• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.76-91
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of spatial characteristics, such as land cover and topography, on heat wave days from the city of Milyang, which has recently drawn attention for its heat wave problems. The number of heat wave days was calculated utilizing RCP-based South Korea climate data from 2000 to 2010. Land cover types were reclassified into urban area, agricultural area, forest area, water, and grassland using 2000, 2005, and 2010 land cover data constructed by the Ministry of Environment. Topographical features were analyzed by topographic position index (TPI) using a digital elevation model (DEM) with 30 m spatial resolution. The results show that the number of heat wave days was 31.4 days in 2000, which was the highest, followed by 26.9 days in 2008, 24.2 days in 2001, and 24.0 days in 2010. The heat wave distribution was relatively higher in agricultural areas, valleys, and rural areas. The topography of Milyang contains more mountainous slope (51.6%) than flat (19.7%), while large-scale valleys (12.2%) are distributed across some of the western region. Correlation analysis between heat wave and spatial characteristics showed that the correlation between forest area land cover and number of heat wave days was negative (-0.109), indicating that heat wave can be mitigated. Topographically, flat areas and heat wave showed a positive correlation (0.305). These results provide important insights for urban planning and environmental management for understanding the impact of land development and topographic change on heat wave.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.209-221
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• 2018

The characteristics of heat wave events in Seoul are analyzed using weather station data from Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) ERA-Interim reanalysis data from 1979 to 2016. Heat waves are defined as events in the upper 10th percentile of the daily maximum temperatures. The associated synoptic weather patterns are then classified into six clusters through Self-Organizing Map (SOM) analysis for sea-level pressure anomalies in East Asia. Cluster 1 shows an anti-cyclonic circulation and weak troughs in southeast and west of Korea, respectively. This synoptic pattern leads to southeasterly winds that advect warm and moist air to the Korean Peninsula. Both clusters 2 and 3 are associated with southerly winds formed by an anti-cyclonic circulation over the east of Korea and cyclonic circulation over the west of Korea. Cluster 4 shows a stagnant weather pattern with weak winds and strong insolation. Clusters 5 and 6 are associated with F?hn wind resulting from an anti-cyclonic circulation in the north of the Korean Peninsula. In terms of long-term variations, event frequencies of clusters 4 and 5 show increasing and decreasing trends, respectively. However, other clusters do not show any long-term trends, indicating that the mechanisms that drive heat wave events in Seoul have remained constant over the last four decades.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.583-588
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• 2008

Swell data observed in the East Sea in February, 2008 were analyzed using wavelet method. The wavelet analyzed results show detailed time series variation of wave group, peak frequency and spectrum. The comparison of time averaged wavelet spectrum with fourier spectrum turn out to be very similar in terms of spectrum shape and peak frequency evolution but the peak frequency wave energy and the significant wave height show discrepancies. Wavelet analysis can detect the change of spectrum in time as well as in frequency and very efficient to study transient and irregular phenomena such as freak waves and abnormal swells in the ocean. More analysis with more wave data are needed for future application.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.82-90
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• 2021

Owing to the advantages of assuring the best views and seawater exchange, submerged breakwaters have been widely installed along the eastern coast of Korea in recent years. It significantly contributes to promoting the advancement of shorelines by partially inhibiting incident wave energy. Observations were carried out by a pressure-type wave gauge in the Bongpo Beach to evaluate the coefficients of wave transmission via a submerged breakwater, and the results obtained were compared with those of existing conventional equations on the transmission coefficient derived from hydraulic experiments. After reviewing the existing equations, we proposed a transmission coefficient equation in terms of an error function. Although it exhibited robust relationships with the crest height and breaking coefficient, deviations from the observed data were evident and considered to be triggered by the difference in the incident wave climate. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a numerical experiment to verify the influence of wave period on the coefficients of wave transmission, in which we adopted a parabolic-type mild-slope equation model. Consequently, the deviation from calculated results appears to practically cover all deviation range in the observed data. The wave period and direction of the incident wave increased, the transmission coefficient decreased, and the wave direction was determined to demonstrate a relatively significant influence on the transmission coefficient. It was inferred that this numerical study is expected to be used practically in evaluating the design achievement of the submerged breakwater, which is adopted as a countermeasure to coastal beach erosion.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.331-348
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• 2013

The frequency and intensity of abnormal climate caused by climate change is increasing in Korea. Also, the amount of damage from disaster is increasing rapidly. The research on vulnerability assessment analyzes environmentally, socially and economically vulnerable indicators and is ongoing to reduce the intensity of damage and establish adaptation policies for climate change. Therefore, in this study, we assessed vulnerability using weighting value derived by the regression equation. There are 3 evaluation items : vulnerability assessment for farmland erosion to flood, vulnerability assessment for health to heat wave, vulnerability assessment for forest fire to drought. For this study, indicators for each sectors were selected and spatial data for each sectors were established using GIS program. Results showed that vulnerability to heat wave was more affected by climate factors. On the other hand, vulnerability to flood and drought was more affected by social-economic factors. Then, to analysis efficiency of the regression analysis, vulnerability result was compared between the existing vulnerability research with no weighting applied and the vulnerability research with the influence of weighting value derived by the regression. This study showed that the regression analysis is efficient to provide practical and feasible alternatives in terms of planning climate change adaptation policies and it is expected to be utilized for vulnerability assessment in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2001

Wave-induced currents drive nearshore transport processes, and hence an accurate understanding of wave-current interaction is required for proper management of coastal zone. This paper presents details of an adaptive quadtree grid based numerical model of the coupled wave climate and depth-averaged current field. The model accounts for wave breaking, shoaling, refraction, diffraction, wave-current interaction, set-up and set-down, mixing processes, bottom friction effects, and movement of land-water interface at the shoreline. The wave period- and depth-averaged governing equations arc discrctized explicitly by means of an Adarns¬Bashforth second-order finite difference technique on adaptive hierarchical staggered quadtree grids. Results from the numerical model are in reasonable agreement with the laboratory data of longshore current generated by oblique waves on a plane beach (Visser 1980, 1991).

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.459-470
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• 2012

This study attempts to estimate the economic effects of extreme climate events on agriculture with the case of Gangwon-do, drawing upon the Ricardian approach based upon the panel data on extreme climate events, soil and geography, farmland prices, and economic and social variables for the 11 municipal units of Gangwon-do during the period of 1993-2010. Our empirical analysis shows that the heavy rainfall-related extreme climate variable negatively affects the prices of rice paddy and dry farm field. The summer-related extreme temperature variables have negative economic impacts on the land values of both farmlands, while the winter-related ones positively affect them except for the extreme cold wave variable.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.433-442
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• 2016

In this study, we examine future changes in surface radiation associated with cloud amount and aerosol emission over East Asia. Data in this study is HadGEM2-CC (Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model version 2, Carbon Cycle) simulations of the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 2.6/4.5/8.5. Results show that temperature and precipitation increase with rising of the atmosphere $CO_2$. At the end of $21^{st}$ century (2070~2099) relative to the end of $20^{st}$ century (1981~2005), changes in temperature and precipitation rate are expected to increase by $+1.85^{\circ}C/+6.6%$ for RCP2.6, $+3.09^{\circ}C/+8.5%$ for RCP4.5, $+5.49^{\circ}C/10%$ for RCP8.5. The warming results from increasing Net Down Surface Long Wave Radiation Flux (LW) and Net Down Surface Short Wave Radiation Flux (SW) as well. SW change increases mainly from reduced total Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and low-level cloud amount. LW change is associated with increasing of atmospheric $CO_2$ and total cloud amount, since increasing cloud amounts are related to absorb LW radiation and remit the energy toward the surface. The enhancement of precipitation is attributed by increasing of high-level cloud amount. Such climate conditions are favorable for vegetation growth and extension. Expansion of C3 grass and shrub is distinct over East Asia, inducing large latent heat flux increment.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.21 no.1 s.74
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• pp.1-6
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• 2007

While a typhoon is traveling, characteristics of its wind fields are continuously changing, producing severe changes in local water level and wave conditions, especially, when a typhoon comes into shallow water. However, there have not been many studies related to local typhoon effects, especially, considering real time changes of wind direction related to the coastal topography. In the study, the characteristics of the wind field by typhoon and topographical characteristics in shallow water are considered, as well as conditions of wave climate estimation. These are performed by the SWAN (Simulating waves nearshore) model, in order to estimate the growth of wave energy due to the wind field. It can be strongly suggested that the wave energy of theof an inner bay should be estimated when the direction of the bay entrance and the wind direction of the typhoon are identical. The result of the numerical calculations is in better agreement with the observed data than the result of the conventional estimation techniques.

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.115-129
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• 2019

Surface winds over the ocean influence not only the climate change through air-sea interactions but the coastal erosion through the changes in wave height and direction. Thus, demands on a reliable projection of future changes in surface winds have been increasing in various fields. For the future projections, climate models have been widely used and, as a priori, their simulations of surface wind are required to be evaluated. In this study, we evaluate the climatological mean surface winds over the Korean Waters simulated by five regional climate models participating in Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) for East Asia (EA), an international regional climate model inter-comparison project. Compared with the ERA-interim reanalysis data, the CORDEX-EA models, except for HadGEM3-RA, produce stronger wind both in summer and winter. The HadGEM3-RA underestimates the wind speed and inadequately simulate the spatial distribution especially in summer. This summer wind error appears to be coincident with mean sea-level pressure in the North Pacific. For wind direction, all of the CORDEX-EA models simulate the well-known seasonal reversal of surface wind similar to the ERA-interim. Our results suggest that especially in summer, large-scale atmospheric circulation, downscaled by regional models with spectral nudging, significantly affect the regional surface wind on its pattern and strength.