• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.93-111
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• 2005

Defining soil quality in scopes and applications is one of the prerequisite for the sustainable management of soil environment to orient researches, strategies and policies. However, definition of soil quality is controversial depending upon a viewpoint of soil science or soil environment. Soil quality can be, irrespective of the disciplines, defined as the capacity of a soil to function within ecosystem boundaries to sustain biological productivity, maintain environmental quality and promote plant and animal health. Common to all of the soil quality concepts can be summarized as the capacity of soil to function effectively at present and in the future. The OECD includes soil quality as one of the agri-environment indicators. This article intends to i) summarize the current soil quality research, and ii) provide information on protocol of soil quality assessment. A framework for soil quality was divided into three steps: indicator selection as minimum data set (MDS), scoring of the selected indicators, and integration of scores into soil quality index. Korean government suggested possible physical and chemical indicators such as bulk density and organic matter for paddy and upland soils to OECD. The framework of soil quality assessment is not yet implemented in Korea. Countries such as USA, Canada and New Zealand have constructed the framework on soil quality assessment and developed a user-friendly version of soil quality assessment tools to evaluate the integrated effects of various soil management practices. The protocol provided in this review might help policymakers, scientists, and administrators improve awareness about soil quality and understand the way of soil environment management.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.70-79
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• 2000

Arbuscular mycorrhizal(AM) fungi have significant role for ecosystem structure and function. They are the major component of forest soil ecosystems and critically important for water and nutrient cycling in the system. To understand the ecology of AM fungi the fungal spores were collected, identified and counted in forest soils under various climatic and edaphic conditions. In relation to soil depth 90% of AM fungi spores and mycorrhizas distributed within 15cm soil depth. Number of spores per $100m{\ell}$ forest soil volume was 5 to 36 spores from 1 to 3 fungal species. AM fungal species diversity was higher in warmer climates, and more moist and fertile soils. The most frequently found species were Gigaspora decipiens irrespective of soil moisture and Gi. gigantea irrespective of soil fertility. In the Jeju island the soils of Cryptomeria japonica plantations and Miscanthus sinensis var. purpurascens meadow had more AM spores than the other soils. We suggest AM fungi be considered as keystones species when restoring a disturbed forest ecosystem.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.41-41
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• 1995

In order to discuss the differences among the SMP(Surface Moisture Availability Parameter), by previous researchers on the basis of their own theoretical and empirical background, we assessed the SMP according to the soil types and volumetric soil water contents. The results are as follows. There are differences among all the five SMAPs. There''s a tendency that the larger grain size, the higher value of parameters. And they divided into two groups for their value: one group has parameters with exponential function and the other with cosine and linear function. The maximum difference between the two groups appears when the volumetric soil water contents are 0.07$m^3m^{-3}$ for sand, 0.l1$m^3m^{-3}$ for loam, 0.12 for clay, and 0.13$m^3m^{-3}$ for silt loam. So, these differences must be considered when we estimate the surface evaporation rate. From field data, the paddy field soil around Junam reservoir is classified as a silt has high wetness, 0.56. So, the parameter obtained from the field measurement is much higher than that of Clapp and Hornberger(1978)''s Table. This study treated the SMP for a certain point of time in winter season. But if we measured the soil water contents continuously, we could obtain better time-dependent parameter.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.237-241
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• 2005

The physical and chemical characteristics of soils in a small watershed were investigated and the effect of geology and land use on soil quality were examined by using multivariate statistical methods, principal components analysis and discriminant analysis. It was considered that the accumulation of salts in the farmland soils indicated by electrical conductivity, contents of cations and anions and pH was caused by fertilizer input during cultivation. The contents of inorganic components are increased as following order: upland > orchard > paddy field > forest. The results of two discriminant analyses using water extractable inorganic components and their ratios by land use were also clearly classified by discriminant function 1 and 2. In discriminant analysis by components, discriminant function 1 indicated the effect of fertilizer application and increased as following order: upland > orchard > paddy field > forest soil.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2013

Water distribution pipes installed underground have potential risks of pipe failure and burst. After years of use, pipe walls tend to be corroded due to aggressive soil environments where they are located. The present study aims to assess the degree of external corrosion of a distribution pipe network. In situ data obtained through test pit excavation and direct sampling are carefully collated and assessed. A statistical approach is useful to predict severity of pipe corrosion at present and in future. First, criteria functions defined by discriminant function analysis are formulated to judge whether the pipes are seriously corroded. Data utilized in the analyses are those related to soil property, i.e., soil resistivity, pH, water content, and chloride ion. Secondly, corrosion factors that significantly affect pipe wall pitting (vertical) and spread (horizontal) on the pipe surface are identified with a view to quantifying a degree of the pipe corrosion. Finally, a most reliable model represented in the form of a multiple regression equation is developed for this purpose. From these analyses, it can be concluded that our proposed model is effective to predict the severity and rate of pipe corrosion utilizing selected factors that reflect the fuzzy soil environment.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.599-614
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• 2022

In this study, the reliability analysis of internal and external stabilities of Reinforced Soil Walls (RSWs) under static and seismic loads are investigated so that it can help the geotechnical engineers to perform the design more realistically. The effect of various variables such as angle of internal soil friction, soil specific gravity, tensile strength of the reinforcements, base friction, surcharge load and finally horizontal earthquake acceleration are examined assuming the variables uncertainties. Also, the correlation coefficient impact between variables, sensitivity analysis, mean change, coefficient of variation and type of probability distribution function were evaluated. In this research, external stability (sliding, overturning and bearing capacity) and internal stability (tensile rupture and pull out) in both static and seismic conditions were investigated. Results of this study indicated sliding as the predominant failure mode in the external stability and reinforcing rupture in the internal stability. First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) are applied to estimate the reliability index (or failure probability) and results are validated using the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) method. The results showed among all variables, the internal friction angle and horizontal earthquake acceleration have dominant impact on the both reinforced soil wall internal and external stabilities limit states. Also, the type of probability distribution function affects the reliability index significantly and coefficient of variation of internal friction angle has the greatest influence in the static and seismic limits states compared to the other variables.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.81-87
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• 2005

Ethaboxam[(RS)-N-(a-cyano-2-thenyl)-4-ethyl-2-(ethylamino)-1,3-thiazole-5-carboximide] is a novel fungicide with high level of activity against Oomycetes fungi. The control effects of ethaboxam technical and various ethaboxam formulations were investigated against P. brassicae, the causal agent of clubroot disease in Chinese cabbage. When ethaboxam was applied to infested soil, club formation caused by P. brassicae was strongly inhibited at 8.33 mg/L soil and $EC_{50}$ of ethaboxam was 2.65 mg/L soil. Five ethaboxam formulations [10% suspension concentrate (SC), 15% SC, 2% granule (GR), 5% GR, 25% wettable powder] and mixture formulation of ethaboxam and metalaxyl (3%+1% GR) exhibited good efficacy against the pathogen. 10% SC, 15% SC, and 2% GR formulations of ethaboxam showed better disease controlling efficacy on Chinese cabbage clubroot than the other formulations. The $EC_{50}$ values of 10% SC, 15% SC, and 2% GR formulations of ethaboxam were 3.72 mg AI/L soil, 1.1 mg AI/L soil, and 4.95 mg AI/L soil, respectively. Among them, soil drenching application by 15% SC formulation of ethaboxam exhibited the most in vivo antifungal activity on P. brassicae. These results indicate that ethaboxam has a high potential for the control of clubroot disease.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.44-44
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• 2003

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.93-104
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• 2011

In this paper, a numerical procedure of probabilistic steady seepage analysis that considers the spatial variability of soil permeability is presented. The procedure extends the deterministic analysis based on the finite element method to a probabilistic approach that accounts for the uncertainties and spatial variation of the soil permeability. Two-dimensional random fields are generated based on a Karhunen-Lo$\grave{e}$ve expansion in a fashion consistent with a specified marginal distribution function and an autocorrelation function. A Monte Carlo simulation is then used to determine the statistical response based on the random fields. A series of analyses were performed to verify the application potential of the proposed method and to study the effects of uncertainty due to the spatial heterogeneity on the seepage behavior of soil foundation beneath water retaining structure with a single sheet pile wall. The results showed that the probabilistic framework can be used to efficiently consider the various flow patterns caused by the spatial variability of the soil permeability in seepage assessment for a soil foundation beneath water retaining structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.99-101
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• 2003

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity models have been widely used for the numerical modeling of water flow and contaminant transport in soils. In this study, a simple hydraulic conductivity model is developed by using information of particle-size distribution from the lognormal distribution model and its results are compared with those from the Kosugi-Mualem (KM) model. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified for observed data chosen from the international UNSODA database. Results showed that the proposed model produces adequate predictions of hydraulic conductivities. Performance of this model is generally better than the KM function.