• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.269-277
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• 2024

Scientific forensic techniques are used to verify environmental impact of groundwater pollution, surface water pollution, air pollution, noise, and vibration according to residents' complaints in connection with construction and civil engineering works. In this study, we investigated the contamination of groundwater and the lowering of the groundwater level in an area surrounding a tunnel excavation site for the Andong-Yeongdeok national road, using a forensic hydrogeological technique. We reviewed the groundwater level and water quality of well GW1 in the area surrounding the tunnel excavation site as well as tunnel construction information and then we analyzed the correlations among the obtained data. Before tunnel excavation, the water level of well GW1 was lower than the tunnel elevation. Considering the relationship between the precipitation, tunnel discharge, tunnel depth, and groundwater level of well GW1, the groundwater flowed from the tunnel to well GW1. Moreover, the tunnel discharge and groundwater levels were not related to each other. The pH of well GW1 was 8.4 before tunnel excavation. During excavation, the pH declined to 8.1-8.2 at the beginning, and increased to 8.8 at the end of the excavation. The fluorine concentration in well GW1 was 2.49 mg/L, 1.91-3.22 mg/L, and 1.7-2.67 mg/L, respectively, before, during, and after the excavation. The sulfate ion concentration was very high, over 2,000 mg/L, before and during the excavation; after the excavation, it was between 200 and 323 mg/L. Turbidity was 1.47, 10.5, and 4.51 NTU before, during, and after tunnel excavation, respectively. Therefore, the excavation of this tunnel is not related to the groundwater quality of well GW1.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2012

This study aims to investigate characteristics of water quality factors by using survey results of national marine environmental monitoring system from 2004 to 2010 at coastal area of the East Sea of Korea. In this study, we chose statistical methods to analyze the correlation among water quality parameters and principal component analysis for characteristics of each water environment. In addition to this, we evaluated each water's pollution level based on eutrophication standard of OECD, Eutrophication Index(EI), and Organic Pollution Index(OPI). Major factors were chlorophyll a and salt according to the analysis at coastal area of the East Sea. The sea was divided into the south and the central part by Jukbyeon. Also, Jukbyeon in the central part of the East Sea and Gampo in the southern sea coastal waters have been classified separately. The nutritional status of coastal area of East Sea presented Mesotrophic to Oligotrophic level and EI showed less than 1. OPI in all of the coastal area at the East Sea represented that the water quality condition was favorable.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2008

A monsoon season monitoring data from June to September, 2005 of a small forested watershed located at the upstream of the North Han River system in Korea was conducted to analyze the flow variations, the NPS pollutant concentrations, and the pollution load characteristics with respect to sampling frequencies. During the 4-month period, 1,423 mm or 79.2% of annual rainfall(1,797 mm) were occurred and more than 77%, 54% and 68% of annual T-N, $NO_3$-N and T-P loads discharged. Flow rate was continuously measured with automatic velocity and water level meters and 58 water quality samples were taken and analyzed. It was analyzed that the flow volume by random measurement varied very widely and ranged from 79% to 218% of that of continuous measurement. It was recommended that flow measurement of small forested watersheds should be continuously measured with automated flow meters to precisely measure flow rates. Flow-weighted mean concentrations of T-N, $NO_3$-N and T-P during the period were 2.114 mg/L, 0.836 mg/L, and 0.136 mg/L, respectively. T-N, $NO_3$-N and T-P loads were sensitive to the number of samples. And it was analyzed that in order to measure the pollution load within the error of 10% to the true load, the rate of sampling frequency should be higher than 89.7% of the sample numbers that were required to compute the true pollution load. If it is compared to selected foreign research results, about 10 water samples for each rainfall event were needed to compute the pollution load within 10% error. It is unlikely in Korea and recommended that thorough NPS pollution monitoring studies are required to develop the standard monitoring procedures for reliable NPS pollution quantification.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.497-509
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• 2019

After the Total Maximum Daily Loads(TMDLs) was applied, it became beyond the limit of concentration management. However, it does not adequately reflect the characteristics of various watersheds, and causes problems with local governments because of the standard flow set. Thus, in this study, the Han River system is organized into four groups in estimating the Pollution Contribution by applying the Flow Duration Curve(FDC) created by the daily flow of data from the HSPF. And the method of this study is expected to be valuable as basic data for the TMDLs. As a result, Group I contains the main watersheds with no large hydraulic structures and tributary watersheds. There is no specificity in the FDC and the Pollution Contribution is estimated as rainfall runoff. Group II contains watersheds near the city where the FDC is maintained above a certain level during the Low Flow Conditions and the Pollution Contribution is estimated as the discharge flow of large scale point pollution facilities. Group III contains the main watersheds in which the large hydraulic structures are installed and FDC is curved in the Low Flow Conditions. So the Pollution Contribution is estimated as the water quality of the large hydraulic structures. Group IV contains the upstream in mainstream watersheds in which the large hydraulic structures are installed and the FDC is disabled before the Low Flow Conditions. As the flow is concentrated in the High Flow Conditions, the non-point pollution sources are estimated as the Pollution Contribution.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.105-114
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• 2019

The objective of this study was to investigate the pollution assessment of organic matters, nutrients, and metals in sediment in major lakes (5 lakes and 17 sites) of Buk-han river using various sediment pollution assessment guidelines and indices. The concentrations of organic matters and nutrients were lower than class IV (Sediment pollution assessment guidelines of Korea) and Severe Effect Level (SEL, Sediment pollution assessment guidelines of Ontario). This results indicated that the lakes sediments were unpolluted and tolerable level for sediment dwelling organisms by organic matters and nutrients. However, several sites of Chuncheon and Soyang lakes were evaluated "heavily polluted" level by organic index (Org-index). The order of lakes by metals concentrations from the one with the highest concentration was Hwacheon, Chuncheon, Cheongpyeong, Uiam, Soyang. All lakes except Hwacheon were assessed unpolluted to marginally and tolerable level for sediment dwelling organisms by metals based on sediment pollution assessment guidelines (Korean and Ontario), indices of geoaccumulation ($I_{geo}$), pollution loading (PLI) and ecological risk (RI). In Lake Hwacheon, every investigated sites were polluted with metals, especially Hg, based on sediment pollution assessment guideline of Korea and indices ($I_{geo}$, PLI and RI). The dwelling organisms in sediment of Hwacheon Lake were likely to be severed by metals.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.61-73
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• 2021

Recently, the deterioration of water quality in Wonju stream has been reported due to the increase in diverse pollution sources along with community development and urbanization. Various types of attempts with a huge budget were made for better water quality so far, but its effectiveness is still doubted. In order to establish site-oriented measures for water quality improvement, the topographic and hydrologic factors were evaluated based on site inspection and survey. As the major streams merged into the Wonju stream, the Hwa and Heungyang streams were found to have higher pollution loads and contributions compared to other streams due to the scattered livestock farms and industries, and vulnerable land use. Notably, the discharge water from the Wonju Public Sewage Treatment Plant had the highest level of pollution load, impacting on the water quality of Wonju Stream. According to the SWAT model as water quality measures, the improvement effect of water quality in this treatment plant can be reached to the reductions in BOD 11.06%, T-N 23.56%, T-P 10.60% when the proper managements applied, whereas the improvement of water quality would be 3.89%, 1.23%, and 3.32% for BOD, T-N, T-P, respectively, for the industries. The reduction of the livestock industry was generally very high as a pollution source, but it was not much higher at the end of Wonju Stream than other measures. These results recommended that the water q uality improvement measures should be designated for each upper-middle-lower section in Wonju stream.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.46-51
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• 1993

In order to survery the risk of air-borne lead to human, the relation between air-borne lead level and blood lead level was examined by using of the kinetic model and statistical model. The results of this survey were as follows: 1. The pathways of lead intake were food and water, mainly. 2. Though blood lead level of Korean urbanire was higher than that of American or Japanese, it was not so severe as to influence human health. 3. The lead content in food and water was high, and so it is needed to confirm the cause of high content was whether second contamination by air pollution or not.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2011

To understand the distribution of Giardia cysts in drinking water supplies in Seoul, Korea, we collected water samples quarterly at 6 intakes in the Han River, its largest stream and 6 conventional water treatment plants (WTPs) serving drinking water, from 2000 to 2009. Giardia cysts in each of 10 L water were confirmed in 35.0% of intake water samples and the arithmetic mean was 1.65 cysts/10 L (range 0-35 cysts/10 L). The lowest cyst density was observed at Paldang and Kangbuk intakes, and the pollution level was higher at 4 intakes downstream. It seemed that these 4 intakes were under influence of Wangsuk stream at the end of which cysts were found in all samples with the mean of 140 cysts/10 L. The annual mean number of cysts was 0.21-4.21 cysts/10 L, and the cyst level at the second half of the 10 years was about 1/5 of that at first half on average. The cysts were more frequently found in winter, and their mean density was 3.74 cysts/10 L in winter and 0.80-1.08 cysts/10 L in other seasons. All finished water samples collected at 6 WTPs were negative for Giardia in each of 100 L sample for 10 years and cyst removal by physical process was average 2.9-log. It was concluded that conventional water treatment at 6 WTPs of Seoul appears to remove the cysts effectively under the present level of their source water. Domestic wastewater from the urban region could be an important source of Giardia pollution in the river.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.107-118
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• 2001

The aim of this paper is to grasp eutrophication aspects in Namhae coastal seas, statistically analyzing existing data for their surface seawater and bottom mud. A pollution level(ignition loess) of bottom mud, on the whole, trended to increase as moving the coastal sea around Mokpo-Wando toward the east(Gyeongnam Namhae coastal seas). Especially, the pollution level(ignition loss=10.5%) of bottom mud for the coastal sea around Tongyeong-Keoje-Gosung was similar to that(10.3%) for the coastal sea around Masan-Jinhae, whose coastal marine pollution was the severest in Namhae coastal seas. It indicates that large amounts of pollutant from aqualculture facilities have been, thus far, accumulated on the coastal sea around Tongyeong-Keoje-Gosung, considering there was no significant inflow of sewage and industrial wastewater into this coastal sea. A COD, T-N, and T-P level of surface seawater, on the whole trended to increase as moving the coastal sea around Mokpo-Wando toward the east(Gyeongnam Namhae coastal seas). A COD level appeared to be the second grade of coastal water quality over the entire year throughout all Namhae coastal seas A T-N level exceeded the third grade of coastal water quality throughout all Namhae coastal seas except the coastal sea around Mokpo-Wando. Especially, a T-N level exceeded as many as three and six times over the third grade of coastal water quality in the coastal sea around Tongyeong-Keoje-Gosung and Masan-Jinhae, respectively. A T-P level appeared to be the second grade of coastal water quality in the coastal sea around Mokpo-Wando and the third grade of coastal water quality in the coastal sea around Yosu-Narnhae and Tongyeong-Keoje-Gosung, while it exceeded as many as two times over the third grade of coastal water quality. A degree of eutrophication of the surface seawater was 1.5 in the coastal sea around Mokpo-Wando and 11.9 In the coastal sea around Tongyeong-Keoje-Gosung, gradually increasing as moving toward the east(Gyeongnam Narnhae coastal seas). It sharply increased to 146.1 in the coastal sea around Masan-Jinhae. Because the degree of eutrophication throughout all Namhae coastal seas exceeded 1, a red tide organism could pose a possibility of proliferation at any place of Namhae coastal seas if other requirements were satisfied. It indicates that a red tide may move to another place once a red tide breaks out at a place of Namhae coastal seas.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.62 no.5
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• pp.15-26
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• 2020

There are fifteen non-point pollution management areas in Korea and three of them (Doam lake, Daegi district and Golji-cheon) are located in the upstream of the Namhan river watershed. Many efforts to reduce non-point sources (NPS) pollution have been conducted, however, water quality pollution in the watershed is still serious. To solve these problems, it is a priority to grasp water quality using statistical techniques. In this study, a trend analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of NPS management in the watershed. The long-term trends from 1996 to 2018 of water quality properties were analyzed using data collected from the water environment information system. Seventeen monitoring stations were selected along the main stream in Namhan river basin. Monthly water quality properties (BOD, COD, TN, TP, TN/TP ratio, Conductivity, SS and Chlorophyll-a) were collected and analyzed by Mann-Kendall test and LOWESS. The results showed that the Conductivity tended to increase in all regions and was the highest level in Jijangcheon. Organic pollution such as BOD and COD tended to increase in the Jungseon area. SS did not show a large tendency, but it showed high concentration in the Doam watershed. In all regions, 40% of water quality properties showed a tendency to 'UP', 15% of water quality properties tended to 'DOWN', and 46% indicated no tendency. In order to determine the cause of this, additional research and measures for improvement are necessary. This study will be used for the establishment of water quality policy in the future.