• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.197-205
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• 2010

Recent years have witnessed increasing interest in wetland constructions in Korea as a flood control measure during the flood season and for consideration of the ecology during the non-flood season. In this study, hydraulic and hydrologic analyses were performed on a wetland construction plan for use as an alternative sustainable flood defense during the flood season, as well as a wetland that can protect the ecosystem during the non-flood season. The study area was the basin of the Topyeong-cheon stream, which is a tributary of the Nakdong River, including the Upo wetland, which is registered in the Ramsar Convention and the largest inland wetland in Korea. Wetlands were to be constructed at upstream and downstream of the Upo wetland by considering and analyzing seven scenarios for their constructions to investigate the effect of flood control during the flood season; it was found the best scenario reduced the flood level by 0.56 m. To evaluate the usefulness of the constructed wetlands during the non flood season, the water balance in the wetlands was analyzed, with the best scenario found to maintain a minimum water level of 1.3 m throughout the year. Therefore, the constructed wetlands could provide an alternative measure for flood prevention as well as an ecosystem for biodiversity.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2008

This study was to describe the ecological survey of wetland plants from Sinbul Mt. and suggest the ways of the sustainable ecological management and wise use. We found 167 plant species. Molinia japonica HACK was the most dominant species and Asarum maculatum NAKAI, Drosera rotundifolia L. and Utricularia racemosa WALL were considered as the most important species. Thus, it was concluded that this area need strong conservation due to the necessity for species diversity. Such several management schemes as the designation for national wetland conservation area, continuous monitoring, cautious surveillance and wise management were suggested to implement successful conservation.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.36-44
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• 2016

Constructed wetlands are established efficient technologies and provide sustainable solution for wastewater treatment. Similarly, biochar, which is an organic material, produced by means of pyrolysis, offers simple and low cost techniques to treat water and reduce carbon footprint. Combining both of these technologies can greatly augment the efficiency of the system. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of constructed wetlands by using biochar as media. Horizontal wetland beds with dimension ($1m{\times}0.33m{\times}0.3m$) were prepared using gravels and biochar, and cultivated with the Canna species. Synthetic wastewater was passed through these beds with average flow rate of $1.2{\times}10^{-7}m^3/sec$ achieving a retention time of three days. Pollutant removal performance was compared between the controlled and experimental wetland beds. This study reveals that the wetland with biochar were more efficient as compared to the wetland with gravels alone with average removal rate of 91.3% COD, 58.3% TN, 58.3% $NH_3$, 92% $NO_3-N$, 79.5% TP, and 67.7% $PO_4$.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.463-476
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• 2014

The riverine wetlands located in the riverside bring about social conflicts through confrontation between flood control value through flood control project and ecological preservation value of riverine wetland. In this study, we identified the importance of both values through analysis of economic feasibility of flood control and ecological values of riverine wetland, and tried to suggest management plans for riverine wetland considering both of flood control safety and ecological preservation through these results. For this, we calculated the expected annual flood damage of Imjin River using the multi-dimensional flood damage analysis(MD-FDA), and calculated the total value of riverine wetland using the contingent valuation method(CVM) to estimate preservation value of riverine wetland. The result of the analysis shows that the Imjin River needs flood control project and the ecological preservation of riverine wetland is also important. Therefore, the establishment of the management plan for protecting riverine wetland is also needed. As a result, the Imjin riverine wetland was classified as the area where sedimentation continues to take place, and the flood water level to rise. On the basis of the analyzed results, it is judged that the Imjin River needs flood control for public safety and ecological consideration for ecosystem preservation in the river improvement project. So, the stepwise river improvement is desirable to protect riverine wetland and minimize ecosystem disturbance. The results is expected to be made good use as the basic study for establishment of institutional river management plans considering flood control project and riverine wetland preservation in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.135-154
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• 2023

Urban wetlands provide various ecosystem services and are subject to restoration and creation projects due to their increased value in the context of climate change. However, the vegetation structure of wetlands is sensitive to environmental changes, including artificial disturbances, and requires continuous maintenance. In this study, we conducted a vegetation survey of three wetlands created as part of a project to restore urban degraded natural ecosystems and monitored the quantitative changes in wetland vegetation structure using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The vegetation survey revealed 73 species in Incheon Yeonhui wetland, and the change in vegetation composition based on wetland occurrence frequency was 11.5% on average compared to the 2018 vegetation survey results. The vegetation survey identified 44 species in Busan Igidae wetland, and the proportion of species classified as obligate upland plants was the highest at 48.8% among all plants, while the proportion of naturalized plants accounted for 15.9% of all plants. The open water surface area decreased from 10% in May 2019 to 6.7% in May 2020. Iksan Sorasan wetland was surveyed and 44 species were confirmed, and it was found that the proportion of facultative wetland plant decreased compared to the 2018 vegetation survey results, and the open water surface area increased from 0.4% in May 2019 to 4.1% in May 2020. The results of this study showed that wetlands with low artificial management intensity exhibited a tendency for stabilization of vegetation structure, with a decrease in the proportion of plants with high wetland occurrence frequency and a relatively small number of new species. Wetlands with high artificial management intensity required specific management, as they had a large change in vegetation structure and a partially high possibility of new invasion. We reaffirmed the importance of continuous monitoring of vegetation communities and infrastructure for wetlands considering the function and use of urban wetlands, and restoration stages. These research results suggest the need to establish a sustainable wetland maintenance system through the establishment of long-term maintenance goals and monitoring methods that consider the environmental conditions and vegetation composition of wetlands.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.89-104
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• 2004

In the aftermath of nation-wide controversy over "conservation vs. development" of the costal wetland in the Saemangeum, Korea could legislate the laws of wetland conservation and costal management in 1998. Since then, the public interest in the costal mudflats and its conservation has increased greatly, but the controversy on the economic value of mutflat wetland and the futher (un)necessity of reclamation) is not yet settled. In the cases of Korea dealt, economic valuation of wetland was performed mainly in the milieu of reclamation(development) vs conservation conflict, or from interest of recreational use. Korean studies used to estimate economic value of development case and conservation case respectively and then tried to compare these two value, as is sometimes done also in other countries. But the scrutiny of the results of these studies leads us to conclude that the revealed wide discrepancy among estimated values, above all other methodological problems, denies any practical applicability to the actual policy use. Benefit transfer as a convenient alternative method of valuation can not be usable either in our cases, because there is too few reliable estimated economic values of mudflat wetlands.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.163-172
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• 2021

This study aims to draw the limitations of wetland restoration related legal systems of ASEAN+3 countries and suggest the improvements. In the case of Korea, there is no integrated law or integrated management organization for wetland restoration, and the legal basis for estuaries restoration is insufficient. As many ASEAN countries depend on wetlands for their livelihood, public support for sustainable use and conservation of wetlands should be preceded through raising awareness about the value of wetlands. Some countries need to establish a specific wetland definition, while developing countries need to strengthen national capacities through international cooperation. A legal basis is needed to eliminate the impacts on peatlands and mangrove forests and conserve them.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.50-61
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• 2010

This study was carried out to find out the way to build a comprehensive wetland ecosystem database using the technique of remote sensing and Geographic Information System. A Landsat TM image (taken in Oct. 30, 2002), Kompsat-2 images (Jan. 17, 2008 & Nov. 20, 2008), LiDAR(Mar. 1, 2009) were used for the primary source for the image analysis. Field surveys were conducted March to August of 2009 to help image analysis and examine the results. An actual wetland vegetation map was created based on the field survey. Satellite images were analyzed by unsupervised and supervised classification methods and finally categorized into such classes as Phragmites australis community, mixed community, sand beach, Scirpus planiculmis community and non-vegetation intertidal area. The map of wetland productivity was developed based on the productivity of Phragmites australis and the relationship to the proximity of adjacent water bodies. The developed 3 dimensional wetland map showed such several potential applications as flood inundation, birds flyway viewsheds and benthos distribution. Considering these results, we concluded that it is possible to use the remote sensing and GIS techniques for producing wetland ecosystem spatial database and these techniques are very effective for the development of the national wetland inventory in Korea.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.699-713
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• 2012

Palustrine wetland is often used for development work and green area creation. However, the ecological characteristic of vegetation is not frequently considered in planning. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate vegetation characteristic according to land-use of palustrine wetland and to provide basic materials in assessment of palustrine wetland and restoration and creation of wetland. Survey sites were caterogized into paddy, field, and mountain. Each category had two sites, so total 6 survey sites were investigated for vegetation. As a result, with a range of 61~92 species, total 216 taxa were confirmed, consisting of 71 families, 168 generic, 187 species, 2 variety 1 forma 1 subforma. Mountain received a high score in the evaluation score range of floristic regional indicator plants, and it was found that there were 10 families and 28 species of naturalized plant. Mountain showed low appearance, and fiddy and field showed relatively high appearance. Naturalized plants with slightly high vegetation cover ratio are Erigeron annuus, Amorpha fruticosa, Dactylis glomerata, Festuca arundinacea, Eragrostis curvula, Trifolium repens, Erigeron Canadensis, Ambrosia trifida, Oenothera odorata, Bidens frondosa, etc. Such naturalized plants should be removed to prevent terrestrialization of wetland and its harmful damages. Long-term monitoring and proper management of naturalized plants are expected to improve palustrine wetland into high quality biotope of rural area in the future.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.31-41
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• 2015

This research is primarily intended to explore a novel way to monitor desiccation of inland wetland by combining MNDWI (Modified Normalized Difference Water Index) and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). The changes for vegetation and water condition on Upo Wetland located at southeastern Korea were investigated by MNDWI and NDVI derived from 2002, 2010 and 2015 Landsat data. The integrated use of MNDWI and NDVI made it possible to identify area-wide vegetation cover changes and to assess water storage changes on multi-annual time scales simultaneously. Comparing MNDWI with NDVI reveals the quantitative evidences for anthropogenic and environmental influences (such as road, building, water) causing an accelerated wetland desiccation. In fact, our monitoring approach raises critical issues regarding the hydrological cycle and its inter-annual changes for inland wetland under threat of drying up and highlights the important role of MNDWI and NDVI integration for any urgent or long-term treatment plan. This research presents scientific and objective evidences to support integrated approach of NDVI and MNDWI in exploring drying up trends of wetlands.