• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.29-36
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• 2017

Universal soil loss equation (USLE) has been frequently employed to estimate potential soil loss in land since it was developed based on the statewide data measured and collected in the United States. The equation is an empirical model mainly used for U.S. soil, thus it has been recently modified to reflect Korean soil conditions and named as Korean Soil Loss Equation (KORSLE). The modified equation was implemented in ArcGIS software, and used for estimation of potential soil loss from 2003 to 2016 in the thirty-eight Water Protection Districts. Five out of the thirty-eight districts were identified as the area of potential soil erosion most severly. In those five districts, potential soil erosion were estimated to be more than 50 Mg/ha/year that requires site investigation under supervision of the Korean Ministry of Environment. Distinctive site characteristics were found in the potential soil loss estimation such that the districts of low potential soil loss had low five factors in the aggregate. However, if one of more factors are dominantly large, the potential soil loss significantly increased. This study provides a useful tool to identify the potential areas for soil erosion and the important factors that play an important role in the estimation process.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.665-676
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• 2018

Interrill erosion on a hillslope results from the combined action of the detachment of soil particles by raindrop impact and the sediment transport of surface runoff. This study newly defined the rainfall power which detaches soil particles and the sheet-flow power contributed to sediment transport in terms of energy expenditure rate of soil erosion and presented the effective power equation for interrill erosion by rainfall-induced sheet flow. The rainfall and sheet-flow power was evaluated by factors related with rainfall, slope, and runoff and coefficients of the power equation were analyzed based on references. Futhermore it was confirmed that the relative scales between the rainfall power and the sheet-flow power according to rainfall intensity reflect on the hydrological response and physical process of interrill erosion. From application of the field data for surface runoff and soil erosion it was verified that the rainfall and sheet-flow power is an appropriate equation to estimate a interrill erosion.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.113-125
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• 2000

This study was carried out to introduce current status and development strategy for an environmental restoration of stream side in Japan, and to consider a methodology which could be effectively applied for the environmental restoration of stream side in Korea. The strategy prospects of environmental restoration in Japan were summarized as follows : 1. When we establish the long term erosion control planning, we should make detail planning after considering of a certain block of watershed units. Because most of the disaster is caused by soil movement which was occurred by water contents. 2. Nowadays, the general torrent erosion control planning system in Japan focused on reducing the sediment such as by placement of erosion control facility and by restoration of afforestation, after calculation of several factors including expected amount of sediment, and the different amount of planned sediment and allowable sediment. 3. In the past, the goal of forest conservation and erosion control planing was to fix the amount of soil movement by construction of permanent facilities. While, the goal of forest conservation and erosion control planning in the future needs to change the techniques to a small and middle scale's soil movement which could prevent soil movement from large scale of soil disasters, but allow soil movement effectively. Also, it is considered to change erosion control dams from non passing type to passing type. 4. Restoration of stream-side ecology, erosion control for the conservation of ecology should be planned and conducted cautiously based on concepts of ecology conservation and development of environmentally sound techniques.

• Proceedings of the Korean Quaternary Association Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.7-11
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• 2005

The soil erosion processes have estimated using spatial distribution of 137Cs radionuclide in Granite and Sedimentary Hillslopes in South Korea. The local variability of 137Cs inventory indicates that was related positively to organic matter content, clay content and water content and negatively to hydraulic permeability and slope gradient for bulk samples in different landforms within Granite and Sedimentary rock basins. The vertical variability of 137Cs inventory shows that most of 137Cs concentration and organic matter were accumulated between 0 and 2cms and gradually decrease with soil depth in incremental samples in both basins. The vertical variability of 137Cs inventories shows that 137Csinventories increase as we go to toward downslope in both basins. Finally, the soil loss values indicate that hillslope erosion processes are more intensive in Granite rock basin than those in Sedimentary rock basin.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1004-1009
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• 2011

Soil erosion in North Korea has been continued to accelerate by deterioration of topographical conditions. However, few studies have been conducted to predict the amount of soil loss in North Korea due to limited data so far. Rainfall erosivity is an important factor to predict the amount of long-term annual soil loss by USLE (universal soil loss equation). The purpose of this study is to investigate rainfall erosivity, which presented the potential risk of soil erosion by water, in North Korea. Annual rainfall erosivities for 27 stations in North Korea for 1983~2010 were calculated using regression models based on modified Institute of Agricultural Sciences (IAS) index in this study. The result showed that annual average rainfall erosivity in North Korea ranged from 2,249 to 7,526 and averaged value was $4,947MJmm\;ha^{-1}\;hr^{-1}\;yr^{-1}$, which corresponded to about 70% of annual average rainfall erosivity in South Korea. The finding was that the potential risk of soil erosion in North Korea has been accelerated by the increase of rainfall erosivity since the late 1990s.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2006

Changes in the soil physical property and the topographic condition derived from agricultural activities like as farming activities, land clearance and cutting down resulted in environmental and economic problems including the outflow of nutrient from farms and the water pollution. Several theories on the soil conservation have been developed and reviewed to protect soil erosion in the regions having a high risk of erosion. This study was done using the USLE model developed by Wischmeier and Smith (1978), and model for the slope length and steepness made by Desmet and Govers (1996), and Nearing (1997) to evaluate the potential of the soil erodibility. Therefore, several results were obtained as follows. First, factors affecting the soil erosion based on the USLE could be extracted to examine the erosion potential in farms. Soil erodibility (K), slope length (L), and slope steepness (S) were used as main factors in the USLE in consideration of the soil, not by the land use or land cover. Second, the soil erodibility increased in paddy soils where it is low in soil content, and the very fine sandy loam exists. Analysis of the slope length showed that the value of a flat ground was 1, and the maximum value was 9.17 appearing on the steep mountain. Soil erodibility showed positive relationship to a slope. Third, the potential soil erodibility index (PSEI) showed that it is high in the PSEI of the areas of steep upland and orchard on the slope of mountainous region around Dokjigol mountain, Dunji mountain, and Deummit mountain. And the PSEI in the same land cover was different depending on the slope rather than on the physical properties in soil. Forth, the analysis of land suitability in soil erosion explained that study area had 3,672.35ha showing the suitable land, 390.88ha for the proper land, and 216.54ha for the unsuitable land. For unsuitable land, 8.71ha and 6.29ha were shown in fallow uplands and single cropping uplands, respectively.

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.57-70
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• 2015

Recently, soil erosion have been thickening from heavy rainfall according to climate change. These soil erosion is main reason to cause landslide, the water quality, agricultural counterproductivity and so on. Therefore, it is important to find out the main source area to cause soil erosion using geospatial data including DEM, soil map and land cover those are very sensitive to soil erosion modeling. This study evaluated soil erosion using RUSLE model. Hyoja 4-Dong and Pyonghwa 2-Dong among Wansan-Gu showed high as 10,869 ton/yr and 10,477 ton/yr respectively and Ua 2-Dong of Deokjin-Gu showed high as 17,603 ton/yr in soil erosion. And Hyoja 1-Dong and Pyonghwa 1-Dong among Wansan-Gu showed high as $1,485.7ton/km^2$ and $1,297.0ton/km^2$ respectively and Inhu 3-Dong of Deokjin-Gu showed high as $2,557.7ton/km^2$ in unit soil erosion that was applied to the evaluation of soil erosion potential. It is anticipated that achievement of this study can apply to forecast and prepare the risk of soil erosion and debris flow in urban area.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.803-814
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• 2020

Managing erosion control dams requires the annual average sediment yield to determine their storage capacity and time to full sediment-fill and dredging. The GeoWEPP (Geo-spatial interface for Water Erosion Prediction Project) model can predict the annual average sediment yield from various land uses and vegetation covers at a watershed scale. This study assessed the GeoWEPP to determine the annual average sediment yield for managing erosion control dams by applying it to five erosion control dams and comparing the results with field observations using ground-based LiDAR (light detection and ranging). The modeling results showed some differences with the observed sediment yields. Therefore, GeoWEPP is not recommended to determine the annual average sediment yield for erosion control dams. Moreover, when using the GeoWEPP, the following is recommended :1) use the US WEPP climate files with similar latitude, elevation and precipitation modified with monthly average climate data in Korea and 2) use soil files based on forest soil maps in Korea. These methods resulted in GeoWEPP predictions and field observations of 0 and 63.3 Mg·yr-1 for the Gangneung, 142.3 and 331.2 Mg·yr-1 for the Bonghwa landslide, 102.0 and 107.8 Mg·yr-1 for the Bonghwa control, 294.7 and 115.0 Mg·yr-1 for the Chilgok forest fire, and 0 and 15.0 Mg·yr-1 for the Chilgok control watersheds. Application of the GeoWEPP in Korea requires 1) building a climate database fit for the WEPP using the meteorological data from Korea and 2) performing further studies on soil and streamside erosion to determine accurate parameter values for Korea.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.3B
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• pp.221-232
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• 2011

Applicability of three soil erosion models for burnt hillslopes was evaluated. The models were estimated with the data from plots established after tremendous wildfire occurred in the east coastal region. Soil erosion and surface runoff were simulated by the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) of application mode for disturbed forest areas and the Soil Erosion Model for Mountain Areas (SEMMA) developed for burnt hillslopes. Simulated sediment yield and surface runoff were compared with the measured those. In maximum value of sediment yield, three models was under-predicted and RUSLE and WEPP had difference of over two times. SEMMA showed the best model response coefficient, determination coefficient and the model efficiency. In application of models to the soil erosion according to the elapsed year after wildfire, all models were underestimated in initial stage disturbed by wildfire. Evaluation of models in this burnt hillslopes was shown the tends to under-predict soil erosion for larger measured values. Although a lot of sediment can be generated in small rainfall event as fine-grained soil of the high water repellency was exposed excessively right after wildfire, this under-prediction was shown that those models have a limit to estimate the weighted factors by wildfire.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.83-91
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• 2006

Recently, the intensive rainstorm possibly induced by global warming plays a key role on the instability of railway adjacent slopes. The instability of slopes results as covering and loss of railway lines induced by slided soil mass. According to the site investigation on the failed slopes triggered by rainfall, low types of slope failure were observed: shallow, intermediate, gully erosion, and soil-rock interface failures. The observation reveals the different characteristics of slope failure depending on the thickness of soil layer, morphological features of slope, etc. Based upon the observations, flume tests were conducted to analyze the sliding mechanism of each failure. The variables of flume test are soil layer thickness, rainfall intensity, and morphology of slope under the constant condition of the percentage of fine, initial soil moisture content, slope angle and compaction energy. Test results show that shallow failure was mostly observed from the surface of the slope and caused by the soil erosion; in addition, compared to the other types of failure, the occurrence of initial erosion is late, however, the development of erosion is fast. In gully erosion failure, the collected water from the water catchment area helps erosion of the upper soil layer and transfer of residual corestone, which impedes the erosion process once the upper soil layers are eroded and corestone are exposed. The soil-rock interface failure shows the most fast initial erosion process among the failure types. Interestingly, the common feature observed from the different types of failure was the occurrence of the initial deformation near the toe of slopes which implies the existence of surbsurface flow along the downslope direction.