• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.258-269
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to establish a system to evaluate the ecological soundness of the Geum river basin. The study target area is 14 sub-watersheds of the Geum river basin. For the selection of indicators to ensure transparency and consistency of the evaluation indicators, the ecological soundness indicators were secured by using the indicator adjustment method derived in consideration of the intrinsic weight change characteristics between indicators. The index with the greatest impact on the final composite index was identified as the index of the aquatic ecology among the water quantity, water quality, aquatic ecology, and habitat-riparian environment dimensions. As a result of analyzing the ecological health index of the river, the watershed upstream of the dam (based on the Daecheong -dam) was evaluated to be in relatively good condition until 2014 compared to the base year(2008), and the watershed downstream of the dam was evaluated to be in a poor condition. The annual trend of changes in the ecological soundness index on an annual basis is as follows. In the case of Yongdamdam, Yongdamdamdownstream, Bocheong-chun, Daechungdam, Daechungdamdownstream, and Nonsancheon, although there are differences by time period, the soundness index is in declining. On the other hand, Mujunamdaecheon, Yeongdongcheon, and Gapcheon were evaluated to have improved soundness, while Chogang, Daechungdamupstream, Mihocheon, Gongjugeumgang, and Geumgangestuary were evaluated to deteriorate again after soundness was improved.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.955-968
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• 2021

A water resource plan is routinely based on a natural flow and can be estimated using observed streamflow data or a long-term continuous rainfall-runoff model. However, the watershed with the natural flow is very limited to the upstream area of the dam. In particular, for the ungauged watershed, a rainfall-runoff model is established for the gauged watershed, and the model is then applied to the ungauged watershed by transferring the associated parameters. In this study, the GR4J rainfall-runoff model is mainly used to regionalize the parameters that are estimated from the 14 dam watershed via an optimization process. In terms of optimizing the parameters, the Bayesian approach was applied to consider the uncertainty of parameters quantitatively, and a number of parameter samples obtained from the posterior distribution were used for the regionalization. Here, the relationship between the estimated parameters and the topographical factors was first identified, and the dependencies between them are effectively modeled by a Copula function approach to obtain the regionalized parameters. The predicted streamflow with the use of regionalized parameters showed a good agreement with that of the observed with a correlation of about 0.8. It was found that the proposed regionalized framework is able to effectively simulate streamflow for the ungauged watersheds by the use of the regionalized parameters, along with the associated uncertainty, informed by the basin characteristics.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.184-199
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• 2022

Freshwater soundness can be broadly divided into the health of river ecosystems and social services for human water use, that is, water welfare. In this study the ecological soundness and water welfare index of rivers were calculated, and the freshwater comprehensive soundness was analyzed using the quadrant model for 14 basins in the Geum River basin. As for the ecological soundness of the river, the area upstream of the dam (based on Daecheong Dam) was evaluated as 'good', and the area downstream of the dam was evaluated as 'bad'. On the other hand as for water welfare, the area downstream of the dam with a large population was in a relatively 'good' condition, and the area upstream of the dam had a relatively 'poor' level of water welfare. In terms of freshwater comprehensive soundness, it was found that the basins of Mujunamdaecheon, Bocheongcheon and Daecheongdam showed good ecological soundness and water welfare, and the Geumganggongju, Nonsancheon and Geumganhagueon basins were all poor. The Gapcheon basin showed good results in 2014 due to continuous investment and systematic management. Therefore, it is necessary to find ways to utilize it for other watersheds through benchmarking.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.320-329
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• 2022

Urban areas in watersheds increase the impervious surface, and agricultural areas deteriorate the water quality of rivers due to the use of fertilizers. As such, anthropogenic land use affects the type, intensity and quantity of land use and is closely related to the amount of substances and nutrients discharged to nearby streams. Riparian vegetation reduce the concentration of pollutants entering the watershed and mitigate the negative impacts of land use on rivers. This study analyzes the data through correlation analysis and regression analysis through point data measured twice a year in spring and autumn in 21 selected damaged tributary rivers within the Han River area, and then uses a structural equation model to determine the area land use. In the negative impact on water quality, the mitigation effect of riparian vegetation was estimated. As a result of the correlation analysis, the correlation between the agricultural area and water quality was stronger than that of the urban area, and the area ratio of riparian vegetation showed a negative correlation with water quality. As a result of the regression analysis, it was found that agricultural areas had a negative effect on water quality in all models, but the results were not statistically significant in the case of urban areas. As a result of the model estimated through the structural equation, BOD, COD, TN, and TP showed a mitigation effect due to the accumulation effect of river water quality through riparian vegetation in agricultural areas, but the effect of riparian vegetation through riparian vegetation was found in urban areas. There was no These results were interpreted as having a fairly low distribution rate in urban areas, and in the case of the study area, there was no impact due to riparian forests due to the form of scattered and distributed settlements rather than high-density urbanized areas. The results of this study were judged to be unreasonable to generalize by analyzing the rivers where most of the agricultural areas are distributed, and a follow-up to establish a structural equation model by expanding the watershed variables in urban areas and encompassing the variables of various factors affecting water quality research is required.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.142-152
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• 2023

Infiltration is a process by which precipitation infuses into subsurface soils. The process determines the surface flow and baseflow volume, and it is one of most important hydrological processes regarding nonpoint source pollution management. Therefore, the Ministry of Environment has developed a guideline to determine the impervious area ratio to understand the hydrological process in administrative districts and watersheds. The impervious area ratio can be determined using land use or land cover maps. Three approaches were explored to determine the impervious area ratio in 25 districts in Seoul. The impervious area ratio was determined by employing the Land registration map and Land property data in the first approach, Land property map in the second approach, and Land cover map in the third approach. The ratio ranged from 38.96% to 83.01% in the first approach, 38.98% to 83.02% in the second approach, and 37.62% to 76.63% in the third approach. Although the ranges did not provide any significant differences in the approaches, some districts displayed differences up to 9.48% by the approach. These differences resulted from the fact that the data were land use or land cover, especially in the area of airport, residential complex area, and school sites. In other words, division of the pervious and impervious areas in an individual plot was not allowed in the Land registration map, while it was allowed in the Land cover map. Therefore, it was concluded that there is a need to revise the guideline so that a reasonable impervious area ratio can be determined in the districts.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.488-502
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• 2023

Ecosystem service accounting must measure ecosystem supply functions, demand, and the actual service flows that occur between them. In order to measure flows, supply and demand relationships must be defined, and a methodology that can objectify complex connections is needed. Although various studies on ecosystem services have been conducted in Korea, but researches on accounting for ecosystem services are not enough. The purpose of this study is to evaluate flood control ecosystem services by applying the EU methodology studied in the Experimental Ecosystem Account (EEA) of System of Environmental Economy Account (SEEA) and explore ways to introduce ecosystem account. To conduct the study, the ecosystem's runoff retention potential, social and economic demand for flood control, and actual service benefit flows formed from the relationships between them were modeled and quantified on a spatial basis. As a result of calculating the actual flow of flood control ecosystem services, the total domestic service amount was calculated to be 165,595 (ha), and it was confirmed that much of it was concentrated in agricultural land. In order to account for domestic flood control services in the future, key spatial data such as land cover maps must be continuously established and managed, and researches on input data and methodologies applicable to various spatial scopes such as national, regional, and unit watersheds are expected to be necessary.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.12
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• pp.905-918
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• 2023

This study aimed to assess runoff reduction performance and determine installation priorities for Permeable Pavement (PP) and Rain Barrel (RB) within the Mokgam Stream basin. Optimal design parameters were determined to maximize the effectiveness of PP and RB in reducing runoff. Furthermore, the optimal parameters were incorporated to compare the runoff reduction performance of PP and RB. Analysis of the runoff curve at the basin outlet indicated that PP demonstrated superior performance in reducing runoff during the rising limb of the curve. At the same time, RB excelled within the falling limb. Comparisons of total runoff and peak runoff reduction by sub-catchment revealed that in larger sub-catchment areas, PP outperformed RB in runoff reduction. In contrast, RB exhibited higher performance in areas with a higher impervious ratio. Based on the evaluation of runoff reduction performance for PP and RB, installation priorities were determined within the Mokgam Stream basin. The results showed that PP and RB installations were prioritized for sub-catchments with larger areas and a higher impervious ratio. Furthermore, the correlation between the ranking of runoff reduction performance and sub-catchment characteristics showed a high correlation with both the impervious area ratio and sub-catchment geometrical properties in sub-watersheds exhibiting the top 25% runoff reduction performance. These results emphasize that when determining the priority for installing LID facilities in developed urban areas, it is necessary to consider not only the impervious area ratio but also the geometrical properties of the sub-catchment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2024

In Korea, mountainous areas cover 60% of the land, leading to increased factors such as concentrated heavy rainfall and typhoons, which can result in debris flow and landslide. Despite the high risk of disasters like landslides and debris flow, there has been a tendency in most regions to focus more on post-damage recovery rather than preventing damage. Therefore, in this study, precise topographic data was constructed by conducting on-site surveys and drone measurements in areas where debris flow actually occurred, to analyze the risk zones for such events. The numerical analysis program RAMMS model was utilized to perform debris flow analysis on the areas prone to debris flow, and the actual distribution of debris flow was compared and analyzed to evaluate the applicability of the model. As a result, the debris flow generation area calculated by the RAMMS model was found to be 18% larger than the actual area, and the travel distance was estimated to be 10% smaller. However, the simulated shape of debris flow generation and the path of movement calculated by the model closely resembled the actual data. In the future, we aim to conduct additional research, including model verification suitable for domestic conditions and the selection of areas for damage prediction through debris flow analysis in unmeasured watersheds.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.289-300
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the applicability of the GRM (Grid based rainfall-Runoff Model) to the continuous simulation by simulating the dam inflow. The GRM was previously developed for the simulation of rainfall-runoff events but has recently been improved to enable continuous simulation. The target watersheds are Chungju dam, Andong dam, Yongdam dam, and Sumjingang dam basins, and runoff models were constructed with the spatial resolution of 500 m × 500 m. The simulation period is 21 years (2001 to 2021). The simulation results were evaluated over the 17 year period (2005 to 2021), and were divided into three data periods: total duration, wet season (June to September), and dry season (October to May), and compared with the observed daily inflow of each dam. Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), Kling-Gupta efficiency (KGE), correlation coefficient (CC), and total volume error (VE) were used to evaluate the fitness of the simulation results. As a result of evaluating the simulated dam inflow, the observed data could be well reproduced in the total duration and wet season, and the dry season also showed good simulation results considering the uncertainty of low-flow data. As a result of the study, it was found that the continuous simulation technique of the GRM model was properly implemented and the model was sufficiently applicable to the simulation of dam inflow in this study.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

In this study, a HSPF model was developed to simulate runoff and water quality in the Haebancheon watershed, which has a high land area ratio and population density among the West Nakdong River watersheds. Various non-point source pollution control strategies were applied, and the reduction in pollutant loads and the exceedance rate of water quality standards were analyzed. The scenarios included basic road cleaning for reducing pollutant loads, runoff reduction measures considering extensive low-impact development techniques, and inflow reduction measures to mitigate non-point source pollution entering the river. In the first step, practical conditions such as the number of vehicles for road cleaning in Kimhae City were considered, while for the second and third steps, it was assumed that 50% of the applicable land use area was used to be applicable for the LID techniques. As a result of applying all three measures, it was analyzed that the BOD pollutant load could be reduced by 58.28%, T-N by 58.49%, and T-P by 51.56%. Furthermore, the 60th percentile of water quality measurements accumulated over 5 years was set as the target water quality, and a flow-duration curve was constructed. The exceedance rate of the flow-duration curve before and after applying non-point source pollution reduction measures was analyzed. As a result, for BOD, the exceedance rate decreased from 41.57% before applying the measures to 16.32% after, showing a 25.25% reduction in the exceedance rate. For T-N, the exceedance rate decreased significantly from 40.31% before the measures to 22.84% after, and for T-P, it decreased significantly from 62.43% to 27.22%.