• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.5-15
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• 2014

Abandoned mine deposits are exposed to various physico-chemical geo-environmental hazards and disasters, such as acid mine drainage, water contamination, erosion, and landslides. This paper presents the ring shear characteristics of waste materials. The ring shear box with a rotatable O-ring was used in this study. Three tests were performed: (i) Shear stress-time relationship for given normal stress and shear speed, (ii) shear stress as a function of shear speed, and (iii) shear stress as a function of normal stress. For a given normal stress (50 kPa) and speed (0.1 mm/sec), the materials tested exhibit a strain softening behavior, regardless of drainage condition. The peak and residual shear stresses were determined for each normal stress and shear speed. The shear stress was measured when shear speed is equal to 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 50, 100 mm/sec or when normal stress is equal to 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 150 kPa. From the test results, we found that the shear stress increases with increasing shear speed. The shear stress also increases with increasing normal stress. However, different types of shearing mode were observed in drained and undrained conditions. Under drained condition, particle crushing was observed from the shearing zone to the bottom of lower ring. Under undrained condition, particle crushing was observed only at the shearing zone, which has approximately 1 cm thick. It means that a significant high shear speed under undrained condition can result in increased landslide hazard.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.265-277
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• 2019

Changes in the amount, intensity, frequency, and type of precipitation, in conjunction with global warming and climate change, critically impact groundwater recharge and associated groundwater level fluctuations. Monthly gravity levels by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) are acquired to monitor total water storage changes at regional and global scales. However, there are inherent difficulties in quantitatively relating the GRACE observations to groundwater level data due to the difficulties in spatially representing groundwater levels. Here three local interpolation methods (kriging, inverse distance weighted, and natural neighbor) were implemented to estimate the areal distribution of groundwater recharge changes in South Korea during the 2002-2016 period. The interpolated monthly groundwater recharge changes are compared with the GRACE-derived groundwater storage changes. There is a weak decrease in the groundwater recharge changes over time in both the GRACE observations and groundwater measurements, with the rate of groundwater recharge change exhibiting mean and median values of -0.01 and -0.02 cm/month, respectively.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2021

Objectives: Acute exposure to high concentrations of chemicals can occur when a chemical accident takes place. As such exposure can cause ongoing environmental pollution, such as in the soil and groundwater, there is a need for a tool that can assess health effects in the long term. The purpose of this study was assessing the health risks of residents living near a chemical accident site due to long-term exposure while considering the temporal concentration changes of the toxic chemicals leaked during the accident until their extinction in the environment using a multimedia environmental dynamics model. Methods: A health risk assessment was conducted on three cases of formaldehyde chemical accidents. In this study, health risk assessment was performed using a multimedia environmental dynamics model that considers the behavior of the atmosphere, soil, and water. In addition, the extinction period of formaldehyde in the environment was regarded as extinction in the environment when the concentration in the air and soil fell below the background concentration prior to the accident. The subjects of health risk assessment were classified into four groups according to age: 0-9 years old, 10-18 years old, 19-64 years old, and over 65 years old. Carcinogenic risk assessment by respiratory exposure and non-carcinogenic risk assessment by soil intake were conducted as well. Results: In the assessment of carcinogenic risk due to respiratory exposure, the excess carcinogenic risk did not exceed 1.0×10-6 in all three chemical accidents, so there was no health effect due to the formaldehyde chemical accident. As a result of the evaluation of non-carcinogenic risk due to soil intake, none of the three chemical accidents had a risk index of 1, so there was no health effect. For all three chemical accidents, the excess cancer risk and hazard index were the highest in the age group 0-9. Next, 10-18 years old, 65 years old or older, and 19-64 years old showed the highest risk. Conclusion: This study considers environmental changes after a chemical accident occurs and until the substance disappears from the environment. It also conducts a health risk assessment by reflecting the characteristics of the long-term persistence and concentration change over time. It is thought that it is of significance as a health risk assessment study reflecting the exposure characteristics of the accident substance for an actual chemical accident.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.76-89
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• 2018

The distribution of the combined heat and power system is active as a solution to the instability of energy supply and environmental pollution caused by continuous industrial development. In Korea, the safety standards for combined heat and power system using a gas engine are insufficient therefore the study on this is needed. In this study, the safety performance and structural/material assessment items of domestic and international standards applied to the combined heat and power system were analyzed to carry out a standardization study on safety performance applicable to 20 kW gas engine combined heat and power system. In addition, the safety performance assessment (plan) of the gas engine combined heat and power system was derived by performing risk analysis and risk assessment using HAZOP. Assessment items include engine ignition systems related to safety performance, piping tight performance, watering and temperature rise performance, combustion performance, electrical efficiency, thermal efficiency, overall efficiency and humidity performance. Gas and water pipes, gas control and shut-off valves, durability, heat resistance, and cold resistance of metal or non-metallic materials related to the structure and materials of the gas engine combined heat and power systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.82-93
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• 2019

The International Labor Organization (ILO) selected fishing as the most dangerous group of jobs in the world, and it is well known in Korea as a 4D industry. Offshore large purse seine accounts for the largest portion of the fishing industry in the coastal region with high death rate and the accident rate. The repeated disaster rate survey by the Korea Maritime Institute (KMI) shows offshore large purse seiner is the highest at 22.3 percent and coastal gill nets and offshore stow net are following at 12.4 percent and 11.9 percent in order. Therefore, risk factors occurring in offshore large purse seiners were analyzed based on data from the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives (NFFC) for three years from 2015 to 2017 and 4M (Man, Machine, Media, Management) 3E (Engineering, Education, Enforcement) techniques were used to provide a safe fishing environment. The number of accidents on offshore large purse seiners each year was more than 150, and the number of accidents on every fishing boats was as high as 17 percent in 2015. If the accident rate and the risk level were divided by insurance, the accident resulting from contact with machinery was the highest, and the risk of a contact with gear was low but frequently occurring. This was caused by collisions and contact with gear in situations where death and disappearance risk are not high, and accident types in situations where death and loss risk are considered to be contact with machinery, falls or other accidents. Through these analysis techniques, the frequency and risk of each type of accident on a offshore large purse seiners can be demonstrated, and it is expected to raise awareness of a safer fishing environment and contribute to the reduction of accidents.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.321-333
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• 2022

In this study, the concentration and distribution characteristics of BTEX (benzene toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) emitted from Daesan Petrochemical Industrial Complex were examined to determine their potential hazards to local residents. Residents living nearby the complex areas may be exposed to the chemicals through various media (air, water, and soil), especially by air. This study evaluated human health risks by inhalation using both deterministic and probabilistic risk assessment approaches. As a result of the deterministic risk assessment, the non-cancer risk was much lower than the regulation limit of hazard index (HI 1.0) for all the points. However, in case of cancer risk evaluation, it was found that the risk of excess cancer for benzene at point A located in the industrial complex was 2.28×10^-6, which slightly exceeded the standard regulatory limit of 1.0×10^-6. In addition, the probabilistic risk assessment revealed that the percentile exceeding the standard of 1.0×10^-6was found to be 45.3%. The sensitivity analysis showed that exposure time (ET) had the greatest impact on the results. Based on the risk assessment study, it implied that ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylene had little adverse effects on potential human exposure, but benzene often exceeded the cancer risk standard (1.0×10^-6). Further studies on extensive VOCs monitoring are needed to evaluate the potential risks of industrial complex areas.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.192-199
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• 2024

Wave overtopping is a significant natural hazard that occurs in coastal areas, primarily driven by high waves, particularly those generated during typhoons, which can cause coastal flooding. The development of residential and commercial areas along the coast, driven by increasing social and economic demands, has led to a concentration of people and assets in these vulnerable areas. This, coupled with long-term sea level rise and an increase in typhoon frequency, has heightened the risk of coastal hazards. Traditionally, the evaluation of wave overtopping volumes has relied on directly measuring the collected volume of water that exceeds the crest height of structures through hydraulic model experiments. These experiments are averaged over a specific measurement period. However, in this study, we propose a new method for estimating individual wave overtopping volumes. We utilize the temporal variation of wave overtopping heights to develop an observation system that can quantitatively assess wave overtopping volumes in actual coastal areas. To test our method, we conducted hydraulic model experiments on rubble mound breakwaters, which are commonly installed along the Korean coast. We introduce wave overtopping discharge coefficients, assuming that the inundation velocity from the structure's crest is the long-wave velocity. We then predict overtopping volumes based on wave overtopping heights and compare and review the results with experimental data. The findings of our study confirm the feasibility of estimating wave overtopping volumes by applying the overtopping discharge coefficients derived in this study to wave overtopping heights.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2024

Dangerous tasks that occur every day at industrial site manufacturing plants, which have recently been making rapid changes, were classified by type, and the effect of mobile circuit television (CCTV) on safety accidents among daily safety management methods was analyzed. The subject of the study is about 3,000 workers who manage the infrastructure facility sector to supply utilities such as gas, water, and electricity to the display manufacturing process located in Asan City, and the study was conducted based on the daily dangerous work from 2019 to 2022, and during this study period, many construction works such as new investment and expansion of construction and manufacturing processes were occurring at the site. As a result, the rate of safety accidents and exposure to risks are expanding, and most of the safety accidents occurred because the sectors that did not follow the basics and the safety measures on the site were not implemented. In this paper, it was confirmed that there is an accident reduction effect according to the relationship between the dangerous work classified according to the work importance and the mobile CCTV shooting rate. Considering the characteristics of the manufacturing plant site, it can be used to play the role of basic data for preventing safety accidents based on the expansion of the introduction of a new safety management culture in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.146-156
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• 2024

Background: Children who use playground facilities are exposed to potential risks due to the high concentration of heavy metals contained in the finishing materials of facilities in children's playgrounds. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the concentration of heavy metals in the finishing materials of outdoor children's playgrounds where harmful heavy metals exist in Gwangju and to conduct human risk assessment for children and adults by age to find the risks and limitations. Methods: The bottom and top layers of double-painted paint were peeled off and collected together from the finishing materials of children's play facilities such as slides, swings, and seesaws in 147 children's parks in Gwangju. Heavy metals were analyzed using ICP-OES, etc., and human risk assessment was performed using the concentrations of heavy metals. Results: Based on 1.0E-04, which requires legal regulation, CTE was found to pose a carcinogenic risk for preschool children and no carcinogenic risk for the rest of the age groups. However, RME showed that both men and women of all ages had a carcinogenic risk. For reference, when the carcinogenic risk was based on 1.0E-06, CTE was found to pose a carcinogenic risk from infants to elementary school students, and RME was found to have a carcinogenic risk in all age groups. It was judged that there is a non-carcinogenic risk if the non-carcinogenic risk exceeds 1 based on the hazard index (HI) 1. In CTE, there was no non-carcinogenic risk, and RME for preschooler males (1.49E+00) and females (1.56E+00) were found to have non-carcinogenic risk. Conclusions: This study was meaningful in that it examines the differences in the current management of heavy metals concentration standards and potential carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks to the human body and discusses the relationship between heavy metals and human health effects.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.411-429
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• 2018

Daeyoung mine (also called "Daema mine") produced gold and silver from mainly gold- and silver-bearing quartz veins. The mine tailings are a waste hazard, but most of the tailings were swept away or dispersed throughout the area around the mine long before the tailing dump areas were transformed into agricultural land. Soil liner and protection facilities, such as retaining walls, were constructed in the mine area to prevent the loss of tailings. The content of the tailings is 3,424.41~3,803.61 mg/kg, which exceeds the safety standard by a factor of 45. In addition, contamination was detected near agricultural areas and in the sediments in downstream drainage channels. A high level of As contamination was concentrated near the waste tailings yard; comparaable levels were detected in agricultural areas close to streams that ran through the waste dump yard, whereas the levels were much lower in areas far from the streams. The contamination in stream sediments showed a gradual decrease with distance from the mine waste yard. Based on these contamination patterns, we concluded that there are two main paths that affect the spread of contaminants: (1) loss of mine waste, and (2) the introduction of mine waste into agricultural areas by floods after transportation by streams. The agricultural areas contaminated by mass inflow of mine waste can act as contamination sources themselves, affecting other agricultural areas through the diffusion of contaminants. At present, although the measured effect in minimal, sediments in streams are contaminated by exposed mine waste and surface liners. It is possible for contaminants to diffuse or spread into nearby areas if heavy elements trapped in soil grains in contaminated agricultural areas leach out as soil solution or contaminant particles during diffusion into the water supply.