• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.525-536
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• 2014

In this study, a method to assess and monitor hydrological drought using remote sensing was investigated for use in regions with limited observation data, and was applied to the Upper Namhangang basin in South Korea, which was seriously affected by the 2008-2009 drought. Drought information may be obtained more easily from meteorological data based on water balance than hydrological data that are hard to estimate. Air temperature data at 2 m above ground level (AGL) were estimated using remotely sensed data, evapotranspiration was estimated from the air temperature, and the correlations between precipitation minus evapotranspiration (P-PET) and streamflow percentiles were examined. Land Surface Temperature data with $1{\times}1km$ spatial resolution as well as Atmospheric Profile data with $5{\times}5km$ spatial resolution from MODIS sensor on board Aqua satellite were used to estimate monthly maximum and minimum air temperature in South Korea. Evapotranspiration was estimated from the maximum and minimum air temperature using the Hargreaves method and the estimates were compared to existing data of the University of Montana based on Penman-Monteith method showing smaller coefficient of determination values but smaller error values. Precipitation was obtained from TRMM monthly rainfall data, and the correlations of 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month P-PET percentiles with streamflow percentiles were analyzed for the Upper Namhan-gang basin in South Korea. The 1-month P-PET percentile during JJA (r = 0.89, tau = 0.71) and SON (r = 0.63, tau = 0.47) in the Upper Namhan-gang basin are highly correlated with the streamflow percentile with 95% confidence level. Since the effect of precipitation in the basin is especially high, the correlation between evapotranspiration percentile and streamflow percentile is positive. These results indicate that remote sensing-based P-PET estimates can be used for the assessment and monitoring of hydrological drought. The high spatial resolution estimates can be used in the decision-making process to minimize the adverse impacts of hydrological drought and to establish differentiated measures coping with drought.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.737-748
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• 2022

Due to the lack of flood data, the water engineering practice calculates the design flood using rainfall frequency analysis and rainfall-runoff model. However, the rainfall frequency analysis for arbitrary duration does not reflect the regional characteristics of the duration and amount of storm event. This study proposed a practical method to calculate the design flood in a watershed considering the characteristics of storm event, based on the bivariate rainfall frequency analysis. After extracting independent storm events for the Pyeongchang River basin and the upper Namhangang River basin, we performed the bivariate rainfall frequency analysis to determine the design storm events of various return periods, and calculated the design floods using the HEC-1 model. We compared the design floods based on the bivariate rainfall frequency analysis (DF_BRFA) with those estimated by the flood frequency analysis (DF_FFA), and those estimated by the HEC-1 with the univariate rainfall frequency analysis (DF_URFA). In the case of the Pyeongchang River basin, except for the 100-year flood, the average error of the DF_BRFA was 11.6%, which was the closest to the DF_FFA. In the case of the Namhangang River basin, the average error of the DF_BRFA was about 10%, which was the most similar to the DF_FFA. As the return period increased, the DF_URFA was calculated to be much larger than the DF_FFA, whereas the BRFA produced smaller average error in the design flood than the URFA. When the proposed method is used to calculate design flood in an ungauged watershed, it is expected that the estimated design flood might be close to the actual DF_FFA. Thus, the design of the hydrological structures and water resource plans can be carried out economically and reasonably.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.849-858
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• 2014

The mount of antecedent 5-day rainfall (P5) is usually used to determine the antecedent soil moisture condition for estimating effective rainfall using the NRCS-CN method. In order to re-establish the threshold of P5 considering basin characteristics, this study investigated the sensitivity of the threshold of P5 to effective rainfall by comparing the corresponding observed direct runoff. The overall results indicate that the direct runoff estimated using the re-establihed threshold of P5 has smaller mean error (RMSE of 27.3 mm) than those using the conventional threshold (RMSE of 35.2 mm). In addition, after evaluating the effectiveness of threshold of P5 using the improvement index, the threshold re-established in this study improved the ability to estimate the direct runoff by 30% on average. This study also suggested to employ regression models using topographic indices to re-establish the threshold for ungauged basins. When using the re-established threshold from the regression model, the RMSE decreased ranging from 0.4 mm to 15.1 mm and the efficiency index of Nash and Sutcliffe increased up to 0.33.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.315-330
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• 2000

The GIUH (Geomorphologic Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph) is to be applied to the ungauged or insufficiently gauged basins. For tIris purpose, an accurate estimation of the charactenstlc velocity is one very important part, but any proper method for this has not been developed yet. In case that we have enough rainfall and runoff clata, the estimation of the characteristic velocity may be an easy job, but it is out of the purpose of the GIUH. Remindmg that the purpose of GIUH the characterisbc veloclty should be estimated based on the geomorpholog1c analysis and also be snnple for easy apphcation. In tIris research analysis cmd application of the GruH was given to several sub-basins in Wi-stream river basin, Gono, Donggok and Hyoryung. After deriving the characteristic velocity througn a optimizatlOn process with real data, it is compared w1th several velOCIties der1ved from geOlnoI1Jhoclimatic instantaneous unit hydrograph theory and several other concentration time formulae. The estimated charactenstic velocities using Kerby, Kim, KInematic Wave, and Brasby- Williams formulae found to g1ve the appropriate results. Hmvever, as the Kerby, and the Kinematic Wave require user's decision of the IvIanning's n value, the K1m and the Braby-Williams seem to be more applicable and recommended as characteristic velocity formula.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.395-405
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• 2021

When issuing forecasts and alerts for agricultural drought, the relevant ministries only rely on the observation data from the reservoirs managed by the Korea Rural Community Corporation, which creates gaps between the drought analysis results at the local (si/gun) governments and the droughts actually experienced by local residents. Closing these gaps requires detailed local geoinformation on reservoirs, which in turn requires the information on reservoirs managed by local governments across Korea. However, installing water level and flow measurement equipment at all of the reservoirs would not be reasonable in terms of operation and cost effectiveness, and an alternate approach is required to efficiently generate information. In light of the above, this study validates and calibrates the parameters of the TANK model for reservoir basins, divided them into groups based on the characteristics of different basins, and applies the grouped parameters to unmeasured local government reservoirs to estimate and assess inflow. The findings show that the average determinant coefficient and the NSE of the group using rice paddies and inclinations are 0.63 and 0.62, respectively, indicating better results compared with the basin area and effective storage factors (determinant coefficient: 0.49, NSE: 0.47). The findings indicate the possibility of utilizing the information regarding unmeasured reservoirs managed by local governments.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.589-597
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• 2016

In this study, we investigated the use of satellite-derived flow (SDF) signals and a data-based model for the estimation of outflow for the river reach where in situ measurements are either completely unavailable or are difficult to access for hydraulic and hydrology analysis such as the upper basin of Imjin River. It has been demonstrated by many studies that the SDF signals can be used as the river width estimates and the correlation between SDF signals and river width is related to the shape of cross sections. To extract the nonlinear relationship between SDF signals and river outflow, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model with SDF signals as its inputs were applied for the computation of flow discharge at Imjin Bridge located in Imjin River. 15 pixels were considered to extract SDF signals and Partial Mutual Information (PMI) algorithm was applied to identify the most relevant input variables among 150 candidate SDF signals (including 0~10 day lagged observations). The estimated discharges by ANN model were compared with the measured ones at Imjin Bridge gauging station and correlation coefficients of the training and validation were 0.86 and 0.72, respectively. It was found that if the 1 day previous discharge at Imjin bridge is considered as an input variable for ANN model, the correlation coefficients were improved to 0.90 and 0.83, respectively. Based on the results in this study, SDF signals along with some local measured data can play an useful role in river flow estimation and especially in flood forecasting for data-scarce regions as it can simulate the peak discharge and peak time of flood events with satisfactory accuracy.