• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.443-453
• /
• 2011

This research aims at suggesting the mitigation measures of decreasing pollution by analyzing land cover characteristics according to subwatershed, and non-pollutant load characteristics occurring in each subwatershed. Mushim-cheon is selected as a research area, and HyGIS-SWAT is used as a water quality model. This research analyzed outflow load characteristics by classifying land cover, which has over 50% classified items, into a city area, a farmland area and a forest area. The result shows that the yearly occurrence load quantity represents a farmland area, a forest area and a city area in order. In subwatershed-2, occurrence load quantity is analyzed by setting up a buffer zone in the center of stream, and by changing a farmland area into a natural grass land. Therefore, a farmland area in a subwatershed changes 36.6% into 27.9% and 15.3% comparing to previous land cover change. In the analysis of sediment loads occurrence quantity and nutritive salt load occurrence quantity in subwatershed-2, sediment loads occurrence quantity decreases 52% to about 47%, and nutritive salt load decreases 49% and 34% in compare with previous change. Hereafter, this research will set up the mitigation measures scenario, and find out which is more effective for the mitigation measures.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.37 no.11
• /
• pp.959-967
• /
• 2004

The concentrations and loads of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in wet deposition were investigated at Chungbuk National University in Cheongju, Chungbuk. Event based precipitation samples were collected during 1998 to 2003. The precipitation-weighted mean concentrations of pollutants were 0.60 mg/L for TN, 0.014 mg/L for TP, and 4.8 mg/L for COD, which were smaller than its arithmetic mean concentrations by 26% for TN, 18% for TP, and 14% for COD. The concentrations of TN, TP, and COD significantly decreased with precipitation. Mean concentrations of pollutants in spring (March-May) were higher than in other seasons likely due to dust caused by wind erosion and sand-dust storms, pollen etc. Significant relationships were determined between TN and TP, and TN and COD. Annual loads of wet deposition averaged 7.9 kg/ha$\cdot$yr for TN, 0.19 kg/ha$\cdot$yr for TP, and 63.9 kg/ha$\cdot$yr for COD, which are almost identical to the values of TN and TP but slightly higher than COD value reported in Japan.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.266-273
• /
• 2007

The change patterns of the water quanity, water quality(WQ, exclusively COD in this study) and monthly / annual pollutant loads(PL) estimated using the daily effluent discharges and WQ measurement data are analyzed in the Nakdong river estuarine seadike. The contribution factor defined by the ratio of the water quantity range and WQ range shows that the PL pattern in this estuary is classified as the strongly flow(water quantity)-dominated situation. The estimated PL(EPL)s with respect to the increasing sampling periods, e.g., 2-days, 5-days, 7-days, and so on, show that the mean values of the EPLs remain nearly same, whereas the standard deviations of the EPLs have an obvious increasing trend. The PL values using the monthly-averaged water quantity and WQ measurement data could have approximately 100% estimation error in annual mean and $300\sim400%$ estimation errors in summer season because its confidence level is relatively low. It is recommended that the PL should be estimated using at least $10\sim20$ day interval data sets and also the water quantity(river discharges) and WQ should be measured at the intervals of at least 1 day interval and 5 to 7 days, respectively in summer.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.35-43
• /
• 2008

The study was carried out to estimate runoff loads of heavy metals in the valley watershed at the middle of South Korea, during farming season. There were no other pollution sources except agricultural activity. From 27 April 2006 to 31 October 2007, water samples were collected using two methods. The first method was regular sampling wherein water samples were taken every two weeks; and the other method was through regular sampling when water were collected during each rainfall event. Results showed that heavy metals were found in the water from the regular samples, and were highest during May and June. It was presumed that this might have been contributed by farming activities. Heavy metal concentration of the irregular samples was lower than regular samples. The correlation coefficient between each heavy metal of the regular samples were as follows: Fe-Al>Cr-Al>Fe-Cr>Mn-Fe. The correlation coefficient of the irregular samples were the following: Fe-Al>Fe-Cu is positive; and Pb-Cu>Ni-Al is negative. Measured pollutant loads of heavy metals in the valley watershed were : 2.047 kg $day^{-1}$ of Al, 0.008 kg $day^{-1}$ of Cd, 0.034 kg $day^{-1}$ of Cr, 0.311 kg $day^{-1}$ of Cu, 0.601 kg $day^{-1}$ of Fe, and 0.282 kg $day^{-1}$ of Zn in 2006; while in 2007, the following were observed: 2.535 kg $day^{-1}$ of Al, 0.026 kg $day^{-1}$ of Cd, 0.055 kg $day^{-1}$ of Cu, 0.727 kg $day^{-1}$ of Fe, and 0.317 kg $day^{-1}$ of Zn. In the analysis of data gathered, the loading rates of effluents from the valley watershed during the rainy season were : 79.8% of Al, 69.1% of Cu, 82.5% of Fe, and 69.1% of Zn in 2006; while 69.9% of Al, 67.5% of Cu, 70.4% of Fe, and 67.5% of Zn in 2007.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.51 no.2
• /
• pp.272-278
• /
• 2013

The hybrid system composed of a photocatalytic reactor and a biofilter was operated under various operating conditions in order to treat malodorous waste air containing ammonia which is a major air pollutant emitted from composting factories and many publicly owned treatment works. Total ammonia removal efficiency of the hybrid system was maintained to be ca. 80% even though its inlet loads were increased at a higher operating stage according to an operating schedule of the hybrid system. The ammonia removal efficiency of photocatalytic reactor was decreased from 65% to 22% as ammonia inlet loads to photocatalytic reactor were increased. In spite of same inlet loads of ammonia to the photocatalytic reactor, the ammonia removal efficiency of photocatalytic reactor with lower ammonia concentration of fed-waste air was higher than that with higher ammonia concentration of fed-waste air. To the contrary, during the first half of the hybrid system operation the ammonia removal efficiency of a biofilter was quite suppressed while, despite of increased ammonia inlet loads, the ammonia removal efficiency of the biofilter was continuously increased to 78% and reached the ammonia removal efficiency similar to what Lee et al. attained. The maximum ammonia elimination capacity of the photocatalytic reactor was observed to be ca. 16 g-N/$m^3$/h. In an incipient stage of hybrid system run, the ammonia elimination capacity of the biofilter showed little sensitivity against ammonia inlet loads to the hybrid system. However, in the 2nd half of its run, the ammonia elimination capacity of the biofilter was increased abruptly in case of high ammonia inlet loads to the hybrid system. In 6th stage of hybrid system run, total ammonia inlet load attained at ca. 80 g-N/$m^3$/h corresponding to 16 g-N/$m^3$/h of ammonia elimination capacity of the photocatalytic reactor. Then, the remaining ammonia inlet load to the 2nd and main process of the biofilter and its elimination capacity was expected and shown to be ca 64 g-N/$m^3$/h and ca 48 g-N/$m^3$/h, respectively. The ammonia elimination capacity of the biofilter was close to 1,200 g-N/$m^3$/day of the maximum elimination capacity of the investigation performed by Kim et al.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.22 no.7
• /
• pp.1331-1343
• /
• 2000

Through the integration of USLE and GIS, the methodology to estimate the soil loss was developed, and applicated to the Sacheon river in Gangrung. Using GIS, spatial analysis such as watershed boundary determination, flow routing. slope steepness calculation was done. Spatial information from the GIS application was given for each grid. With soil and land use map, information about soil classification and land use was given for each grid too. Based upon these data, thematic maps about the factors of USLE were made. We estimated the soil loss by overlaying the thematic maps. In this manner, we can assess the degree of soil loss for each grid using GIS. Annual average soil loss of Sacheon river watershed is 1.36 ton/ha/yr. Soil loss in forest, dry field, and paddy field is 0.15 ton/ha/yr, 27.04 ton/ha/yr, 0.78 ton/ha/yr respectively. The area of dry field, which is 4% of total area, is $2.4km^2$. But total soil loss of dry field is 6561 ton/yr, and it occupies 84.9 % of total soil loss eroded in Sacheon river watershed. Comparing with the 11.2 ton/ha/yr of an average soil loss tolerance for cropland, provision for the soil loss in dry field is necessary. Run-off and water quality of Sacheon river were measured two times in flood season: from July 24, 1998 to July 28 and from September 29 to October 1. As the run-off of the river increased, SS, TN, TP concentrations and pollutant loadings increased. SS, TN, TP loads of Sacheon river discharged during the 2 heavy rains were 21%, 39%, and 19% of the total pollutant loadings generated in the Sacheon river watershed for one year. We can see that much pollutants are discharged in short period of flood season.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.332-340
• /
• 2007

Storm runoff from road contains significant loads of particulate and dissolved solids, organic constituents and metal elements. Micro particle is important when considering pollution mitigation because pollutant metal and organics have similar behavior with particles. The objective of this research is to evaluate the hydrodynamic filter separator performance for road storm runoff treatment. A various types of media such as perlite, granular activated carbon, zeolite were used for column test packing media and filter separator, and to determine the removal efficiency with various surface loading rate. As the results of column test, the highest SS removal efficiency was using mixed media(granular activated carbon, zeolite and perlite), and granular activated carbon mixed with zeolite has higher heavy metal removal efficiency than perlite. In laboratory scale hydrodynamic filter separator study, the operation ranges of surface loading rates were from 192 to 1,469 $m^3/m^2/day$. The estimated overall removal efficiencies of hydrodynamic filter separator for typical storm runoff were SS 48.1%, BOD 31.9%, COD 32.6%, TN 15.5%, and TP 17.3%, respectively. For the case of heavy metals, overall removal efficiencies were Fe 26.0%, Cu 19.4%, Cr 25.7, Zn 16.6%, and Pb 15.0%, respectively. The most appropriate medium for hydrodynamic filter separator was perlite mixed with granular activated carbon to treatment of road storm runoff.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.910-918
• /
• 2010

In recent years, riparian buffer system has been known as one of the effective best management practices. However, establishment of riparian buffer system in aspect of plant species and its position in the riparian buffer zone has not been investigated due to lack of efficient evaluation method for the analysis of water quality improvement with established riparian buffer system. To solve this problem, the SWAT-REMM prototype was developed by the researchers in Canada. But, SWAT-REMM model can not consider the $NO_3-N$ load into riparian buffer system through subsurface flow. Thus to solved this problem, Fortran code of SWAT-REMM model was modified. This modified SWAT-REMM system was applied to the Bonggok watershed. Three riparian buffer scenarios, 15 m, 10 m, 5 m width for tree and grass, were made to evaluate the effects of riparian buffer system on water quality improvement. Reduction efficiency of T-N by riparian buffer system of 15 m wide was the greatest (6 ~ 37%, depending on subwatershed characteristics) among 3 scenarios. It indicates that the reduction efficiency of T-N load has increasing-tendency, as buffer width increasing. The results obtained from the analysis showed that wide buffer zones are found to be more effective in reducing non-point pollutant than narrow buffer zones in the riparian buffer zone system. Hence, the SWAT-REMM model could be efficiently used for evaluation and design the most effective riparian buffer systems to reduce pollutant loads to the watershed although many limitations still exist in SWAT-REMM model.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.121-129
• /
• 2008

Major factors affecting water quality in rivers are transportation, input of pollutant loads and kinetic transformation of pollutants. Government level decision makings on water quality management are based on steady state water quality modeling. However, it is more than often that such a steady state assumption is far from real situations in rivers. Therefore, it is unavoidable to have modeling errors in water quality modeling especially for steady state modeling for longer period of time. Authors attempted to identify sources of errors in results of steady state models and thus tried to find out ways to minimize those errors. Three water quality models, QUAL2E (Brown et al., 1983), QUAL2K (Chapra et al., 2006) and CAP (Seo and Lee, 2000) were applied to the lower stream of the Geum River. $BOD_5$ and COD tend to underestimate observed data while TN and TP showed relatively smaller errors. QUAL2E model provided best calibration results for BOD5 and TP and QUAL2K model showed best calibration results for TN. Since these errors are only relative values, it was difficult to conclude which model is better performing in certain situations. The most probable reasons for errors in water quality modeling are; 1) inappropriate consideration on flow characteristics, 2) lack of information on incoming pollutant load and 3) inappropriate location of sampling for water quality analysis.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.859-872
• /
• 2015

Pebble matrix filtration (PMF) is a water treatment technology that can remove suspended solids in highly turbid surface water during heavy storms. PMF typically uses sand and natural pebbles as filter media. Hand-made clay pebbles (balls) can be used as alternatives to natural pebbles in PMF treatment plants, where natural pebbles are not readily available. Since the high turbidity is a seasonal problem that occurs during heavy rains, the use of newly developed composite clay balls instead of pure clay balls have the advantage of removing other pollutants such as natural organic matter (NOM) during other times. Only the strength properties of composite clay balls are described here as the pollutant removal is beyond the scope of this paper. These new composite clay balls must be able to withstand dead and live loads under dry and saturated conditions in a filter assembly. Absence of a standard ball preparation process and expected strength properties of composite clay balls were the main reasons behind the present study. Five different raw materials from industry wastes: Red Mud (RM), Water Treatment Alum Sludge (S), Shredded Paper (SP), Saw Dust (SD), and Sugar Mulch (SM) were added to common clay brick mix (BM) in different proportions. In an effort to minimize costs, in this study clay balls were fired to $1100^{\circ}C$ at a local brick factory together with their bricks. A comprehensive experimental program was performed to evaluate crushing strength of composite hand-made clay balls, using uniaxial compression test to establish the best material combination on the basis of strength properties for designing sustainable filter media for water treatment plants. Performance at both construction and operating stages were considered by analyzing both strength properties under fully dry conditions and strength degradation after saturation in a water bath. The BM-75% as the main component produced optimum combination in terms of workability and strength. With the material combination of BM-75% and additives-25%, the use of Red Mud and water treatment sludge as additives produced the highest and lowest strength of composite clay balls, with a failure load of 5.4 kN and 1.4 kN respectively. However, this lower value of 1.4 kN is much higher than the effective load on each clay ball of 0.04 kN in a typical filter assembly (safety factor of 35), therefore, can still be used as a suitable filter material for enhanced pollutant removal.