• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.637-647
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• 2014

Quantitative assessment of groundwater level change under extreme event is important since groundwater system is directly affected by drought. Substantially, groundwater level fluctuation reveals to be delayed from several hours to few months after raining according to the aquifer characteristics. Groundwater system in Jeju Island would be also affected by drought and almost all regions were suffered from a severe drought during summer season (July to September) in 2013. To estimate the effect of precipitation to groundwater system, monthly mean groundwater levels in 2013 compared to those in the past from 48 monitoring wells belong to be largely affected by rainfall(Dr) over Jeju Island were analyzed. Mean groundwater levels during summer season recorded 100 mm lowered of precipitation compared to the past 30 years became decreased to range from 2.63 m to 5.42 m in southern region compared to the past and continued to December. These decreasing trends are also found in western(from -1.21 m to -4.06 m), eastern(-0.91 m to -3.24 m), and northern region(from 0.58 m to -4.02 m), respectively. Moreover, the response of groundwater level from drought turned out to be -3.80 m in August after delaying about one month. Therefore, severe drought in 2013 played an important role on groundwater system in Jeju Island and the effect of drought for groundwater level fluctuation was higher in southern region than other ones according to the regional difference of precipitation decrease.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.24-35
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• 2022

This study was conducted to estimate groundwater demand and supply for agricultural activities in a frequent-drought area that requires implementation of optimal distribution plan utilizing the well-network system (WNS). The WNS has been considered as a viable strategic way of supplying groundwater to farmlands by connecting groundwater wells physically or virtually. The study area heavily relied on groundwater resources for irrigation up to 53% due to a lack of surface water resources. Two kinds of methods, HOMWRS software and FAO approach, were used for estimating irrigation water requirements for paddy and upland fields, respectively. During the latest 10 years (2010~2019), the water requirements was estimated to be 1,106 m³/day. The requirements notably increased to 1,121~4,004 m³/day during active farming season (May to September), which exceeded the total yield capacity of pre-existing groundwater wells (2,356 m³/day) in the area. Detailed and definite determination for groundwater demand and supply helped to determine optimal scale parameters of WNS. The WNS has achieved more balanced distribution of groundwater resources for irrigation over the study area.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.37-46
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• 2012

This study was conducted to identify groundwater recharge and discharge amounts of a representative urban-rural composite area located in Yongin city, Kyounggi-do, Korea. Groundwater recharge would be affected by mainly two processes in the study area: rainfall and leakage from public water pipelines including water-supply and sewage system. Groundwater recharge rate was estimated to be 13.5% by applying annual groundwater level data from two National Groundwater Monitoring Stations to the master regression curve method. Subsequently, the recharge amounts were determined to be $13,253{\times}10^3m^3/yr$. Leakage amounts from water-supply and sewage system were estimated to be $3,218{\times}10^3$ and $5,696{\times}10^3m^3/yr$, respectively. On the whole, a total of the recharge amounts was $22,167{\times}10^3m^3/yr$, of which 60% covers rainfall recharge and 40% pipeline leakage. Groundwater discharge occurred through three processes in the composite area: baseflow, well pumping, and discharge from urban infrastructure including groundwater infiltration into sewage pipeline and artificial extraction of groundwater to protect underground facilities from submergence. Discharge amounts by baseflow flowing to the Kiheung agricultural reservoir and well pumping were estimated to be $382{\times}10^3$ and $1,323{\times}10^3m^3/yr$, respectively. Occurrence of groundwater infiltration into sewage pipeline was rarely identified. Groundwater extraction amounts from the Bundang subway line as an underground facility were identified as $714{\times}10^3m^3/yr$. Overall, a total of the discharge amounts was determined to be $2,419{\times}10^3m^3/yr$, which was contributed by 29% of artificial discharge. Even though groundwater budget of the composite area was identified to be a surplus, it should be managed for a sound groundwater environment by changing deteriorated pipelines and controlling artificial discharge amounts.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.515-524
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• 2015

The estimation of groundwater usage in Jeju island is important to understand hydrologic cycle system and to plan management of water resource because large amounts of groundwater have been used for agricultural and domestic purpose. The model has been developed to estimate agricultural groundwater usage for garlic at uplands and citrus at orchards raising outdoors using the soil water balance model from FAO 56, respectively. The total amount of water supplied for the crop evapotranspiration and the multipurpose function such as sprout promotion can be simulated by the model. However, due to the discrepancy of water use in initial stage between calculated and observed, the model was calibrated and verified using actual groundwater usage monitoring data for 3.5 years (2011.6 to 2014.12) at three uplands for garlic and three orchards for citrus. Consequently, it would be concluded that the model simulated efficiently actual water usage in that root mean square (RMS) and normalized RMS of the validation stage were less than 8.99 mm and 2.43%, respectively, in two different conditions.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.61-75
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• 2022

This study evaluated the potential threat of agricultural and human activities to groundwater in the Noseong stream watershed, a typical agricultural area, through hydrogeochemical characteristics and microbial community analyses. The groundwater in the study area was Ca-SO₄ and Ca-HCO₃ types alluvial aquifer mainly used for agricultural and living purposes, and contained high levels of NO₃^- and Cl^- ions generated from anthropogenic sources such as fertilizer, livestock wastewater, and domestic sewage. Proteobacteria was most abundant in all samples with an average of 46.1% while Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria were dominant on an occasional basis. The prevalence of aerobic bacteria such as the genus Mycobacterium, Flavobacterium, and Sphingomonas suggests that groundwater was well connected with the surface layer. The potential pathogen Mycobacterium was detected in most samples, and other pathogenic bacteria were also widely distributed, indicating the vulnerability to contamination. Therefore, an integrated management system is required to secure the sustainable use of groundwater in agricultural areas with high groundwater dependence.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.12-24
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• 2020

This study was conducted to examine an artificial recharge system, which was considered to be an alternative for securing additional groundwater resources in a high-density greenhouse region. An injection well with a depth of 14.0 m was placed in an alluvial plain of the zone. Eight monitoring wells were placed in a shape of dual circles around the injection well. Aquifer tests showed that the aquifer was comprised with high-permeable layer with hydraulic conductivities of 1.5×10^-3~2.4×10^-2 cm/sec and storage coefficients of 0.07~0.10. A step injection test resulted in a specific groundwater-level rising (Sr/Q) values of 0.013~0.018 day/㎡ with 64~92% injection efficiencies. Results of the constant-rate injection test with an optimal injection rate of 100 ㎥/day demonstrated an enormous storage capacity of the alluvial aquifer during ten experimental days. To design an optimal recharge system for an artificial recharge, the high-permeable layer should be isolated by dual packers and suitable pressure should be applied to the injection well in order to store water. An anisotropy ratio of the alluvial aquifer was evaluated to be approximately 1.25 : 1 with an anisotropy angle of 71 degrees, indicating intervals among injection wells are almost the same.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2018

This study is aimed to quantitatively evaluate the effects of drought on groundwater system in rural areas. For this purpose, the standardized groundwater level index (SGI) was used for 68 groundwater monitoring wells. To determine accumulation period (AP) which represents the month with the highest correlation coefficient between SGI and SPI, correlation analysis between the two for 68 wells were peformed. The results indicated the AP values ranged in 1~3 months for most of the well, but it was 7~10 months in some wells. These results can be interpreted such that the total amount of groundwater will not decrease significantly in long-term drought situations unlikely the reservoirs with the high AP values. The nationwide maximum AP values were 4.1 and 4.0 in Chungbuk-do and Gyeongnam-do, while the minimum AP values were 1.8 and 2.0 in Gangwon-do and Chungnam-do, respectively. The maximum and minimum values of correlation coefficient were 0.623 and 0.459 in Gyeongnam-do and Chungnam-do/Chungbuk-do, respectively. Consequently, it could be concluded that the wells with low AP value tend to respond to short-term drought, but it has little effect on groundwater system when the long drought occurs.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.639-649
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• 2013

Over 96.2% of the agricultural water in Jeju Island is obtained from groundwater and there are quite distinct characteristics of agricultural water demand/supply spatially because of regional and seasonal differences in cropping system and rainfall amount. Land use for cultivating crops is expected to decrease 7.4% (4,215 ha) in 2020 compared to 2010, while market garden including various vegetable crop types having high water demand is increasing over the Island, especially western area having lower rainfall amount compared to southern area. On the other hand, land use for fruit including citrus and mandarin having low water demand is widely distributed over southern and northern part having higher rainfall amount. The agricultural water demand of $1,214{\times}10^3\;m^3/day$ in 2020 is estimated about 1.39 times compared to groundwater supply capacity of $874{\times}10^3\;m^3/day$ in 2010 with 42.4% of eastern, 103.1% of western, 61.9% of southern, and 77.0% of northern region. Moreover, net secured amount of agricultural groundwater would be expected to be much smaller due to regional disparity of water demand/supply, the lack of linkage system between the agricultural water supply facilities, and high percentage of private wells. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the total net secured amount of agricultural groundwater to overcome the expected regional discrepancy of water demand and supply by establishing policy alternative of regional water supply plan over the Island, including linkage system between wells, water tank enlargement, private wells maintenance and public wells development, and continuous enlargement of rainwater utilization facilities.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.163-171
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• 2015

This study aimed to establish a field observation system for monitoring tempo-spatially precise changes of groundwater level and to analyze the impact of rainfall and irrigation practices on groundwater changes in paddy regions. The monitoring system comprising of all nine groundwater observation wells and four ponding depth sensors was installed in a part of paddy regions benefited from Gosam reservoir, Ansung-si. The result of grundwater level change during the irrigation period in 2002 was averagely 0.51 m higher than that during the non-irrigation period. In particular between March before puddling and June after transplanting, there was maximum 1.23 m rise in groundwater level. On the other hand, concerning the change in ponding depth, groundwater level changed similarly, and hourly rainfall was revealed to have better correlation with 24-hour delayed hourly groundwater level than with the corresponding groundwater level. Eventually, this study could be referenced for further studies to set up a more comprehensive and sustainable monitoring system of groundwater conditions.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.543-551
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• 2018

The uranium concentrations were determined in groundwater collected from 3,820 community groundwater system (CGS) located in remote rural areas where access to the nationwide water work is not easy. The frequency distribution of uranium concentrations shows a lognormal distribution which is common in most radionuclide surveys. The measured maximum uranium concentration was $1,757.0{\mu}g/L$ with an average of $6.46{\mu}g/L$ and a median of $0.76{\mu}g/L$. When grouping the uranium concentration results of CGS into 10 geological units, the median uranium concentration was high ($0.99-2.05{\mu}g/L$) in three granite areas, and low in sedimentary rocks areas and porous volcanic rocks areas ($0.04-0.50{\mu}g/L$). Of the 3,820 samples, 3.8% are above the guideline value of $30{\mu}g/L$ (WHO, 2011). On the other hand, the exceeding rates of JGRA and PGRA CGS are 8.5% and 7.5%, respectively. Therefore, attention should be paid for the development of new CGS along with the management of the existing CGS in JGRA and PGRA areas.