Eun-Mi Hong

Estimation of Paddy Rice Evapotranspiration Considering Climate Change Using LARS-WG

Climate change due to global warming possibly effects the agricultural water use in terms of evapotranspiration. Thus, to estimate rice evapotranspiration under the climate change, future climate data including precipitation, minimum and maximum temperatures for 90 years (), were forecasted using LARS-WG. Observed 30 years () climate data and climate change scenario based on SRES A2 were prepared to operate the LARS-WG model. Using these data and FAO Blaney-Criddle method, reference evapotranspiration and rice evapotranspiration were estimated for 9 different regions in South Korea and rice evapotranspiration of 10 year return period was estimated using frequency analysis. As the results of this study, rice evapotranspiration of 10 year return period increased 1.56%, 5.99% and 10.68% for each 30 years during (2025s; , 2055s; , 2085s; ) demonstrating that the increased temperature from the climate change increases the consumptive use of crops and agricultural water use.

Predicting microbial water quality with models : over-arching questions for managing risk in agricultural catchments.

The application of models to predict concentrations of faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) in environmental systems plays an important role for guiding decision-making associated with the management of microbial water quality. In recent years there has been an increasing demand by policy-makers for models to help inform FIO dynamics in order to prioritise efforts for environmental and human-health protection. However, given the limited evidence-base on which FIO models are built relative to other agricultural pollutants (e.g. nutrients) it is imperative that the end-user expectations of FIO models are appropriately managed. In response, this commentary highlights four over-arching questions associated with: (i) model purpose; (ii) modelling approach; (iii) data availability; and (iv) model application, that must be considered as part of good practice prior to the deployment of any modelling approach to predict FIO behaviour in catchment systems. A series of short and longer-term research priorities are proposed in response to these questions in order to promote better model deployment in the field of catchment microbial dynamics.

Assessment of water delivery efficiency in irrigation canals using performance indicators

Agricultural water is delivered by open irrigation canals in system of reservoirs with a widespread distribution in South Korea. Traditional irrigation management problems include water distribution systems with less capacity than the peak demand, irregular delivery rates, and low irrigation efficiency and uniformity. It is necessary to strategically compare the estimated irrigation demands with the actual water supplies for decision making in order to maintain the water supply according to the demand. Accurate measurement and monitoring of water distribution systems is essential in order to solve the problems of water efficiency and availability. Auto water level gauges installed at the head and tail sections of each irrigation canal in the Dongjin River were used to measure the discharge during irrigation periods. In this study, we introduced an approach to assess the water delivery performance indicators of the open irrigation canals, which is essential for identifying the key issues for water management improvement. The irrigation efficiencies according to the water delivery performance indicators were measured with an automatic water gauge in the irrigation canals and were calculated from the spatial and temporal distribution of the water supply for the lack of planning in water delivery. The calculated performance indicators are useful to understand the irrigator behavior and general irrigation trends. Analysis of the results yielded insights into possible improvement methods in order to develop water management policies that enable irrigation planners to improve the temporal uniformity and equity in the water distribution.

Development and evaluation of the bacterial fate and transport module for the Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model

The Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) is a watershed-scale water quality model that includes detailed representation of agricultural management. The objective of this work was to develop a process-based model for simulating the fate and transport of manure-borne bacteria on land and in streams with the APEX model. The bacteria model utilizes manure erosion rates to estimate the amount of edge-of-field bacteria export. Bacteria survival in manure is simulated as a two-stage process separately for each manure application event. In-stream microbial fate and transport processes include bacteria release from streambeds due to sediment resuspension during high flow events, active release from the streambed sediment during low flow periods, bacteria settling with sediment, and survival. Default parameter values were selected from published databases and evaluated based on field observations. The APEX model with the newly developed microbial fate and transport module was applied to simulate fate and transport of the fecal indicator bacterium Escherichia coli in the Toenepi watershed, New Zealand that was monitored for seven years. The stream network of the watershed ran through grazing lands with daily bovine waste deposition. Results show that the APEX with the bacteria module reproduced well the monitored pattern of E. coli concentrations at the watershed outlet. The APEX with the microbial fate and transport module will be utilized for predicting microbial quality of water as affected by various agricultural practices, evaluating monitoring protocols, and supporting the selection of management practices based on regulations that rely on fecal indicator bacteria concentrations.

Analysis of Soil Moisture Recession Characteristics in Conifer Forest

Forest area covers 64 % of the national land of Korea and the forest plays a pivotal role in the hydrological process such as flood, drought, runoff, infiltration, evapotranspiration, etc. In this study, soil moisture monitoring for conifer forest in experimental forest of Seoul National University has been conducted using FDR (Frequency Domain Reflection) for 6 different soil layers, 10, 20, 30, 60, 90 and 120 cm during 2009~2010, and precipitation data was collected from nearby AWS (Automatic Weather Station). Soil moisture monitoring data were used to estimate soil moisture recession constant (SMRC) for analyzing soil moisture recession characteristics. From the results, empirical soil moisture recession equations were estimated and validated to determine the feasibility of the result, and soil moisture contents of measured and calculated showed a similar tendency from April to November. Thus, the results can be applied for soil moisture estimation and provided the basic knowledge in forest soil moisture consumption. Nevertheless, this approach demonstrated applicability limitations during winter and early spring season due to freezing and melting of snow and ice causing peculiar change of soil moisture contents.

Analysis of Soil Moisture Characteristics in Nut Pine Forest about Seasons and Soil Layers

Soil moisture plays a pivotal role in hydrological processes, especially in the forest which covers more than 64% of the national land. Soil moisture was monitored to analyze soil moisture change characteristics in terms of time and soil layers in this study. 2 Years soil moisture change data was obtained from the experimental nut pine forest and statistical analysis including auto-correlation and cross-corelation among soil moisture data from different soil layers was conducted. Using the monitored soil moisture data, a relationship between soil moisture change and precipitation was analyzed and seasonal soil moisture change characteristics were analyzed. From the result of inter-relationships among soil layers in terms of season and time lag, soil moisture change characteristics in the nut pine forest were upper soil layers were much sensitive than lowers, and seasonal variation if soil moisture for upper soil layers were bigger than lowers showing low correlation with precipitation in winter and spring due to freezing and snowfalls.

Effect of Low Concentration Liquid Manure application on Soil Water and Groundwater Quality in Bio-Circulation Experimental Forest

Manure recycling as fertilizer is one of solutions for the environmental problem related with livestock manure treatment as well as the ocean dumping ban act prohibiting manure disposal to the ocean. For the manure disposal, forest area can be a candidate place because the area has a wide range of applicable sites. However, the manure application to the forest has a possibility of causing environmental impacts including water quality problems due to nutrient loading. Therefore it is necessary to investigate water quality impact from manure disposal to the forestry plantation. In this study, ground and soil water quality had been monitored in the bio-circulation experimental forest where low concentration liquid manure (LCLM) was applied. Soil and groundwater samples were collected and analyzed weekly from April to October in 2008 and 2009. The mean and variation of NO3-N concentration in soil water of LCLM treatment places showed higher concentration than the reference places declining during growing season. In the case of groundwater from monitoring well in the downstream of disposal site, the -N concentration was 3.59 mg/L in 2008 and 3.26 mg/L in 2009 in average showing higher concentration than the reference well although the concentration was not exceed the national drinking water standard. To investigate the source of nitrate, isotope analysis was also implemented. Its result showed that the LCLM application could be the nitrate source requiring further long-term monitoring soil and water quality.

Development of Web-GIS based SWAT Data Generation System

Watershed topographical data is essential for the management for water resources and watershed management in terms of hydrology analysis. Collecting watershed topographical and meteorological data is the first step for simulating hydrological models and calculating hydrological components. This study describes a specialized Web-based Geographic Information Systems, Soil Water Assessment Tool model data generation system, which was developed to support SWAT model operation using Web-GIS capability for map browsing, online watershed delineation and topographical and meteorological data extraction. This system tested its operability extracting watershed topographical and meteorological data in real time and the extracted spatial and weather data were seamlessly imported to ArcSWAT system demonstrating its usability. The Web-GIS would be useful to users who are willing to operate SWAT models for the various watershed management purposes in terms of spatial and weather preparing.

Developing the vegetation drought response index for South Korea (VegDRI-SKorea) to assess the vegetation condition during drought events

ABSTRACT South Korea has experienced severe droughts and water scarcity problems that have influenced agriculture, food prices, and crop production in recent years. Traditionally, climate-based drought indices using point-based meteorological observations have been used to help quantify drought impacts on the vegetation in South Korea. However, these approaches have a limited spatial precision when mapping detailed vegetation stress caused by drought. For these reasons, the development of a drought index that provides detailed spatial-resolution information on drought-affected vegetation conditions is essential to improve the country’s drought monitoring capabilities, which are needed to help develop more effective adaptation and mitigation strategies. The objective of this study was to develop a satellite-based hybrid drought index called the vegetation drought response index for South Korea (VegDRI-SKorea) that could improve the spatial resolution of agricultural drought monitoring on a national scale. The VegDRI-SKorea was developed for South Korea, modifying the original VegDRI methodology (developed for the USA) by tailoring it to the available local data resources. The VegDRI-SKorea utilizes a classification and regression tree (CART) modelling approach that collectively analyses remote-sensing data (e.g. normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)), climate-based drought indices (e.g. self-calibrated Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) and standardized precipitation index (SPI)), and biophysical variables (e.g. elevation and land cover) that influence the drought-related vegetation stress. This study evaluates the performance of the recently developed VegDRI-SKorea for severe and extreme drought events that occurred in South Korea in 2001, 2008, and 2012. The results demonstrated that the hybrid drought index improved the more spatially detailed drought patterns compared to the station-based drought indices and resulted in a better understanding of drought impacts on the vegetation conditions. The VegDRI-SKorea model is expected to contribute to the monitoring of drought conditions nationally. In addition, it will provide the necessary information on the spatial variations of those conditions to evaluate local and regional drought risk assessment across South Korea and assist local decision-makers in drought risk management.

Simpler models in environmental studies and predictions

ABSTRACT This review outlines major directions of simpler model development in environmental modeling, metamodeling, statistical-regression- and machine-learning-based empirical models, and mechanistic models with reduced structures. Simpler models may be favored due to limited observational data, uncertainty in the complex model predictions, and intent of using a model as a component of a multimedia or multicompartmental model. Decision-making often relies on simple models. Model simplification can be useful in understanding the behavior of complex models. Understanding the role of models of different complexity as affected by intended uses and problem statements is an important part of the modern ontology of environmental science and technology.