• Title/Summary/Keyword: urban environmental quality

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Monitoring of fecal contamination in a partly restored urban stream in Seoul, Korea

  • Seo, Eun-Young;Jung, Dawoon;Yong, Seung-Cheon;Park, Rho Young;Lee, Young-Ok;Ahn, Tae-Seok
    • Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.211-218
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    • 2016
  • Cheonggye-cheon is a partly restored urban stream located in central Seoul. We monitored fecal contamination using three different fecal indicators, total coliforms (TC), fecal coliforms (FC) and E. coli, to assess differences in each indicator on days of varying weather conditions. Presumptive TC, FC and E. coli colonies were identified by their 16S rRNA sequences. The results showed that enumeration of E. coli provided a better reflection of fecal contamination of the stream than TC and FC. The main sources of contamination were the inflow of fecal-polluted groundwater from the vicinity of a subway line and two inflowing streams. The fecal contamination was worsened on days with heavy rain because untreated sewage from a collecting facility flowed into the stream. Moreover, growth potential of fecal indicator (E. coli) in situ induced by algal exudates was measured. Our results suggest that an appropriate standard based on E. coli rather than TC and FC should be established for improving water quality management strategies of Cheonggye-cheon in the future.

Assessing the Human Perceptions of Physical Environmental Stressors Through Behavior Response Examination

  • Kim, Siyeon;Kim, Yeon Joo;Kim, Hyunsoo;Hwang, Sungjoo
    • International conference on construction engineering and project management
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    • 2022.06a
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    • pp.855-862
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    • 2022
  • Environmental stressors considerably influence the health and safety of humans and must thus be continuously monitored to enhance the urban environments and associated safety. Environmental stressors typically act as stimuli and lead to behavioral changes that can be easily identified. These behavioral responses can thus be used as indicators to clarify people's perceptions of environmental stressors. Therefore, in this study, a framework for assessing environmental stressors based on human behavioral responses was developed. A preliminary experiment was conducted to investigate the feasibility of the framework. Human behavioral and physiological data were collected using wearable sensors, and a survey was performed to determine the psychological responses. Humans were noted to consistently exhibit changes in the movement and speed in the presence of physical environmental stressors, as physiological and psychological responses. The results demonstrated the potential of using behavioral responses as indicators of the human perceptions toward environmental stressors. The proposed framework can be used for urban environment monitoring to enhance the quality and safety.

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A Geographical Study on Water Environmental Changes in the Urban Rivers in Tokyo, Japan

  • Taniguchi, Tomomasa
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.38 no.spc
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    • pp.54-57
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    • 2005
  • It is important to assess the change of water environment in the present and past. In this study, present-day water quality standards are applied to the expressions in literary works to reconstruct the historical water environment including the quality. As the result, the historical reconstruction of water quality has been made distribution of water quality from 1905 to 1935 for the Sumida River in Tokyo.

Study on the Current status and Direction of Environmental Governance around Urban forest in Korea : With a Focus on the Recognition of Local Government Officials (도시숲의 환경거버넌스 현황과 방향성에 관한 연구 : 지자체 담당자의 인식 분석을 중심으로)

  • Kim, Jae-Hyun;Tae, Yoo-Lee;Chang, Chu-Youn;Kim, Kyung-Mok
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.99 no.4
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    • pp.580-589
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    • 2010
  • In Korea, Public demand for quality of life is increasing gradually with socioeconomic growth. It is really necessary urban forestry because urban forest is one of the important factors in citizen's living environment. There is expected to participate government, citizen, NGOs and the corporate sector in urban forestry. This study was investigated the directions of environmental governance in urban forestry focused local government. As a result, urban forestry official recognized the importance of urban forestry by partnership. In order to manage urban forest efficiently, the committee must be comprised of various stakeholder and researcher have need to develop support system for management. Especially, it shows that they prefer corporations participate to create and manage urban forest.

A Study on the Urban Ecosystem Assessment for 31 Cities & Counties around the Capital (수도권 31개 시·군의 도시생태계 현황 평가에 관한 연구)

  • Sung, Hyun-Chan;Hwang, So-Young
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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    • v.15 no.5
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    • pp.165-176
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    • 2012
  • The objective of this study is to set urban ecosystem assessment indicators, assess the status of the urban ecosystems in 31 cities & counties in the capital region and based on which, to examine an improvement plan to resolve problems and raise quality and quantity of urban ecosystems. The study showed that the ecological base of 31 cities & counties was 48% on average, which indicates that their ecological property is the middle class. Their natural-ecological function was 63% and environmental-control function was 25%, showing that environment-control function was poor. Therefore, going forward, urban ecological base should be further improved. When securing an ecological base, creation techniques should be able to further enhance environmental-control function along with natural-ecological function. Also, additional effort should be made to conserve areas with high ecological value as much as possible and increase vegetation vitality by replacing tree species.

Impacts of anthropogenic heating on urban boundary layer in the Gyeong-In region (인공열이 도시경계층에 미치는 영향 - 경인지역을 중심으로 -)

  • Koo, Hae-Jung;Ryu, Young-Hee
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.21 no.5
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    • pp.665-681
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    • 2012
  • This study investigates the influence of anthropogenic heat (AH) release on urban boundary layer in the Gyeong-In region using the Weather Research and Forecasting model that includes the Seoul National University Urban Canopy Model (SNUUCM). The gridded AH emission data, which is estimated in the Gyeong-In region in 2002 based on the energy consumption statistics data, are implemented into the SNUUCM. The simulated air temperature and wind speed show good agreement with the observed ones particularly in terms of phase for 11 urban sites, but they are overestimated in the nighttime. It is found that the influence of AH release on air temperature is larger in the nighttime than in the daytime even though the AH intensity is larger in the daytime. As compared with the results with AH release and without AH release, the contribution of AH release on urban heat island intensity is large in the nighttime and in the morning. As the AH intensity increases, the water vapor mixing ratio decreases in the daytime but increases in the nighttime. The atmospheric boundary layer height increases greatly in the morning (0800 - 1100 LST) and midnight (0000 LST). These results indicate that AH release can have an impact on weather and air quality in urban areas.

The Indoor Environmental Quality Improving and Energy Saving Potential of Phase-Change Material Integrated Facades for High-Rise Office Buildings in Shanghai

  • Jin, Qian
    • International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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    • v.6 no.2
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    • pp.197-205
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    • 2017
  • The conflict between indoor environmental quality and energy consumption has become an unneglectable problem for highrise office buildings, where occupants' productivity is highly affected by their working environment. An effective Façade, therefore, should play the role of an active building skin by adapting to the ever-changing external environment and internal requirements. This paper explores the energy-saving and indoor environment-improving potential of a phase-change material (PCM) integrated Façade. Building performance simulations, combined with parametric study and sensitivity analysis, are adopted in this research. The result quantifies the potential of a PCM-integrated Façade with different configurations and PCM properties, taking as an example a south-oriented typical office room in Shanghai. It is found that a melting temperature of around $22^{\circ}C$ for the PCM layer is optimal. Compared to a conventional Façade, a PCM-integrated Façade effectively reduces total energy use, peak heating/cooling load, and operative temperature fluctuation during the periods of May-July and November-December.

Urban Climate Mapping - The Case of Sanggye 4-Dong - (도시기후지도의 작성 -상계 4동을 중심으로-)

  • 송영배
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.29 no.6
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    • pp.27-36
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    • 2002
  • The objective of this study is to improve the quality of the atmospheric environment by incorporating the factors of meteorology and urban climate into the field of urban and environmental planning. To this end, we have conducted a study on CLIMATOP and the mapping of urban climate, which are basic data used to analyze changes in climatic factors and the stagnation and accumulation of air pollutants. In particular, we focused on understanding the formation and movement of cold fresh air and its influx into urban areas by measuring and analyzing climatic factors. As a study result, classification criteria far CLIMATOP and a urban climatic map were made. In addition, we analyzed a digital elevation model, climatic data, and isothermal curves. As a result, we identified the corridor through which cold fresh air moves. We also observed that the temperature of the fluxed cold fresh air increased as land use changed. When the results of this study are applied to urban re-development and re-building projects, which require preliminary environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment, the practice proposed by this study is expected to contribute to the natural purification of air pollution activating the movement of cold fresh air and its influx into urban areas.

A Study on the Application and Assessment of Urban River Restoration in the Anyang River (안양천 도시하천 복원의 실행과 평가에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Sam-Hee;Choi, Jung-Kwon
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 2007
  • The Anyang River which located in an urban area near Seoul had been managed focusing on supplying home and industrial water and preventing floods, coping with rapid industrialization and urbanization. Consequently, it was changed into a deadly river during 25 years. Its channel was straightened by concrete and water quality deteriorated to BOD 190mg/l. In addition, water quantity has been rapidly decreased and has been drying up. Also, as the river ecosystem, landscape, water-friendly function, and so forth were seriously deteriorated, people turn away from the urban river. From 2001, the master plan under the 10-year has been actively carried out centering on the preceding items, which are healthy river in which fishes inhabit, safe river free from floods and droughts, and pleasant river where citizens visit. As a result, its water quality was remarkably improved by BOD 5mg/l in 2005 and some upper zones were improved enough to allow people to swim. Moreover, various animals including fish and birds gather around the river. Now, the 'Anyang River Restoration Project' is recognized as the first comprehensive and systematic nature-friendly urban river improvement in Korea.

CHARACTERIZATION OF NONPOINT SOURCES FROM URBAN RUNOFF

  • Park, Jae-Young;Jo, Young-Min;Oh, Jong-Min
    • Water Engineering Research
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.39-48
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    • 2000
  • This work was completed in partial fulfillment of an on-going research ot descover the effective management of urban nonpoint sources. The current data was obtained from the area of Shingal, Kyunni-do. The investigation was are predominant soures of storm-runoff load and drainage. As a result of the investigation, the road was found to be most seriously contaminated and a significant potential source deteriorating the quality of streams and lakes in the vicinity of the town. Thus, in could be concluded that an effective and systematic cleaning technique must be developed as soon as possible and be frequently applied to the road.

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