Convergence Laboratory for Watershed Management

The Convergence Laboratory for Watershed Management is establishing a comprehensive framework for watershed assessment by developing the 『Weather & Climate Service Platform』 for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and the 『Monitoring & Integrated Modeling Platform』 to address the interconnectivity of water quantity, quality, disasters, and ecosystems. In this capacity, we actively conduct climate change research commissioned by the Rural Development Administration (RDA), Korea Forest Service (KFS), and Ministry of Environment (MOE), and have performed climate change vulnerability assessments for the Korea Rural Community Corporation (KRC).

Our research has led to the development of various packages based on the “Seamless Climate Service” concept, including ObsGrid for high-resolution grid observation, SQM for station-based SSP scenario downscaling, and SQMGrid for grid-based downscaling, all of which have been applied to projects in Bangladesh. For impact assessment, we utilize the USDA’s SWAT model and have developed rSWAT to analyze forest hydrology changes. We also created the LANDISCC package to apply the LANDIS model for vegetation succession analysis. Currently, we are developing packages for the APEX model to analyze agricultural non-point source pollution and are building IWMI’s proprietary modeling platform.

Integrated Risk Management Center

The Integrated Risk Management Center develops a 『Disaster and Hazard Risk Management Platform』 so that findings produced at the researcher level can be used by watershed-scale operators such as K-water and the Korea Rural Community Corporation (KRC). Under a research programme of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), the Center developed the NMME package, which produces high-resolution (1 km) forecasts of rainfall and temperature up to nine months ahead, and issues these forecasts every month. For station-based six-month forecasts, the SForecast package is under development with operational use in mind.

To secure real-time hydrological data, the Center has developed field instruments and a data platform for monitoring the water cycle across watersheds. The instruments are:

1. Automatic weather stations — meteorological data including precipitation
2. Ultrasonic water level gauges — water level changes in reservoirs and rivers
3. Radar flow meters — irrigation and drainage volumes in agricultural channels
4. Multi-layer soil moisture sensors — soil moisture changes driven by evapotranspiration after rainfall
5. Groundwater level gauges — groundwater level changes as abstraction increases

A platform collects data from every instrument in real time on an hourly basis, and is applied to projects for the Ministry of Environment and rural water management agencies.

Green Technology Support Center

The Green Technology Support Center develops a participation-based 『Green Technology Sharing Platform』 that reduces actual water use while also improving water quality, along with products and services designed to maximise participation by citizens, farmers and businesses from a demand-management perspective.

To address declining water-use efficiency caused by an ageing agricultural workforce, the Center developed the automatic water gate, which supplies and stops water automatically according to a preset water level without the farmer having to visit the site. To quantify water-use efficiency, it also developed a pipe flowmeter system that monitors irrigation inflow to and drainage outflow from paddy fields; this is used in research projects of the Rural Development Administration (RDA).

In addition, the Center carries out water quality monitoring services to derive Best Management Practices (BMP) that farming corporations can apply in order to minimise pollutant loads flowing from the Saemangeum reclaimed land into Saemangeum Lake, and is developing the related technologies.