• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.109-123
• /
• 2014

Kaloula borealis is the species of Amphibia which belongs to Kaloula genus and it is the only species inhabiting in Korea. The population size and habitat of Kaloula borealis have been significantly decreased on a national scale due to the diversified developments and the uses of agricultural pesticides. Accordingly, the Ministry of Environment has designated and managed them as the class II of endangered species, in accordance with "Endangered Species Protection and Management Act"; however, a particular study focused on the ecological restoration of Kaloula borealis is desperately needed to prevent their extinction. This study was conducted to propose the HSI (Habit Suitability Index) of Kaloula borealis based on literature survey on ecology and habitats of Kaloula borealis, as well as their HSI. Factors to be investigated in HSI include: space, feed, cover, water(breeding) and threatening factors and the variables of each factor were also proposed. The distance from wetland, grassland, farm, stream and rice paddy, as well as the altitude of spawning pond were proposed as the variables of space, whereas the bed structure of forest and low-rise grassland were proposed as the variables of feeding. The variables of water (breeding) include the area of permanent and temporary wetlands, coverage of emerged pants (ratio of open water), water depth, water temperature, water quality, pH level, etc., whereas the presence of predator, distance from street and pollutants were proposed as the variables of threatening factor. The sub-standards by HSI factor of Kaloula borealis have been drawn from in-depth consultation with experts and based on this, the final HSI of Kaloula borealis was developed.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.132-139
• /
• 2010

To manage the effluent nutrients amounts from rice paddy fields using free range ducks or rice bran, we evaluated the effects of a purifying paddy field which is no fertilizer, no pesticides, and dense rice seedling having a concept of constructed wetland. The experimental paddy field was located at downstream in the watershed of ducks using rice culture area in Milyang. The purifying paddy of land design were treated with seeding method, and vegetation type. As land design, direct seeding on plane, and direct seeding on high-ridge field in 2007. Planting rice only, and planting rice with water hyacinth were treated as vegetation type in purifying paddy in 2008. The purifying paddy fields were effective to reduce amount of T-N and T-P contents in effluent to 33.2~45.3%, and 53.1~55.4%, respectively. The direct seeding on high-ridge treatment, having long residence time of effluent water was more effective than plane plot as T-N 0.29 $g^{-1}m^{-2}d^{-1}$, and T-P 0.031 $g^{-1}m^{-2}d^{-1}$. The planting rice with water hyacinth treatment was effective than planting rice only as T-N 0.23 $g^{-1}m^{-2}d^{-1}$, and T-P 0.049 $g^{-1}m^{-2}d^{-1}$. The optimum area of purifying paddy field to treats all effluent were found out 3.2~4.7% of rice culture area using free range ducks, and rice bran at upper stream.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.649-664
• /
• 2012

The grid cell analysis is used to select good sites as habitats at the region. The northern area of Yeongjong Island, Incheon has been disturbing by habitat loss due to human activities such as residential development, deforestation. In order to determine significant places as bird habitats and to select conservation areas at this island, the study area was divided into 70 grid cells($500{\times}500m$ each grid) and then each grid was ranked by spatial analysis using the species diversity index. Fieldwork was carried out in Spring and Autumn of 2010. To examine grid cells which were ranked high in both seasons in common, we used the average ranking value, combined data from two seasons. This area consists of mainly agricultural areas and forests(more than 68%) among eight habitat types: the agricultural land, forest, coast, lake, meadow, stream, city and other things. A total of 110 species was recorded: 4,183 birds of 102 species in Spring and 3,326 birds of 58 species in Autumn. In other words, the number of individuals and species was higher in Spring than in Autumn. Species diversity index presented the highest value at M8 grid cell in Spring(3.380) and at A4 gird cell in Autumn(2.736). In 18 of 22 grid cells where the average ranking value was higher than 3, the forest was distributed and in 4 grid cells, the coast and wetland were widely distributed, in which theses were located apart from human-associated disturbances such as construction works for a leisure complex. Our results present a new estimate method not only to minimize loss of bird habitats but also to conserve important habitats when the large-scale development takes place at particular region.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Environment and Ecology Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.105-126
• /
• 2003

In Korea most of annual rainfall is concentrated in several episodic heavy rains during the season of summer monsoon and typhoon. Because of uneven rainfall distribution many dams have been constructed in order to secure water supply in dry seasons. The Han River system has the most dams among Korean rivers, and the river is a series of dams now. Reservoirs need different strategy of water quality control from river water. Autochthonous organic matter and phosphorus should be the major target to be controlled in lakes. In this Paper some problems are discussed that makes efforts of water quality improvement ineffective in lakes of Korea, even after the substantial investment to wastewater treatment facilities.1) Phosphorus is the key factor controlling eutrophication of lakes and the reduction ofphosphors should be the major target of water treatment. However, water quality management strategy in Korea is still stream-oriented, and focused on BOD removal from sewage. Phosphorus removal efficiency remains as low as 10-30%, because biological treatment is adopted for both secondary treatment and advanced treatment. The standard for TP concentration of the sewage treatment plant effluent is 6 mgP/l in most of regions, and 2 mg/l in enforced region near metropolitan water intake point. TP in the effluents of sewage treatment plants are usually 1-2 mg/1, and most of plants meet the effluent regulation without a further phosphorus removal process. The generous TP standard for effluents discourages further efforts to improve phosphorus removal efficiency of sewage treatment. Considering that TP standard for the effluent is below 0.1 mg/l in some countries, it should be amended to below 0.1 mg/l in Korea, especially in the watershed of large lakes.2) Urban runoff and combined sewer overflow are not treated, even though their total loading into lakes can be comparable to municipal sewage discharges on dry days. Chemical coagulation and rapid settling might be the solution to urban runoff in regard of intermittent operation on only rainy days.3) Aggregated precipitation in Korea that is concentrated on several episodic heavyrains per year causes a large amount of nonpoint source pollution loading into lakes. It makes the treatment of nonpoint source discharge by methods of other countries of even rain pattern, such as retention pond or artificial wetland, impractical in Korea.4) The application rate of fertilizers in Korea is ten times as high as the average ofOECD countries. The total manure discharge from animal farming is thought to be over the capacity of soil treatment in Korea. Even though large portion of manure is composted for organic fertilizer, a lot of nutrients and organic matter emanates from organic compost. The reduction of application rate and discharge rate of phosphorus from agricultural fields should be encouraged by incentives and regulations.5) There is a lot of vegetable fields with high slopes in the upstream region of the HanRiver. Soil erosion is severe due to high slopes, and fertilizer is discharged in the form of adsorbed phosphorus on clay surface. The reduction of soil erosion in the upland area should be the major preventive policy for eutrophication. Uplands of high slope must be recovered to forest, and eroded gullies should be reformed into grass-buffered natural streams which are wider and resistant to bank erosion.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.45 no.6
• /
• pp.617-629
• /
• 2012

The land use map of the Nakdong River watershed was classified by each land use contents and analyzed to rank the risk of soil loss and erosion. Also, the soil loss and erosion was evaluated in the Nakdong River watershed using Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and the subbasin with high risk of soil loss was evaluated with the analysis results of land use contents. Finally, the analyzed results were also compared with the landslide risk map, hence the practical application methods using developed and analyzed results were considered in this study. As a result of land use analysis and RUSLE calculation, it was represented that the Naesung Stream watershed had the high risk for soil loss among the subbasins of the Nakdong River watershed. It was also presented that the high risk area identified by computation of RUSLE was corresponding to the landslide risk area. However, the high risk of soil erosion by land use near the river or wetland was confirmed only through the calculation results of RUSLE.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.97-111
• /
• 2021

This study was conducted to develop a habitat type classification system and its map based on the ecological characteristics of species, spatial type, vegetation, topography, and geological conditions preferred by species. To evaluate the relationships between species and their habitats in Korean national parks, we prepared a classification standard table for systematic classification of habitat types. This classification system divides habitats into 6 low-level and 59 mid-level ecological classes based on habitat structure. The mid-level system divided forest ecosystems into 20 subtypes, stream and wetland ecosystems into 8 types, coastal ecosystems into 7 types, arable land into 6 types, development land into 9 types, and 1 type of marine ecosystem. A habitat classification map was drawn utilizing square images, detailed vegetation maps, and forest stand maps, based on the above habitat classification system, and it covered 1,461 plots spanning 21 national parks. The habitat classification system and survey protocol, which consider domestic habitat conditions, should be further developed and applied to habitat assessment, to enhance the utility of this study.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.201-213
• /
• 2007

In this study, the Batter Assessment Science Integrating point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS 3.0)/window interface to Hydrological Simulation Program-FPRTRAN (WinHSPF) was applied for assessment of Soyang Dam watershed. WinHSPF calibration was performed using monitoring data from 2000 to 2004 to simulate stream flow. Water quality (water temperature, DO, BOD, nitrate, total organic nitrogen, total nitrogen, total organic phosphorus and total phosphorus) was calibrated. Calibration results for dry-days and wet-days simulation were reasonably matched with observed data in stream flow, temperature, DO, BOD and nutrient simulation. Some deviation in the model results were caused by the lack of measured watershed data, hydraulic structure data and meteorological data. It was found that most of pollutant loading was contributed by nonpoint source pollution showing about $98.6%{\sim}99.0%$. The WinHSPF BMPRAC was applied to evaluate the water quality improvement. These scenarios included constructed wetland for controlling nonpoint source poilution and wet detention pond. The results illustrated that reasonably reduced pollutant loadin. Overall, BASINS/WinHSPF was found to be applicable and can be a powerful tool in pollutant loading and BMP efficiency estimation from the watershed.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.676-683
• /
• 2016

This study was conducted using the Wild -Tracker (WT-300, GPS-Mobile Phone Based Telemetry KoEco) to understand the habitats of the spot-billed duck wintering in urban and rural areas and provide the results as the basic data for the protection and management of the habitats of the waterbirds in Korea. Study areas consisted of the Anseong stream in Gyeonggi-do and the Sansu reservoir in Haenam. Five spot-billed ducks were captured by region, and we attached Wild-Tracker to each of the spot-billed ducks. We analyzed the tracking location data using ArcGIS 9.x and calculated Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) and Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP). The average home-range measured by MCP was $250.8km^2$(SD=195.3, n=5) in Anseong and was $89.1km^2$ (SD=69.6, n=5) in Haenam. 50% home-range measured by KDE was $21.8km^2$ (SD=26.9, n=5) in Anseong and $3.5km^2$ (SD=2.2, n=5) in Haenam, indicating a narrow home range in Haenam. During the winter season, both wetland and paddy field were mostly used as habitats in Anseong and Haenam. While the paddy field utilization rate was high in the daytime in Haenam, it was high in the nighttime in Anseong. By late winter, Haenam's day time paddy field utilization rate and Anseong's night time paddy field utilization rate increased.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.39 no.5
• /
• pp.321-327
• /
• 2006

In Korea, there is a growing competitive for water resources between industrial, domestic and agricultural consumer, and the environment as many other OECD countries. The demand on water use is also affecting aquatic ecosystems particularly where withdrawals are in excess of minimum environmental needs for rivers, lakes and wetland habits. OECD developed three indicators related to water use by the agriculture in above contexts : the first is a water use intensity indicator, which is expressed as the quantity or share of agricultural water use in total national water utilization; the second is a water stress indicator, which is expressed as the proportion of rivers (in length) subject to diversion or regulation for irrigation without reserving a minimum of limiting reference flow; and the third is a water use efficiency indicator designated as the technical and the economic efficiency. These indicators have different meanings in the aspect of water resource conservation and sustainable water use. So, it will be more significant that the indicators should reflect the intrinsic meanings of them. The problem is that the aspect of an overall water flow in the agro-ecosystem and recycling of water use not considered in the assessment of agricultural water use needed for calculation of these water use indicators. Namely, regional or meteorological characteristics and site-specific farming practices were not considered in the calculation of these indicators. In this paper, we tried to calculate water use indicators suggested in OECD and to modify some other indicators considering our situation because water use pattern and water cycling in Korea where paddy rice farming is dominant in the monsoon region are quite different from those of semi-arid regions. In the calculation of water use intensity, we excluded the amount of water restored through the ground from the total agricultural water use because a large amount of water supplied to the farm was discharged into the stream or the ground water. The resultant water use intensity was 22.9% in 2001. As for water stress indicator, Korea has not defined nor monitored reference levels of minimum flow rate for rivers subject to diversion of water for irrigation. So, we calculated the water stress indicator in a different way from OECD method. The water stress indicator was calculated using data on the degree of water storage in agricultural water reservoirs because 87% of water for irrigation was taken from the agricultural water reservoirs. Water use technical efficiency was calculated as the reverse of the ratio of irrigation water to a standard water requirement of the paddy rice. The efficiency in 2001 was better than in 1990 and 1998. As for the economic efficiency for water use, we think that there are a lot of things to be taken into considerations to make a useful indicator to reflect socio-economic values of agricultural products resulted from the water use. Conclusively, site-specific, regional or meteorogical characteristics as in Korea were not considered in the calculation of water use indicators by methods suggested in OECD(Volume 3, 2001). So, it is needed to develop a new indicators for the indicators to be more widely applicable in the world.