• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.305-314
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• 2011

Imnam Dam construction and inter-basin water transfer use by North Korea have caused several problems including water resources management aspects in the downstream reach of North Han River. Therefore, cooperative works between North and South Korea are required to make a reasonable management situation of the shared river for water quantity and quality. However, efforts by the North and the South has done not enough to achieve equitable water use in the shared river. This study analyzes main impacts caused by Imnam Dam in key sectors for reviewing water use right regarded as the most important decision-making criterion in international rivers. As the results, water deficit by Imnam Dam is calculated at 379 million $m^3$/year when river drought year for water assessment is set in 1978 in the Han River basin. Additionally hydropower production is decreased by 234 GWh/year in exclusive hydropower generation dams. In respective of water quality, BOD concentration is increased by 0.065 ppm at Sambongli in North Han River. Finally it is identified that unequitable water use based on the absolute territorial sovereignty by North Korea in North Han River has directly and indirectly affected severe impacts to South Korea as the downstream user.

• Water Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.259-267
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• 2002

South Africa has developed a policy and law that calls and provides for the equitable and sustainable use of water resources. Sustainable resource use is dependent on effective resource protection. Rivers are the most important freshwater resources in the country, and there is a focus on developing and applying methods to quantify what rivers need in terms of flow and water quality. These quantified and descriptive objectives are then related to specified levels of ecological health in a classification system. This paper provides an overview of an integrated and systematic methodology, where, fer each river, and each river reach, the natural condition and the present ecological condition are described, and a level/class of ecosystem health is selected. The class will define long term management goals. This procedure requires each ecosystem component to be quantified, starting with the abiotic template. A modified flow regime is modelled for each ecosystem health class, and the resultant fluvial geomorphology and hydraulic habitats are described. Then the water chemistry is described, and the water quality changes that are likely to occur as a consequence of altered flows are predicted. Finally, the responses to the stress imposed on the biota (fish, invertebrates and vegetation) by modified flow and water quality are predicted. All of the predicted responses are translated into descriptive and/or quantitative management objectives. The paper concludes with the recognition of active method development, and the enormous challenge of applying the methods, implementing the law, and achieving river protection and sustainable resource-use.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.315-325
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• 2011

There are not many practical measures to solve a water conflict, when a hydromorphologically asymmetric situation in international rivers exists whereby downstream users may not affect upstream users but upstream users do cause downstream impacts. In taking advantage of this merit, North Korea has built Imnam Dam in upstream of North Han River and uses water for trans-basin hydropower generation. As an impact of this dam South Korean' area as a downstream user has been suffered from water deficit and dry river. It is very critical for South Korea to solve a key problem such as water allocation for water supply and river maintenance. Therefore, this study is aim to suggest alternatives for equitable water allocation in consideration of special circumstances between the South and the North. For this, reviewing the allocation methods of water rights is carried using lessons obtained from international river cases. The results show that the minimum desired streamflow is calculated at 7.3 $m^3/sec$; water budget analysis by the equitable distribution of streamflows at the border line of the North Han River, the difference in water supply deficiency is at 3.7 $m^3/sec$ before and after Imnam Dam; in the determined distribution method, the difference in water deficiency is at 11.38 $m^3/sec$. These results show that South Korea should be secured 11.38 $m^3/sec$ from North Korean's Imnam Dam in respective of water use right and sound river maintenance.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1-7
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• 2007

New Zealand is a hydrologically diverse and active country. This paper presents an overview of the major hydrological issues and problems facing New Zealand and provides examples of some the research being undertaken to solve the problems. Fundamental to any environmental decision making is the provision of good quality hydrometric data. Reduced funding for the national hydrometric network has meant a reduction in the number of monitoring sites, the decision on how to redesign the network was made using information on geographic coverage and importance of each site. New Zealand faces a major problem in understanding the impacts of rapid land use change on water quantity and quality. On top of the land use change is overlain the issue of agricultural intensification. The transfer of knowledge about impacts of change at the small watershed scale to much larger, more complex watersheds is one that is attracting considerable research attention. There is a large amount of research currently being undertaken to understand the processes of water and nutrient movement through the vadose zone into groundwater and therefore understanding the time taken for leached nutrients to reach receiving water bodies. The largest water management issue of the past 5 years has been based around fair and equitable water allocation when there is increasing demand for irrigation water. Apart from policy research into market trading for water there has been research into water storage and transfer options and improving irrigation efficiency. The final water management issue discussed concerns the impacts of hydrological extremes (floods and droughts). This is of particular concern with predictions of climate change for New Zealand suggesting increased hydrological extremes. Research work has concentrated on producing predictive models. These have been both detailed inundation models using high quality LIDAR data and also flood models for the whole country based on a newly interpolated grid network of rainfall.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.101-105
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• 2011

공유하천의 물 배분문제는 이해당사자간 입장차이가 뚜렷하여 일관된 해결책을 찾기가 어려운 과제이다. 따라서 문제해결을 위한 접근방법이나 적용하고자 하는 논리와 원칙이 일방적일 수 있으며, 연안국가간 서로 상반되는 논리를 주장하는 것이 대부분이다. 즉 어떤 국가든 자기에게 가장 유리한 입장을 취하게 되며 상대방의 주장에 동조하는 자세는 자국 내에서 큰 비판에 직면할 수 있다는 정치적 부담이 있다. 결국 각각의 연안국가들은 자기에게 가장 유리한 이론과 논리를 내세우게 되며 타협과 협력에 도달하기 위해서는 수문, 기상, 사회, 문화, 경제 및 정치적 문제를 극복해야 한다. 본 연구에서는 남북공유하천의 공평하고 합리적인 이용방법을 제시하기 위하여 이해관계가 복잡한 하류유역의 수리권을 추정하였다. 이를 위해 국제 공유하천에서 수리권 배분을 위한 표준화된 법칙이 없으므로 과거 사례 분석을 통해 해석방법을 찾고자 하였다. 아울러 현재 남북공유하천의 문제점을 진단하고 국제사례를 통해 하류국가인 남한지역에 기득수리권이 존재함을 증명하고자 하였다. 또한 수리권 배분(북한의 임남댐 보장방류량)을 위해 국제적으로 적용된 사례와 이의 평가기준 등을 고려하여 남북공유하천에 적용하고자 하였다.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.481-489
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• 2022

Various types of karst topographies are found worldwide. Owing to their global distribution, karst areas have been extensively studied by scientists who investigate new discoveries by linking the characteristics of karst topographies with their own research fields. However, there have been only a few studies on karsts in the Republic of Korea, and little research exists on their hydrogeology. Fragmentary studies have been conducted on the hydrochemical characteristics of groundwater in limestone areas, the causes of high arsenic concentrations in groundwater, and the hydraulic conductivity of limestone areas. Research on hydrogeological characterization and flow mechanisms in these areas has only began recently. Identification and the proper management of available groundwater resources in karst (limestone) areas is essential as their unique geological characteristics render it difficult to construct reservoirs or dams at appropriate scales. We have reviewed prior work on karsts in the Republic of Korea to provide information that supports water resource security in the karst areas, to improve the understanding of the equitable use of water resources, and to identify the best management practices for groundwater resource resilience improvement.