초록
The purpose of this study is to propose remedial devices through the analysis on the operation status of nature trails in the nine National Parks in Korea. To accomplish these goals, the field survey for the nature trail facilities and their nature environmental conditions and a questionnaire survey also had been done, and 1,102 samples have been collected. Nature trails are usually located where the visitors re concentrated for a certain season or year-round, and ease of the visits guaranteed. However, since most of trails are located along the valley, the courses have disadvantage of passing in a single trail. Also, many trails are using former tracking courses, and the environmental conditions are not satisfactory due to the damages incurred by the visitors. Since nature trails are still on the introductory stage, basic tactics such as the design of courses, construction methods, management skills needs further improvements. As the Natural Parks Act does not have any clear definition of nature trails, it invokes the definition of tracking course instead, which in turn hinders the development of the nature trails. The nature trail system was just introduced to Korean National Parks and a pioneer in the Korea. Therefore, when provincial and urban recreational parks wish to introduce the environmental education programs within each park system, nature trails in national parks can be performed as a role model. Further improvements should be made within the such fields as preliminary natural ecological survey, lacks of professional designers for the facilities, lacks of interpreter and interpretation within nature trails.