• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.75-89
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• 2012

This study attempted to analyze statistical characteristics of historical drought of Korea through trend, periodicity and drought spell analysis by using the drought indices. Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) were calculated using weather data of 59 weather stations under Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). As a result of analysis, SP13 and SP16 showed trend of drier spring, drier winter and wetter summer in all basin of Korea. However, SPI12 and PDSI showed different trends with shorter duration drought indices. In case of wavelet transform analysis for drought periodicities, in a band of 1~2 years or below 6 years showed significant spectrum. SP13 showed strongest power spectrum near the band of 1~2 year variance, and SPI12 and PDSI showed 6 years periodicities. The results from drought spell showed that Nakdong River Basin, Geum River Basin and Youngsan River Basin were appeared as severe drought vulnerable area of Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.145-157
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• 2015

In 2015, drought was at the worst stage of devastation in Soyanggang Dam watershed. The purpose of this study is to trace the drought area around Soyanggang dam watershed by using Terra MODIS image because it has the ability of spatio-temporal dynamics. The MODIS indices, which included the enhanced vegetation index (NDVI), were extracted from MODIS product MOD13 16-day composite datasets with a spatial resolution of 250m from 2010.01.01 to 2015.06.30. We found that application of Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and Standardized Vegetation Index (SVI) was suitable for monitoring the drought area. The result can be used to acquire the drought data scattered and demonstrate the potential for the use of MODIS data for temporal and spatial detection of drought effects.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.115-125
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• 2020

Background: The phenomenon of tree dieback in forest ecosystems around the world, which is known to be associated with high temperatures that occur simultaneously with drought, has received much attention. Korea is experiencing a rapid rise in temperature relative to other regions. Particularly in the growth of evergreen conifers, temperature increases in winter and spring can have great influence. In recent years, there have been reports of group dieback of Pinus densiflora trees in Korea, and many studies are being conducted to identify the causes. However, research on techniques to diagnose and monitor drought stress in forest ecosystems on local and regional scales has been lacking. Results: In this study, we developed and evaluated an index to identify drought and high-temperature vulnerability in Pinus densiflora forests. We found the Drought Stress Index (DSI) that we developed to be effective in generally assessing the drought-reactive physiology of trees. During 2001-2016, in Korea, we refined the index and produced DSI data from a 1 × 1-km unit grid spanning the entire country. We found that the DSI data correlated with the event data of Pinus densiflora mass dieback compiled in this study. The average DSI value at times of occurrence of Pinus densiflora group dieback was 0.6, which was notably higher than during times of nonoccurrence. Conclusions: Our combination of the Standard Precipitation Index and growing degree days evolved and short- and long-term effects into a new index by which we found meaningful results using dieback event data. Topographical and biological factors and climate data should be considered to improve the DSI. This study serves as the first step in developing an even more robust index to monitor the vulnerability of forest ecosystems in Korea.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.231-238
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• 2017

Water supply safety index plays an important role on assessing the water supply capacity of hydrologic system. Due to the absence of consistent guidance, however, practical problems have been brought up on data period used for dam design and performance evaluation. Therefore, this study employed bivariate drought frequency analysis which is able to consider drought severity and duration simultaneously, in order to evaluate water supply capacity of multi-purpose dams. Drought characteristics were analyzed based on the probabilistic approach, and water supply capacity of five multi-purpose dams in Korea (Soyang River, Chungju, Andong, Daecheong, Seomjin River) were evaluated under the specific drought conditions. As a result, it would be possible to have stable water supply with their own inflow during summer and fall, whereas water shortage would occur even under the 1-year return period drought event during spring and winter due to low rainfall.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.241-249
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• 2023

Background: This study analyzed the drought responses of five forest tree species grown in Korean peninsula, Korean fir Abies koreana (Ak), eastern white pine Pinus strobus (Ps), keyaki Zelkova serrata (Zs), tulip tree Liriodendron tulipifera (Lt), and Japanese elm Ulmus japonica (Uj). Physiological (chlorophyll, root collar diameter [RCD]) and biochemical responses (non-structural carbohydrates, proline, lipid peroxidase and abscisic acid [ABA]) of the plants grown under mild (MD) and severe drought (SD) were compared. Results: In this study, three soil moisture regimes: control (100% precipitation), MD (60% reduction in precipitation) and SD (20% reduction in precipitation) were applied. Soil moisture content showed high water content in control site compared to MD and SD. A decline in RCD was found for Korean fir, keyaki, and tulip plants, with eastern white pine and Japanese elm showing no significant decline to the prolonged drought exposure (both MD and SD). Total chlorophyll showed a significant decline in Korean fir and tulip, with the sugar levels indicating a significant increase in Korean fir and keyaki species under SD compared to control plants. Non-significant decline in sugar level was noted for eastern white pine and Japanese elm. High accumulation of ABA, malondealdehyde and proline was noted in Korean fir, tulip, and keyaki under SD compared to control. Signs of tree mortality was only observed in Korean fir under MD (38%) and SD (43%). Conclusions: The observed findings indicate the drought responses of five tree species. The majority of the morpho-physiological (especially mortality) and biochemical variables assessed in our study indicate superior long-term drought resistance of Ps and Uj compared to the highly sensitive Ak, and moderately sensitive Lt and Zs. The results provided will help species selection for afforestation programs and establishment of sustainable forests, especially of drought-tolerant species, under increased frequency and intensity of spring and summer droughts.

• Atmosphere
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.67-78
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• 2009

A strong negative correlation has been detected between the North Pacific Oscillation Index (NPI) and the Effective Drought Index (EDI) in May over Korea. In May of positive NPI year, anomalous patterns caused a drought in Korea as follows: the anomalous south-low, north-high low-level pressure patterns in the northeast and southeast of Korea have strengthened the anomalous northerlies to Korea. In addition, these anomalous northerlies have prevented western North Pacific (WNP) high from moving northward. As a result, anomalous descending flows have strengthened in the mid-latitude region in East Asia. In the WNP, the anomalous south-high, north-low sea surface temperature (SST) has been widely distributed, which has strengthened anomalous south-low, north-high low-level pressure patterns. These anomalous characteristics of pressure and SST patterns observed in May of positive NPI years have already been detected in previous winter (December-February) and early spring (March, April). In addition, the anomalous negative sea ice concentration in the North Pacific during two seasons has strengthened the anomalous anticyclonic circulation in the same region and in turn made a contribution to formation of anomalous south-low, north-high pressure patterns in May.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.481-492
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• 2002

The severity and spatial Patterns of spring drought on the croplands arc investigated using satellite imagery(Landsat ETM+). It is necessary to analyze the area droughty conditions in order to decrease the damage and make the efficient policies. In this context, the information about soil moisture levels, which were fatal factors to the crop growth, was acquired from wetness calculated from Tasseled cap transformation. We confirmed that the wetness values have a strong correlation with NDVI and the principal components. The result showed that the intensity of vegetation covering the surface could be understood as the index of the impacts of drought on croplands and these relationships were effective to classify dry areas in satellite imagery.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.477-484
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• 2021

Due to climate change, parts of Korea are experiencing large and small droughts every 2-3 years and extreme droughts every 7 years. Since most droughts occur mainly in areas where small water supply facilities in the tributaries or upstream are located, more research on technology for securing water in these areas is required. In this study, a drought evaluation using SPEI (Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index), SDI (Streamflow Drought Index), and WBDI (Water Budget-based Drought Index) was performed to investigate hydrological drought in the Mulrocheon watershed of Chuncheon, a vulnerable area in terms of water supply. As a result of calculating hydrological drought indices SPEI and SDI, examining each duration, it was confirmed that the common drought in 2014 did not recover and continued until 2015. In the hydrological drought index evaluation result by WBDI, a very severe drought condition was observed in the spring of 2015 following 2014, and that drought was the most severe at -1.94 in November 2017. As a result of deriving a SDF (Severity-Duration-Frequency) curve through frequency analysis by duration using the drought index calculated on a monthly basis from 2003 to 2019 (17 years), most droughts in the Mulrocheon watershed were found to have a return period of less than 10 years, but droughts that occurred in 2014, 2015, and 2019 were found to cover more than 20 years, respectively.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.769-777
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• 2021

This study investigated the change of the achievement rate of the target water quality conditioned on the occurrence of severe drought, to assess the effects of meteorological drought on the water quality management in the Nakdong River basin. Using three drought indices with difference time scales such as 30-, 60-, 90-day, i.e., SPI30, SPI60, SPI90, and three water quality indicators such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total organic carbon (TOC), and total phosphorus (T-P), we first analyzed the relationship between severe drought occurrence water quality change in mid-sized watersheds, and identified the watersheds in which water quality was highly affected by severe drought. The Bayesian network models were constructed for the watersheds to probabilistically assess the relationship between severe drought and water quality management. Among 22 mid-sized watersheds in the Nakdong River basin, four watersheds, such as #2005, #2018, #2021, and #2022, had high environmental vulnerability to severe drought. In addition, severe drought affected spring and fall water quality in the watershed #2021, summer water quality in the #2005, and winter water quality in the #2022. The causal relationship between drought and water quality management is usufaul in proactive drought management.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 2017

The objective of this study was to analyze the temporal and spatial characteristics of agricultural drought by tracking the daily reservoir storage in Chungnam province. All daily records of the percent of reservoir storage from 2000 to 2015 were collected for 130 irrigation reservoirs from the RIMS (Rural Infrastructure Management System). The temporal change of province-wide average reservoir storage and the statistics showed that the annual average and minimum percent of reservoir storage in 2015 were extremely low like as those in the historical drought years of 2001 and 2012. The minimum reservoir storage on record was a 41 % at the end of September and remained far less than its historical average even until the end of the year. Furthermore, the annual average reservoir storage (68.3 %) recorded the lowest on record since 2000. In addition, about half of 130 major irrigation reservoirs in Chungnam fell into the risk of water shortage below 30 % full, and, in terms of annual minimum reservoir storage, the 79 reservoirs yielded lower storage in 2015 comparing with the measured in another drought year, 2001. On the other hand, irrigation reservoirs of comparatively worse storage condition revealed to be mostly located on the inside, such as Cheongyang-gun and Hongsung-gun. Conclusively, the low reservoir storage, still far below average even on December 2015, induced a serious concern about that more extreme drought would happen in the next spring.