Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

In order to preserve water environment, Total Maximum Daily Load(TMDL) is used to manage the total amount of pollutant from various sources, and the annual average load of source is calculated by the unit load method. Determination of the unit load requires reliable data accumulation and analysis based on a reasonable estimation method. In this study, we propose a revised unit load estimation method by analyzing the unit load calculation procedure of National Institute of Environment Research(NIER) method. Both methods were tested using observed runoff ratio and water quality data of rice paddy fields. The estimated values with the respective NIER and revised NIER methods were highly correlated each other. However, the Event Mean Concentration(EMC) and the runoff ratio considered in the NIER method appeared to be influenced by rainfall classes, and the difference in unit load increases as the runoff and EMC increase. The error can be further increased when the EMC and runoff ratio are changed according to changes in rainfall patterns by climate change and change of agricultural activities. Therefore, it is recommended to calculate unit load by applying the revised NIER method reflecting the non point pollution runoff characteristics for different rainfall classes.