Jeong-Ki Yoon

Assessment of soil loss in South Korea based on land-cover type

Soil loss poses a significant threat to the long-term sustainability of hydrological systems, the environment, and agriculture. In this regard, efficient soil management relies on accurate quantification of soil loss. To this end, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standard of soil erosion, developed for agricultural areas, has been applied in many countries, including South Korea. Due to the lack of standard methods for assessing soil erosion in South Korea, the OECD standard has been applied to non-agricultural regions of Korea despite the possibility that local soil erosion characteristics may differ from those in agricultural areas. Such an approach might give erroneous information on soil loss to policy and decision makers. This study estimated soil loss for eight different land cover-types in Korea using the universal soil loss equation, and compared the results with those from the unmodified OECD soil erosion standard. Estimated soil loss differed considerably among land-cover types. The results have implications on the limitations in applying the OECD soil erosion standard to soil management in Korea. Thus, this study suggests a modified soil erosion standard for efficient soil management.

Natural Reduction Characteristics of Radon in Drinking Groundwater

To investigate the natural reduction characteristics of radon with a short half-life (3.82 day) in drinking Qgroundwater, we analyzed the changes of radon concentrations of groundwater, waters in storage tanks, and tap waters from the small-scale groundwater-supply systems (N

An Introductory Research for Development of Soil Ecological Risk Assessment in Korea

Human activities have resulted in soil pollution problems to us. Human and ecological risk assessment have been suggested as an efficient environmental management strategy for protecting human and ecosystems from soil pollution. However, Korean environmental policy is currently focused on human protection, and fundamental researches for ecology protection are required for institutional frameworks. In this study, we developed a schematic frame of Korean soil ecological risk assessment, and suggested the basic information for its application. This study suggested a soil ecological risk assessment scheme consisting of 4 steps for derivation of Predicted-No-Effect-Concentration (PNEC): 1) ecotoxicity data collection and reliability determination, 2) data standardization, 3) evaluation of data completeness for PNEC calculation, and 4) determination of ecological-risk. The reliability determination of ecotoxicity data was performed using Reliability Index (RI), and the classification of domestic species, acute/chronic, toxicity endpoint, and soil properties was used for data cataloging. The PNEC calculation methodology was determined as low-reliability, middle-reliability, and high-reliability according to their quantitative and qualitative levels of ecotoxicity data. This study would be the introductory plan research for establishment of Korean soil ecological risk assessment, and it can be a fundamental framework to further develop guidelines of Korean environmental regulation.

Feasibility Study of Different Biochars as Adsorbent for Cadmium and Lead

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of different biochars on the removal of heavy metals from aqueous media. The experiment was carried out in aqueous solutions containing 200 mg CdL -1 or 200 mg PbL -1 using two different biochars derived from soybean stover and orange peel (20 mg Cd or Pbg -1 biochar). After shaking for 24 hours, biochars were filtered out, and Cd and Pb in the filtrate were analyzed by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (FAAS). In order to provide information regarding metal binding strength on biochars, sequential extraction was performed by modified SM&T (formerly BCR). The results showed that 70∼100% of initially added Cd and Pb was adsorbed on biochars and removed from aqueous solution. The removal rate of Pb (95%, 100%) was higher than that of Cd (70%, 91%). In the case of Cd, orange peel derived biochar (91%) showed higher adsorption rate than soybean stover derived biochar (70%). Cd was adsorbed on the biochar mainly in exchangeable and carbonates fraction (1st phase). In contrast, Pb was adsorbed on it mainly in the form of Fe-Mn oxides and residual fraction (2nd and 4th phase). The existence of Cd and Pb as a form of surface-precipitated complex was also observed on the surfaces of biochars detected by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDAX).

Characteristics of Heavy Metals (Ba, Cr) Distribution in Soil

This study was performed to provide fundamental data to establish the new soil pollution standards and the soil contamination management plans in a rational manner. The distribution characteristics of new soil contaminants such as barium (Ba) and chromium (Cr) in soils (n=140) were investigated in relation to land-use classification and geological features. Also, the sequential extraction test was conducted to evaluate fate and mobility of new soil contaminants. The soil samples taken from 140 sites were analyzed to survey distribution levels of selected new soil contaminants. The average concentration and range for hazardous metals (Ba, Cr) were Ba 128.946 (26.757~489.587) mg/kg, Cr 30.121 (2.579~132.783) mg/kg. Based on land use classification, the highest Ba concentration was found in factory soils, followed by dry field and park soils, while Cr concentration was highest in rice paddy soils, followed by dry field and factory soils. Within 10 geological units investigated the highest Ba and Cr concentrations were observed in the soils from Okcheon group and metamorphic rocks, respectively. The BCR (European Community Bureau of Reference) sequential extraction was conducted to identify chemical distributional existence of 2 elements of soils from each geological unit. Ba in soils is mainly assumed to exists as reducible form (such as BaSO4, BaCO3) and Cr in soils mainly is assumed to exist as residual form (such as Cr2O3, CrxFe1-x(OH)3(x < 1)).

Improvement of Detailed Soil Survey Guidance through the New Site Classification System and Reinforcement of Exploratory Soil Survey

This study suggested the new site classification system according to land use, type of contamination and contaminants. Because the present site classification system can not cover all the areas, we changed the concept of land use to more detail one and enlarged the concept of other areas to cover all the areas not defined as certain land use. In case of the present industrial area, it was merged as other areas to avoid the confusion with oil and toxic material storage tank farm area. Accident area was separated from other areas and defined as only accident area caused by the mobile storage facility. In addition to classify the sites according to the basic land use, we classify the sites again in lower level according to the type of contamination and contaminants. With this classification system, we proposed different soil sampling strategy with the consideration of the origin of contamination and the interactions between soil and contaminants. We removed the surface soil sample (0~15 cm depth) around above storage tank because it was not a effective sample to assess whether that area contaminated or not. We also proposed to take the deeper soil samples at minimum three sampling points to confirm the depth of contamination in exploratory soil survey. We also proposed to remove the one point of 15 m depth sampling because it is not effective to confirm contaminated soil depth and needs the exhausted labor and cost. Instead of doing this, we added the continuous sampling to uncontaminated subsoil. Soil sampling points and depth in detailed soil survey is determined based on the results of exploratory soil survey. Therefore, effectiveness and reinforcements of exploratory soil survey would play an important role in improving the reliability of detailed soil survey.