Vegetation Management Units and Its Landscape Structures of Mt. Cheolma, in Incheon City, Korea

For landscape ecological management of the isolated forestlands in Incheon city located in the western tip of South Korea, the forest vegetation of Mt. Cheolma was classified phytosciologically and mapped out its spatial distribution at a scale of 1:5,000. Characteristics of forest landscape structures were discussed in terms of the number and size of patches obtained by analyzing vegetation map. Units to manage the forest vegetation were categorized into eighteen communities, seventeen groups, and sixteen subgroups. Landscape elements were classified into five types: secondary vegetation, introduced vegetation for forestry (IVF), introduced vegetation for agriculture (IVA), and other elements. Two hundred and ninety-three forest landscape patches covers 443.3ha of which IVF accounted for 316.8ha(71.5%), the largest portion, secondary vegetation for f01.2ha(22.8%), IVA for 6.2ha(1.4%), and others for 19.1ha(4.3%). The ratio of natural forest elements of 31.9% showed that this area was mainly comprised of artificially introduced vegetation, such as Robinia pseudoacacia plantation and Pinus rigida plantation. Forest landscape patches have a mean area of 4.5ha, a density of 66.1/100ha, and a diversity index of 0.87. It was estimated that differentiation of patches recognized in community level would be related to human interference and those in subordinate level to natural processes.