• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.287-298
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• 2019

This study found that wildlife crossing created through environmental impact assessments didn't reduce the number of wildlife accidents on the road by review of "A Study on the Legal and Institutional Review for Reproving Bio-Mobile in Environmental Impact Assessment(2018)". Specific considerations to be reviewed at each stage of the environmental impact assessment consultation were presented for practical site application. Therefore, in this study, the consultation steps for environmental impact assessment were presented in five stages, including planning, design, construction, monitoring, maintenance and management, and detail of the items to be reviewed by public officer. It will be able to prevent loss of habitats and improve biodiversity by improving the practice and institutional problems that were planned and designed at the time of construction.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.941-951
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• 2012

The changes of forest habitats and maeulsoops(village forests) in Jinan-gun, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea are examined using landscape indices and morphological pattern analysis, and their landscape-ecological implications on conserving biological diversity are presented. We used FRAGSTATS and GUIDOS software, as well as land cover maps(of 1989 and 2006) to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of habitat composition and configuration in surrounding landscapes of 34 representative maeulsoops and Jinan-gun. The results showed decreases in the amount of core habitats and corridors and habitat connectivity at a regional scale since 1989. In addition, multi-scale habitat analysis at a focal scale revealed that the structural and functional connectivity between forest habitats surrounding maeulsoops of the year 2006 was lower than that of the year 1989. In order to reduce forest fragmentation and to enhance the connectivity among habitats, it is necessary to provide the additional habitat corridors as well as preserving existing corridors and surrounding landscapes of maeulsoops. We also suggest that a combination of landscape indices and morphological spatial pattern analysis can provide an effective tool to assess the habitat functions and configuration in a rapidly changing landscape.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.185-198
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• 2016

Korea has put in significant efforts to increase the number of wildlife crossings between fragmented habitats to prevent loss of biodiversity and to encourage the habitat connectivity in Korea. However, there is a lack of biological data on the effect of vegetation structure in these wildlife crossings and guidelines for design and management of wildlife crossing structures in Korea. Therefore, we selected ground beetle assemblages as model organisms to compare the effect of vegetation structure in wildlife crossings, i.e. bare ground- and shrub-type corridors, in agro-forested landscapes. For this study, 4,207 ground beetles belonging to 33 species were collected through pitfall trapping along the northern forest-corridor-southern forest transects from late April to early September in 2015. Dominant species, abundance, and species richness of ground beetles were significantly higher in the shrub-type corridors than the bare ground-type corridors. Also, the species composition of bare ground-type corridor was significantly different compared to the other habitats such as shrub-type corridor and forests. Similarly, environmental variables were also influenced by vegetation management regimes or trap locations. Collectively, our study clearly indicates that the movement of forest associated ground beetles between forest patches can increase as the vegetation in wildlife crossings becomes complex. Although further studies are needed to verify this, there are indications that the current wildlife crossings that comply with the guidelines may be unfriendly to the movement of ground dwelling arthropods as well as ground beetles. To enhance the ecological function of wildlife crossings, the guidelines need to be rectified as follows: 1) Shrubs or trees should be planted along the corridor verges to provide refuge or movement paths for small mammals and ground dwelling arthropods, and 2) Open spaces should be provided in the middle of the corridors to be used as a path for the movement of large mammals.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.27-51
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• 2009

This study looked for ways to carry out development projects in a sustainable manner by generating improvement plans, and focused on reviewing the status and problems associated with the environmental and ecological planning that is currently applied to new town and large-scale development projects. Improved methods were suggested based on differences between urban development and housing development projects. Based on principles set for the introduction of environmental and ecological planning, the size of the projects subject to environmental and ecological planning was set. With regard to the procedural improvements for environmental and ecological planning, nine problems were singled out from the development planning phases. Solutions were suggested by separating the problems into the site and district designation phase, development planning phase, implementation planning phase, and post-management phase based on a literature review and the opinion of experts. In consideration of improvements to the planning system, the scope of environmental and ecological planning was set after looking at information related to environmental and ecological planning, literature review, expert interviews, and the relevance of related plans. The scope of the environmental and ecological planning was divided into the overview of planning, environmental and ecological conception, conception of spatial structure and framework, and urban environment regeneration and impact reduction plans. By synthesizing the above-described results, the functions of environmental and ecological planning, development planning, and environmental assessment and their inter-relations were defined. The defined inter-relations seem likely to be developed into a form that would enable sustainable land development.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.16-26
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• 2019

Wetlands that provide diverse ecosystem services, such as habitat provision and hydrological control of flora and fauna, constitute ecosystems through interaction between wetlands existing in a wetlandscape. Therefore, to evaluate the wetland functions such as resilience, it is necessary to analyze the ecological connectivity that is formed between wetlands which also show hydrologically dynamic behaviors. In this study, by defining wetlands as ecological nodes, we generated ecological networks through the connection of wetlands according to the dispersal model of wetland species. The characteristics of these networks were then analyzed using various network metrics. In the case of the dispersal based on a threshold distance, while a high local clustering is observed compared to the exponential dispersal kernel and heavy-tailed dispersal model, it showed a low efficiency in the movement between wetlands. On the other hand, in the case of the stochastic dispersion model, a low local clustering with high efficiency in the movement was observed. Our results confirmed that the ecological network characteristics are completely different depending on which dispersal model is chosen, and one should be careful on selecting the appropriate model for identifying network properties which highly affect the interpretation of network structure and function.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.412-420
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• 2011

This study was conducted to quantitatively analyze the temporal change of green space network at multi-scales from 1975 to 2006 with the application of graph theory in Seoul, Korea. Remarkable change of connectivity was detected in green space networks at the scale ranging from 1,000 ~ 1,600 m during 30 years. Green spaces and their networks have been restoring after 1990 since forest areas had been fragmented in 1975. In 2006, we identified the important core habitat areas that can sustain diverse wildlife species and stepping stones composed of small patches that can link these core habitat areas. Green spaces showed high correlation with the relative importance value of green space connectivity. So, this study could graphically represent green space networks of Seoul City. Green spaces of core areas distributed at the northern and southern boundary, and those of stepping stones possessing the high value of betweenness centrality consisted at the middle, eastern and western boundary. These results indicate that green space network can be graphically and quantitatively explained by degree centrality, betweenness centrality and relative importance value of connectivity with the application of graph theory.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.414-419
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• 2023

Aquatic ecosystem is composed of various organic and inorganic matters. Its health is essential for sustaining its members such as vegetations, mammals, birds, fishes and invertebrates. Samcheonpo stream is one of candidate streams in Sacheon area of ecological restoration. For this reason, this study conducted to build up a data base for future comparison. The results shows that biodiversity of Epilithic Diatoms and Invertebrates is below average which means that human impacts such as artificial structures and activities have been negatively related to stream health. Consequently, we suggest several key factors when ecological restoration is performed in the stream.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.123-132
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• 2014

This study aims to develop the diagnostic evaluation method of the riverine ecobelt for construction, conservation, and maintenance of the riverine ecobelt. The value indices in the proposed evaluation method are composed of total 5 fields and 19 elements. The 5 fields are flood control, environmental function, growth of plants, ecobelt function, and restoration potential. Flood control field is composed of total 3 elements such as length, width, and density of green area. Environmental function field is composed of 4 elements such as park use, landscape boundary and edge, microclimate control, non-point pollution control. Growth of plants field is composed of 6 elements such as species composition, forest height, stratum structure, vine plants, plant vitality, and succession of plants. Ecobelt function field is composed of 4 elements such as longitudinal connectivity, lateral connectivity, in-stream forest or habitat, roads on bank top. Restoration potential field is composed of 2 elements such as landform and land use of the immediate vicinity. The score system ranging 1~4 was adopted. The weighting parameters of elements were unified with each other. The final grade system ranging 1~5(1: very good~5: very bad) was adopted, and the final grade was evaluated by the mean values of each field. According to the test application of the diagnostic evaluation method of the riverine ecobelt, the final grades showed effectively the real condition of each site.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.171-183
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• 2023

Estuarine wetlands, which form a distinctive brackish water zone, serve as important habitats for organisms that have adapted to and thrive in this environment. Nonetheless, excessive development and utilization result in artificial disruptions that alter the distinctive functions and attributes of estuarine wetlands. To collect the basic data for the conservation of estuarine wetlands with excellent ecosystems, we investigated the vegetation distribution characteristics and biota status of the Taehwagang River Estuarine Wetland. Data from vegetation surveys have shown that 25 plant communities of six physiognomic vegetation types, including willow vegetation, lotic and lentic herbaceous vegetation, floating/submerged vegetation. In the upper reaches, where topographical diversity was high, various types of wetland vegetation were distributed. In terms of biodiversity, a total of 696 species, including 7 endangered wildlife species, were identified. Due to good ecological connectivity, tidal rivers are formed, brackish water species including various functional groups are distributed around this section. The inhabitation of various water birds, such as diving and dabbler ducks, were confirmed according to the aquatic environment of each river section. The collection of ecological information of the Taehwagang River Estuarine Wetland can be used as a framework for establishing the basis for conservation and management of the estuarine ecosystem and support policy establishment.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.634-649
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• 2020

Recently, stream longitudinal connectivity has been a topic of investigation due to the frequent disconnections and the impact of aquatic ecosystems caused by the construction of small and medium-sized weirs and various artificial structures (fishways) directly influencing the stream ecosystem health. In this study, the international and domestic research trends of the longitudinal connectivity in aquatic ecosystems were evaluated and the applicability of fish-based longitudinal connectivity models used in developed countries was analyzed. For these purposes, we analyzed the current status of research on longitudinal connectivity and structural problems, fish monitoring methodology, monitoring approaches, longitudinal disconnectivity of fish movement, and biodiversity. In addition, we analyzed the current status and some technical limitations of physical habitat suitability evaluation, ecology-based water flow, eco-hydrological modeling for fish habitat connectivity, and the s/w program development for agent-based model. Numerous references, data, and various reports were examined to identify worldwide longitudinal stream connectivity evaluation models in European and non-European countries. The international approaches to longitudinal connectivity evaluations were categorized into five phases including 1) an approach integrating fish community and artificial structure surveys (two types input variables), 2) field monitoring approaches, 3) a stream geomorphological approach, 4) an artificial structure-based DB analytical approach, and 5) other approaches. the overall evaluation of survey methodologies and applicability for longitudinal stream connectivity suggested that the ICE model (Information sur la Continuite Ecologique) and the ICF model (Index de Connectivitat Fluvial), widely used in European countries, were appropriate for the application of longitudinal connectivity evaluations in Korean streams.