• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.475-484
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• 2008

The word 'Saemangeum' indicates an estuarine tidal flat in the southwestern part of the Korean peninsula. The Saemangeum Reclamation Project was launched as a national project in 1991 to reclaim a large coastal area of $401\;km^2$ by constructing a 33-km long dyke. The final dyke enclosure in April 2006 has transformed the tidal flat into lake and land. An integrated oceanographic study has been conducted since 2002 as a part of the Government Action Plan to monitor and assess changes in the marine environment. Prior to the dyke enclosure, the coastal environment in the Saemangeum was a complex system governed by tidal motion, estuarine processes, and coastal circulation of the Yellow Sea. The dyke construction has radically changed not only the estuarine tidal system inside the dyke, but also the coastal marine environment outside the dyke. Post to the dyke enclosure, subsequent changes such as red tide, hypoxia, and coastal erosion/deposition occur successively. Red tides appear almost the year round in the inner area. Even under the condition that the sluice gates are fully open, the water quality does not improve as much as the developers would expect, mainly due to the critical reduction of the hydrodynamic stirring power. We will introduce details of our monitoring program and significant changes in the Saemangeum marine environment, based on observations and model results.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.369-383
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• 2006

The Saemangeum project is one of the biggest reclamation efforts in Korea and may cause coastal ecosystem change due to altered environments and habitat loss. Since February 2002, benthic environment and community structure in the Saemangeum studied area were studied to assess the influence of the project on macrofaunal community. The result of seasonal study from February, 2002 to August 2005 is reported here. Overall, changes of species numbers and dominant species of benthic animals in the periods before (1988) and after $(2002{\sim}2005)$ the Saemangeum dike construction were not evident both inside and outside the dike. However, local environmental and community change were noted The partial completion of Saemangeum dike $(4^{th}\;dike)$ in June 2003 altered water circulation and sediment deposition patterns both inside and outside the dike. Fine sediment was accumulated inside and outside the $4^{th}$ dike while coarse sediment dominated near the main channel (Sinsi gate). Benthic community resl)ended to the altered sediment type in these areas. Species number and diversity in both site was low compared to other sites. The dominant species in these areas were composed of the benthos that had not commonly occurred in the Saemangeum subtidal area.

• KCID journal
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.48-58
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• 2002

This study was carried out to investigate the changes of the tide velocity and direction during the construction of Saemangeum seadikes. Tide velocity and direction in the Saemangeum area were measured every year since the construction of Saemangeum seadi

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.509-518
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• 2008

Distribution of bacterial abundance and production was investigated in seawater around Saemangeum dike 7 times during March, $2007{\sim}July$, 2008. In the inner area of the dike, salinity variation was great due to river runoff from Mangyung and Dongjin Rivers and high chlorophyll a (chl a) concentrations up to $124.3{\mu}g\;l^{-1}$ was found. In the outer area of the dike, salinity was higher than in the inner area of the dike, and chl a was lower up to 10 times than in the inner area of the dike. Thus, the area of Saemangeum showed meso- to hypereutrophic conditions. Bacterial abundance and production ranged from 0.3 to $4.3{\times}10^9\;cells\;l^{-1}$ and from 5.2 to $570 pmol\;l^{-1}h^{-1}$ in outer area of the dike, respectively, while in the inner area of the dike bacterial abundance and production was 3 to 4 times higher ($0.4{\sim}12.7{\times}10^9\;cells\;l^{-1}$ and $12.3{\sim}1309\;pmol\;l^{-1}h^{-1}$, respectively) than those in the outer area. In both areas, bacterial abudance and production was highest in summer and lowest in winter. However, the variations of bacterial parameters was very large in each season. These large variations seemed to be related with the supply of organic matter. Bacterial abundance and production showed significant negative correlations with salinity in the inner area, suggesting that allochthonous organic matter input by river runoff could be an important factor in regulating the distribution of bacterial abundance and production. In addition, bacterial production also correlated positively with chl a in the inner area, suggesting that autochthonous substrate might be another regulating factor of bacterial growth in the area. These results suggest that the supply of both allochthonous organic substrates introduced by river runoff and autochthonous substrates produced by phytoplankon could be important in regulating bacterial growth and utilization of organic matter in the area. Thus, to manage water quality in the inner area of dike, it seems to be important to lower the load of both organic and inorganic nutrients from adjacent rivers.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.485-495
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• 2008

Tidal ranges of inner Saemangeum were largely reduced after the final dyke enclosure, resulting in the former tidal flats becoming either permanently exposed, still influenced by changing tide, or permanently submerged. The effect of reduced tidal range on survival and population stability of tidal flat macrofauna were investigated at three shifted habitats after the dyke completion. At the exposed area, several species survived for 80 days after the dyke enclosure. However, within 120 days, all macrofauna died off due to the elevated temperature during summer. At the intertidal area, some species were maintained until 170 days after the dyke enclosure with a large decrease of the faunal abundance. Species of the submerged area were seen to be more tolerant of the changed environments. The opportunistic species, such as Sinocorophium sinensis, Theora fragilis and Pseudopolydora Kempi, were massively introduced into the submerged area after the dyke enclosure, in which the benthic ecosystem was severely disturbed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.61-74
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• 2011

Based on the critical review of previous new village planning proposals in Saemangeum Farming Zone, this study tried to derive rational and realistic planning/design criteria for new villages firstly through home-and-abroad case studies analysis, interview works on farmers in two villages located in the existing reclaimed farming areas and influential zone analysis from neighborhood villages in old land. By applying these criteria(population structure, farming size, maximum distance between farmland and home, village site size, number of new villages planned) on Saemangeum Farming Zone, basic new village planning framework was proposed finally.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.353-360
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• 2006

A 33-km long sea dyke is being constructed in the Saemangeum area mid-west of Korea to reclaim a surface area of 40,100 ha which includes well-developed tidal flat and two river estuaries. The northern part of the dyke was closed on 10 June 2003, while the southern part was recently closed on 21 April 2006 by plugging two opening gaps of 2.7 km in length. In this study, firstly we review the outlines of key national projects which described marine environments in the Saemangeum area and secondly we present a summary of remarkable changes in marine environments after the closure of the northern dyke, based on marine environmental data collected during 2002-2005. Details in each discipline of the marine environments are presented both in other papers of this special volume and in a series of annual reports of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and fisheries.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.671-674
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• 2005

Atmospheric correction over the ocean part is more important than that over the land because the signal from the ocean is very small about one tenth of that reflected from land. In this study, the Spectral Shape Matching Method (SSMM) developed by Ahn and Shanmugam (2004) is evaluated using Landsat imagery acquired over the highly turbid Saemangeum Coastal Area. The result of SSMM is compared with COST model developed by Chavez (1991 and 1997). In principle, SSMM is simple and easy to implement on any satellite imagery, relying on both field and image properties. To assess the potential use of these methods, several field campaigns were conducted in the Saemangeum coastal area corresponding with Landsat-7 satellite's overpass on 29 May 2005. In-situ data collected from the coastal waters of Saemangeum using optical instruments (ASD field spectroradiometer) consists of ChI, Ap, SS, aooM, F(d). In order to perform SSMM, we use the in-situ water-leaving radiance spectra from clear oceanic waters to estimate the the path radiance from total signal recorded at the top of the atmosphere (TOA), due to the reason that the shape of clear water-leaving radiance spectra is nearly stable than turbid water-leaving radiance spectra. The retrieved water-leaving radiance after subtraction of path signal from TOA signal in this way is compared with that estimated by COST model. The result shows that SSMM enabled retrieval of water-leaving radiance spectra that are consistent with in-situ data obtained from Saemangeum coastal waters. The COST model yielded significantly high errors in these areas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.40-48
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• 2010

Saemangeum reclaimed area is needed to construct much green zone to make high-quality multi-functional land such as tide embankment, lake dike, industrial complex, environmental spaces, etc. However, growth of plants is somewhat difficult because a salinity of Saemangeum soil is very high and a soil fertility, water content of soil are low. Therefore, it is essential to initial desalination of soil and continuous management for planting base. It is recommended that a group of grassland to raise the efficiency of covering should be made in the first stage and a forest by improvement of vegetation should be made in the mid and long term stage. It is recommended that the construction of vegetation base should be made with a regular thickness of soil of good quality in multi-functional area such as a shrub and wood. In case of construction of a windbreak forest, it is necessary to make a wood base of suitable depth using soil brought from another place or filling of soil. Also, it is necessary to keep a maintenance of woods in early stage. Saemangeum reclaimed land will be brand-named worldwide tourist attractions due to construction of much green zone having high quality multi-functional facilities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.205-210
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• 2008

In recent years, the crisis of energy is growing seriously and also the contamination of ecology has been reverberated as international problem. The social concern about energy crisis has been growing for the last several years and also the interest in new and renewable energy has been increased. The probability of wind power resource over Saemangeum is reviewed with the data of Gunsan weather station. Through this study, it is cleared that the Saemangeum area has fluent wind power source to design the wind farm in Korea. According to calculation results, it is possible to predict the wind velocity density around the Saemangeum area using the shape factor as a parameter.