• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.453-465
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• 2014

Hotspots are top sites in terms of species diversity as the most threatened and most diverse sites which have been used to select priority areas for reserves. The purpose of this paper is to identify biodiversity hotspots through analyzing nationwide spatial patterns of species richness and rarity of Korean mammals. Four endangered mammals and eleven common mammals were selected as target species. Environmental variables as model input data were consisted of topography, distance, and vegetation structure etc. and Maxent was used to develop species distribution models for target species. Species richness and rarity were used as index of biodiversity. The results of this study were as follows. Firstly, hotspots of species richness for endangered mammals were in high elevation and steep mountain areas. However, species richness for whole mammals were high in low elevation of mountains. Secondly, distribution pattern of species rarity for endangered mammals were similar as richness. However, hotspots of species rarity for whole mammals were a little different from species richness. Species rarity was high in both low and high elevation of mountain areas. This study will provide the useful information for a biodiversity assessment, a habitat conservation, a national ecological network plan, and the management of protected areas.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.23-34
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• 2019

Global warming becomes a serious issue that poses subsidiary issues like a sea level rise or a capricious climate over the world. Because of severe heat-wave of the summer in Korea in 2016, a big attention has been focused on urban heat island since then. Not just about heat-wave itself, many researches have been concentrated on how to adapt in this trendy warming climate and weather in a small scope. A big part of existing studies is mitigating "Urban Heat Island effect" and that is because of huge impervious surface in urban area where highly populated areas do diverse activities. It is a serious problem that this thermal context has a high possibility causing mortality by heat vulnerability. However, there have been many articles of a green infrastructures' cooling impact in summer. This research pays attention to measure cooling effect of a street planting considering urban canyon and type of green infrastructures in neighborhood scale. This quantitative approach was proceeded by ENVI-met simulation with a spatial scope of a commercial block in Seoul, Korea. We found the dense double-row planting is more sensitive to change in temperature than that of the single-row. Among the double-row planting scenarios, shrubs which have narrow space between the plant and the land surface were found to store heat inside during the daytime and prevent emitting heat so as to have a higher temperature at night. The quantifying an amount of vegetated spaces' cooling effect research is expected to contribute to a study of the cost and benefit for the planting scenarios' assessment in the future.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_1
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• pp.1407-1422
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• 2022

This study was conducted to classify tree species and assess the classification accuracy, using SE-Inception, a classification-based deep learning model. The input images of the dataset used Worldview-3 and GeoEye-1 images, and the size of the input images was divided into 10 × 10 m, 30 × 30 m, and 50 × 50 m to compare and evaluate the accuracy of classification of tree species. The label data was divided into five tree species (Pinus densiflora, Pinus koraiensis, Larix kaempferi, Abies holophylla Maxim. and Quercus) by visually interpreting the divided image, and then labeling was performed manually. The dataset constructed a total of 2,429 images, of which about 85% was used as learning data and about 15% as verification data. As a result of classification using the deep learning model, the overall accuracy of up to 78% was achieved when using the Worldview-3 image, the accuracy of up to 84% when using the GeoEye-1 image, and the classification accuracy was high performance. In particular, Quercus showed high accuracy of more than 85% in F₁ regardless of the input image size, but trees with similar spectral characteristics such as Pinus densiflora and Pinus koraiensis had many errors. Therefore, there may be limitations in extracting feature amount only with spectral information of satellite images, and classification accuracy may be improved by using images containing various pattern information such as vegetation index and Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM).

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.377-388
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• 2023

Carbon management is emerging as an important factor for global warming control, and land use change is considered one of the causes. To quantify the changes in carbon stocks due to development, this study attempted to calculate carbon storage by borrowing the formula of the InVEST Carbon Storage and Sequestration Model (InVEST Model). Before analyzing carbon stocks, a carbon pool was compiled based on previous studies in Korea. Then, we estimated the change in carbon stocks according to the development of Osong National Industrial Park (ONIP) and the application of alternatives. The analysis shows that 16,789.5 MgC will be emitted under Alternative 1 and 16,305.3 MgC under Alternative 2. These emissions account for 44.4% and 43.1% of the pre-project carbon stock, respectively, and shows that choosing Alternative 2 is advantageous for reducing carbon emissions. The difference is likely due to the difference in grassland area between Alternatives 1 and 2. Even if Alternative 2 is selected, efforts are needed to increase the carbon storage effect by managing the appropriate level of green cover in the grassland, creating multi-layered vegetation, and installing low-energy facilities. In addition, it is suggested to conserve wetlands that can be lost during the stream improvement process or to create artificial wetlands to increase carbon storage. The assessment of carbon storage using carbon pools by land cover can improve the objectivity of comparison and evaluation analysis results for land use plans in Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment. In addition, the carbon pool generated in this study is expected to be used as a basis for improving the accuracy of such analyses.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.303-320
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• 2019

Plants interact with various biotic and abiotic environmental factors. It requires much information to understand the traits of a plant species. A shortage of information would restrict the assessment, especially in the evaluation of what kind of factors influence a plant species to face extinction. Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. is one of the northern plants of which Korea is the southern distribution edge. The Korean Ministry of Environment had designated it to be the endangered species until December 2015. Although it is comparatively widespread, and a large population has recently been reported, it is assessed to be vulnerable due to the low population genetic diversity. This study evaluated the current distribution of Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. We investigated the vegetational environment, population structures, phenology, soil environment, and self-incompatibility based on the results. Lastly, we evaluated the current threats observed in the habitats. The habitats tended to be located in the areas where the masses at the edge of the stream accumulated except for those that were located on slopes of some mountainous areas. Most of them showed a stable population structure and had re-established or recruited seedlings. Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. had the difference in time when the shoots appeared above the ground depending on the depth of the rhizome located in the underground. In particular, the seedlings and juveniles had their rhizome located shallow in the soil. Visits by pollinator insects and success in pollination were crucial factors for bearing of fruits by Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. The threats observed in the habitat of Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. included the expansion of cultivated land, construction of new buildings, and construction of river banks and roads. Despite such observed risk factors, it is not likely that there would be rapid population reduction or extinction because of its widespread distribution with the total population of more than 2.7 million individuals and the new populations established by the re-colonization.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.6_1
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• pp.1421-1434
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• 2020

The frequency and intensity of heatwaves have been increasing due to climate change. Since urban areas are more severely damaged by heatwaves as they act in combination with the urban heat island phenomenon, every possible preparation for such heat threats is required. Many overseas local governments build heat maps using a variety of spatial information to prepare for and counteract heatwaves, and prepare heatwave measures suitable for each region with different spatial characteristics within a relevant city. Building a heat map is a first and important step to prepare for heatwaves. The cases of heat map construction and thermal environment analysis involve various area distributions from urban units with a large area to local units with a small area. The method of constructing a heat map varies from a method utilizing remote sensing to a method using simulation, but there is no standard for using differentiated spatial information according to spatial scale, so each researcher constructs a heat map and analyzes the thermal environment based on different methods. For the above reason, spatial information standards required for building a heat map according to the analysis scale should be established. To this end, this study examined spatial information, analysis methodology, and final findings related to Korean and oversea analysis studies of heatwaves and urban thermal environments to suggest ways to improve the utilization efficiency of spatial information used to build urban heat maps. As a result of the analysis, it was found that spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions, as basic resolutions, are necessary to construct a heat map using remote sensing in the use of spatial information. In the use of simulations, it was found that the type of weather data and spatial resolution, which are input condition information for simulation implementation, differ according to the size of analysis target areas. Therefore, when constructing a heat map using remote sensing, spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution should be considered; and in the case of using simulations, the spatial resolution, which is an input condition for simulation implementation, and the conditions of weather information to be inputted, should be considered in advance. As a result of understanding the types of monitoring elements for heatwave analysis, 19 types of elements were identified such as land cover, urban spatial characteristics, buildings, topography, vegetation, and shadows, and it was found that there are differences in the types of the elements by spatial scale. This study is expected to help give direction to relevant studies in terms of the use of spatial information suitable for the size of target areas, and setting monitoring elements, when analyzing heatwaves.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.307-319
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• 2016

A Land-Atmosphere Modeling Package (LAMP) for supporting agricultural and forest management was developed at the National Center for AgroMeteorology (NCAM). The package is comprised of two components; one is the Weather Research and Forecasting modeling system (WRF) coupled with Noah-Multiparameterization options (Noah-MP) Land Surface Model (LSM) and the other is an offline one-dimensional LSM. The objective of this paper is to briefly describe the two components of the NCAM-LAMP and to evaluate their initial performance. The coupled WRF/Noah-MP system is configured with a parent domain over East Asia and three nested domains with a finest horizontal grid size of 810 m. The innermost domain covers two Gwangneung deciduous and coniferous KoFlux sites (GDK and GCK). The model is integrated for about 8 days with the initial and boundary conditions taken from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Final Analysis (FNL) data. The verification variables are 2-m air temperature, 10-m wind, 2-m humidity, and surface precipitation for the WRF/Noah-MP coupled system. Skill scores are calculated for each domain and two dynamic vegetation options using the difference between the observed data from the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and the simulated data from the WRF/Noah-MP coupled system. The accuracy of precipitation simulation is examined using a contingency table that is made up of the Probability of Detection (POD) and the Equitable Threat Score (ETS). The standalone LSM simulation is conducted for one year with the original settings and is compared with the KoFlux site observation for net radiation, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, and soil moisture variables. According to results, the innermost domain (810 m resolution) among all domains showed the minimum root mean square error for 2-m air temperature, 10-m wind, and 2-m humidity. Turning on the dynamic vegetation had a tendency of reducing 10-m wind simulation errors in all domains. The first nested domain (7,290 m resolution) showed the highest precipitation score, but showed little advantage compared with using the dynamic vegetation. On the other hand, the offline one-dimensional Noah-MP LSM simulation captured the site observed pattern and magnitude of radiative fluxes and soil moisture, and it left room for further improvement through supplementing the model input of leaf area index and finding a proper combination of model physics.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.99-109
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• 2015

The Ecosystem and Nature Map (ENM) is basic map for current status of natural resources. The map has been offered information to ecological conservation and restoration, as well as to land use planning and policy making. The map composed of 794 sheets in 1:25,000 scale classifies total areas into three grade zones (1st, 2nd and 3rd grade zones) and separately managed zone. In 2005, the first draft Ecosystem and Nature Map was prepared by the second National Ecosystem Survey. It was opened for the people to search and appeal. So 1,419 cases of public appeals on the first draft Ecosystem and Nature Map were submitted in 2005. After partial revision, the first Ecosystem and Nature Map was announced in 2007. The second draft Ecosystem and Nature Map was prepared by the third National Ecosystem Survey and opened to public in 2012. As a result, 1,263 cases of public appeals were submitted in 2012. Since the first announcement of the Ecosystem and Nature Map in April 2007, 182 cases of public appeals on the Map were submitted until December 2013. Among them, 159 cases were announced with revision. According to the first Ecosystem and Nature Map announced in 2007, graded areas covered 7.5% in the 1st grade zone, 39.2% in the 2nd grade zone and 44.7% in the 3rd grade zone of the national land area, respectively. In the second draft Ecosystem and Nature Map in 2012, areas of the 1st grade zone and the 2nd grade zone were 9.2% increased 1.7 percentage points and 45.5% increased 6.3 percentage points, and areas of the 3rd grade zone were 36.6% decreased 8.1 percentage points. Among areas of the 1st grade zone, Gangwondo occupies 54.3% in 2007 and 47.6% in 2012. Gangwondo consists of the highest percentage of the 1st grade zone and the smallest of the 3rd grade zone. Seoul has the highest percentage of the 3rd grade zone. There were the highest increase of the 1st grade zone in Gyeongsangbukdo and the highest decrease in Jeollabukdo and Seoul. Vegetation is the most important evaluation factor to determine the grade of the Ecosystem and Nature Map.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.331-336
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• 2014

Sediment and nutrient loading caused by the forest to conversion of agricultural lands have led to the deterioration in near water ecosystem. This study was carried out to examine the effects of agroforest culture field and open field culture field on water quality and runoff loading of nutrient. The runoff loading of Tot-N and Tot-P in agroforest culture field were similar to open field culture field. The runoff loading of total suspended solids (TSS) in agroforest culture field and open field culture field were $2,721kg{\pm}196/10a$ and $420{\pm}29kg/10a$ in 2011 and $696kg{\pm}59/10a$ and $463{\pm}36kg/10a$ in 2012, respectively. Our investigation showed that the runoff loading of TSS from agroforest culture field decreased when soil cover and soil stabilization increased. Therefore, protect facility of soil erosion for early alteration of agricultural lands are needed to minimize the soil erosion from agroforest culture field.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.68 no.1
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• pp.18-31
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• 1985

Users' satisfaction and behavior at five mini parks in the central area of Seoul City were investigated under the encironmental design evaluation framework. The major findings are as follows; 1) The major user group is a student group with the ages ranging from 15 to 24. 2) Half of the users spend 20 to 60 minutes in these parks. 3) According to the multiple regression analysis, the variables related to the satisfaction in daytime are noise level, sunshine, plants, crowding, and surface slope, where those in nighttime are quality of surrounding buildings, turf area, lighting, shade, and sculpture or fountain. 4) According to the free response, the basic needs inmini parks are shade for rest and such amenity facilities as bench, trash basket, and drinking fountain. In addition to these basic needs, users prefer such visually pleasing objects as sculpture and fountain.