11/4/2024:

Kwang-Hun receives an outstanding award for oral presentation during the 2024 Korean Society of Environmental Engineers (KSEE) Annual Meeting. Kwang-Hun gave this oral presentation during the 2023 KSEE Annual Meeting. 

Big Congrats to Kwang-Hun!

10/22/2024:

Eunmi gets 1st place (최우수) award from the 2024 Korea Environment Institute Environmental Data Analysis/Application Idea Contest. In this contest, participants propose how environmental big data can be analyzed/applied to meet the demand of customers across diverse fields. The first placed award includes a award certificate with 1.5 million KRW (equivalent to 1 million USD). 

Media Feature: 베리타스알파,  교수신문, 브레이크뉴스

Big Congrats to Eunmi!

8/12/2024:

Murtaza's recent work on global analysis of drought hazard and awareness is accepted in npj Clean Water.  This study analyzed the global awareness at multiple dimensions: local, remote, and global awareness. We found that the recent decade has experienced no change in drought hazard over the globe, but the global community has been increasingly seeking information about drought online, that is, elevated awareness of the global community on drought. We further found that long-lasting droughts enhance local- and global-level awareness and high gross domestic product per capita are associated with remote-level awareness. This study provides an observational evidence of global disparities between drought hazard and awareness/interest, underscoring a continuing role of European nations in enhancing global drought awareness. 

Ahmad and Kam, 2024, Disparity between global drought hazard and awareness, npj Clean Water, 7, 75 (article number). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-024-00373-y 

Media:

POSTECH (Korean/English), 디지틀조선일보, 동아사이언스, 뉴스1, 전자신문, 교수신문 , PHYS.ORG, EurekAlert!, SCIENMAG, Bioengineer.org

Great job, Murtaza!

8/8/2024:

An uncrewed Aerial Vehicle, named Mini, joins our group as an assistant of our uncrewed surface vehicle, Duo. She will measure the water surface areas when Duo measures water depth and quality of the Daljeon reservoir.  She will also monitor the vegetation condition over the POSTECH campus.

Welcom onboard, Mini!

8/1/2024:

Sungjun joins our group as a post-undergraduate research intern. He uses Uncrewd Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to monitor/map water quantity and quality in the Daljeon reservoir.

Welcome onboard, Sungjun! 

7/23/2024:

We visit Bangladesh to transfer our medium-range hydrologic forecasting skill for Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River basins to staffs at the Bangladesh Water Development Board. This workshop is sponsored by the National Research Foundation of Korea and UN Environmental Programme.  During this visit, we visit the KOICA office to discuss the environmental and water issues in Bangladesh.

7/1/2024:

Jiam and Kiru start their summer intership at BC Card (1 July through 23 August, 2024). They are going to participate in a project that investigate the impact of climatic extremes on purchasing patterns using big data about BC card purchasing records at the national level. I hope that they have not only research experience but also professional experience through this summer internship at BC card. 

Enjoy the intership, Jiam and Kiru!

6/27/2024:

Suenghui is accepted to the Future Laureates Societal Challenges Programme (Theme: Dynamic Secure and Sustainable Society). The Future Laurates Societal Challenges Programme is part of the Sweden Korea Education, Research and Innovation Collaboration (SKERIC) project, aimed at enhancing scientific partnerships between our two countries. SKERIC is a collaborative project between eight Swedish and Korean universities. The project will address some of the major challenges facing democratic societies today, with the aim to equip some of the best and brightest young researchers and innovators from Sweden and Korea with the necessary tools, skills, and networks to become academic leaders and outstanding researchers and innovators, capable of addressing the world’s most pressing challenges as well as advocating for democracy and academic freedom. 

More information about the SKERIC project is available the following web-link: <link> 

Big congrats, Seunghui!

6/24/2024:

Eunmi is selected as a recipient of the 2024 National Resaerch Foundation of Korea PhD Research Fellowship Program (박사과정생 연구장려금). This two-year fellowship includes 25 million KRW per year. 

Big congrats, Eunmi!

6/16/2024:

A news article about my research topics is released. This article  (in Korean) introduces my long-term view on research interests and educational program in environmental science and engineering, particularly in water resources management. Please check the following link: <link>

6/14/2024:

Eunmi is selected as a recipient of the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation Scholarship (Climate Technology and Energy Sector). This scholarship includes a full tuition fee, 2.4 million won per semester, an international conference travel per year, and incentive per a SCIE article and is supported until her graduation. I deeply appreciate a generous support of Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation.  Please visit the Hyudai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation website: <link>

Big congrats to Eunmi!

6/14/2024:

Our AGU session for application of Machine Learning to science for water and society is open. We are now accepting abstracts that apply machine learning models to hydrology and sociology. Please consider submitting your abstract to our session, H116: Revitalized integration of Machine Learning in Water and Society. Hope to see you in Washington DC this December.

6/03/2024:

Shahid Ali, an MSE alumnus of our group, got a Marie Curie Fellowship for his PhD study at the University of Girona, Spain.  He will paricipate in the C-NEWTRAL Project: Decision-support system (DSS) to addreess water scarcity with Nature-based Solutions in cities. C-NEWTRAL (“smart CompreheNsive training to mainstrEam neW approaches for climaTe-neutRal cities through citizen engAgement and decision-making support for innovative governance and integrated pLanning”) is a four year European Training Network funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks (DN). The C-NEWTRAL Network is made up of 5 European beneficiaries from Ireland, Italy, Germany, Finland, and Spain, and an Associated Partner that will train and host Doctoral Candidates, the UK. 12 Doctoral Candidates will be overall employed to conduct research on how to advance towards achieving climate-neutral cities on different dimensions through citizen engagement and decision-making support.  

Big Congrats, Shahid!

5/10/2024:

Our group gave three oral presentations during the 2024 Korean Water Resources in JeJu Island. Anqi presented the results from a sentimental analysis of water pollution complaints of citizens in Arkasas, USA. Eunmi presented a machine learning-based flood risk assessment of South Korea. I presented the next generation monitoring of drought focused emotion coping. 

Eunmi (oral presenter), Seunghui (co-author), and Anqi (co-author) received an outstanding presentation award this year. 

Congrats, Eunmi!

4/12/2024:

Kwang-Hun's paper on spatiotemporal patterns of water level and total organic carbon concentration of agriculatural reservors in South Korea was accepted in Water Research (IF: 12.8, Top 1% SCIE journal in Water Resources). 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2024.121610

Media:

연합뉴스, 매일신문, 동아사이언스, 교수신문, 베리타스알파, 한국강사신문, 대경일보. phys.org, EurekAlert!, ScienceDaily

This study employed rotated principal  component analysis (rPCA) to the water level and total organic carbon concentration in ~2,200 agricultural reservoirs in South Korea. The first rPCA mode was a decreasing trend of water level (38% of the explained variance) and increasing trend of TOC concentration (27%) over the southern Korea region where the TOC concentration increased during the 2022 drought. The second rPCA mode is interannual variability of water level (25%) and TOC concentration (18%) over the central Korea region. This study found a marginal relationship between paddy field area and TOC concentration and their regime shift to high TOC concentration during the 2022 drought, which is a potential cause of the increase of TOC concentration in 2022. This study suggests a potential role change of agricultural reservoirs to carbon source.

Big Congrats, Kwang-Hun!

4/3/2024:

Dr. Park's paper on spatiotemporal patterns of groundwater levels in South Korea was accepted in Science of the Total Environment (IF: 9.8, Top 10% SCIE journal in Environmental Science). 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172221

Media:

동아사이언스, phys.org, EurekAlert!, Bioengineer.org, India Education Diary, PreventionWeb

This study employed Cyclostationary empirical orthogonal function (CSEOF) analysis to the monthly groundwater levels from +200 shallow and deep ground water monitoring stations in the southern Korean Peninsula. We found that the 2016/17 drought were associated with the first two major modes that can explain more than half of the total variance. The third mode was associated with decrease in deep groundwater in the western Korean Peninsula, due to land development. This result indicates that three million residents in the western Korean Peninsula coastlines likely expose groundwater depletion by 2080s. This study highlights the importance of balanced land development including water resources management plans. 

Great Job, Dr. Park!

3/20/2024:

Dr. Kam accepted an invitation for an advisory panel member of Environmental Research Letters (ERL). According to ERL's website, members of this Panel provide constructive and careful analysis of submissions to the journal, helping to maintain quality control and peer review rigour. 

Please see the following link and check who are in the list of ERL's advisory panel members. <link>

3/20/2024:

The WMO Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) invited me as a speaker for a 12-minute presentation during the IDMP Virtual Exchange (9 April 2024).  This year' IDMP Virtual Exchange topic is "Non-traditional data collection methods for strengthening drought management." Here is a link for this'year IDMP Virtual Exchange agenda: <link>

My presentation title is Next Generation Drought Monitoring Toward Emotion-Focused Coping. Please register at the following link if you are interested: <link>

3/8/2024:

The EGU General Assembly 2024 accepted three abstracts of my group (two oral + one poster presentations). About 16,000 scientists participate in the annual EGU General Assembly from all over the world. We are thrilled to share our recent works with the EGU members and learn their works in Vienna, Austria! Please come to our presentation if you are in this year's EGU General Assembly. 

Here are the information about our presentations (*: student presenter):

• (Oral) EGU24-14972: Understanding the dynamics of information diffusion through data-driven social network modeling for the 2012 U.S. drought and wildfire by Jiam Song* and Jonghun Kam in Room N2 on Monday, 15 April 2024, 12:10) <session>
• (Oral) EGU24-16043: Next Generation Drought Monitoring: Forecasting to Emotion-Focused Coping by Jonghun Kam et al. in Room 2.15 on Tuesday, 16 April 2024, 17:39)<session> 
• (Poster) EGU24-2420: Spatiotemporal patterns of water volume and total organic concentration of agricultural reservoirs over South Korea by Kwang-Hun Lee* and Jonghun Kam in Hall X1 at board number X1.89. The author in attendance time is Thursday, 18 April 2024, 10:45-12:30) <session>

3/4/2024:

POSTECH opens the 2024-25 Graduate Admissions 1st Round! Out group always welcome highly motivated applicants! If you are interested, please contact me with your resume.

1. Application Period: February 26, 2024 – April 11, 2024 (06:00pm KST)

2. Application Website: https://adm-g.postech.ac.kr/ENG/ 

2/19/2024:

Our group has two incoming students in the Spring semester of 2024: Deviicha (Icha) Ludyawati (M.S.E program) and Hyeongsoek Oh (M.S.E/Ph.D. program).  

Welcome onboard, Icha and Hyeonsoek!

3/2/2024:

Shahid, a former MSE student & post-graduate research assistant, leaves for his next professional journey.  Currently, he applied to the PhD program at several U.S. and Australia Universities. I hope that he will have a good news shortly. He was the first MSE student of mine at POSTECH and was graduated with a refereed research article (first author) in Journal of Hydrology. 

During his post-graduate assistantship, he had another refereed research article (co-author) in Water Resources Research. He was very productive over the last two and half years at POSTECH. 

We will miss you. Best wishes for the next chapter of your journey. Stay in touch, Shahid!

2/14/2024:

Dr. Kam's report on the 2022 Central Andes drought was accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. In this report, we found that the affect of anthropogenic greenhouse gas and aerosol forcing on 2022-like Central Andes droughts is compensating, resulting in no statistically significant human contribution to the 2022-like droughts. This finding highlights the need to design the climate change mitigation and adaptation policies for Central Andes. (IF: 8.0, Top 10% SCIE journal in Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences). 

Kam, J.*, S.-K. Min, B.-H. Kim**, Y.-H. Kim, L. B. Diaz, J.-S. Kug, R. Park, 2024, Climate Models Indicate Compensating Effects between Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gases and Aerosols on the 2022 Central Andes Spring Drought,  Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 105, E825-E831. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0241.1  

Media: 동아사이언스, 경북일보, 경북매일, 교수신문, Eurekalert!, Phys.org, ScienceDaily

Congtrats to all authors!

2/2/2024:

Maria completed the MSE degree successfully. The title of her thesis is "Assessing the cascade of uncertainty in the prediction skill of Random Forest (RF) modelling for PM10." She investigated the impact of input data record length and precipitation information on RF model's prediction skill for PM10 prediction. Her sites were three stations over South Korea (one station from Seoul, Daegu, and Busan). She is currently looking for a opening position for graduate research assistant. I wish the best luck on her new journey. 

Congratulations, Maria!

1/30/2024:

Anqi got an award (우수논문도전상) from the 4th POSTECH Excellence Research Achievement Competition (우수성과경진대회). All the POSTECH graduates, postdoc research associates, and research professors to participate in this competition. Her research achievement is the following npj Clean Water article:

Liu, A.**, J. Kam*, S. Kwon, and W. Shao, 2023: Monitoring the impact of climate extremes and COVID-19 on statewise sentiment alterations in water pollution complaints, npj Clean Water, 6, 29. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-023-00244-y

Congratulations, Anqi!

1/16/2024:

Seung-Hui's paper on deep learning modeling for air pollutant from an emission facility was accepted in Journal of Cleaner Production. In her paper, she explored the potential of  deep learning in predicting air pollutant emissions (NOx, SOx, Total Suspended Particle (TSP)) using operational variables of the facility. My student, Kwang-Hun, is a coauthor who developed the concept of deep learning modeling.  (IF: 11.1, Top 10% SCIE journal in Environmental Science). 

Choi, S.**, K.-H. Lee**, J.-H. Park, S. Jeon, H. J. Lee, P.-G. Kang*, J. Kam*, 2024, Reliable AI models can reveal key processes of heat recovery steam generator operation in air pollutant emission, J. Clean. Prod., 140806. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.140806 

Great job, Seung-Hui!

01/08/2024:

Our group has an undergraduate intern, Jiyun Shin (Ewha Womans University). She will conduct an independent study for AI modeling of reservoir water quantity and quality modeling during this winter break intern period.

Welcome onboard, Jiyun!

01/01/2024:

Happy New Year!

We were productive in 2023. Here are seven refereed articles published in 2023 from our research group (*student/postdoc first author). I appreciate our group members' hard work and am proud of our scholarly products. More publications are forthcoming in 2024! Wish the best to all my research group members and alumni.

1. Lee, K.-H.*, S. Ali*, Y. Kim*, K. Lee, S. Y. Kwon, J. Kam, 2023, High Resolution Mapping of Nitrate Loads of a Reservoir Using an Unmanned Surface Vehicle: Potential Opportunities and Challenges, Water Resour. Res., 59, e2023WR034665.  https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR034665 

2. Park, C. K.*, S. Lee, H. Yoon, J. Kam, 2023, Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Outlook of the 2022-23 Southwestern Korea Meteorological Drought, Environ. Res. Lett., 18, 104039. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acfb27 

3. Song, J.*, K. Jeong, and J. Kam, 2023, Evidence of the time-varying impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on online search activities relating to shopping items in South Korea, Humanit. Soc. Sci. Commun. (Springer Nature), 100, 669. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02183-y 

4. Lee, E.* and J. Kam, 2023,  Deciphering the black box of deep learning for multi-purpose dam operation modeling via explainable scenarios, J. Hydro., 626, 130177.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.130177 

5. Liu, A.*, J. Kam, S. Kwon, and W. Shao, 2023: Monitoring the impact of climate extremes and COVID-19 on statewise sentiment alterations in water pollution complaints, npj Clean Water, 6, 29. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-023-00244-y 

6. Ali, S.*, B.-H. Kim*, T. Akhtar, and J. Kam*, 2023: Past and future changes toward earlier timing of streamflow over Pakistan from bias-corrected regional climate projections (1962-2099), J. Hydrol., 617, 128959. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128959 

7. Park, C.-K.* and J. Kam, 2023: Sub-seasonal Experiement (SubX) model-based assessment of the prediction skill of recent multi-year South Korea droughts,  Asia Pac J Atmos Sci., 59, 69-82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-022-00307-z