{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T11:31:01Z","timestamp":1790163061577,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,5]],"date-time":"2020-01-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1578182400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Korea Ministry of Environment","award":["79622"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["79622"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This paper presents methods of monitoring river basin development and water variability for the transboundary river in North and South Korea. River basin development, such as dams and water infrastructure in transboundary rivers, can be a potential factor of tensions between upstream and downstream countries since dams constructed upstream can adversely affect downstream riparians. However, because most of the information related to North Korea has been limited to the public, the information about dams constructed and their locations were inaccurate in many previous studies. In addition, water resources in transboundary rivers can be exploited as a political tool. Specifically, due to the unexpected water release from the Hwanggang Dam, upstream of the transboundary Imjin River in North and South Korea, six South Koreans died on 6 September 2009. The Imjin River can be used as a political tool by North Korea, and seven events were reported as water conflicts in the Imjin River from 2001 to 2016. In this paper, firstly, we have updated the information about the dams constructed over the Imjin River in North Korea using multi-temporal images with a high spatial resolution (15\u201330 cm) obtained from Google Earth. Secondly, we analyzed inter- and intra-water variability over the Hwanggang Reservoir using open-source images obtained from the Global Surface Water Explorer. We found a considerable change in water surface variability before and after 2008, which might result from the construction of the Hwanggang Dam. Thirdly, in order to further investigate intra-annual water variability, we present a method monitoring water storage changes of the Hwanggang Reservoir using the area-elevation curve (AEC), which was derived from multi-sensor Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images (Sentinel-1A and -1B) and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Since many previous studies for estimating water storage change have depended on satellite altimetry dataset and optical images for deriving AEC, the method adopted in this study is the only application for such inaccessible areas since no altimetry ground track exists for the Hwanggang Reservoir and because clouds can block the study area for wet seasons. Moreover, this study has newly proven that unexpected water release can occur in dry seasons because the water storage in the Hwanggang Reservoir can be high enough to conduct a release that can be used as a geopolitical tool. Using our method, potential risks can be mitigated, not in response to a water release, but based on pre-event water storage changes in the Hwanggang Reservoir.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12010195","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,6]],"date-time":"2020-01-06T03:48:48Z","timestamp":1578282528000},"page":"195","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":22,"title":["Monitoring River Basin Development and Variation in Water Resources in Transboundary Imjin River in North and South Korea Using Remote Sensing"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9373-0680","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Donghwan","family":"Kim","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hyongki","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6330-1834","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hahn Chul","family":"Jung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA"},{"name":"Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Lanham, MD 20706, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Euiho","family":"Hwang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Water Resources Satellite Research Center, K-Water Institute, K-Water, Daejeon 34350, Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Faisal","family":"Hossain","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, WA 98195, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthew","family":"Bonnema","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Do-Hyuk","family":"Kang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA"},{"name":"Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9635-7220","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Augusto","family":"Getirana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA"},{"name":"Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"387","DOI":"10.1080\/07900629948682","article-title":"International river basins of the world","volume":"15","author":"Wolf","year":"1999","journal-title":"Int. J. Water Resour. Dev."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"282","DOI":"10.1038\/458282a","article-title":"Do nations go to war over water?","volume":"458","author":"Barnaby","year":"2009","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1109","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1752-1688.2003.tb03696.x","article-title":"Conflict and cooperation over international freshwater resources: Indicators of basins at RISR","volume":"39","author":"Yoffe","year":"2003","journal-title":"J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"635","DOI":"10.2166\/wp.2009.117","article-title":"Short note: A review of state of the art on treaties in relation to management of transboundary flooding in international river basins and the global precipitation measurement mission","volume":"12","author":"Balthrop","year":"2010","journal-title":"Water Policy"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1002\/wat2.1351","article-title":"Water as a weapon and casualty of armed conflict: A review of recent water-related violence in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen","volume":"6","author":"Gleick","year":"2019","journal-title":"Wires Water"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3251","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1222475110","article-title":"Global water resources affected by human interventions and climate change","volume":"111","author":"Haddeland","year":"2014","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4095","DOI":"10.1002\/2015WR017830","article-title":"Understanding satellite-based monthly-to-seasonal reservoir outflow estimation as a function of hydrologic controls","volume":"52","author":"Bonnema","year":"2016","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"553","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1752-1688.2009.00325.x","article-title":"Transboundary river floods and institutional capacity","volume":"45","author":"Bakker","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"87","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1936-704X.2012.03130.x","article-title":"The past, present, and future of water conflict and international security","volume":"149","author":"Kreamer","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Contemp. Water Res. Educ."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"35","DOI":"10.1016\/j.gloenvcha.2017.04.008","article-title":"Assessment of transboundary river basins for potential hydro-political tensions","volume":"45","author":"Sproles","year":"2017","journal-title":"Glob. Environ. Chang."},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"1","article-title":"Preliminary Assessment of Decreased River Flow and Its Adaptive Management in Imjin Basin","volume":"2015","author":"Song","year":"2015","journal-title":"Policy Res."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1635","DOI":"10.5322\/JES.2011.20.12.1635","article-title":"Runoff estimation of Imjin River Basin through April 5th Dam and Hwanggang Dam construction of North Korea","volume":"20","author":"Kim","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Environ. Sci. Int."},{"key":"ref_13","first-page":"407","article-title":"A study on the measures to use Gunnam flood control reservoir through a reservoir simulation model","volume":"50","author":"Yang","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Korea Water Resour. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"17","article-title":"A plan to manage a transboundary river","volume":"48","author":"Baek","year":"2015","journal-title":"Water Future"},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Korea Water Resources Association (2016). Discussion on efficient utilization of transboundary rivers. Water Future, 49, 65\u201378."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"National Emergency Management Agency (2014). Disaster response system in national border region. Disaster Status Manag. Inf., 2, 1\u201326."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gleick, P.H. (2014). Water conflict chronology. The World\u2019s Water Volume 8: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources, Island Press.","DOI":"10.5822\/978-1-61091-483-3_11"},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Gleick, P.H. (2014). Global water governance in the twenty-first century. The World\u2019s Water Volume 8: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources, Island Press."},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Reuters (2019, June 21). Kenya: Clashes over Water, Pasture Kill 40 in East Africa. Available online: https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/report\/kenya\/kenya-clashes-over-water-pasture-kill-40-east-africa."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Oxfam (2019, June 21). OPT: Gaza Siege Puts Public Health at Risk as Water and Sanitation Services Deteriorate Warns Oxfam. Available online: https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/report\/occupied-palestinian-territory\/opt-gaza-siege-puts-public-health-risk-water-and-sanitation."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Choe, S. (2019, June 21). South Korea Demands Apology from North Over Dam Incident. Available online: https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/09\/09\/world\/asia\/09korea.html."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Turner, T. (2019, June 21). Turn Korean DMZ into Peace Park. Available online: https:\/\/usatoday30.usatoday.com\/news\/world\/2005-11-18-turnerdmz_x.htm."},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"133","article-title":"Imjin River of Conflicts","volume":"23","author":"Lee","year":"2017","journal-title":"Natl. Strategy"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"147","DOI":"10.1002\/wat2.1065","article-title":"Satellite remote sensing of large lakes and reservoirs: From elevation and area to storage","volume":"2","author":"Gao","year":"2015","journal-title":"Wires Water"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.1007\/s10661-006-5233-9","article-title":"Measuring water storage fluctuations in Lake Dongting, China, by Topex\/Poseidon satellite altimetry","volume":"115","author":"Zhang","year":"2006","journal-title":"Environ. Monit. Assess."},{"key":"ref_26","first-page":"201","article-title":"Reservoir storage variations from hydrological mass balance and satellite radar altimetry","volume":"4","author":"Salami","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Water Res. Environ. Eng."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"W09504","DOI":"10.1029\/2012WR012063","article-title":"Global monitoring of large reservoir storage from satellite remote sensing","volume":"48","author":"Gao","year":"2012","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"366","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2018.08.030","article-title":"Deriving three dimensional reservoir bathymetry from multi-satellite data","volume":"217","author":"Getirana","year":"2018","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_29","first-page":"29","article-title":"The state of the Imjin River as a transboundary river, and a win-win plan for Inter-Koreans","volume":"2","author":"Jang","year":"2014","journal-title":"Water Policy Vision."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"418","DOI":"10.1038\/nature20584","article-title":"High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes","volume":"540","author":"Pekel","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_31","first-page":"1033","article-title":"Simulation of the Flood Damage Area of the Imjin River Basin in the Case of North Korea\u2019s Hwanggang Dam Discharge","volume":"34","author":"Park","year":"2018","journal-title":"Korean J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.earscirev.2017.10.008","article-title":"Recent evolution of the Mekong Delta and the impacts of dams","volume":"175","author":"Li","year":"2017","journal-title":"Earth-Sci. Rev."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"183","DOI":"10.31066\/kjmas.2013.69.3.008","article-title":"Geospatial Intelligence Requirements in Counterinsurgency Operations: Focusing on the War in Afghanistan (2001-Present)","volume":"69","author":"Kim","year":"2013","journal-title":"Korean J. Military Art Sci."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Jeong, H.G. Personal communication."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"150066","DOI":"10.1038\/sdata.2015.66","article-title":"The climate hazards infrared precipitation with stations\u2014A new environmental record for monitoring extremes","volume":"2","author":"Funk","year":"2015","journal-title":"Sci. Data."},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of South Korea (2019, June 21). Response against the Water Release from the Imjin River, Available online: http:\/\/www.mltm.go.kr\/USR\/NEWS\/m_71\/dtl.jsp?id=155370568."},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"Global Surface Water (2019, June 21). Global Surface Water Explorer. Available online: https:\/\/global-surface-water.appspot.com\/#."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"348","DOI":"10.1038\/nature21100","article-title":"Hydrology: The dynamics of Earth\u2019s surface water","volume":"540","author":"Yamazaki","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2990","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2016.1192304","article-title":"Sentinel-1-based flood mapping: A fully automated processing chain","volume":"37","author":"Twele","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bioresita, F., Puissant, A., Stumpf, A., and Malet, J.P. (2018). A method for automatic and rapid mapping of water surfaces from sentinel-1 imagery. Remote Sens., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10020217"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lakshmi, V., Alsdorf, D., Anderson, M., Biancamaria, S., Cosh, M., Entin, J., Huffman, G., Kustas, W., van Oevelen, P., and Oainter, T. (2014). Controls of terrestrial water storage changes over the central Congo Basin determined by integrating PALSAR ScanSAR, Envisat Altimetry, and GRACE data. Remote Sensing of the Terrestrial Water Cycle, American Geophysical Union. Geophysical Monography 206.","DOI":"10.1002\/9781118872086"},{"key":"ref_42","unstructured":"Miranda, N., Meadows, P.J., Type, D., and Note, T. (2018, March 10). Radiometric Calibration of S-1 Level-1 Products Generated by the S-1 IPF. Available online: https:\/\/sentinel.esa.int\/documents\/247904\/685163\/S1-Radiometric-Calibration-V1.0.pdf."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cazals, C., Rapinel, S., Frison, P.L., Bonis, A., Mercier, G., Mallet, C., Corgne, S., and Rudant, J.P. (2016). Mapping and characterization of hydrological dynamics in a coastal marsh using high temporal resolution Sentinel-1A images. Remote Sens., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8070570"},{"key":"ref_44","unstructured":"Liu, C. (2016). Analysis of Sentinel-1 SAR Data for Mapping Standing Water in the Twente Region. [Master\u2019s Thesis, University of Twente]."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e4992","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.4992","article-title":"Monitoring monthly surface water dynamics of Dongting Lake using Sentinel-1 data at 10 m","volume":"6","author":"Xing","year":"2018","journal-title":"PeerJ"},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shen, X., Wang, D., Mao, K., Anagnostou, E., and Hong, Y. (2019). Inundation Extent Mapping by Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Review. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11070879"},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"303","DOI":"10.5194\/nhess-9-303-2009","article-title":"Towards operational near real-time flood detection using a split-based automatic thresholding procedure on high resolution terrasar-x data","volume":"9","author":"Martinis","year":"2009","journal-title":"Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3791","DOI":"10.1002\/2016WR019978","article-title":"Inferring reservoir operating patterns across the Mekong Basin using only space observations","volume":"53","author":"Bonnema","year":"2017","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"026033","DOI":"10.1117\/1.JRS.11.026033","article-title":"Cost-effective monitoring of land subsidence in developing countries using semipermanent GPS stations: A test study over Houston, Texas","volume":"11","author":"Kim","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Appl. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Grren, P.J., and Silverman, B.W. (1994). Interpolating and smoothing splines. Nonparametric Regression and Generalized Linear Models: A Roughness Penalty Approach, Chapman and Hall.","DOI":"10.1201\/b15710"},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"51","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2012.10.035","article-title":"Monitoring flood extent in the lower Amazon River floodplain using ALOS\/PALSAR ScanSAR images","volume":"130","author":"Arnesen","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_52","first-page":"3225","article-title":"Multi-temporal synthetic aperture radar metrics applied to map open water bodies","volume":"7","author":"Santoro","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE J.-Stars"},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7021","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2017.1371867","article-title":"Mapping spatio-temporal water level variations over the central Congo River using PALSAR ScanSAR and Envisat altimetry data","volume":"38","author":"Kim","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_54","unstructured":"YTN (2019, June 21). Water Release from the Hwanggang Dam. Available online: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3rOw4Q2ke3w."},{"key":"ref_55","unstructured":"Woo, Y. (2019, June 20). Water Release from the Hwanggang Dam. Available online: https:\/\/www.yna.co.kr\/view\/AKR20170711159100060?section=popup\/print."},{"key":"ref_56","unstructured":"Kim, B. (2019, October 17). Media\u2019s Problem in News Articles about the Water Release from the Hwannggang Dam. Available online: http:\/\/hyundaenews.com\/22802."},{"key":"ref_57","unstructured":"YTN (2019, October 17). Released Water from the Hwanggang Dam as a Flood Control Role. Available online: https:\/\/www.yna.co.kr\/view\/AKR20160706056800014?section."},{"key":"ref_58","unstructured":"YTN (2019, October 17). Hwanggang Dam is Five Times Larger than Gunnam Dam. Available online: https:\/\/www.yna.co.kr\/view\/AKR20160706075600060?section."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/1\/195\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,13]],"date-time":"2025-10-13T14:03:41Z","timestamp":1760364221000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/1\/195"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,5]]},"references-count":58,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1]]}},"alternative-id":["rs12010195"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs12010195","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,5]]}}}