• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.333-344
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• 2022

The quarrying and utilization of natural building stones such as granite and marble are rapidly emerging in developing countries. A huge amount of wastes is being generated during the processing, cutting and sizing of these stones to make them useable. These wastes are disposed of in the open environment and the toxic nature of these wastes negatively affects the environment and human health. The growth trend in the world stone industry was confirmed in output for 2019, increasing more than one percent and reaching a new peak of some 155 million tons, excluding quarry discards. Per-capita stone use rose to 268 square meters per thousand persons (m²/1,000 inh), from 266 the previous year and 177 in 2001. However, we have to take into consideration that the world's gross quarrying production was about 316 million tons (100%) in 2019; about 53% of that amount, however, is regarded as quarrying waste. With regards to the stone processing stage, we have noticed that the world production has reached 91.15 million tons (29%), and consequently this means that 63.35 million tons of stone-processing scraps is produced. Therefore, we can say that, on a global level, if the quantity of material extracted in the quarry is 100%, the total percentage of waste is about 71%. This raises a substantial problem from the environmental, economical and social point of view. There are essentially three ways of dealing with inorganic waste, namely, reuse, recycling, or disposal in landfills. Reuse and recycling are the preferred waste management methods that consider environmental sustainability and the opportunity to generate important economic returns. Although there are many possible applications for stone waste, they can be summarized into three main general applications, namely, fillers for binders, ceramic formulations, and environmental applications. The use of residual sludge for substrate production seems to be highly promising: the substrate can be used for quarry rehabilitation and in the rehabilitation of industrial sites. This new product (artificial soil) could be included in the list of the materials to use in addition to topsoil for civil works, railway embankments roundabouts and stone sludge wastes could be used for the neutralization of acidic soil to increase the yield. Stone waste is also possible to find several examples of studies for the recovery of mineral residues, including the extraction of metallic elements, and mineral components, the production of construction raw materials, power generation, building materials, and gas and water treatment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.102 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2013

Analysis of new approaches to achieve naturally good ecological potential of forest road cut-slope by making the best use of advantages of gabion systems with vegetation base materials to prevent slope failure and erosion, in the area with highly erodible soil. Existing gabion systems can be divided into monolithic and modular system and can be divided into ten subtypes according to the purpose of establishment and combination of other measures. As a result on the monitoring of erosion amount from forest road cut-slopes in the test applications, the order of erosion amount from largest to smallest is as follows: the curved road cut-slope site where normal gabion system was established 5,840 $cm^3$; the control site 5,833 $cm^3$; the straight road cut-slope site where normal gabion system was established 5,621 $cm^3$; the curved road cut-slope site where the new gabion system was established 4,298 $cm^3$; and the straight road cut-slope site where the new gabion system 4,117 $cm^3$. Therefore, the result shows that the new gabion system is more effective than the normal gabion system to reduce erosion amount from forest road cut-slopes. During the study period, vegetation coverages of the straight and curved road cut-slope site where the new gabion system was established were about 56(30~85)% and about 45(28~65)%, so average vegetation coverage of the sites where the new gabion systems was established was higher than the sites where the normal gabion systems was established. Therefore, it was concluded that the new gabion system can be more effective for cut-slope revegetation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.3
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• pp.419-430
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• 2021

This study investigated spatiotemporal trends of sediment-related disasters in North Korea from 1960 to 2019 and post-disaster recovery cases based on a literature review and satellite images. Results showed that occurrence status of sediment-related disasters was initially externally reported in 1995 (during the Kim Jongil era); their main triggering factor was heavy summer rainfall. Furthermore, forest degradation rate was positively correlated with population density (R² = 0.4347, p = 0.02) and occurrence number of sediment-related disasters was relatively high on the west coast region, where both variables showed high values. This indicates that human activity was a major cause of forest degradation and thus, significantly affected sediment-related disasters in mountain regions. Finally, sediment- related disasters due to shallow landslides, debris flow, and slow-moving landslides were observed in undisturbed forest regions and human-impacted forest regions, including terraced fields, opencast mines, forest roads, and post-wildfire areas, via satellite image analysis. These disaster-hit areas remained mostly abandoned without any recovery works, whereas hillside erosion control work (e.g., treeplanting with terracing) or torrent erosion control work (e.g., check dam, debris flow guide bank) were implemented in certain areas. These findings can provide reference information to expand inter-Korean exchange and cooperation in forest rehabilitation and erosion control works of North Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.129-137
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• 2008

An active application of concrete track is being expected far the future constructions of Korean railroad. In comparison with the existing ballasted tract, a concrete track is very susceptible for the settlement, since its rehabilitation requires much time and cost. When a concrete track is constructed on fine-grained subgrade soil, excessive cumulative plastic settlements due to repetitive train road may occur. In this case, the settlement of the concrete track may be effectively reduced by installing a small number of small-diameter piles beneath the track. This paper presents the effect of pile installation on the reduction of cumulative plastic settlement of concrete track. A method combining experiential equation and numerical method is proposed. Using an existing experiential equation and the estimated earth pressure distribution, the cumulative plastic strain was calculated. From the results, it is verified that the effects of the pile installation is significant to effectively reduce the cumulative plastic settlement of concrete track. The reduction effects of the cumulative plastic settlement according to the pile number and pile arrangement are presented.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2020

This study was conducted to suggest the new grassland grade system on evaluating the grassland status. The grassland status has been evaluated based on the forage yield (good, fair and poor) by municipal authorities. The grassland grades by current system were 19 good, 11 fair and 11 poor among the 41 grassland farms from 6 provinces. This evaluation result differed greatly from the result of actual measurement of forage yields which showed all poor. The big difference was resulted from failing the reflection of the various characteristics, such as different seasonal growth and harvest frequency. Furthermore, the lack of consistent examining date and method added the inaccuracy of current grassland grade system. The new grassland grade system based on the grassland vegetation ratio (grass, weed and bare soil) was initially designed into 6-grade system (1st; 100~80%, 2nd; 79~60%, 3rd; 59~40%, 4th; 39~20%; 5th; 19~1% and 6th; 0% on the basis of grasses proportion), but later was changed into 4-grade system (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades are 70% or more, 50% or more, 50% or less, and 0% of forage proportion, respectively) after reflecting the opinion of grassland farms and municipal authorities. Re-evaluation on the grassland status using the 4-grade system resulted in the total 80% consisted of 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade which means most grasslands needs the partial reseeding or the rehabilitation of entire grassland. Pictures and schematic diagrams depicting the 4-grade system were presented to improve the objectivity of evaluation. The optimal time for assessing grassland status is fall when plant height 20~30 cm. Conclusively, the 4-grade system is an efficient method for all non-professionals including grassland farms or municipal authorities in assessing the grassland status. To apply this system to the field, the institutional arrangements such as amendment of grassland act should take place in advance.