KEI Events and Forums

This month, KEI organized and participated in a range of events, including the 2020 Performance Briefing of the Environmental Assessment Group and online forums.


■  Expert Forum on Integrated Water Management in Korea

On December 21, KEI and the Korea Federation of Water Science and Engineering Societies jointly held an online expert forum on the direction and future tasks of integrated water management in Korea. The event was broadcast live via KEI's YouTube channel, KEI Sustainable TV. In the event, many experts in the field of water management were invited to talk about issues including stream management for sound water circulation and drought and agricultural water management from the perspective of integrated water management. Dr. Byung Kook Lee, Chief Research Fellow of KEI, made a presentation on the direction of the water infrastructure management in the era of integrated water management. Professors from prominent universities in Korea, including the Seoul National University and Korea University, were invited to take part in the panel discussion. Dr. Hyunjoo Moon, Chief Research Fellow of the KEI Division for Integrated Water Management also participated in the discussion.

■ Direction for the Used EV Batteries for Promoting a Circular Economy

KEI organized an online forum on December 18, jointly with the Civil Politics Forum within the National Assembly and the Office of Lee Yong Sun (Member of the national assembly). The event was to discuss the future direction for the recycling of used electric vehicle (EV) batteries to promote a circular economy. Dr. Ji Hye Jo, Director of the KEI Division for Resource Cirulation, made a presentation on the future policy direction for used EV batteries. Lee Dong Hoon, one of the team leaders at the Jeju Technopark, introduced current EV battery recycling projects and their future expectations. Also, Son Jeong Soo, a senior researcher of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) introduced the current technology trends in used EV battery recycling and the means to industrialize them. Other experts, including Kyu-ok Kim, Director General of the Korea Transport Institute (KOTI), Hong Soo-yeol, Director of the Resource Circulation Society Economic Research Institute, and Hyojung Kim, Director of the Resources Recycling Division of the Ministry of Environment, were invited to share expertise.

■ 2020 Performance Briefing - KEI Environmental Assessment Group

On December 3, the Environmental Assessment Group of KEI held the 2020 Performance Briefing. The event was streamed live via YouTube in consideration of the COVID-19 situation. The event consisted of two sessions, each with three presentations and a 30-minute discussion session at the end. Each presentation had a specific topic relevant to environmental assessment, including the environmental impact of the large-scale housing policy, trends in the industrial complex development identified in environmental impact assessment of the projects promoted from 2009 to 2019, biodiversity assessment tools utilizing ecoinformatics, and so on. For the discussion sessions, experts including Eunkyoung Kim, Director of the Environment Assessment Policy Division of the Ministry of Environment and Mindae Park, President of the Environmental Impact Assessment Association were invited to share valuable ideas.

A Study on Sustainable Livestock Manure Management

「KEI Research Briefs Vol.8 No.11」

Writing. Eulsaeng Cho et al.

◆ Background and necessity of research
1. Most of livestock manure produced in Korea is applied to farmland as compost and liquid fertilizer in accordance with livestock manure recycling policy.
2. However, due to the reduction of arable land and over-application of manure to the soil resulting in nutrient surpluses, the issue of resource-based treatment of livestock manure has been raised.
3. The purpose of this study is to examine domestic and international livestock manure management policies and to suggest sustainable livestock manure management measures by conducting analysis on environment, energy and economic efficiency of each livestock manure treatment method.

◆ Research Materials and Methods
1. This study analyzed livestock manure production, treatment, utilization, etc. using livestock manure-related statistics and reviewed the status of management and operation in Korea and abroad.
2. Also, life cycle assessment (LCA) and economic analysis were carried out for each livestock manure treatment method.

Establishment of Spatial Information Application System for Advanced Environmental Impact Assessment

「KEI Research Briefs Vol.8 No.12」

Writing. Myung-Jin Lee et al.

◆ Introduction
1.An environmental impact assessment (EIA) is basically the process of reviewing the impact of individual environmental media caused by development projects and comprehensively evaluating the impact of other associated media.
2. Spatial data utilized in EIA have several meanings.
- The outer boundary of project sites as the overall spatial range of projects
- The locations of measured environmental media: targets of EIA
- Spatial expression of correlations between the impacts of individual media and other media
3. This study aims to suggest measures to establish a spatial data platform as a way to efficiently utilize spatial data across the overall process of the EIA system through the following discussions.

◆ Research Methods
This study was conducted as preparation for converting the current EIA system into a spatial data-based system. To do so, this study analyzed systems related to individual environmental media that are utilized in EIAs in other countries, and key elementary ICT technologies for the establishment of the platform. Systems related to EIA in Korea were analyzed, and directions for improving related laws and regulations were also suggested.

KEI Green New Deal Series

"Principles and Direction of the Smart Green New Deal in an Aquatic and Terrestrial Environment"

Writing. Sueben Kim et al.

◆ Abstract
Recently, the government proposed the 『Korean New Deal』 as one of the major national tasks in response to the post-COVID-19 era. The deal aims to transform the economy and society, revolving around the digital new deal, green new deal, and enhancing the safety net, so as to combat climate change, create jobs, and boost economic growth, and as such, the government announced the 10 major related tasks. Since the Korean New Deal is a large-scale national project that requires an immense amount of tax spending, and raises both the expectations and concerns, clear principles and standards are required during the implementation of the green new deal and the selection of projects. In consideration of such circumstances, this journal is aimed at presenting the principles and direction of the green new deal, with focus placed on the “aquatic and terrestrial environment.”

From this viewpoint, the journal examined the current status on the progress in the 2020 Korean green new deal, and then analyzed the previous new deal policies and the current green new deal policies under the implementation in the United States and Europe to draw implications. Consequently, this journal presented the detailed principles and standards of the green new deal on account of “greenness” and sought to propose the principles and policy directions for the green new deal from the short and mid- to long-term perspective. This gives significance on presenting important principles, standards, and policy directions that should be considered for the smart green new deal transformation in the aquatic and terrestrial environment at a time during which various viewpoints are associated with continuous discussions on the green new deal, thereby laying the foundation for the Korea new deal to successfully take root.