• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.543-555
• /
• 2015

The existing standard for soil erosion risk assessment has limitations in sustainable topsoil management since the fixed criteria are applied to determination of soil erosion risk areas regardless of land use types. It may not be necessary to apply soil erosion best management practices to agricultural areas with high potential of soil erosion because human or economic damage derived from soil erosion might be tiny in that region. Furthermore, the fixed criterion with absolute values can select too many hot spots of soil erosion to conduct efficient soil erosion management. Thus, objective of this study was to suggest the relative criteria using statistical analysis for efficient soil erosion management. In future, the relative indices for soil erosion prevention should be improved to provide a priority of soil erosion management considering economic damage from soil erosion or functional values of soil with quantitative soil erosion. Additional researches will be needed to reflect a regional characteristics and to consider various land use types and different criteria.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.693-699
• /
• 2015

It has been known that torrential rainfall events have been occurring worldwide due to climate change. The accelerated soil erosion has caused negative impacts on water quality and ecosystem of receiving waterbodies. Since soil security issues have been arising in various areas of the world, intensive interests have been given to topsoil management in Korea. Thus in this study, Web GIS-based computing system of physical, chemical, and biological topsoil quality indices were developed. In this study, five soil quality maps at national scale and top soil erosion potential were prepared for evaluation of soil quality based on soil erosion potential. For this system, the open source Web GIS engine, OpenGeo, was used as core engine of the system. With this system, decision makers or related personnel in areas of soil erosion Best Management Practices (BMPs) would be able to find the most appropriate soil erosion BMPs based on soil erosion potential and soil quality at the area of interest. The Web GIS system would be efficiently used in decision making processes because of ease-of-use interface and scientific data used in this system. This Web GIS system would be efficiently used because this system could provide scientific knowledge to decision makers or stakeholders. Currently various BMP database are being built to be used as a decision support system in topsoil management and topsoil quality areas.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.149-156
• /
• 2005

This study was conducted to elucidate the relationship between the aboveground vegetation structure and fine roots of the topsoil (<15m), and thereafter to obtain the regression models for the estimation of the fine roots of the topsoil using the aboveground vegetation values in the burned forest areas, Korea. The FRT (fine roots of the top soil) as well as the aboveground vegetation structure showed spatial variation in the earlier successional stages after forest fire. The fine roots (<2 mm) of the topsoil in the earlier successional stages than the first 3 year after forest fire showed the range from 3 to 166 g $DM/m^2$. The FRT in the naturally regenerated sites and planted sites after forest fire was closely correlated with the vegetation indices, especially lvc, representing the development status of the aboveground vegetation. The FRT in the terrace seeding work sites after forest fire was closely correlated with year elapsed after terrace seeding work. The FRT in the terrace seeding work sites showed the much higher values because of the vigorous growth of grass species than the other sites. In the naturally regenerated sites, the FRT showed the parabola form according to the increment of aboveground vegetation value (Ivc). Although the aboveground vegetation value (Ivc) showed a tendency to increase logarithmically during the secondary succession after forest fire, the estimated fine roots of the topsoil was depicted the parabola form showing the gradual increment until the first 15 years and slight decrease thereafter. Decrease of FRT in the later successional stage showing the high vegetation value may be caused by increment of the woody species contribution to the vegetation value (Ivc). Our results represented that the aboveground vegetation value (Ivc) can be used to the estimation of the fine roots of the topsoil in burned forest areas.