Abstract
Local government with abundant natural resources should consider the nature conservation oriented planning process for the sustainable development. With this regard, the aim of this study is to provide a substantial methodology to support the decision-making process to designate the conservation areas. The objectives of the proposed methodology is to conserve natural resources in the local government's territory through quantitatively assessing the values of the natural resources based on various ecological factors such as topography, flora and fauna. In order to test the usability of the method, Gangneung City in Kangwon-Do is selected considering the latest data availability. Based on the assessment process land use of the subjected city could be categorized into 4 levels of conservative area, conservative level 1 area, conservative level 2 area, and conservative level 3 area. Among them, conservative area and conservative level 1 area could be combined as natural resources conservation area and the others could be regarded as buffer and transitional area. Especially conservation area is surrounded by conservation level 2 area. Conclusively, the GIS methods adopted in this could be the efficient illustrative tool to assess the local natural resource values with the central government established nature-environmental information systems.
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