• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.112-127
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• 2017

Groundwater accounts for more than 10% of the total water supply in Korea. However, the contribution of groundwater to public water supply systems has been poorly played role throughout the country except for Jeju Island. Compared with the groundwater uses in foreign countries, the pattern of groundwater use in Korea seems to be very deformed and unreasonable. Currently, the development and use of groundwater in Korea are mostly carried out by the individuals, and public sectors such as central and local governments are not actively involved in such activities. Private groundwater use and management will continue to cause groundwater depletion and pollution problems. It is necessary to actively enhance the role of public authorities in groundwater managements by engaging precise hydrogeological surveys and proper economic evaluation in the development and operation of groundwater sources. Also, in order to solve the problems that public water supply systems overly rely on the surface water sources, it is necessary to take policies that require the water supply companies to secure a variety of water sources.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.467-476
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• 2013

With increasing interest in environmental issues and the quality of surface water becoming inadequate for water supply, the Korean government has launched a groundwater development policy to satisfy the demand for clean water. To drive this policy effectively, it is essential to guarantee the accuracy of sustainable groundwater yield and groundwater use amount. In this study, groundwater use was monitored over several years at various locations in Korea (32 cities/counties in 5 provinces) to obtain accurate groundwater use data. Statistical analysis of the results was performed as a method for estimating rational groundwater use. For the case of groundwater use for living purposes, we classified the cities/counties into three regional types (urban, rural, and urban-rural complex) and divided the groundwater facilities into five types (domestic use, apartment housing, small-scale water supply, schools, and businesses) according to use. For the case of agricultural use, we defined three regional types based on rainfall intensity (average rainfall, below-average rainfall, and above-average rainfall) and the facilities into six types (rice farming, dry-field farming, floriculture, livestock-cows, livestock-pigs, and livestock-chickens). Finally, we developed groundwater-use estimation equations for each region and use type, using cluster analysis and regression model analysis of the monitoring data. The results will enhance the reliability of national groundwater statistics.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.78-91
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• 2007

The groundwater chemistry is heavily influenced by land use. This study has investigated the groundwater quality and contamination characteristic associated with land use. Contamination index ($C_d$) was estimated for evaluating and areal distribution of groundwater contamination degree. Groundwater samples collected from 216 locations in the study area show great variability in chemical composition. Electrical conductance ranges from 100 to $31,360\;{\mu}S/cm$. The pH values are between 4.6 (acidic) and 8.57 (weak alkaline). The water types predominantly represent the $Ca-HCO_3$ and $Ca-Na-HCO_3$ types, whereas, in the residential and business areas, the water type is shifted to (Na, Ca)-Cl type with rich concentration of Cl. The $C_d$ values of the study area range from 1.1 to 117.6 with a mean of 9.56.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.70-76
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• 2005

It is expected that use of groundwater wells for contaminated groundwater remediation, artificial groundwater recharge and geothermal heat pump systems is increasing in the future in Korea. Some practical confusions may be produced due to lack of regulations related to permits and registrations of these types of wells. This short note is intended to draw attention of relevant professionals by shortly introducing some relevant code of state regulations in Missouri, USA.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.609-623
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• 2013

Fluctuation patterns of groundwater level as a factor that reflects the characteristics of groundwater system can be categorized as the various types of aquifer with the time-series data. Time-series data on groundwater level obtained from 115 monitoring wells in Jeju Island were classified according to variation types, which were largely affected by rainfall(Dr), rainfall and pumping(Drp), and unknown cause(De). Analysis results indicate that 106 wells belong to Dr and Drp and the ratio of the wells with the wide range of fluctuation in the western and northern regions was higher than that in the eastern and southern regions. From the results that Drp is relatively higher than Dr in the western region which has the largest agricultural areas, groundwater level fluctuations may be affected significantly due to the intensive agricultural use. Non-parametric trend analysis results for 115 monitoring wells show that the increasing and decreasing trends as the ratio of groundwater levels were 14.8% and 22.6%, respectively, and groundwater levels revealed to be increased in the western, southern and northern regions excluding eastern region. Results of correlation analysis that cross-correlation coefficients and the time lags in the eastern and western regions are relatively high and short, respectively, indicate that the rainfall recharge effect in these regions is relatively larger due to the gentle slope of topography compared to that in the southern and northern regions.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.517-526
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• 2018

As groundwater recharge shows the heterogeneity in space and time due to land use and soil types, estimating daily recharge by integrated hydrologic analysis is needed. In this work, the SWAT-MODFLOW model was applied to compute daily based groundwater recharge in Jangseong region. The accuracy of the model was evaluated by comparing the observed and calculated values of the unsteady groundwater flow levels after calibrating the observed and calculated flow rates of the stream for a hydrological analysis. The estimated hydrologic components showed a strong correlation with each other and significant spatial variations regarding the groundwater recharge rate in accordance with the heterogeneous watershed characteristics such as subbasin slope, land use, and soil type. Overall, it was concluded that the coupled hydrologic models were capable of simulating the spatial variation with respect to the hydrologic component process in surface water and groundwater. The average recharge rate was estimated at approximately 20.8%.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.471-480
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• 2015

Hydrologic component analysis was conducted to investigate water budget characteristics the Oedocheon watershed, Jeju Island. For this purpose, integrated SWAT-MODFLOW model was applied to this watershed for continuous surface water-groundwater modeling. Pasture and forest-deciduous are the major land use types and these affect general hydrologic component ratio. The spatio-temporal groundwater recharge can be obtained from SWAT and then distributed groundwater recharge can be reproduced by MODFLOW. The groundwater level variation was simulated with distributed groundwater pumping data. The water budget in this watershed was compared with the previous estimated result by Jeju-Do(2013). As this result considered discharge to the coastal side, the discrepancy was found. However, it was found that the overall tendency of both analyses were similar.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 1999

$^{15}N$-Isotope concentrations of groundwater from l4 wells with different land-use types in Kyonggi Province were measured to investigate the nitrate contamination sources. Water samples were collected monthly from January to December 1997 and analyzed for pH. PC, anions (fluoride, chloride, nitrate, sulfate, inorganic phosphate, and bicarbonate), and canons (calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium). For the analysis of the $^{15}N/^{14}N$ ratio as ${\delta}^{15}N$, $N_2$ samples were prepared through Kjeldahl-Rittenberg method and were analyzed using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (VG Optima IRMS). Reproducibility of the method and precision of the IRMS were below 1.0‰ and 0.1‰, respectively. The ionic composition of each groundwater sample was only slightly different according to the land-use type. The nitrate concentrations of groundwater in cropland or livestock farming areas were higher than those in the residential area. The percentages of nitrate to total anions of groundwater samples from the livestock farming area were higher than those of other areas. The ${\delta}^{15}N$ values of ammonium sulfate, urea, groundwater sample in the non-contaminated area, and water from the animal manure septic tank were -2.7, 1.4, 5.5, and 27.2‰, respectively. Based on the ${\delta}^{15}N$ values, the sources of nitrate could be classified as originated from chemical fertilizers with ${\delta}^{15}N$ values below 5% and as from animal manure or municipal waste with ${\delta}^{15}N$ values over 10‰. In most cases, contamination sources investigated from ${\delta}^{15}N$ values of groundwater samples were correlated with the specific sources according to the land-use types. However, some ${\delta}^{15}N$ values did not matched the apparent land-use types, and there were seasonal variations of ${\delta}^{15}N$ values within the same well. These results suggest that the groundwater quality was affected by two or more contamination sources and the contribution of each source to the groundwater quality varied depending on the sampling season.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.472-472
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• 2004

Numerous studies on urban groundwater have been carried out in many other countries. Urban groundwater shows a unique hydrologic system because of complex urban characteristics such as road pavement, sewers and public water supply systems. These urban facilities may change the characteristics of groundwater recharge but contaminate its quality as well. There have been several researches on urban groundwater in Seoul. Seoul has been industrialized very rapidly so that the city has large population. The recent population in Seoul amounts to more than ten millions, corresponding to a very high density of about 17, 000 people/km$^2$. Therefore, many factors affect the groundwater quality and quantity in Seoul. Nowadays, groundwater in Seoul is being extracted for construction, industrial use, and drinking and so on. There are 15, 714 wells in Seoul and its annual usage is 41, 425, 977m$^3$(in 2001). Therefore, systematic studies are needed to properly manage and use the groundwater in Seoul. The purposes of this study in progress are to identify geochemical characteristics of groundwater in Seoul and to determine the extent of groundwater contamination and its relationship with urban characteristics. For this study, groundwater was sampled from more than 400 preexisting wells that were randomly selected throughout the Seoul area. For all samples, major cations together with Si, Al, Fe, Pb, Hg For 200 samples among them, TCE, PCE, BTEX were also analyzed by GC. Our study shows that groundwater types of Seoul are distributed broadly from Ca-HCO$_3$ type to Ca-Cl＋NO$_3$ type. The latter type indicates anthropogenic contamination. Among cations, Ca is generally high in most samples. In some samples, Na and K are dominant. The dominant anions change widely from HCO$_3$ to Cl＋NO$_3$. The anion composition is considered to effectively indicate the contribution of distinct anthropogenic sources. In addition, major ions are positively proportional to total dissolved solid (TDS) except K and NO$_3$. Thus, we consider that TDS may be used as an effective indicator of the extent of pollution. However, the increase of TDS may result from increased water-rock interaction. To determine the extent of groundwater contamination, it is needed to figure out the baseline water quality in Seoul. Furthermore, detailed geochemical studies are required to find out pollution sources and their corresponding hydrochemical parameters.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.61-75
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• 2022

This study evaluated the potential threat of agricultural and human activities to groundwater in the Noseong stream watershed, a typical agricultural area, through hydrogeochemical characteristics and microbial community analyses. The groundwater in the study area was Ca-SO₄ and Ca-HCO₃ types alluvial aquifer mainly used for agricultural and living purposes, and contained high levels of NO₃^- and Cl^- ions generated from anthropogenic sources such as fertilizer, livestock wastewater, and domestic sewage. Proteobacteria was most abundant in all samples with an average of 46.1% while Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria were dominant on an occasional basis. The prevalence of aerobic bacteria such as the genus Mycobacterium, Flavobacterium, and Sphingomonas suggests that groundwater was well connected with the surface layer. The potential pathogen Mycobacterium was detected in most samples, and other pathogenic bacteria were also widely distributed, indicating the vulnerability to contamination. Therefore, an integrated management system is required to secure the sustainable use of groundwater in agricultural areas with high groundwater dependence.