Anthropocene Alterations of Korean Estuaries

초록

Over the last century, about half of the Korean estuaries (~340) blocked by either estuarine dam or sluice gate. In addition, most of estuaries have been altered due to land reclamation. As a part of a Korean research program, entitled ‘Development of Integrated Estuarine Management System’, three altered estuaries (Nakdong, Yeongsan and Keum) have been investigated with an overarching question on how these anthropogenically altered estuaries are different from natural estuaries in terms of hydrodynamic and sedimentary processes. In this paper, we present the processes of high sedimentation occurred in the altered estuaries after the construction of estuarine dams.