• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.476-488
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• 2013

Refractory Dissolved Organic Carbon (RDOC) is becoming more important index on management of water quality, water regulation as well as ecosystem management. We analyzed trends of RDOC using elasticity in the Nakdong river basin. If climate elasticity of streamflow is positive, change of streamflow can be defined by the proportional change in a climatic variable such as precipitation and temperature. Elasticity of streamflow to precipitation and elasticity of RDOC to precipitation were estimated in the present, and we also analyzed the variation of elasticity in the future using climate change scenarios, RCP 8.5/ 4.5. Mean streamflow elasticity is 1.655, and mean RDOC elasticity is 1.983. RDOC is more sensitive to precipitation change than streamflow. The variation of RDOC is directly proportion to precipitation in all scenarios, but the Load of RDOC is dependent on precipitation as well as others. There is a need for additional correlation analysis between RDOC and other factors for accurate prediction.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.427-434
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• 2013

The leachate from landfill (Andong city) contaminated by foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) contains 44%-50% hydrophilic organic matter, compared with 22%-27% in natural water bodies such as ground water, lake water, and river water. In such natural water, the organic matter content is reduced by the metabolism of microbes in the water. However, in the case of leachate-1 and -2, the concentrations of RTOC (refractory total organic carbon) and RDOC (refractory dissolved organic carbon) were higher than the initial TOC and DOC after burial. According to time elapsed after burial, the concentrations of RTOC and RDOC were decreased below the initial TOC and DOC. In the case of leachate-6 (386 days after burial), RDOC made up 91% of RTOC. This result shows that organic matter in the leachate was composed dominantly of RDOM, most of which was not removed by the metabolism of microbes. Hence, the presence and characteristics of RDOM provide a valuable indication of the effect of leachate on the quality of surface water and ground water. Such information is useful in understanding leachate environments.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.538-550
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• 2012

This study suggests a general methodology which is designed for assessing RDOC behavior at the catchment scale by coupling properly a series of steam flow and water quality simulation models and actual monitoring data set. The modified TANK model in which a river routing function is incorporated to the conventional one is applied to simulate the long-term daily stream flow data, and the simulated stream flow data is combined with the 7-parameter log-linear model coupled to the minimum variance unbiased estimator to simulate the long-term daily water quality (BOD, COD and TOC) loads. Finally, the regression analysis between the usually monitored water quality data (BOD, COD and TOC) and RDOC is combined with the simulated water quality data to manifest the spatio-temporal variability of RDOC flux behavior at the Korean TMDL catchment scale.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2023

In this study, the relationship between organic carbon distribution characteristics and decomposition rate classified according to the particle size and biological degradation characteristics in water was investigated for the Nam river and Geumho river. The average concentrations of TOC in the Nam river and Geumho river were 2.7±1.2 mg/L and 5.0±1.2 mg/L, respectively, but the composition ratios for each type of organic carbon were similar. An average value of 80.9% of TOC was present as DOC and 72.8% of DOC consisted of Refractory-DOC (RDOC). In addition, the change in the RDOC composition ratio according to temporal and spatial distribution was the smallest. There was no difference in the decomposition rate of organic carbon except for TOC by the site (p≥0.108, one-way ANOVA), and the decomposition rates of Labile-POC (LPOC) and LDOC were similar at 0.139±0.102 and 0.137±0.149 day^-1, respectively (p=0.110, paired t-test). The coefficient of variation (CV) of the decomposition rate of DOC (average 8.1%), which had the smallest composition ratio of organic carbon, was 1.1, showing the largest temporal variation. The TOC, POC, and DOC decomposition rates showed a significant correlation with the ratio of the initial concentration to the concentration after 25 days of decomposition (OC₂₅/OC₀) (r²=0.89~0.94, p<0.001), and the decomposition rates of LPOC and LDOC were significantly correlated with the ratio of the initial concentration to the concentration after 5 days of decomposition (LOC₅/LOC₀) (r²=0.67~0.75). This suggests that it is possible to estimate the decomposition rate through the concentration of each type of organic carbon.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.36-44
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• 2010

This study was performed to investigate the distribution and decomposition characteristics of organic matter in stream water and sewage effluent located in Gwangju. Average of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to total organic carbon (TOC) ratio was approximately 73.9% in the Youngsan river system. The concentration of refractory dossolved carbon (RDOC) was 3.7 mg/L corresponding to 80.9% of the DOC. The ratio of recalcitrant organic carbon was relatively higher than that of biodegradable organic carbon in stream. Oxidation efficiencies in the stream were 45.0% for BOD, 63.0% for $COD_{Mn}$ and 106.5% for CODcr. In case of sewage effluent was 33.6%, 65.7% and 136.1% respectively. Mean decomposition rate ($K_d$) of Youngsan river mainstream, its tributary sites and sewage effluent were about $0.042\;day^{-1}$, $0.043\;day^{-1}$ and $0.028\;day^{-1}$, respectively and the difference was not significant between the mainstream and its tributary sites (t-test, p>0.05). $K_d$ of the sewage effluent was lower than that of stream water.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.580-586
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• 2017

The fractionation characteristics of organic matter were investigated in inflow and effluent of each other pollution sources and river. While the DOC/TOC ratio in the influent of public sewage treatment plant and livestock disposal facilities was above 0.58, the POC/TOC ratio of human livestock Night soil treatment plant and stormwater runoff was more than 0.7. The TOC removal efficiency of public sewage treatment plant and human livestock Night soil treatment plant were 88.5 % and 99.6 %, respectively. Although the concentration distribution of organic matter pollution most of total organic carbon (TOC) in effluent of pollution sources accounted for dissolved organic carbon (DOC) type (DOC/TOC ratio >0.89) and Refractory-DOC (RDOC)/TOC ratio was higher (>0.65). The fractionation characteristics of organic matter in river were similar with that of sewage treatment plant and TOC concentration showed the positive correlation with DOC ($r^2=0.93$) and RDOC ($r^2=0.89$) concentration. The decay rate of Labile DOC (LDOC) (avg. $0.128day^{-1}$) was higher than labile particulate organic carbon (LPOC) ($0.082day^{-1}$), while that of DOC ($0.008day^{-1}$) was lower than POC ($0.039day^{-1}$) (paired t-test, p < 0.001, n = 5). These study results suggested that it should consider important both TOC and DOC as the target indicator to control refractory organic matter in pollution sources.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.343-353
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• 2011

Variations of load in both DOM and RDOM of inflowing rivers to lakes were in the range of 5.01-7.29(${\times}10^2$ kg/day) for AD lake and 1.23-3.75(${\times}10^3$ kg/day) for JY lake during the research period excluding the period directly affected by the strong rainy season and the monsoon and typhoon season. We observed a good relationship($R^2$ > 0.8) between SS load and DOM load (including RDOM) in both inflowing rivers to JY lake. Therefore, it was determined that SS would be an alternative parameter with a rapid and energy-efficient method for the analysis of both DOC and RDOC, which require the analytical equipment and a long time period. Both AD lake and JY lake may act as a DOM(including RDOM) source through primary production in the fall season. Because AD lake and JY lake may not act as a DOM buffer zone, both lakes couldn't control the DOM and RDOM in spring before the rainy season. Therefore to improve water quality in downstream rivers is needed to remove pollutants such as DOM and RDOM before inflowing to these lakes in upstream rivers, or to have the unique landscape of wetlands as a buffer zone.