• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.3 s.120
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• pp.344-354
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• 2007

Estuarine wetlands for 33 watersheds in the Han River estuary were delineated on topographic maps from the 1910s, 1970s, and 2000s. Then, these data were used to address the issue of spatial distribution and temporal variation. Watershed characteristics such as drainage density, location, watershed size, slope, and elevation were identified for each watershed to determine the relationship between watershed characteristics and spatial distribution of estuarine wetlands. The analysis of estuarine wetlands indicated that wetlands in the estuary had declined gradually between the 1910s and the 1970s, although most wetlands were lost since the 1970s mainly caused by the large development projects related to urban expansion in metropolitan Seoul. The sediment composition and formation processes of the wetlands differed with watershed location; mud flats dominate in the lower part of the estuary, and relatively more sandy and emergent-plant wetlands occur near the main channel and tributaries of the Han River. Relatively more estuary wetlands occur in large watersheds, which have high slopes and low elevations. Estuarine wetlands have been lost dramatically in the densely populated watershed regions (i.e., Han River Seoul, Han River Goyang, West Han River), while relatively more wetlands have remained in undeveloped regions, including the Lower Imjin River and Lower Han River. In particular, anthropogenic disturbance has played an important role in the loss of wetland through the conversion of wetland into agricultural and developed land.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.178-184
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• 2012

BOD decay rate is a key parameter of BOD-DO models in streams and lakes. In the calibration of water quality modeling appropriate range of coefficient is required for guidance of parameter selection. In this study BOD decay rate was measured at 48 stream sites and 10 reservoir sites in 8 different river systems. The decay rate ranged from 0.09 to 0.25 $day^{-1}$ with a mean of 0.16 $day^{-1}$. Among river systems the decay rates showed significantly different ranges, with the Han River system showing higher values than other river systems. In comparing different types of water bodies, the decay rate was slightly higher in tributaries than in reservoirs and mainstreams. Our results can provide guidance to the selection of proper coefficient for various water bodies in the calibration of water quality models.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.363-374
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• 2018

The Han River serves as an important water resource for the city of Seoul, Korea and in the neighboring metropolitan areas. From the Paldang dam to the Jamsil submerged weir, the 4 water intake stations that are located for the Seoul metropolitan population were under review in this study. Therefore the water quality management in this section is very important to monitor, analyze and review to rule out any safety concerns. In this study, a 3-D hydrodynamic model, EFDC (Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code), was applied to the downstream of the Paldang Dam in the Han River, which is about 23 km in length, to determine issues related to water resource management. The 3-D grid was composed of 2,168 horizontal grids and three vertical layers. In this case, the hydrodynamic model was calibrated and verified with an observed average daily water surface elevation, water temperature and flow rate data for 3 years (2013~2015). The developed EFDC model proved to reproduce the hydrodynamics of the Han River well. The composition ratios of the noted incoming flows at the monitored intake stations for 3 years and their flow patterns in the river were analyzed using the validated model. It was found that the flow of the Wangsuk Stream depended on the Paldnag dam discharge, and it was noted that the composition ratios of the stream at the intake stations changed accordingly. In a word, the Wangsuk Stream moved mainly along the right bank of the Han River under the condition of a normal dam flow. As can be seen, when the dam discharge rate was low, the incidence of lateral mixing was often seen. The scenario analyses were also conducted to predict the transport of conservative pollutants as in the case of a chemical spill accident. Generally speaking, when scenarios were applied, the arrival time and concentration of pollutants at each intake station was thus predicted.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.363-363
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• 2023

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is a powerful tool for addressing various practical problems and it has been extensively applied in areas of water resources. In this study, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were developed for flood forecasting at specific locations on the Han River. The Partial Mutual Information (PMI) technique was used to select input variables for ANNs that are neither over-specified nor under-specified while adequately describing the underlying input-output relationships. Historical observations including discharges at the Paldang Dam, flows from tributaries, water levels at the Paldang Bridge, Banpo Bridge, Hangang Bridge, and Junryu gauge station, and time derivatives of the observed water levels were considered as input candidates. Lagged variables from current time t to the previous five hours were assumed to be sufficient in this study. A three-layer neural network with one hidden layer was used and the neural network was optimized by selecting the optimal number of hidden neurons given the selected inputs. Given an ANN architecture, the weights and biases of the network were determined in the model training. The use of PMI-based input variable selection and optimized ANNs for different sites were proven to successfully predict water levels during flood periods.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.243-250
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: Recently, the use of $^{131}I$ for diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer has been increasing, and the radionuclide is continuously released into aquatic ecosystem. This study was carried out to investigate the $^{131}I$ concentrations in mainstreams, tributaries, and sewage wastewater treatment plants (SWTPs) of the Yeongsan River Basin and to identify their origins from the assessment of behaviors in the rivers. METHODS AND RESULTS: The water samples were collected from 19 sites including mainstreams (13), tributaries (4) and SWTPs (2). The $^{131}I$ concentration was measured using a gamma-ray spectrometry with a HPGe detector. The $^{131}I$ in SWTPs was detected mostly in the discharged effluent at the sampling sites. However, from the surface water of the rivers, $^{131}I$ was found only at two sites from each sampling period of the first (MS4 and MS10) and the second half (MS4 and MS7) of the year 2017. The concentrations of $^{131}I$ in the effluent discharged from SWTPs were in the range of 0.0870 to 3.87 Bq/L for SWTP1, and $^{131}I$ in the river revealed that it was not detected in the upper streams of the mainstreams and tributaries, while continuous detection was found in the SWTPs and downstream sites affected by the effluent. However, the concentration of $^{131}I$ decreased downstream, eventually becoming undetectable. Such behavior was closely related to the behavior found in the SWTPs. CONCLUSION: These results indicated that medically-derived $^{131}I$ was discharged to the river via sewage effluent at the SWTPs. It is necessary to evaluate the influence of aquatic ecosystems through continuous monitoring in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.249-262
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• 2021

This study investigated the pollution characteristics of the main pollution zone in the Hwangguji watershed and the influence of the tributary on the main stream. The characteristics of the main pollution zone, including, the water quality index (WQI), stream rating, load duration curve (LDC), delivery load density (DLD), and contribution of the tributary to the mainstream, were evaluated by time-series visual heatmap. The WQI of the mainstream of Hwangguji was lowered to the poor (IV) level from the inflow point of Suwon stream (SW) and the LDC excess rate in the T-P was higher than that of BOD₅, especially for the wet season, suggesting that management of non-point source with T-P is preferred. The contribution (%) of the tributaries in the upstream section of Hwangguji watershed were BOD₅ 14.54%, TOC 15.67%, T-N 5.43%, and T-P 6.97%. In particular, the Suwon sewage treatment plant located in the mainstream showed a high contribution of BOD₅ (64.40%) and T-P (53.54%), respectively, due to the high discharge rate (6.019 m³/sec). Meanwhile, Sammi and Gal stream have a large impact on the mainstream with high DLD and poor WQI. Thus, both streams were considered as pollution hot spots. These results provide useful basic data for preparing more effective water quality improvement and management plans in the watershed.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.41-57
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• 2019

The grain size characteristics of river sediments and the characteristics of bedrock were investigated for the 24km section of the Dong River upstream of the Han River. The bedrock of the study area is various limestone belonging to the Paleozoic Choseon limestone group, and Mesozoic sandstone and conglomerate occur in some areas. Most of the river channel is made of limestone, and most of the river bottom is covered with fluvial sediments. More than 70% of these sediments are sandstone and conglomerate, rather than limestone which forms the basis of the valley. Sediment particles seem to have been supplied upstream of the study area rather supplied from the slope near of the channel. It is difficult to find the statistically significant difference in the shape of the sediment particles of limestones and non-limestones. However, limestones has platy forms rather than block forms, it can be assumed that the limestone was supplied from the surrounding valley wall and transported over a short distance. The particle sizes of DG1~DG2(the upstream section) are decreasing in the downstream direction. However, at DG3, which is a tributary, Jijangcheon, confluence particle size increases and at DG4 particle size increases more. In the case of DG4, it may be influenced by the influx of tributaries, but it also can be supposed as the impact of the large flood in 2002. In the downstream parts(DG5~DG7), the particle size decreases exponentially with distance. The rebound strength of stream sediments and bedrock was measured by using Schmidt hammer. Limestone showed lower rebound strength than non-limestone. According to the results of the sediment and bedrock, it can be seen that the sandstone and conglomerate with high rebound values pass through valley with the relatively low strength limestone. The sediments of limestone were decreased in grain size more rapidly than those of limestone sediments.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.73-86
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• 1995

The propriety of the numerical model application was examined on Paldang resevoir and its inflow tributaries located in the center of the Korean peninsula and the long term water quality forecast of the oxygen profile was carried out in this syduy. The input data of the model was the capacity of the reservoir, catchment area, percolation, diffusion rate, vertical mixing rate, dissolution rate from the bottom of the reservoir, outflow of the resevoir, water quality measurement and meteorology data of the drainage basin, and the output result was the annual estimation value of the dissolved oxygen concentration and the biochemical oxygen demand. The modeling method is based on the measured or calculated boundary condition dividing the water area into several blocks from the macorscopic aspect and considering the mass balance in these blocks. As the result of the water quality forecast, it was expected that the water quality in Northern Han River and Paldang reservoir would maintain the recent level, but that the water quality in the Southern Han River and its inflow tributary would worsen below the grade 4 of the life environmental standard from around 2000 owing to the decrease of DO concentration and the increase of BOD concentration.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.575-585
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• 1997

A daily runoff system was constructed to support decision making for water use in the downstream region of multipurpose dams in the Han River. The daily runoff system used the modified model from NWSRFS by Tabios III et al. (1986), and potential evapotranspiration was computed from Penman equation. DWOPER was used for channel routing. While the North Han River is the main river reach in the channel routing system, the South Han River and the Soyang River became tributaries. The rainfall-runoff model was calibrated and verified for five subbasins. Daily runoffs were simulated with the hydrometeorological data in 1986 and1990. The simulations were performed from April to November, and the sum of computed discharges for seven or thirty days were compared with actual releases of the downstream dams. It showed the average absolute errors of 8.7 ~31.6%. The sum of total discharges were 10% or less. While stage errors were produced by 0.5 m or less at Yoju station in the ease of simulation from April to August in 1986, the errors kept under 0.2 m since September. In the simulation for 1990, we compared two simulation results. One is produced from real internal and downstream boundary conditions and the other is one from internal and downstream boundary conditions fixed arbitrarily. The two cases showed similar results.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.1B
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• pp.71-78
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• 2012

The habitat suitability is an important factor to estimate the distribution and size of the physical habitat in river. This suitability is also a key factor to decide the ecological flow discharge for the fish. For the ecological analysis in river, accurate values of habitat suitability index for various fishes are necessary. In general, fish habitat is affected by the physical factor of the flow depth and velocity as well as the chemical and biological factors of nutrient and attached algae. Thus, the condition of the fish habitat is expected to be changed with each watershed and tributary. In this study, the habitat suitability indices for fishes were proposed by using the field monitoring data in the rivers of the Han and Geum river watersheds. The proposed indices for three fishes are compared: Zacco platypus, Zacco temminckii, and Coreoleuciscus splendidus. The results show that Zacco platypus has a similar distribution of habitat suitability index in two watersheds. Zacco temminckii and Coreoleuciscus splendidus, however, have different distributions with watersheds. Also, for Zacco platypus, the developed indices at three tributaries of the Han river are compared: Cheng-mi stream, Dal stream, and Hong-cheon stream. The comparision shows that the index in the Cheng-mi stream is different with those in the other rivers. This is expected to be because of a high nutrient concentration at the Cheong-mi stream.