Efforts have been made to ensure data reliability and improvement in the transmission ratio with the goal of a stabilized nation-wide operation of the CleanSYS. Following stabilized expansion of the implementation throughout the country in 2002, continuous supplementary works were carried out to improve the services provided qualitatively.
CleanSYS was initially designed as an off-line system. Business sites at which monitoring system was installed could not verify their own data, and had many difficulties to the procedure. To address this problem the system which before could only be accessed by the operator, was converted in 2005 into a web-based system to enable company personnel to access data from factory emissions 24 hours a day from any site (including office or home).
Procedures were improved by linking the data on pollutants emitted from the smokestacks. Voluntary investment into environment by the companies were induced by reducing the cost for pollution control facilities, and by making means of improving procedures by using the CleanSYS of individual business sites through regularly scheduled annual seminar of cases of outstanding CleanSYS operation. These corporate efforts were shared through the mass media (e.g., newspapers, TV, radio, etc.), and greatly improved the public image of the companies.
On the basis of such performances of CleanSYS, total quantity management system from the business sites was implemented in 2007 in capital region. The CleanSYS, which originally focused on large capacity business sites in industrial complexes and concentration regulation-oriented, was gradually applied to the management of small factories’ smokestacks in the vicinity of the residents in the capital region.
New construction or expansion of an existing factory was only permitted if the additional emissions would not cause the total level of emissions (established for the capital region) to be exceeded, and also allowed trading of rights for emission quantity of pollutants.
Additionally, CleanSYS standards were applied to the area of water quality monitoring. These efforts are spearheading the prevention of water pollution by transmitting ARS or SMS messages to relevant authorities before levels are exceeded and pollution occurs. Similar to smokestack monitoring this occurs through real time transmission.
The excellence of CleanSYS has been widely promoted at international exhibitions. Other countries in Asia have adopted the system and most notable is the PR China, a country very much in need of state-of-the-art environmental monitoring technologies considering its high dependency on very polluting high sulfur coal for power generation and the observation that a significant amount of South Korea’s air pollution originates in China. ,. In November 2007, these efforts resulted in the implementation of a MOU between the two countries. Seminars in Qingdao, China, provided an opportunity for Korean researchers to explain the technological achievements of CleanSYS with Chinese air quality experts.
It is anticipated that CleanSYS will play a substantial role in reducing air pollutants (e.g., heavy metals) and particulates (i.e., Dust & Sand) that are transported by prevailing winds to Korea and other NE Asian countries (e.g., Japan) every spring.
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