• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.265-276
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• 2021

This study investigated the characteristics of fish communities and river health in the Sincheon stream of Imgin River between April and October 2019. The survey collected 3,677 objects in 30 species belonging to 12 families from 23 survey stations. The dominant and subdominant species were Zacco platypus (28.4%) and Oryzias sinensis (13.6%), respectively, followed by Z. koreanus (11.8%), Rhynchocypris oxycephalus (11.7%), Carassius auratus (9.6%), and Pseudorasbora parva (7.9%) in that order. Among the fish species collected, 10 (33.3%) were endemic species in Korea. The exotic species were 5 (16.7%), including Micropterus salmoides, Lepomis macrochirus, Cyprinus carpio (Israeli type), Poecilia reticulata, and Xiphophorus maculatus. The land-locked species included Cottus koreanus and Rhinogobius brunneus, while C. koreanus was a climate change-sensitive species. The dominance of the fish community was low, and the diversity was high in the Sincheon mainstream, Sudongcheon and Cheongdamcheon, whereas Dongducheon and Sangpaecheon showed higher dominance and low diversity. The river health was very good and good in the uppermost and Sudongcheon areas, whereas the upper stream was normal, and the middle and lower streams were poor and very poor, respectively. The water quality was also mostly poor or very poor from the midstream to the downstream, and only Sudongcheon was very good. Therefore, the water quality had a great impact on fish habitat and eventually affected river health significantly. Although the water quality of Shincheon has improved each year, the introduction of several foreign species had a very negative effect. Improvement of river health in Shincheon requires water quality improvement and management of exotic fish species.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2021

Detection of surface water features including river, wetland, reservoir from the satellite imagery can be utilized for sustainable management and survey of water resources. This research compared the water indices derived from the multispectral bands and the machine learning technique for detecting the surface water features from he Landsat-8 satellite image acquired in Daegu through the following steps. First, the NDWI(Normalized Difference Water Index) image and the MNDWI(Modified Normalized Difference Water Index) image were separately generated using the multispectral bands of the given Landsat-8 satellite image, and the two binary images were generated from these NDWI and MNDWI images, respectively. Then SVM(Support Vector Machine), the widely used machine learning techniques, were employed to generate the land cover image and the binary image was also generated from the generated land cover image. Finally the error matrices were used for measuring the accuracy of the three binary images for detecting the surface water features. The statistical results showed that the binary image generated from the MNDWI image(84%) had the relatively low accuracy than the binary image generated from the NDWI image(94%) and generated by SVM(96%). And some misclassification errors occurred in all three binary images where the land features were misclassified as the surface water features because of the shadow effects.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.94-105
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• 2021

Two vertical flow biofilters in series (BFS) employing synthetic fiber (FBF) followed by woodchip (WBF) was investigated in order to assess its potential as an alternative to the typical vertical-horizontal flow configuration in removing nonpoint source pollutants specifically nutrients and organics. These lab-scale column biofilters were operated for 176 days alongside three other columns that were added for control and sampling purposes. The biofilter columns were fed with either a semi-artificial piggery stormwater or artificial stormwater with specific ammonia and nitrate contents. Results reveal that the BFS was more effective than a single biofilter in removing pollutants especially nitrogen. FBF was found to remove up to 100% of ammonia from the stormwater with corresponding increase in nitrate in the outflow which shows evidence of active nitrification. Meanwhile, the succeeding vertical WBF was able to subsequently remove 77% of the nitrate. The effective reduction of nitrate in a vertical flow biofilter was believed to be due to the use of woodchip which can provide a carbon source that is required for denitrification. However, further investigation is needed to support this claim. Nonetheless, the study shows the potential of vertical flow BFS as a nitrogen removal mechanism especially in areas where enough land space for horizontal flow biofilters is limited.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.387-397
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• 2021

This study aims to present reference data necessary for developing evaluation indicators to analyze the actual resilience of purchased land by investigating the factors that affect the restoration of the purchased land in the riparian zone and quantitatively calculating its importance. The main results are as follows. Firstly, this study identified 34 potential resilience factors through a literature review encompassing domestic and overseas studies and derived seven ecological responsiveness factors, six physical responsiveness factors, and four managerial responsiveness factors through the Delphi survey. Secondly, reliability analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis derived the following important factors: structural stability of the vegetation restored in the purchased land, species diversity of wildlife, structural stability of wildlife, the size of restored wetland after purchase, number of plant species, and the land cover status adjacent to the purchased land. The study results are expected to be helpful information for ecological restoration and management plans reflecting reinforcing factors for resilience at each stage of land purchase, restoration, and management.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.659-668
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to propose a ventilation corridor management plan to improve the thermal environment for Busan Metropolitan City. To this end, the characteristics of hot and cool spots in Busan were identified by conducting spatial statistical analysis, and thermal image data from Landsat-7 satellites and major ventilation corridors were analyzed through WRF meteorological simulation. The results showed the areas requiring thermal environment improvement among hot spot areas were Busanjin-gu, Dongnae-gu, industrial areas in Yeonje-gu and Sasang-gu, and Busan Port piers in large-scale facilities. The main ventilation corridor was identified as Geumjeongsan Mountain-Baekyangsan Mountain-Gudeoksan Mountain Valley. Based on the results, the ventilation corridor management strategy is suggested as follows. Industrial facilities and the Busan Port area are factors that increase the air temperature and worsen the thermal environment of the surrounding area. Therefore, urban and architectural plans are required to reduce the facility's temperature and consider the ventilation corridor. Areas requiring ventilation corridor management were Mandeok-dong and Sajik-dong, and they should be managed to prevent further damage to the forests. Since large-scale, high-rise apartment complexes in areas adjacent to forests interfere with the flow of cold and fresh air generated by forests, the construction of high-rise apartment complexes near Geumjeongsan Mountain with the new redevelopment of Type 3 general residential area should be avoided. It is expected that the results of this study can be used as basic data for urban planning and environmental planning in response to climate change in Busan Metropolitan City.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2022

This study was conducted to analyze the distribution characteristics of abandoned paddy wetlands according to topography and land cover. In Seosan-si, Dangjin-si, Boryeong-si, and Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, abandoned rice wetlands were found through GIS and field surveys, and the distribution status according to slope, elevation and land cover type was analyzed. As a result of the study, a total of 106 abandoned paddy wetlands were identified, and the average elevation of each abandoned paddy wetlands was 38.85m (S.D.32.76), the average slope was 6.27˚ (S.D.5.39), and the total area was 24,200km². 90 sites (84.9%) of abandoned paddy wetlands were distributed on flat land with less than 5˚ slope, 63 sites (12,121.07km²), and 27 sites(9,524.15km²) at 5-10˚ (9,524.15km²) on flat land with less than 10˚. The area is 21,645.22km²(89.5%) of the total area of abandoned paddy wetlands. 48 sites(12,326km²) in the lowlands with an altitude of less than 25 m, 29 sites(4,909.4km²) below 50m. It accounts for 71.2% of the total area of abandoned paddy wetlands. Among environmental factors of abandoned paddy wetlands, there was no statistically significant correlation between slope and altitude. According to the land cover classification, it was widely distributed in artificial grasslands (38), paddy fields (33), and fields (22).

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.69-82
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• 2022

In this study, we investigated the bacterial community structure in organic rice-fish mixed farming paddy soil by using high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that compared with the organic rice cultivated soil, the content of AP (available phosphorus) increased by 310.23 % and the content of OM (organic matter) increased by 168.83%. The most abundant phyla in paddy soils were Proteobacteria, Bacteriodetes, and Chloroflexi, whose relative abundance was above 47.83%. Among the dominant genera, the relative abundance of Limisphaera in paddy soils was observed. Alpha diversity indicated that the bacterial diversity of paddy soils was similar among each other. The bacterial community structure was affected by the relative abundance of bacteria, not the species of bacteria. Principal Coordinated Analysis (PCoA) results showed that the bacterial communities in organic rice-fish mixed farming soil and organic paddy soil were correlated to each other; the bacterial community structure was distinctively grouped by four different systems (paddy soil under organic rice-fish mixed farming system, organic rice cultivation, and conventional rice cultivation), where the first two are closely related to each other than the third one. The results provide basal support for organic agri-cultivation while improving an ecological value at the same time.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.64-73
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• 2023

Before 2022, there was a lot of confusion in the process of planning and implementing the projects for ecological restoration of the stream due to dualization the principal agent of stream management. Because the Ministry of Environment took charge of the project in 2022, securing the health of aquatic ecosystem of stream became an essential factor in the project. Therefore, in this study, the streams that require the project for ecological restoration was selected in Han River estuary, where it is essential to secure the health of the stream aquatic ecosystem as blackish water zone and Ramsar wetland are located. Physical, chemical, spatial/humanistic, health of aquatic ecosystems evaluation indexes were calculated based on the detailed facts and figures of the project for ecological restoration of the stream in the beginning. Ranking, re-scaling, z-score, and t-score normalization methods were applied to the calculated evaluation index, and the values were compared and analyzed. After that, the entropy weight method was applied to each evaluation index. Through this process, the streams(Mokgamcheon, Anyangcheon etc.) that require the project for ecological restoration were selected for the purpose of securing the health of the aquatic ecosystem in Han River estuary. The result of this study can be used as basic research data in the process of selecting the priority determination of the projects for ecological restoration of the stream.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2023

Precipitation data is one of the essential input datasets used in various fields such as wetland management, hydrological simulation, and water resource management. In order to efficiently manage water resources using precipitation data, it is essential to secure as much data as possible by minimizing the missing rate of data. In addition, more efficient hydrological simulation is possible if precipitation data for ungauged areas are secured. However, missing precipitation data have been estimated mainly by statistical equations. The purpose of this study is to propose a new method to restore missing precipitation data using machine learning algorithms that can predict new data based on correlations between data. Moreover, compared to existing statistical methods, the applicability of machine learning techniques for restoring missing precipitation data is evaluated. Representative machine learning algorithms, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Random Forest (RF), were applied. For the performance of classifying the occurrence of precipitation, the RF algorithm has higher accuracy in classifying the occurrence of precipitation than the ANN algorithm. The F1-score and Accuracy values, which are evaluation indicators of the classification model, were calculated as 0.80 and 0.77, while the ANN was calculated as 0.76 and 0.71. In addition, the performance of estimating precipitation also showed higher accuracy in RF than in ANN algorithm. The RMSE of the RF and ANN algorithms was 2.8 mm/day and 2.9 mm/day, and the values were calculated as 0.68 and 0.73.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2022

Background: In this study, we proposed that the population dynamics of non-native red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) depends on the species' habitat extension and survivorship. We used a logistic equation with time-dependent habitat carrying capacity. In detail, the present carrying capacity depends on the red-eared slider population of the previous year. Anthropogenic activities such as the abandonment of previously captive red-eared sliders or the release due to religion customs would supply new habitats to the species. Therefore we assumed that anthropogenic spread increases the habitat carrying capacity. Based on the urbanization increase rate of 3% in Korea from 1980 to 2000, we assumed an annual spread of 3% to simulate the population dynamics of the red-eared slider. In addition, the effect on the population of an increase of natural habitats due to migration was simulated. Results: The close relationship between the distributions of non-native red-eared sliders and of urbanized areas demonstrates that urbanization plays an important role in providing new habitats for released individuals. Depending on the survivorship, the population of the red-eared slider in Korea increased 1.826 to 3.577 times between 1980 and 2000. To control population growth, it is necessary to reduce carrying capacity by reducing habitat expansion through prohibition of release into the wild ecosystem and careful managements of the wetland or artificial ponds. Changes in the habitat carrying capacity showed that the population fluctuated every other year. However, after several years, it converged to a consistent value which depended on the survivorship. Further, our results showed that if red-eared sliders expand their habitat by natural migration, their population can increase to a greater number than when they have a 99% survivorship in a fixed habitat. Conclusions: Further introductions of red-eared sliders into wetlands or artificial ponds should be prohibited and managed to prevent future spread of the species. Moreover, it is important to reduce the species' survivorship by restoring disturbed ecosystems and maintaining healthy ecosystems.