Variability and Singularity of Seoul, South Korea, Rainy Season (1778–2004)

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 2572-2580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Wang ◽  
Jong-Ghap Jhun ◽  
Byung-Kwon Moon
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Rainy Season ◽  
Phase Locking ◽  
Summer Precipitation ◽  
Heavy Rain ◽  
Spectral Peak ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Large Power ◽  
Precipitation Record

Abstract The 227-yr daily precipitation record gathered for Seoul, South Korea, represents one of the longest instrumental measurements, which provides an exceptional opportunity for detecting climate singularity (a property of phase locking to annual cycle) of extreme weather events and multidecadal–centennial variability of the rainy season structure. From late June to early September, the occurrence of heavy rain events shows a climatological quasi-biweekly oscillation. The rainy season characteristics, including the dates of onset, retreat, summit, and the duration, all show significant centennial variations. The rainy season summit shows a tendency toward delayed occurrence, which changed from the 37th pentad (P37; 30 June–4 July) during the 1778–1807 period to P44 (4–8 August) during the 1975–2004 period. The amplitude of the interannual (2–6 yr) variation of summer precipitation shows a prominent fluctuation with a 50-yr rhythm. A notable climatological break (around 9–13 August) divides the rainy season into a changma (Korean for continuous rain period) and a post-changma period. The major modes of subseasonal variability of the rainy season are characterized by an advanced changma and an enhanced post-changma, respectively. The former is dominated by biennial variation, whereas the latter has a major 5-yr spectral peak, suggesting that the processes leading to their variability are different. The occurrence of severe drought events exhibits a 4-yr spectral peak along with large power on a centennial time scale, while the severe flood events have a spectral peak at 3 and 19 yr, respectively. The remarkable climate variability in Seoul rainfall suggests that trends detected by using a 50-yr-or-shorter precipitation record likely reflect natural variability.

scholarly journals Heavy Rain Types for Triggering Shallow Landslides in South Korea

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suk-Woo Kim ◽  
Kun-Woo Chun ◽  
Kyoichi Otsuki ◽  
Yoshinori Shinohara ◽  
Man–Il Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Heavy Rain ◽  
Shallow Landslides

scholarly journals A study on the predictability of the transition day from the dry to the rainy season over South Korea

2015 ◽  
Vol 125 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 449-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang-Min Lee ◽  
Ji-Eun Nam ◽  
Hee-Wook Choi ◽  
Jong-Chul Ha ◽  
Yong Hee Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Rainy Season

scholarly journals Estimation of River Management Flow Considering Stream Water Deficit Characteristics

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1521
Author(s):  
Jang Sung ◽  
Seung Seo
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Water Deficit ◽  
Stream Water ◽  
Threshold Level ◽  
River Management ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Flow Duration ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Flow Duration Curves ◽  
Management Flow

South Korea endured extreme drought through 2015 and 2016. This hydrological drought led to a socio-economic drought which is a restriction on stream water use. Previous studies have explored streamflow drought using a threshold level based on flow duration curves, but streamflow drought does not necessarily lead to stream water deficit, which is related to water demand. Therefore, this study introduced a threshold for stream water deficit in South Korea, which is termed as river management flow, and was applied to Geum River Basin where a severe drought recently occurred. The stream water coordination council has restricted the use of stream water to cope with the stream water deficit. The deficit characteristics for the upstream and downstream river management flow should be similar in order to ensure the feasibility of stream water restrictions. Thus, upstream and downstream river management flows, which reproduced similar deficit characteristics to those of the reference site, were estimated. The deficit characteristics of Bugang and Gyuam were estimated from their river management flows for the 2015 drought and were comparable to those of Gongju. We expect this study to minimize the conflict between upstream and downstream water users in future.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Rainfall Forecasts with Heavy Rain Types in the High-Resolution Unified Model over South Korea

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 1277-1293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hwan-Jin Song ◽  
Byunghwan Lim ◽  
Sangwon Joo
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Heavy Rainfall ◽  
Rainfall Intensity ◽  
Heavy Rain ◽  
Unified Model ◽  
Moderate Intensity ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Total Rainfall

Abstract Heavy rainfall events account for most socioeconomic damages caused by natural disasters in South Korea. However, the microphysical understanding of heavy rain is still lacking, leading to uncertainties in quantitative rainfall prediction. This study is aimed at evaluating rainfall forecasts in the Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System (LDAPS), a high-resolution configuration of the Unified Model over the Korean Peninsula. The rainfall of LDAPS forecasts was evaluated with observations based on two types of heavy rain events classified from K-means clustering for the relationship between surface rainfall intensity and cloud-top height. LDAPS forecasts were characterized by more heavy rain cases with high cloud-top heights (cold-type heavy rain) in contrast to observations showing frequent moderate-intensity rain systems with relatively lower cloud-top heights (warm-type heavy rain) over South Korea. The observed cold-type and warm-type events accounted for 32.7% and 67.3% of total rainfall, whereas LDAPS forecasts accounted for 65.3% and 34.7%, respectively. This indicates severe overestimation and underestimation of total rainfall for the cold-type and warm-type forecast events, respectively. The overestimation of cold-type heavy rainfall was mainly due to its frequent occurrence, whereas the underestimation of warm-type heavy rainfall was affected by both its low occurrence and weak intensity. The rainfall forecast skill for the warm-type events was much lower than for the cold-type events, due to the lower rainfall intensity and smaller rain area of the warm-type. Therefore, cloud parameterizations for warm-type heavy rain should be improved to enhance rainfall forecasts over the Korean Peninsula.

Evaluation of summer precipitation over Far East Asia and South Korea simulated by multiple regional climate models

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 2270-2284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changyong Park ◽  
Dong‐Hyun Cha ◽  
Gayoung Kim ◽  
Gil Lee ◽  
Dong‐Kyou Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Far East ◽  
Summer Precipitation ◽  
Regional Climate Models

Unusual disturbance: forest change following a catastrophic debris flow in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (9) ◽  
pp. 2204-2215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart B Rood
Keyword(s):  
Debris Flow ◽  
Populus Tremuloides ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Populus Trichocarpa ◽  
Heavy Rain ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Canadian Rocky Mountains ◽  
Forest Change ◽  
Riparian Tree

Trees are often well adapted to periodic physical disturbances such as fires or floods. However, I investigated forest response to an extremely unusual disturbance event. Following heavy rain in June 1995 a catastrophic debris flow from Vimy Peak in the Canadian Rocky Mountains terminated as an alluvial debris fan that plowed through a trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) grove. I analyzed the site over a decade to monitor forest response and determine whether there would be recolonization to the prior forest type. In contrast to my expectation, aspen recolonization did not occur; instead, black cottonwoods (Populus trichocarpa Torr. & Gray) colonized the site. These originated from seedlings and not through clonal propagation, and by 2004, black cottonwoods composed 99% of the saplings and were typically 0.6–1.4 m tall with a density of about 1/m2. The debris fan dramatically changed the physical environment, which partly resembled a floodplain depositional zone and was colonized by the regionally dominant riparian tree. I propose the concept of foreign disturbance to recognize an unusual disturbance that an organism would very rarely experience and thus to which it is unlikely to be adapted. In this example the disturbance produced an abrupt transition to an alternative forest type and this response may provide insight into forest response to other unusual disturbances, such as extreme weather events, that might increase with climate change.

scholarly journals Prediction of Precipitation in the Western Mountainous Regions of China Using a Statistical Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Yijia Hu ◽  
Yuan Sun ◽  
Yao Ha ◽  
Yimin Zhu ◽  
Zhixian Luo
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Model ◽  
Debris Flows ◽  
Summer Precipitation ◽  
Heavy Rain ◽  
Precipitation Anomaly ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Landslides And Debris Flows ◽  
Cross Test

During the summer in the western mountainous regions of China (WMR), the disasters such as mountain floods, landslides, and debris flows caused by heavy rain occur frequently, which often result in huge economic losses and many casualties. Therefore, it is of great significance to predict the precipitation accurately in these regions. In this paper, a statistical model is established to predict the precipitation in the WMR using the linear regression statistical method, in which the summer area-averaged precipitation anomaly in WMR is taken as the predictand and the prewinter Niño3 SST is taken as the predictor. The results of the return cross test for the historical years from 1979 to 2008 and independent sample return test from 2009 to 2018 show that this statistical model has a good performance in predicting the summer precipitation in the WMR, especially in the flood years. It has better skill in the prediction of WMR precipitation than the dynamical model SINTEX-F.

scholarly journals Improvement of Extreme Summer Precipitation over South Korea in APHRODITE Data

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil Lee ◽  
◽  
Dong-Hyun Cha ◽  
Chang-Yong Park
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Summer Precipitation

scholarly journals Determining the Risk Level of Heavy Rain Damage by Region in South Korea

Water ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Jongsung Kim ◽  
Donghyun Kim ◽  
Myungjin Lee ◽  
Heechan Han ◽  
Hung Soo Kim
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Risk Index ◽  
National Level ◽  
Heavy Rain ◽  
Quantitative Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Level ◽  
Disaster Prevention ◽  
Qualitative Risk Assessment ◽  
Regional Risk

For risk assessment, two methods, quantitative risk assessment and qualitative risk assessment, are used. In this study, we identified the regional risk level for a disaster-prevention plan for an overall area at the national level using qualitative risk assessment. To overcome the limitations of previous studies, a heavy rain damage risk index (HDRI) was proposed by clarifying the framework and using the indicator selection principle. Using historical damage data, we also carried out hierarchical cluster analysis to identify the major damage types that were not considered in previous risk-assessment studies. The result of the risk-level analysis revealed that risk levels are relatively high in some cities in South Korea where heavy rain damage occurs frequently or is severe. Five causes of damage were derived from this study—A: landslides, B: river inundation, C: poor drainage in arable areas, D: rapid water velocity, and E: inundation in urban lowlands. Finally, a prevention project was proposed considering regional risk level and damage type in this study. Our results can be used when macroscopically planning mid- to long-term disaster prevention projects.

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