• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.318-326
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• 2022

The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) recommends that 17% of the land be designated as a protected area to counter global environmental problems. Korea also realized a need to designate protected areas according to the international level and explain the significance of designating protected areas. Accordingly, studies on ecosystem services are required. In Korea, the protected areas are designated as national parks, provincial parks, and county parks by hierarchy under the Natural Parks Act. However, as priority was on political and administrative aspects, research on ecosystem service value evaluation and habitat management were concentrated in national parks, and provincial and county parks were relatively neglected. Therefore, more studies on provincial and county parks are necessary. In this study, habitat quality for Gajisan Provincial Park, where there were few studies on habitat management and ecosystem service valuation, was evaluated using the InVEST Habitat Quality model among the InVEST models. The analysis results were compared with 16 mountainous national parks. The results showed that the habitat quality value of Gajisan Provincial Park was 0.83, higher than that of the surrounding areas. The analysis of habitat quality in three districts showed 0,84 for the Tongdosa and Naewonsa districts and 0.83 for the Seoknamsa district. By use district, the nature conservation district, the natural environment district, the cultural heritage district, and the park village district had the highest habitat quality value in that order. Compared with the existing habitat quality analysis results of national parks, Gajisan Provincial Park showed naturalness at the level of Mudeungsan National Park. These results can be used as objective data for establishing policies and management plans to preserve biodiversity and promote ecosystem services in provincial parks.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.102-111
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• 2022

Among protected areas, National Parks are rich in biodiversity, and the benefits of ecosystem services provided to human are higher than the others. Ecosystem service evaluation is being used to manage the value of national parks based on objective and scientific data. Ecosystem services are classified into four services: supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural. The purpose of this study is to evaluate habitat quality among supporting services. Habitat Quality Model of InVEST was used to analyze. The coefficients of sensitivity and habitat initial value were reset by reflecting prior studies and the actual conditions of protected areas. Habitat quality of 21 national parks except Hallasan National Park was analyzed and mapped. The value of habitat quality was evaluated to be between 0 and 1, and the closer it is to 1, the more natural it is. As a result of habitat quality analysis, Seoraksan and Taebaeksan National Parks (0.90), Jirisan and Odaesan National Parks (0.89), and Sobaeksan National Park (0.88) were found to be the highest in the order. As a result of comparing the area and habitat quality of 18 national parks except for coastal-marine national parks, the larger the area, the higher the overall habitat quality. Comparing the value of habitat quality of each zone, the value of habitat quality was high in the order of the park nature preservation zone, the park nature environmental zone, the park cultural heritage zone, and the park village zone. Considering both the analysis of habitat quality and the legal regulations for each zone of use, it is judged that the more artificial acts are restricted, the higher the habitat quality. This study is meaningful in analyzing habitat quality of 21 National Parks by readjusting the parameters according to the situation of protected areas in Korea. It is expected to be easy to intuitively understand through accurate data and mapping, and will be useful in making policy decisions regarding the development and preservation of protected areas in the future.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2023

The fine particulate structure of biochar limits its use as a heavy metal adsorbent, and makes separation of the biochar from the solution technically challenging, thereby reducing recovery of the heavy metals. To address this issue, this study prepared biochar beads under various mixing conditions and investigated their efficiency in removing Pb from aqueous solutions using adsorption models. The biochar beads were produced by mixing alginate and biochar at different ratios: alginate bead (AB), 1% biochar + bead (1-BB), 2.5% biochar + bead (2.5-BB), and 5% biochar + bead (5-BB). The results revealed that the Freundlich isothermal adsorption pattern of the biochar beads to Pb was of the L-type. The highest Langmuir isothermal adsorption capacity (28.736 mg/g) was observed in the 2.5-BB treatment. The dominant mechanism among the kinetic adsorption characteristics of biochar beads for Pb was chemical adsorption. Additionally, the optimal pH range for Pb adsorption was found to be between 4 and 5.5. The highest Pb removal efficiency (97.9%) was achieved when 26.6 g/L of biochar beads were used. These findings suggest that biochar beads are an economical and highly efficient adsorbent that enables separation and recovery of fine biochar particles.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.553-565
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• 2022

Awareness of the ecological value and importance of protected areas has increased as climate change accelerates, and there is a need for research on ecosystem services provided by nature. The natural park, which is a representative protected area in Korea, has a system of national parks, provincial parks, and county parks. National parks are managed systematically by the Korea National Park Service, but local governments manage provincial parks and county parks. There may be the same hierarchical differences in naturalness (habitat quality) depending on the hierarchy of the natural parks, but it has not been verified. To identify differences, we examined 22 mountain-type natural parks using habitat quality using the INVEST model developed by Stanford University. The analysis of the habitat quality, regardless of the type and area of the natural park, showed that it was higher in the order of Taebaeksan National Park (0.89), Juwangsan National Park (0.87), Woongseokbong County Park (0.86), and Gayasan National Park (0.85). The larger the area, the higher the value of habitat quality. A comparison of natural parks with similar areas showed that the habitat quality of national parks was higher than that of provincial parks and parks. On the other hand, the average habitat quality of county parks was 0.83±0.02, which was 0.05 higher than that of provincial parks at 0.78±0.03. Furthermore, the higher the proportion of forest areas within the natural park, the higher the habitat quality. The results confirmed that the naturalness of natural parks was independent of their hierarchy and that there are differences in naturalness depending on land use, land coverage, and park management.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.277-292
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• 2024

In order to manage large-scale forest fires concentrated in Gangwon-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do with severe topographical heterogeneity, a decision-making process through efficient and rapid damage assessment using satellite images is essential. Accordingly, this study targets a large-scale forest fire that ignited in Gangneung and the Donghae, Gangwon-do on March 5, 2022, and was extinguished around 19:00 on March 8, to estimate the fire severity using dNBR and derive environmental factors that affect the grade. As environmental factors, we quantified the regular vegetation index representing vegetation or fuel type, the forest index that classifies tree species, the regular moisture index representing moisture content, and DEM in relation to topography, and then analyzed the correlation with the fire severity. In terms of fire severity, the widest range was 'Unbured' at 52.4%, followed by low severity at 42.9%, medium-low severity at 4.3%, and medium-high severity at 0.4%. Environmental factors showed a negative correlation with dNDVI and dNDWI, and a positive correlation with slope. Regarding vegetation, the differences between coniferous, broad-leaved, and other groups in dNDVI, dNIWI, and slope, which were analyzed to affect the fire severity, were analyzed to be significant with p-value < 2.2e-16. In particular, the difference between coniferous and broad-leaved forests was clear, and it was confirmed that coniferous forest suffered more damage than broad-leaved forest due to the higher fire severity in the Gangwon-do region, including Pinus densiflora, which are dominant species, as well as P. koraiensis, P. rigida and P. thunbergii.