Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:45:25.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Current status of Korean streams and exploring areas with high necessity for stream structure restoration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2011

Kwang-Seuk Jeong ,
Han-Gook Kim ,
Jong-Chul Jeong ,
Dong-Kyun Kim ,
Hyun-Woo Kim ,
Jae-Kwan Lee ,
Jong-Min Oh  and
Gea-Jae Joo
Kwang-Seuk Jeong
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Science, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
Han-Gook Kim
Affiliation:
GIS Strategic Planning Department, GIS United Inc., Seoul 120-760, Republic of Korea
Jong-Chul Jeong
Affiliation:
Department of Geographical Information System Engineering, Namseoul University, Cheonan 331-707, Republic of Korea
Dong-Kyun Kim
Affiliation:
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-721, Republic of Korea
Hyun-Woo Kim
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Education, Suncheon National University, Suncheon 540-742, Republic of Korea
Jae-Kwan Lee
Affiliation:
Nakdong River Environment Research Center, NIER, Goryong 717-807, Republic of Korea
Jong-Min Oh
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kyunghee University, Yongin 446-701, Republic of Korea
Gea-Jae Joo*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Science, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
*
*Corresponding author: lter.ecoinfo@gmail.com

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Stream restoration is an important process affecting the ecological health of stream ecosystems. There have been numerous cases of restoration, dealing with either structural or biological changes. In Korea, most restoration projects have merely dealt with improving hydrological characteristics or water quality; however, in recent years the improvement of ecological characteristics has been an increasing focus for restoration projects. In this study, we utilized data collected from 5675 stream sites in May 2007 to discover general patterns of anthropogenic modification in Korean streams. The survey results after application of the stream modification index (SMI; presence or absence type; high scores indicate more disturbed) provided a general distribution of disturbed/undisturbed streams or rivers in the watershed. We then compared the level of modification with the socio-geographical patterns (population, land coverage, elevation, and slope) for the watershed. The results show that streams in highly populated areas suffered from human modification compared with other well-preserved stream sites. In metropolitan cities, urbanized areas had positive relationship as identified by a high SMI. On the other hand, agricultural land cover identified an SMI increase for lowland river area. In general, mountainous streams possessed a better status in stream morphology due to different land-cover patterns (i.e., mainly forested area); however, some mountainous areas were impacted by concentrated summer rainfall. We could distinguish the forcing variables (i.e., land use pattern) for the disturbed streams through a comparison between the SMI and geographical information; the SMI application was able to identify areas of high necessity for restoration.

Keywords

Stream modification indexKorean streams restorationgeographic information system (GIS)land coveragepopulation density
Type
Research Article
Information
Annales de Limnologie - International Journal of Limnology , Volume 47 , Issue S1: River ecosystem health assessment: the value in the management and restoration , 2011 , pp. S117 - S125
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2011

References

Allan, D., Erickson, D. and Fay, J., 1997. The influence of catchment land use on stream integrity across multiple spatial scales. Freshwater Biol., 37, 149–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allan, J.D., Brenner, A.J., Erazo, J., Fernandez, L., Flecker, A.S., Karwan, D.L., Segnini, S. and Taphorn, D.C., 2002. Land use in watersheds of the Venezuelan Andes: a comparative analysis. Conserv. Biol., 16, 527–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, Y.H., 1997. A study on evaluation method of stream naturalness for ecological restoration of stream corridors. J. Korean Inst. Landsc. Arch., 25, 2073–2081 (in Korean with English summary).Google Scholar
Dutta, D. and Herath, S., 2004. Trend of floods in Asia and a proposal for flood risk management with integrated river basin approach. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Asia-Pacific Hydrology and Water Resources Association, Singapore.Google Scholar
Jeong, K.-S., Hong, D.-G., Byeon, M.-S., Jeong, J.-C., Kim, H.-G., Kim, D.-K. and Joo, G.-J., 2010a. Stream modification patterns in a river basin: field survey and self-organizing map (SOM) application. Ecol. Inform., 5, 293–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeong, K.-S., Kim, D.-K., Shin, H.-S., Kim, H.-W., Cao, H., Jang, M.-H. and Joo, G.-J., 2010b. Flow regulation for water quality (chlorophyll a) improvement. Int. J. Environ. Res., 4, 713–724.Google Scholar
Jeong, K.-S., Kim, D.-K., Shin, H.-S., Yoon, J.-D., Kim, H.-W. and Joo, G.-J., to appear. Impact of summer rainfall on the seasonal water quality variation (chlorophyll a) in the regulated Nakdong River. KSCE J. Engineer.
Jonkman, S.N., 2005. Global perspectives on loss of human life caused by floods. Nat. Hazards, 34, 151–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joo, G.J., Kim, H.W., Ha, K. and Kim, J.K., 1997. Long-term trend of the eutrophication of the lower Nakdong River. Korean J. Limnol., 30 (Suppl.), 472–480.Google Scholar
Joo, G.-J., Shin, H.-S., Kim, S.-D., Kim, J.-W., Kim, H.-W. and Yoon, S.-Y., 2007. Assessment for storage capacity of riverine wetlands in the Nakdong River during flood event (No. 07–09), Nakdong River Water Environment Research Center, Goryeong (in Korean).Google Scholar
Karr, J., 1981. Assessment of biotic integrity using fish communities. Fisheries, 6, 21–27.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauffman, J.B., Beschta, R.L., Otting, N. and Lytjen, D., 1997. An ecological perspective of riparian and stream restoration in the western United States. Fisheries, 22, 12–24.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korea Environment Institute, 2008. A small stream management plan to protect the aquatic ecosystem, Korea Environment Institute, Seoul (in Korean).
Ladson, A.R., White, L.J., Doolan, J.A., Finlayson, B.L., Hart, B.T., Lake, P.S. and Tilleard, J.W., 1999. Development and testing of an index of stream condition for waterway management in Australia. Freshwater Biol., 41, 453–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legendre, P., 1993. Spatial autocorrelation: Trouble or new paradigm? Ecology, 74, 1659–1673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MOE/NIER, 2008. Survey and evaluation of aquatic ecosystem health in Korea, The Ministry of Environment/National Institute of Environmental Research, Korea (in Korean).
Mucher, C.A., Hennekens, S.M., Bunce, R.G.H., Schaminee, J.H.J. and Schaepman, M.E., 2009. Modelling the spatial distribution of Natura 2000 habitats across Europe. Landscape Urban Plan., 92, 148–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Research Council, 1992. Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems: Science, Technology and Public Policy, Washington, DC.
Palmer, M.A., Bernhardt, E.S., Allan, J.D., Lake, P.S., Alexander, G., Brooks, S., Carr, J., Clayton, S., Dahm, C.N., Follstad Shah, J., Galat, D.L., Loss, S.G., Goodwin, P., Hart, D.D., Hassett, B., Jenkinson, R., Kondolf, G.M., Lave, R., Meyer, J.L., O'Donnell, T.K., Pagano, L. and Sudduth, E., 2005. Standards for ecologically successful river restoration. J. Appl. Ecol., 42, 208–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, S.-B., Lee, J.-Y., Jang, M.-H., Kim, H.-W., Jeong, J.-M., Kim, J.-W. and Joo, G.-J., 1999. Water quality and phytoplankton community dynamics in a weir reach of the Yangsan Stream (1993–1996). Kor. J. Limnol., 32, 331–340 (in Korean with English summary).Google Scholar
Rankin, E.T., 1989. The Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index: (QHEI); Rationale, Methods, and Application, Environmental Protection Agency.Google Scholar
Roni, P., Beechie, T.J., Bilby, R.E., Leonetti, F.E., Pollock, M.M. and Pess, G.R., 2002. A review of stream restoration techniques and a hierarchical strategy for prioritizing restoration in Pacific Northwest watersheds. N. Am. J. Fish Manage., 22, 1–20.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, N.E., 1994. Land Use, Riparian Vegetation, and Stream Ecosystem Integrity in an Agricultural Watershed, The University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Selvakumar, A., O'Connor, T.P. and Struck, S.D., 2010. Role of stream restoration on improving benthic macroinvertebrates and in-stream water quality in an urban watershed: case study. J. Environ. Eng., 136, 127–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Son, M.W. and Jeon, Y.-G., 2003. Physical geographical characteristics of natural wetlands on the downstream reach of Nakdong River. J. KARG, 9, 66–76 (in Korean with English summary).Google Scholar
Tharme, R.E., 2003. A global perspective on environmental flow assessment: emerging trends in the development and application of environmental flow methodologies for rivers. River Res. Appl., 19, 397–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tobler, W., 1970. A computer movie simulating urban growth in the Detroit region. Econ. Geogr., 46, 234–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Utz, R.M., Hilderbrand R.H. and Boward D.M., 2009. Identifying regional differences in threshold responses of aquatic invertebrates to land cover gradients. Ecol. Indic., 9, 556–567.CrossRef
Whiteway, S.L., Biron, P.M., Zimmermann, A., Venter, O. and Grant, J.W.A., 2010. Do in-stream restoration structures enhance salmonid abundance? A meta-analysis. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 67, 831–841.CrossRefGoogle Scholar