• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.273-288
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• 2023

Although many studies have been conducted on techniques and effects that can be applied to forest meditation in domestic forest healing meditation research, there has been little research on the space where forest meditation takes place. Nevertheless, a meditation space is not just a place concept but a forest environment element responsible for the healing function of a forest, i.e., a place containing healing factors, and can be an essential clue to the healing mechanism. Therefore, to determine whether a healing forest meditation space is suitable for meditation, this study selected the attribute items of the meditation space using the Delphi expert survey and then surveyed the user satisfaction of the healing forest meditation space using the IPA (Importance Performance Analysis) technique. The survey was conducted from August to November 2022, targeting 315 adults who used the forest meditation space at the National Center for Forest Therapy, the Saneum Healing Forest, and the Jathyanggi Pureunsup Arboretum in Gyeonggi Province. The result of the IPA analysis showed the average satisfaction with the forest meditation space was relatively high at 4.33 points on a 5-point Likert scale (4.33 points for the National Center for Forest Therapy, 4.34 points for the Saneum Healing Forest, and 4.37 points for the Jathyanggi Pureunsup Arboretum), indicating that the three healing forest meditation spaces were suitable for forest meditation. Satisfaction with the "Sounds of nature" was high in all three forests. On the other hand, all three forests showed a relatively low satisfaction with "Quietness," indicating it to be a priority problem to be addressed. Also, an open-ended questionnaire survey showed that the mediation space's natural elements, such as natural sounds, scenery, air, forest spaces, and scents, had a higher positive impact on meditation satisfaction than artificial elements, such as facilities. Therefore, it is essential to secure sound resources such as the sound of water and birds around the meditation space, and it is also necessary to consider ways to create a meditation forest in an independent area to avoid encounters with visitors and allow only participants in the forest healing meditation program to enter to increase satisfaction with forest meditation.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.10-17
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• 2014

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze health promotion programs utilizing forests by reviewing regional healthcare program plans in Korea. Methods: We analyzed 227 regional healthcare program plans from 2011 to 2014; seven health promotion programs of the 16 major healthcare programs were prescribed by public health law. Results: Our analysis revealed that only 35 health promotion programs from 29 sites were utilizing forests. Furthermore, of 21 known categories of health promotion programs, only nine incorporated the use of forests. Atopy-asthma healthcare programs were the most common forest health promotion programs, which also included specialized disease management programs (e.g., for atopy prevention and healing, patients with metabolic syndrome or cancer) and specialized mental health management programs (e.g., for addiction or dementia prevention). Others included programs on the development of forest roads or industrial development using forest products. Conclusion: Health programs using forests in Korea are still very limited and primarily comprise atopy-asthma prevention/management, health behavioral change, and mental health programs. This study provided useful information for developing health policies and forest health promotion programs further in Korea.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.95-112
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• 2021

This study analyzed the effects of healing agriculture program types on program satisfaction by using functional image and emotional image of the program as mediators for the participants of healing agriculture program. The sub-variables of the healing agriculture program were classified into horticultural healing, animal healing, food healing, and forest healing. 328 questionnaires collected from the participants of healing agriculture program in the whole country were used for empirical analysis, which used SPSS v22.0 and PROCESS macro v3.4 to analyze the parallel multiple mediation model. First, Among the types of healing agriculture programs, animal healing, food healing, and forest healing had a positive (+) effect on functional image. Second, all types of healing agriculture program had a positive (+) effect on emotional image. Third, both functional and emotional images had a significant positive effect on satisfaction. Fourth, among the types of healing agriculture program, horticultural healing, animal healing, and forest healing had a significant effect on satisfaction, while food healing did not maintain the significant effect on satisfaction. Fifth, functional image mediated between healing agriculture program and satisfaction. Sixth, emotional image mediated between healing agriculture program type and satisfaction. In the next study, it is necessary to study for the adjustment of mediators other than the mediators introduced in this study or the controlled mediated analysis through the conditional process model in which the moderator variable is introduced.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.434-442
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• 2016

This study examined differences in the preference of the fest therapy program regarding stress level. Using convenience sampling method, the surveys on the preferred type of forest healing program and social and psychological stress scales was carried out for adult male and female. As a basis of Psycho social Stress Scale (PWI-SF: Psychosocial Well-being Index Short Form), the adult 620 people were classified such as healthy group, potential stress group, high-risk stress group. The data were analyzed by use of SPSS 21.0 program. To see the difference in preferences for forest therapy program between the three groups according to stress levels, it was analyzed using one-way ANOVA. Depending on the stress levels, there were differences in the preferences of forest healing program such as breathing, breathing exercises, walking in the forest, listening to the sound of water flowing, viewing the forest, counseling, consultation and expert coaching, stress-related lectures, communication-related lectures, forest bathing wind bathing sun bathing. High-risk stress group preferred cognitive based program such as counseling, consultation and expert coaching, stress-related lectures, communication-related lectures. Healthy group appeared to prefer highly emotional approach of the program to take advantage of the five senses such as breathing, breathing exercises, walking in the forest, listening to the sound of water flowing, viewing the forest, forest bathing, wind bathing, sun bathing. Noticeable preference difference was not observed in the potential stress group. It is hoped this study will serve as a basis for the development of forest healing program regarding stress level.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2015

This study has attempted to determine the micro-discourse from blogs as personal media that reflect citizens' actual opinions of the Seoul Forest without intervention of experts. Furthermore, a qualitative research method discourse analysis was selected to analyze the micro-discourse regarding the Seoul Forest in a time series. The extracted samples of blogs by year were intended to identify the comment section of the process of change and the discursive structure. The results are as follows; first, from the beginning of the development of the Seoul Forest to the present, it is divided into four chronological periods along with individuals' micro-discourse with social changes. During the beginning of the development of the Seoul Forest, the social discourse was formed, and in the next period, the micro-discourse was developed with a more emotional and complex discourse. In the formative period, four or five years later, the discourse reflected the civic consciousness of development more than ever, showing the diversity of participation in the program at the Seoul Forest. In the growth period, as the users' experiences had been accumulated, the users started writing about the role of the Seoul Forest in their own words. This can also be called place discourse. From the individuals' micro-discourse, this study shows the discourse structure of how individuals think about the Seoul Forest in each period. Unlike the experts, the micro-discourse contains specific daily interactions, experiences, and the stories of individuals who actually use the parks. It also shows how users reproduce and understand the space. In this respect, this is the most significant finding of this study. Based on this research, this study has demonstrated that the emotional description of a place that actually functions as a discourse about city parks, and confirms that blogs could be used as a space to form discourse and as a research tool to read the trends. In accordance with these results, this study has described not only the discourse of experts, but also how the discourse of individuals' comments can be an important part of the discourse of modern urban parks.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.386-399
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to identify how education and activities of urban forest healing programs affect emotional rest (healing recovery environment awareness, restoration of attention, and leisure life satisfaction). To this end, 38 people were divided into experimental groups (forest healing program education and practice), and control groups (non-program participation). As a result of the study, in the case of the experimental group, emotional rest factors such as healing recovery environment perception, attention recovery, and satisfaction with leisure activities after the program were statistically significantly improved, and in the case of the control group, there was no change in emotional rest after the program. In addition, there were differences between groups in both pre and post regarding the difference in emotional rest between the participant groups, and the difference in emotional rest afterwards was much larger than the pre-difference. In conclusion, people who receive regular education on forest healing and have done actual forest healing activities experience higher emotional rest than those who do not. This suggests that continuous motivation and regular practice can raise awareness of the healing recovery environment, promote attention recovery, and have a positive effect on leisure life through appropriate programs rather than simply taking a walk.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.1
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• pp.150-161
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to obtain the basic data for the effective development and operation of forest healing by analysing the preference of adults on the forest therapy program. The survey of 516 normal adults on the forest therapy program was conducted. Using SPSS 21.0 Program, data analysis of descriptive statistics and correlation analysis of each program confirmed number of covariate, and so we conducted a factor analysis to short meaningful data. And then we looked at the forest healing program preference difference according to demographic characteristics(sex, age, residence, occupation) through reliability analysis, frequency analysis, T-test, analysis of variance(ANOVA). Facter analysis was performed by use of the VariMax orthogonal rotation factor analysis to abbreviate 37 forest therapy program. Through this, the program has been reduced such as 7 program group(1: psychology-based treatment, 2: teaching and counselling-based treatment, 3: camping and forest bath-based treatment, 4: diet-based treatment, 5: nature and plant-based treatment, 6: meditation-based treatment, 7: respiration and yoga-based treatment) and 7 independent programs(1: sleeping in the forest, 2: vision quest, 3: soaking in water, 4: walking wearing shoes, 5: viewing the forest, 6: mountaineering, 7: athletics in the forest). With this criterion, the forest therapy program difference in accordance with sex, age, residence, occupation has been investigated. First, it was verified that there was a significant difference between male and female in the group of such as psychology-based treatment, diet-based treatment, mountaineering. Second, there appeared a significant difference in groups such as teaching and counselling-based treatment, camping and forest bath-based treatment, nature and plant-based treatment, respiration and yoga-based treatment, athletics in the forest. Third, according to the residence, there appeared a significant difference in groups such as psychology-based treatment, teaching and counselling-based treatment, diet-based treatment, nature and plant-based treatment, meditation-based treatment, vision quest, mountaineering, athletics in the forest. Fourth, according to the occupation, there appeared a significant difference in groups such as nature and plant-based treatment, medication-based treatment, vision quest, walking wearing shoes, viewing the forest, mountaineering. As shown before, it seems to be necessary that we should be mindful of this investigation which shows variety of preference of adults on the forest therapy program according to demographic characteristics. We expect the results of this study to be utilized as basic data for the development of forest therapy program targeting on adults.

• 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.37 no.6
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• pp.473-483
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• 2023

This study was conducted to find out the psychological or physiological healing effects of real natural forests and virtual forest experiences using virtual reality (VR) in an artificially-controlled digital environment. To find out this, 81 healthy undergraduate students from C University were experimented on visual forest stimulation effects in the digital environment from September 5 to December 9 in 2022. The experiment evaluated the psychological and physiological healing effects of visual forest stimulation in the digital forest environment (2D, 3D). The SRI (stress response inventory) experiment for analyzing psychological effect showed statistically significant differences among groups. As for the SRI experiment for measuring psychological stress, except Control group, 2D group in the digital environment showed little difference before and after the experiment. But 3D group showed less stress than before. As a result, it was proved that visual forest stimulation in a forest-based digital environment (2D, 3D) reduces psychological stress significantly. And when analyzing how visual forest stimulation changes EEG (electroencephalogram) in the digital environment, alpha waves (RA), which are activated during relaxation or stabilization, were more active than beta waves (RB), which are activated during tension or awakening. This study is expected to be used to create a psychological and physiological healing environment for those who cannot go to a natural forest due to mobility difficulties by providing them visual forest stimulation experiences in a digital environment. It is also expected that the results will be the basis for forest healing in the digital environment and virtual reality programs will help forest healing activities.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.35-48
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• 2023

This study analyzed the inflow factors of Yangjae Citizen's Forest Park using social big data generated online. To this end, the applicability of the emotional information analysis method is to be confirmed as a method of analyzing the perception of the city park and confirming the difference in the characteristics and use of the park. The analysis is based on big data, and as the core of the study is keyword network analysis, the methodology of the 'emotional information analysis method' patented by the author was applied. As a result of the analysis, among the influx factors of Yangjae Citizens' Forest recognized by citizens, the most positive emotional factor was derived as a factor related to 'park contents', and the negative emotional factor was derived as a factor related to 'park management'. These research results suggest that more in-depth program development and operation are needed to discover 'park contents' when implementing urban park revitalization support projects in the future