• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.19-31
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• 2013

Objectives: Elevated temperatures during summer months have been reported since the early 20th century to be associated with increased daily mortality. However, future death impacts of high temperatures resulting from climate change could be variously estimated in consideration of the future changes in historical temperature-mortality relationships, mortality, and population. This study examined the future death burden of high temperatures resulting from climate change in Seoul over the period of 2001-2040. Methods: We calculated yearly death burden attributable to high temperatures stemming from climate change in Seoul from 2001-2040. These future death burdens from high temperature were computed by multiplying relative risk, temperature, mortality, and population at any future point. To incorporate adaptation, we assumed future changes in temperature-mortality relationships (i.e. threshold temperatures and slopes), which were estimated as short-term temperature effects using a Poisson regression model. Results: The results show that climate change will lead to a substantial increase in summer high temperature-related death burden in the future, even considering adaptation by the population group. The yearly death burden attributable to elevated temperatures ranged from approximately 0.7 deaths per 100,000 people in 2001-2010 to about 1.5 deaths per 100,000 people in Seoul in 2036-2040. Conclusions: This study suggests that adaptation strategies and communication regarding future health risks stemming from climate change are necessary for the public and for the political leadership of South Korea.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.740-741
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• 2015

the downscaled air temperature data over study region for the projected 2001 - 2099 period were then ensemble averaged, and the ensemble averages of 6 realizations were compared against the corresponding historical downscaled data for the 1961 - 2000 period in order to assess the impact of climate change on air temperature over study region by graphical, spatial and statistical methods. In order to evaluate the seasonal trends under future climate change conditions, the simulated annual, annual DJF (December-January-February), and annual JJA (June-July-August) mean air temperature for 5 watersheds during historical and future periods were evaluated. From the results, it is clear that there is a rising trend in the projected air temperature and future air temperature would be warmer by about 3 degrees Celsius toward the end of 21^st century if the ensemble projections of air temperature become true. Spatial comparison of 30-year average annual mean air temperature between historical period (1970 - 1999) and ensemble average of 6-realization shows that air temperature is warmer toward end of 21^st century compared to historical period.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.235-243
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• 2018

Loss of favorable habitats for species due to temperature increase is one of the main concerns of climate change on the ecosystem, and endangered species might be much more sensitive to such unfavorable changes. This study aimed to analyze the impact of future climate change on endangered wild animals in South Korea by investigating thermal sensitivity and vulnerability to temperature increase. We determined thermal sensitivity by testing normality in species distribution according to temperature. Then, we defined the vulnerability when the future temperature range of South Korea completely deviate from the current temperature range of species distribution. We identified 13 species with higher thermal sensitivity. Based on IPCC future scenarios RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, the number of species vulnerable to future warming doubled from 3 under RCP4.5 to 7 under the RCP8.5 scenario. The species anticipated to be at risk under RCP 8.5 are flying squirrel (Pteromys volans aluco), ural owl (Pteromys volans aluco), black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius), tawny owl (Strix aluco), watercock (Gallicrex cinerea), schrenck?s bittern (Ixobrychus eurhythmus), and fairy pitta (Pitta nympha). The other 10 species showing very narrow temperature ranges even without normal distributions and out of the future temperature range may also need to be treated as vulnerable species, considering the inevitable observation scarcity of such endangered species.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.61-72
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• 2015

In this study, we have investigated monthly changes in temperature extremes in South Korea for the past (1921~2010) and the future (2011~2100). We used seven stations' (Gangneung, Seoul, Incheon, Daegu, Jeonju, Busan, Mokpo) data from KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) for the past. For the future we used the closest grid point values to observations from the RCP8.5 scenario of 1 km resolution. The Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI)'s climate extreme indices were employed to quantify the characteristics of temperature extremes change. Temperature extreme indices in summer have increased while those in winter have decreased in the past. The extreme indices are expected to change more rapidly in the future than in the past. The number of frost days (FD) is projected to decrease in the future, and the occurrence period will be shortened by two months at the end of the $21^{st}$ century (2071~2100) compared to the present (1981~2010). The number of hot days (HD) is projected to increase in the future, and the occurrence period is projected to lengthen by two months at the end of the $21^{st}$ century compared to the present. The annual highest temperature and its fluctuation is expected to increase. Accordingly, the heat damage is also expected to increase. The result of this study can be used as an information on damage prevention measures due to temperature extreme events.

• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.403-417
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• 2014

Future changes in seasonal mean temperature and precipitation over East Asia under anthropogenic global warming are investigated by comparing the historical run for 1979~2005 and the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 run for 2006~2100 with 20 coupled models which participated in the phase five of Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP5). Although an increase in future temperature over the East Asian monsoon region has been commonly accepted, the prediction of future precipitation under global warming still has considerable uncertainties with a large inter-model spread. Thus, we select best five models, based on the evaluation of models' performance in present climate for boreal summer and winter seasons, to reduce uncertainties in future projection. Overall, the CMIP5 models better simulate climatological temperature and precipitation over East Asia than the phase 3 of CMIP and the five best models' multi-model ensemble (B5MME) has better performance than all 20 models' multi-model ensemble (MME). Under anthropogenic global warming, significant increases are expected in both temperature and land-ocean thermal contrast over the entire East Asia region during both seasons for near and long term future. The contrast of future precipitation in winter between land and ocean will decrease over East Asia whereas that in summer particularly over the Korean Peninsula, associated with the Changma, will increase. Taking into account model validation and uncertainty estimation, this study has made an effort on providing a more reliable range of future change for temperature and precipitation particularly over the Korean Peninsula than previous studies.

• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.515-522
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• 2014

In this study it is attempted to estimate the possible change in energy use for residential and commercial sector in Korea under a future climate change senario. Based on the national energy use and observed temperature data during the period 1991~2010, the optimal base temperature for determining heating and cooling degree days (HDD and CDD) is calculated. Then, net changes in fossil fuel and electricity uses that are statistically linked with a temperature variation are quantified through regression analyses of HDD and CDD against the energy use. Finally, the future projection of energy use is estimated by applying the regression model and future temperature projections by the CMIP5 results under the RCP8.5 scenario. The results indicate that, overall, the net annual energy use will decrease mostly due to a large decrease in the fossil fuel use for heating. However, a clear seasonal contrast in energy use is anticipated in the electricity use; there will be an increase in a warm-season demand for cooling but a decrease in a cold-season demand for heating.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.149-157
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• 2012

For the systemic management and planning of future agricultural water resources, deriving and analyzing the various results of climate change are necessary to respond the uncertainties of climate change. This study assessed the impact of climate change on the rainfall, temperature, and agricultural water requirement targeting in the Nakdong-river's basin periodically according to socioeconomic driving factors under the scenarios A1B, A2 and B1 of the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) through the various IPCC GCMs. As a result of future rainfall change (2011~2100), increasing or decreasing tendency of rainfall change for future periods did not show a clear trend for three rainfall observatories, Daegu, Busan and Gumi. The characteristics of the temperature change consistently show a tendency to increase, and in the case of Daegu observatory, high temperature growth was shown. Especially, it was increased by 93.3 % in the period of future3 (2071~2100) for A2 scenario. According to the scenario and periodic analyses on the agricultural water demand, which was thought to be dependent on rainfall and temperature, the agricultural water demand increased at almost every period except during the Period Future1 (2011~2040) with different increase sizes, and the scenario-specific results were shown to be similar. As for areas, the agricultural water demand showed more changes in the sub-basin located by the branch of Nakdong-river than at the mainstream of the River.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.226-226
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• 2015

The complex climate system regarding human actions is well represented through global climate models (GCMs). The output from GCMs provides useful information about the rate and magnitude of future climate change. Especially, the temperature variable is most reliable among other GCM outputs. However, hydrological variables (e.g. precipitation) from GCM outputs for future climate change contain too high uncertainty to use in practice. Therefore, we propose a method that simulates temperature variable with increasing in a certain level (e.g. 0.5oC or 1.0oC increase) as a global warming scenario from observed data. In addition, a hydrometeorological variable can be simulated employing block-wise sampling technique associated with the temperature simulation. The proposed method was tested for assessing the future change of the seasonal precipitation in South Korea under global warming scenario. The results illustrate that the proposed method is a good alternative to levy the variation of hydrological variables under global warming condition.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 2016

The objective of this study is to quantitatively analyze climate change effects by using statistical trends and a watershed model in the Yongdam dam watershed. The annual average air temperature was found to increase with statistical significance. In particular, greater increases were observed in autumn. Also, this study was performed to evaluate the potential climate change in the streamflow and water temperature using a watershed model (HSPF) with RCP climate change scenarios. The streamflow of Geum river showed a decrease of 5.1% and 0.2%, respectively, in the baseline data for the 2040s and 2080s. The seasonal impact of future climate change on the streamflow showed a decrease in the summer and an increase in the winter. The water temperature of Geum river showed an average increase of 0.7~1.0℃. Especially, the water temperature of Geum river showed an increase of 0.3~0.5℃ in the 2040s and 0.5~1.2℃ in the 2080s. The seasonal impact of future climate change on the water temperature showed an increase in winter and spring, with a decrease in summer. Therefore, it was determined that a statistical analysis-based meteorological and quantitative forecast of streamflow and water temperature using a watershed model is necessary to assess climate change impact and to establish plans for future water resource management.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.697-707
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• 2018

A fast running model comprising the climate change effects is proposed for urban heat environment simulations so as to be used in urban heat island studies and/or the urban planning practices. By combining Hot City Model, a high resolution urban temperature prediction model utilizing the Lagrangian particle tracing technique, and the numerical weather simulation data which are constructed up to year of 2100 under the climate change scenarios, an efficient model is constructed for simulating the future urban heat environments. It is applicable to whole city as well as to a small block area of an urban region, with the computation time being relatively short, requiring the practically manageable amount of the computational resources. The heat environments of the entire metropolitan Seoul area in South Korea are investigated with the aid of the model for the present time and for the future. The results showed that the urban temperature gradually increase up to a significant level in the future. The possible effects of green roofs on the buildings are also studied, and we observe that green roofs don't lower the urban temperature efficiently while making the temperature fields become more homogeneous.