• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.102 no.4
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• pp.491-498
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• 2013

Preliminary feasibility of REDD mechanism to combat forest degradation in North Korea is reviewed as a means of cooperation between South Korea and North Korea. North Korea has not established a national REDD+ strategy and a forest monitoring system which are required to implement REDD+ under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Credible statistical data of forest resources is a necessary condition for implementing REDD mechanism in the developing countries. However, other than forest area data using satellite images, statistical data of forest resources of North Korea are mostly estimated based on simple hypothesis rather than transparent and robust results from national forest inventory. The review of statistical data of forest resources of North Korea shows that North Korea is in a pre-stage of REDD readiness. The study suggests that following research and cooperation agendas should be considered to implement REDD mechanism in North Korea: 1) detecting land use change since 2000, measuring carbon stock change, and identifying causes of deforestation and forest degradation; and 2) establishing a national REDD+ strategy' and a national forest inventory system in North Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.2
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• pp.239-247
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• 2015

Since 2006, new national forest inventory in Korea has been restructured to assess current status and and monitor the changes in forest resources based on permanent sample plots. The objective of estimate this study is to assess changes in forest resources such as land use/cover categories and forest stand variables. For this study, permanent plot data were collected between 2006-2008 and 2011-2013 in Chungcheongbuk-do, respectively. In order to produce land use/cover change matrix which plays an important role as an activity data for estimating GreenHouse Gas inventory, permanent plots were classified into six land use/cover categories. Additionally, matrixes for assessing the changes in age class and dominant tree species can provide more detailed information. For forest stand variables(tree density, basal area, growing stock, mean diameter at breath height, and mean height), their growth and change were assessed. The periodic annual growth ratios for tree density and basal area were slightly declined whereas that of growing stock was estimated to be about 3.7%. The uncertainty of changes in forest stand variables is less than 5%, except for tree density (RSE: 58%). The variation of tree density is relatively high compared to the other variables.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.81-99
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• 2015

The acceleration of global warming has required better understanding of carbon cycles over local and regional areas such as the Korean peninsula. Since forests serve as a carbon sink, which stores a large amount of terrestrial carbon, there has been a demand to accurately estimate such forest carbon sequestration. In Korea, the National Forest Inventory(NFI) has been used to estimate the forest carbon stocks based on the amount of growing stocks per hectare measured at sampled location. However, as such data are based on point(i.e., plot) measurements, it is difficult to identify spatial distribution of forest carbon stocks. This study focuses on urban areas, which have limited number of NFI samples and have shown rapid land cover change, to estimate grid-based forest carbon stocks based on UNFCCC Approach 3 and Tier 3. Land cover change and forest carbon stocks were estimated using Landsat 5 TM data acquired in 1991, 1992, 2010, and 2011, high resolution airborne images, and the 3rd, 5th~6th NFI data. Machine learning techniques(i.e., random forest and support vector machines/regression) were used for land cover change classification and forest carbon stock estimation. Forest carbon stocks were estimated using reflectance, band ratios, vegetation indices, and topographical indices. Results showed that 33.23tonC/ha of carbon was sequestrated on the unchanged forest areas between 1991 and 2010, while 36.83 tonC/ha of carbon was sequestrated on the areas changed from other land-use types to forests. A total of 7.35 tonC/ha of carbon was released on the areas changed from forests to other land-use types. This study was a good chance to understand the quantitative forest carbon stock change according to the land cover change. Moreover the result of this study can contribute to the effective forest management.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_4
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• pp.1155-1164
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• 2023

Currently, the National Forest Inventory (NFI) collects tree information by human, so the range and time of the survey are limited. Research is actively being conducted to extract tree information from a large area using aerial Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) and aerial photographs, but it does not reflect the characteristics of forest areas in Korea because it is conducted in areas with wide tree spacing or evenly spaced trees. Therefore, this study proposed a methodology for generating Digital Surface Model (DSM), Digital Elevation Model (DEM), and Canopy Height Model (CHM) images using aerial LiDAR, extracting the tree height through the local Maxima, and calculating the Diameter at Breath Height (DBH) through the DBH-tree height formula. The detection accuracy of trees extracted through the proposed methodology was 88.46%, 86.14%, and 84.31%, respectively, and the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of DBH calculated based on the tree height formula was around 5cm, confirming the possibility of using the proposed methodology. It is believed that if standardized research on various types of forests is conducted in the future, the scope of automation application of the manual national forest resource survey can be expanded.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.2
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• pp.233-243
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• 2021

Considering worldwide efforts to mitigate repercussions of climate change, the South Korean government has declared to reach net zero by 2050 to achieve a carbon-neutral sustainable society. For full implementation of NDCs, the government has actively reflected its forestry sector into these strategies. Since coarse woody debris (CWD) in forests represents an enduring carbon storage, it is of particular significance to determine characteristics of changes in carbon stocks of CWD by utilizing data on dead trees monitored in permanent sample plots within national forest inventories (NFIs). In this study, therefore, both occurrence and carbon stocks of CWD were estimated in such plots using data on CWD from the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th NFIs. Subsequently, characteristics of changes in carbon stocks over time were analyzed. Based on the analysis of 2,021 plots available for monitoring in each NFI of Gangwon Province, the volume of CWD (m³ ha^-1) was found to be 4.71 in the 5^th NFI and 4.09 in the 6^th NFI. However, the volume of CWD declined to 3.09 in the 7^th NFI. Moreover, the annual carbon stocks of CWD (ton C ha^-1) were estimated to be 0.67 in 2009, 0.64 in 2014, and 0.41 in 2019, showing a downward trend over time. This study provides a basis for future research to investigate long-term changes and estimate carbon stocks of CWD in South Korea forests.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.111 no.4
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• pp.461-472
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• 2022

Natural and anthropogenic factors cause forest types to continuously change. Since the ratio of forest area by forest type is important information for identifying the characteristics of national forest resources, an accurate understanding of the prospect of forest type change is required. The study aim was to use National Forest Inventory (NFI) time-series data to understand the characteristics of forest type change and to estimate future prospects of nationwide forest type change. We used forest type change information from the fifth and seventh NFI datasets, climate, topography, forest stand, and disturbance variables related to forest type change to analyze trends and characteristics of forest type change. The results showed that the forests in Korea are changing in the direction of decreasing coniferous forests and increasing mixed and broadleaf forests. The forest sites that were changing from coniferous to mixed forests or from mixed to broadleaf forests were mainly located in wet topographic environments and climatic conditions. The forest type changes occurred more frequently in sites with high disturbance potential (high temperature, young or sparse forest stands, and non-forest areas). We used a climate change scenario (RCP 8.5) to establish a forest type change model (SVM) to predict future changes. During the 40-year period from 2015 to 2055, the SVM predicted that coniferous forests will decrease from 38.1% to 28.5%, broadleaf forests will increase from 34.2% to 38.8%, and mixed forests will increase from 27.7% to 32.7%. These results can be used as basic data for establishing future forest management strategies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.99 no.3
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• pp.304-311
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• 2010

Korea National Forest Inventory System has been adopting different cluster plot design and new equations to estimate growing stock volumes since 2006. These changes have resulted in volume estimations which show some difference from previous ones. This study is to find out the source of such difference. For this, relevant data was collected from 80 plots of 20 cluster samples according to the cluster plot design applied to 4th and 5th National Forest Inventory. Then growing stock volumes were estimated by using current and previous individual tree volume equations respectively. An investigation was made to detect whether such difference in volume estimates was originated from the changes in cluster plot design or from using different volume equations. T-test results showed that the difference from changes in cluster plot design was negligible. Instead, changes in volume equations had statistically significant effects in volume estimation. Since the volume estimation by the 5th National Forest Inventory would bring overestimation by applying different volume equations, all the volume estimations made prior to 2006 would require necessary modifications for international reporting.

• Proceedings of the Korean Association of Geographic Inforamtion Studies Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.132-137
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• 2006

국토가 좁은 반면 산지가 많은 우리나라에서는 국가지리정보체계 관리 또는 산림자원의 개발과 보전에 대한 중요성이 매우 크다. 따라서 최근에는 산림지역을 대상으로 한 인공위성 영상의 활용 연구가 소개되고 있다. 위성영상은 지구자원의 탐사와 환경감시를 비롯하여 지형정보의 수집 및 분석 등 다양한 분야에서 높은 활용도를 보이고 있으며, 특히 직접 접근이 불가능하거나 까다로운 지역의 지형지물에 대한 다양한 정보의 취득이 가능하다는 장점을 지니고 있다. 광범위한 지역의 주기적인 정보획득이 가능한 인공위성 영상은 환경탐사분야에서 새로운 대안으로 받아들여지고 있으며, 산림분석에도 활용될 수 있다. 따라서, 본 연구에서는 식생분류에 유리한 다중분광센서를 가진 Landsat TM 위성영상을 이용하여 산림형태의 변화를 분석하였으며, 이를 주기적으로 모니터링 할 수 있도록 Web 상에 구축하였다. 이를 통하여 누구나 쉽게 넓은 대상지역 산림형태의 주기적 변화를 모니터링 할 수 있으며, 또한 현장조사 자료의 보완에도 효율적으로 사용될 수 있으리라 판단된다.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.101 no.2
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• pp.213-219
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• 2012

The $5^{th}$ national forest inventory (NFI5) has been reorganized to annual inventory system for providing multi-resources forest statistics at a point in time. The objective of this study is to evaluate statistical estimators for estimating forest growing stock in Chungcheongbuk-Do from annual inventory data. When comparing two estimators; simple random sampling (SRS) and double sampling for post-stratification (DSS), for estimating mean forest growing stock ($m^3/ha$) at each surveyed year, the estimate for DSS in which a population of interest is stratified into three sub-population (forest cover types) was more precise than that for SRS. To combine annual inventory field data, three estimators (Temporally Indifferent Method; TIM, Moving Average; MA, and Weighted Moving Average; WMA) were compared. Even though the estimated mean for TIM and WMA is identical, WMA-DSS is preferred to provide more smaller variance of estimated mean and to adjust for catastrophic events at a surveyed year (so-called "lag bias") by annual inventory data.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.127-137
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• 2014

The main purpose of this study is to estimate tradial growth response and to predict the potential spatial distribution of major tree species(Pinus densiflora, Quercus mongolica, Quercus spp., Castanea crenata and Larix kaempferi) in South Korea, considering climate and topographic factors. To estimate radial growth response, $5^{th}$ National Forest Inventory data, Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) and climatic data such as temperature and precipitation were used. Also, to predict the potential spatial distribution of major tree species, RCP 8.5 Scenario was applied. By our analysis, it was found that the rising temperature would have negative impacts on radial growth of Pinus densiflora, Castanea crenata and Larix kaempferi, and positive impacts on that of Quercus mongolica, Quercus spp.. Incremental precipitation would have positive effects on radial growth of Pinus densiflora and Quercus mongolica. When radial growth response considered by RCP 8.5 scenario, it was found that the radial growth of Pinus densiflora, Castanea crenata and Larix kaempferi would be more vulnerable than that of Quercus mongolica and Quercus spp. to temperature. According to the climate change scenario, Quercus spp. including Quercus mongolica would be expected to have greater abundance than its present status in South Korea. The result of this study would be helpful for understanding the impact of climatic factors on tree growth and for predicting the distribution of major tree species by climate change in South Korea.