Business Areas
GeoSystem Research, a global leader in Earth science and technology
Business Areas
Marine Debris and Microplastics
Business Introduction
Marine debris and microplastics are considered to be one of the major threats to human life and ecosystems. In Korea, about 18,000 tons of marine debris is generated annually, and the amount recovered is less than half of the amount generated. About 70% of the marine debris in Korea is plastic, and medium and large sized plastics become microplasticized through weathering and decomposition in nature, making it difficult to collect them. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a full-cycle management system that considers proactive prevention and eco-friendly resource circulation. GeoSystem Research has developed a particle tracking technology-based marine debris/microplastics transport and distribution prediction model to support government agencies involved in aquatic environment management to help with establishing collection and management plans. Using this model, we provide technical support for the collection of disaster trash spilled during floods by predicting the behavior of marine debris and microplastics, and propose measures for managing floating and settling marine debris and microplastics distributed in the aquatic environment.
Our Technology
- 3D flow modeling
- Stand-alone marine debris and microplastics modeling based on particle tracking techniques (source code developed in-house)
- Stochastic material transport and distribution modeling
Applications
- Drawing solutions for institutional management of marine debris and microplastics
- Analysis of environmental impacts through assessment of marine debris and microplastics severe area
- Provision of guidelines for marine debris collection planning
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Kiyoung Bang, Managing Director
Tel. 031-5180-5824
E-mail. kybang@geosr.com
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Business Areas
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Living Shoreline
As the international community became more aware of the seriousness of climate change, countermeasures against it are emerging as a global priority paradigm. Marine ecosystems are known to absorb carbon faster than terrestrial ecosystems, and to achieve carbon neutrality, blue carbon, a carbon absorption source in the field of marine fisheries, should be expanded more. To actively respond to the climate crisis, it is necessary create more carbon-absorbing and climate-adaptive coasts, or living shorelines, that are suitable for the domestic situation. Based on our extensive experience, GeoSystem Research can find the right areas to create such living shorelines and conduct raising seedlings and planting of marine plants (such as saltwater plants) for the same purpose. We can detect changes in marine sediments and marine organisms through the creation of living shorelines and calculate the carbon sink coefficient of each sediment or organism types. By doing so, we can verify the living shorelines’ carbon absorption capabilities and effect of improving ecological functions, then make guidelines and suggest future improvements. -
Ecosystem・Red tide・Vibrio・E.coli modeling
Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) is necessary to ensure that the entire natural ecosystem, including humans, remains healthy and highly productive. EBM requires the development of sufficiently high-quality ecological models to use their predictions to create policies. Ecological models are numerical representations of spatial and temporal changes in the relationships between the biotic and abiotic factors that make up an ecosystem, ranging from changes in habitat area for a particular species or estimates of primary production of phytoplankton to changes in the abundance of an entire ecosystem due to climate change. GeoSystem Research has established an end-to-end model for the entire Korean marine coastal ecosystem to identify the causes of continuous decline of fishery resources and to establish countermeasures. We use this model to produce scientific and quantitative predictions to characterize the fluctuations in the marine coastal ecosystem due to human activities and natural environmental changes. In addition, we have developed technologies to predict typical harmful organisms (such as red tide, green tide, Vibrio, and E. coli) that occur in marine and freshwater in advance, and provide technical support to relevant government departments in establishing countermeasures.