• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.27-36
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• 2008

This paper presents a comprehensive laboratory study that examines the effects of porosity, water content, density and grain size distribution on the thermal conductivity of soils which were sampled from 16 synoptic stations of Korea. The experimental results clearly demonstrate that porosity and water content are important parameters which strongly affect the thermal conductivity of soils. Soils with lower porosities and higher water contents have higher thermal conductivities. On the contrary, increase of the matrix density slightly increases the thermal conductivity, and grain size distribution hardly affects the thermal conductivity. Dry soils with the same porosity tend to have more scattered values of thermal conductivity than wet soils. Based on the experimental results, a multiple linear regression model and a nonlinear regression model, having two regression variables of porosity and water content, were presented to predict thermal conductivity. Both models show a high accuracy of prediction with $R^2$ values of 0.74 and 0.82, respectively. Thus, it is expected that the suggested empirical models can be used for predicting thermal conductivity of soils by measuring porosity and water content.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.509-520
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• 2018

Alkalinity is one of the basic variables, which determine geochemical characteristics of natural waters and participate in processes changing concentrations of various contaminants either directly or indirectly. However, not a few laboratories and researchers of Korea still use alkalinity-measurement methods not appropriate for groundwaters, and which becomes one of the major reasons for the poor ion balance errors of the geochemical analysis. This study was performed to review alkalinity-measurement methods, to discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and, thus, to help researchers and analytical specialists in analyzing alkalinity of groundwaters. The pH-titration-curve-inflection-point (PTC-IP) methods, which finds the alkalinity end point from the inflection point of the pH titration curve are revealed to be most accurate. Gran titration technique among them are likely to be most appropriate for accurate estimation of titrant volume to the end point. In contrast, other titration methods such as pH indicator method and pre-selected pH method, which are still commonly being used, are likely to cause erroneous results especially for groundwaters of low ionic strength and alkalinity.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.1031-1039
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• 2022

As one of the hydrological factors closely related to landslides, precipitation indirectly affects slope stability by generating external forces. Groundwater level fluctuations have attracted more attention lately as factors that directly affect slope stability have become more prominent. Therefore, this study attempted to analyze the relationship between variables through changes in precipitation, groundwater levels, and land displacement. A time series-based analysis was conducted using satellite-based precipitation and point-based groundwater levels in conjunction with the PSInSAR technique to simulate land displacement in urban and mountainous areas. There was a sharp rise in groundwater levels in both urban and mountain areas during heavy rainfall, and a continuous decrease in urban areas when rainfall was low. 6 mm of displacements was observed in the mountainous area as a results of soil outflow from the topsoil layer, which was accompanied by an increased groundwater level. Meanwhile, different results were found in urban area. In response to the rise in groundwater level, the land displacement increases due to the expansion of soil skeletons, while the decrease seems to be attributed to anthropogenic influences. Overall, there was no consistent relationship between groundwater levels and land displacement, which appears to be caused by factors other than hydrological factors. Additional consideration of environmental factors could contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between the two factors.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.57-67
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• 2023

Slope failures during rainfall have been observed in mountainous areas of South Korea as a result of the presence of solar power facilities. The seepage behavior and pore pressure distribution differ from typical slopes due to the presence of impermeable solar panels, and the load imposed by the solar power structures also affects the slope behavior. This study aims to develop a method for evaluating the stability of slopes with solar power facilities and to analyze vulnerable points by considering the maximum slope displacement. To assess the slope stability and predict behavior while considering rainfall seepage, a combined seepage analysis and finite difference method numerical analysis were employed. For the selected site, various variables were assumed, including parameters related to the Soil Water Characteristic Curve, strength parameters that satisfy the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, soil properties, and topographic factors such as slope angle and bedrock depth. The factors with the most significant influence on the factor of safety (FOS) were identified. The presence of solar power facilities was found to affect the seepage distribution and FOS, resulting in a decreasing trend due to rainfall seepage. The maximum displacement points were concentrated near the upper (crest) and lower (toe) sections of the slope.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.245-250
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• 2017

Flash floods is defined as the flooding of intense rainfall over a relatively small area that flows through river and valley rapidly in short time with no advance warning. So that it can cause damage property and casuality. This study is to establish the flash-flood warning system using 38 accident data, reported from the National Disaster Information Center and Land Surface Model(TOPLATS) between 2009 and 2012. Three variables were used in the Land Surface Model: precipitation, soil moisture, and surface runoff. The three variables of 6 hours preceding flash flood were reduced to 3 factors through factor analysis. Decision tree, random forest, Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machine, and logistic regression model are considered as big data methods. The prediction performance was evaluated by comparison of Accuracy, Kappa, TP Rate, FP Rate and F-Measure. The best method was suggested based on reproducibility evaluation at the each points of flash flood occurrence and predicted count versus actual count using 4 years data.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.223-235
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• 2011

Juncus effusus is mostly found in freshwater wetlands and is widely used for landscaping and creating artificial wetlands due to its high ecological value. J. effusus tends to dominate during the early stage (3-10 years) of the second succession in abandoned paddy fields. This study focused on the environmental characteristics of J. effusus to create habitat for an endangered species, Nannopya pygmaea, which lives in wetlands dominated by J. effusus. Considering the distribution of J. effusus and N. pygmaea, 63 quadrats at eight wetlands were investigated between May and June 2006 during the critically dry period. Fifty-three species from 28 families co-occurred with J. effusus, and Persicaria thunbergii was the most abundant (63.5%). The optimal ranges of distribution (ORD) for the water variables were water depth, -2 to 10 cm; dissolved oxygen, 0.99-3.55 mg/kg, conductivity (CON), 23.40-115.40 ${\mu}s/cm$, total dissolved solid, 12.53-57.60 mg/L; pH, 5.00-6.87; $K^+$, 0.11-1.46 mg/L; $Ca^{2+}$, 1.53-5.85 mg/L; $Na^+$, 3.16-7.47 mg/L; $Mg^{2+}$, 0.11-1.96 mg/L; $NO_3$-N, < 0.001-0.072 mg/L; $NH_4$-N, 0.005-0.097 mg/L; and $PO_4$-P, 0.006-0.047 mg/L. ORDs for the soil variables were water content, 1.05-2.96%; loss-on ignition method (LOI), 5.07-7.81%; CON, 23.70-59.70 ${\mu}s/cm$; pH, 4.40-5.16; extracted (e) $K^+$, 4.34-15.73 cmol/kg; $eCa^{2+}$, 31.56-191.56 cmol/kg; $eNa^+$, < 0.01-2.61 cmol/kg; eMg, 0.04-19.82 cmol/kg; $eNO_3$-N, 0.514-1.175 mg/kg; $eNH_4$-N, 0.033-0.974 mg/kg, $ePO_4$-P, 0.491-11.552 mg/kg; total nitrogen, 0.016-0.200%; and total carbon, 1.06-2.37%. The appearance of rush during early succession indicated relatively lower levels of these physicochemical parameters, and that ORDs should be maintained for the J. effusus community.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.214-223
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• 1992

To investigate the structure of the plant community of Mt. Jookyup area in Kwangnung forest, thirty-seven plots were set up by the clumped sampling method. The classification by TWINSPAN and two kinds of multivariate ordination(RA, DCA) were applied to the study area in order to classify them into several groups based on woody plants and environmental variables. The classification have been successfully overlayed on an ordination of the same data using DCA. The plots can be classified into five groups by TWINSPAN and DCA. The successional trends of tree species by both techniques seem to be expected two ways in the canopy layer. The first is from Pinus densiflora to Carpinus laxiflora and the second is from Pinus densiflora through Quercus mongolica to Carpinus laxiflora. In the understory layer, it was expected that Rhododendron mucronulatum ${\rightarrow}$Lindera obtusiloba, Symplocos chinensis for. pilosa, Viburunum erasum, Styrax obassia${\rightarrow}$Euonymus sachalinensis, Sorbus alnifolia. As the result of the analysis for the relationship between the stand scores of DCA and environmental variables, they had a tendency to increase significantly from the P. densiflora community to Quercus spp. community that was soil pH, total nitrogen, available phosphate and exchangeable potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.106 no.4
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• pp.450-456
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• 2017

This study was conducted to develop estimated equation for mortality rates (volume of dead trees, %) on coniferous and broad-leaved forests, representative forest types of South Korea. There were 6 equation models applied for estimating mortality such as a exponential equation, a Hamilton equation and variables using were DBH, basal area, and site index. Raw data used for estimating mortality were $5^{th}$ and $6^{th}$ national forest inventory data, and mortality was calculated with the difference of stocks between lived trees and dead trees by each sample plots. The most applicable equation to describe mortality on coniferous forest and broad-leaved forest was indicated as $P=(1+e^{(a+b{\times}DBH+c{\times}BA+d{\times}no\_ha+e{\times}density)})^{-1}$ and their goodness of fit showed 34% and 51% respectively. Goodness of fit in both equations were not much high because there were various factors which affect the mortality such as topographic conditions, soil characteristic, climatic factors, site quality, and competition. Therefore, it is considered that explaining mortality in forest with only 2 or 3 variables like DBH, basal area used in this analysis could be very difficult facts. However, this study is certainly worth in that there is no useful information on mortality by each forest type throughout the country at the present, and we would make an effort to promote the fitness of estimated equation for mortality adding competition index, tree crown density etc.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.129-143
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• 2012

This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of advanced spatial modeling techniques for environmental monitoring and impact assessment through a case study of Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in 1986. Land-cover types changed after the accident are analysed by a post classification comparison method using bi-temporal Landsat TM data acquired in 1986 and 1992 near the accident site. Spatial modeling including various kriging algorithms are also applied to analyze the relationships between Cesium concentrations in soil and thyroid cancer incidence rates in Belarus, which was greatly damaged by the accident. The change detection results clearly showed the decrease of croplands and the increase of abandoned lands, and concrete structures were newly built around the nuclear plant to prevent the spread of radioactive contamination. In Belarus, high Cesium concentrations were observed in southern areas with high thyroid cancer risk estimated by Poisson kriging. Geographically weighted regression, which could account for geographic variations of independent variables including Cesium concentrations and distances from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, was applied to extract the relationships between the independent variables and the thyroid cancer risk. The estimated risk values showed a correlation coefficient value of 0.98 with respect to the thyroid cancer risk values, which implied that the thyroid cancer risk in Belarus was affected by the accident. In conclusion, it is expected that advanced spatial modeling techniques applied in this study would be useful for environmental impact assessment and public health research.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 1983

A new approach is developed to analyze the reliability of the earth retaining wall using the concept of probability of failure, instead of conventional factor of safety. Many uncertainties, which are included in the conventional stability analysis, can be excluded by using the stochastic approach. And the reliability, more consistent with the reality, can be obtained by the simulation. The strength parameters of soil properties are assumed to be random variables to follow a generalized beta distribution. The interval [A, B] of the random variables could be determined using the maximum likelihood estimation. The pseudo-random values corresponding to the proposed beta distribution are generated using the rejection method. The probability of failure defined as follows, is obtained by using the Monte Carlo Method. $$P_f=\frac{M}{N}$$ where, $P_f$ : Probability of failure N : Total number of trials M : Total number of failure out of N A computer program is developed for the computation procedure mentioned above. Finally, a numerical example is solved using the developed program.