Abstract:The drastic expansion of cities and the rapid economic growth in Korea have caused dramatic increases to demand from groundwater supplies for drinking, domestic, agricultural and industrial water usage. The Ministry of Construction and Transportation and the Korea Water Resources Corporation have constructed and operated the National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGMN) throughout the country since 1995. The NGMN, an official project establishing a total of 320 groundwater monitoring stations, was completed in 2005. Each national groundwater monitoring station serves as a baseline and primary station to monitor long-term general trends in water-level fluctuations and in groundwater quality. The present NGMN and its monitoring capabilities were evaluated to enhance the efficiency of groundwater monitoring and to meet the new societal conditions. Based on reviews and evaluations, some suggestions and recommendations are made with regard to improvements of the national network, including the installation of rainfall gauges in groundwater monitoring stations, gathering groundwater data every hour instead of every 6 h as at present, involving major cations and anions in the regular and periodic chemical analyses, regular periodic analyses of collected groundwater data, and construction of 199 additional groundwater monitoring stations to supplement the existing groundwater monitoring network.

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Increasing the river cross-section by barrage construction causes rises in the average river water levels and discharge rates in the rainy season. The time series patterns for groundwater levels measured at 23 riverside monitoring wells along the lower Nakdong River are compared for two cases: before and after water-filling at the Changnyeong-Haman Barrage. Monthly average groundwater levels indicate a distinct increase in groundwater levels in the upstream riverside close to the barrage. River-water level management by barrage gate control in August, during the rainy season, resulted in a 0.1 m decrease in groundwater levels, while water-filling at the barrage in December caused a 1.3 m increase in groundwater levels. The results of hierarchical cluster analysis indicate that seven groundwater monitoring wells and river water levels were in the same group before barrage construction, but that this number increased to 14 after barrage construction. Principal component analysis revealed that the explanation power of two principal components corresponding to river fluctuation, PC1 and PC2, was approximately 82% before barrage construction but decreased to 45% after construction. This finding indicates that the effect of the river level component that contributes to change in groundwater level, decreases after barrage construction; consequently, other factors, including groundwater pumping, become more important. Continuous surveying and monitoring is essential for understanding change in the hydrological environment. Water policy that takes groundwater-surface water interaction into consideration should be established for riverside areas.