated in this study. Three sediment traps were installed at the edge of six plots and flow and water quality of inflow and outflow were monitored and analyzed. It was found that approximately 64.1 % of flow reduction was observed. In addition, pollutant concentration of outflow was reduced by 39.0 % for $BOD_5$. For SS, $COD_{Mn}$, DOC, T-N, T-P, approximately 62.1 %, 43.4 %, 43.5 %, 40.0 %, and 41.2 % reduction were observed, respectively. Over 80 % and 90 % of pollutant loads were reduced from sediment trap #2 and #3 because of less outflow from plots covered with rice straw/straw mat. In case of intensive rainfall events occurred from July 26~29, 2011, over 60 % of pollutant and 88.9 % of sediment reduction were observed from sediment trap #3. As shown in this study, small sediment traps could play important roles in reducing pollutant loads from agricultural fields. If proper management practices, such as rice straw/straw mat, are used to protect surface from rainfall impacts and rill formation, much pollutant reduction could be expected.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.157-163
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• 2018

This study aims to determine the pollution levels of nine kinds of heavy metals (As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in Lake Shihwa, which is susceptible to the inflow of pollutants, and the levels of heavy metal exposure in its fish and shellfish. Shihwa Lake's water quality did not exceed the short-term standard for protection of marine ecosystems, but concentrations of As, Cu, Cr, Hg, Ni, and Zn exceeded the long-term standard for protection of a marine ecosystem. In comparison to findings in prior research, performed in 2010, levels of Cr, Ni, As, and Zn are now 4.1 times lower. However, when compared to Saemangeum Lake, the environment is similar to that of Lake Shihwa, Cu, Ni, Hg, Mn, and Zn were 244.4 times higher. The levels of Pb, Cd, and Hg in fish's muscles did not exceed the average values set by the marine safety standard. However, when compared to the fish from the Korean coast, the levels of heavy metals were 9.7 times higher, on average. The levels of heavy metals in fish's livers were on average 26.8 times higher than in the muscles. In the case of shellfish, the levels of Pb, Cd, and Hg did not exceed the standard values, but in comparison to the shellfish from the south coast, the levels of heavy metals were 6.2 times higher on average. In particular, Mn (153.5 times higher) from fish and Cd (14.7 times higher) from shellfish were found in high amounts, indicating a concerning level of these specific heavy metals.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.216-225
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• 2018

Over the past 40 years, the public sector has continued to invest in the sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Korea. Currently, the domestic sewage treatment rate is over 90% with the enhancement of operating efficiency of the STPs, and water quality of major rivers has been continuously improved. However, COD and T-N indicators are stagnating or slightly worsening, and though advanced treatment facilities are installed in most of the STPs, there is a limit to the removal of nutrients. Since there are a lot of water pollution sources in the vicinity of the watershed because of high population density in Korea, it is essential to reduce the inflow of the nutrients in order to prevent the eutrophication of the rivers and lakes. While the effluent T-P standard in STPs has greatly strengthened since 2012, which results in the considerable investment for the improvement of treatment process in STPs for the last few years, it is necessary to strengthen the T-N standards, as the effluent standard of T-N has been maintained at 20 mg/L since 2002. In this study, based on the analysis of the effluent T-N standard status of major industrialized countries, and the domestic nitrogen load in public waters, the option of appropriate T-N standard level is reviewed, and the required investment costs and the effect of strengthening the standard are estimated.