• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.481-492
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• 2003

This study aims to analyze quantitatively changes of forest and cropland landscape due to cropland increase toward higher mountain slope during 9 years from 1993 to 2002, using Landsat images and field survey in the vicinity of Manpo and Gangae cities, Jagang Province, Northwest Korea, During 9 years, cropland has increased as 49.9%, forest area decreased as 16%. The spatial characteristics of cropland changes present that average elevation of cropland are increased from 381m of 1993 year to 412m of 2002 year, and average gradient increased from $10^{\circ}$ to $13^{\circ}$. In increased area of cropland during 9 years, the average elevation is 455m, and average gradient is $15^{\circ}$ with maximum gradient $70^{\circ}$. Analysis of the patch phenomena by fragmentation of vegetation landscape show that number of patch increased from 394 to 1,241 and also values of shape index, and fractal dimension of vegetation are increased slightly, during 9 years. Croplands have developed mainly in mountain slopes of elevation between 450 to 750m. For improvement of agricultural productivity, it should be required political and social stabilization, international and South Korea's assistance, and restoration of mountain forest.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.204-218
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• 2024

In this study, we evaluate the applicability of domestic and international forest fire indices in Korea. To accomplish this objective, we first compare the structures of widely-used forest fire indices worldwide. Then, the application results of these forest fire indices are evaluated by comparing them with the annual and seasonal variations in actual forest fire occurrences in Korea. Finally, we select indices suitable for domestic application and propose directions to improve their appropriate applicabilities. The considered forest fire indices include MI, KBDI, FFWI, and mFFWI developed in the United States, NI, ZhI, and MNI developed in Russia, and DWI developed in Korea. This study considers the East Coast region as a study area, and the number of forest fire occurrences is referenced from the forestry statistics yearbook provided by the Korea Forest Service. As results, first, most forest fire indices do not adequately reproduce the actual annual forest fire occurrences as its variation is so small. However, most indices are found to effectively represent the monthly variations. Based on the correlation analysis between forest fire indices and actual forest fire occurrences, mFFWI, MI, ZhI, and DWI are selected as suitable indices for the East Coast region. However, these indices are still not satisfactory to adequately represent the forest fire occurrences in Korea, suggesting the need for further improvements. Each index has its own different aspects to be improved and, therefore, evaluation of these indices may be available only after further improvements are completed.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.83-91
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• 2002

This study was carried out to classify forest vegetation of the Mt. Naeyeon with phytosociological analysis of ZM school and to explain ordination of communities with CCA. The research sites were located between the northern part of Pohang-si area and the southern part of Yeongdeok-gun area. The 70 plots consisted of 253 species were investigated. The forest vegetation was classified into Quercus mongolica community, Q. variabilis community, Pinus densiflora community, Carpinus laxiflora community and Zelkova serrata community. Q. mongolica community was divided into 2 groups such asRhododendron schlippenbachii group and Euonymus oxyphyllus group and Q. variabilis community was divided into 3 groups such as Syneilesis palmata group, Lespedeza × tomentilla group and Tilia mandshurica group, and Z. serrata community was divided into 2 groups such as Carpinus cordata group and Diospyros lotus group. According to the results of CCA ordination, Q. mongolica community showed high positive correlation to altitutde and topography, whereas it showed negative correlation to bare rock. Buck Z. serrata community showed the opposite tendency to Q. mongolica community. Altitude was considered as the most important factor among 5 environmental variables in the correlation with axes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.94 no.6
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• pp.453-461
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• 2005

Structural characteristics and successional trends of actual forest vegetation in Youngil soil erosion control district, South Korea, were studied and described by the phytosociological investigations and diameter measurement. And also the incremental growth pattern of the major trees for erosion control analyzed using increment core. Sixty-eight releves were sampled with $100m^2$ plots. Two main vegetation types (Lespedeza bicolor-Miscanthus sinensis-type and Alnus firma-Styrax japonica-type) have been distinguished and typified nine vegetation units. Constancy classes diagram showed that the higher species (${\geq}IV$) have only 2.6% and that most species occurred were rare and had low abundances. The successional trends of the actual forest vegetation would be mostly changed as Quercus serrata forest. Annual diameter growth was 3.0~3.4 mm in case of conifer (Pinus rigida and Pinus thunbergii), and the broad-leaved trees (Alnus firma, Robinia pseudo-acacia, and Alnus hirsuta) showed 4.3~4.9 mm. The incremental growth patterns showed to be decreased rapidly since twenty to twenty-five years regardless of the species of trees.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.90 no.5
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• pp.585-592
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• 2001

Interest in the development of urban trails is growing in South Korea. River front trails have been developed in Seoul, Daegu and other major cities. Such trails, and the corridors in which they are developed, often provide a myriad of benefits to the community, including open space, exercise, and stress release. This trend mirrors development patterns found in the United States and European nations. This study examined differences in trail users perceptions of trail attributes, activity participation, willingness to pay for trail access, and perceptions of trail benefits between trail users in the United States and those in South Korea. Perceptions of trail users at three trail sites in the metropolitan area of Daegu were examined, and then were compared to results reported in several studies conducted in the U. S. While this research was exploratory, it did uncover many interesting differences in perceptions of trail attributes between trail users in the two countries. This information may provide insight into the development of greenway systems in South Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.88 no.3
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• pp.342-351
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• 1999

The forest vegetation developing on Mt. Inwang, an isolated forestland in Seoul, Korea was analyzed phytosociologically and its spatial distribution mapped out. Using the vegetation map, The characteristics of landscape structures in terms of the number and size of patches are discussed. Forest vegetation of the study area was classified into ten communities, ten groups, and eighty subgroups. Landscape element types were classified into secondary forests, relict communities, introduced plantations, and other elements including urbanized area. Pinus densiflora community, natural forest and Robinia pseudo-acacia community, plantation, formed matrix and some secondary forest elements, relict communities and the ether plantations of small size tended to distribute as small patches in such matrix. The number of patches per unit area in secondary forest elements was more than that in plantation elements. The result in patch size was vice versa. The vascular plant species richness of the landscape element types in Mt. Inwang was found to he positively related to their size. As the results of landscape ecological analyses, it was estimated that differentiation of patches recognized in community level would be related to human interference a and those in subordinate levels to natural process such as progression of succession.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.94 no.4 s.161
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• pp.214-225
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• 2005

The mountain village development program in Korea started in the mountain villages, the 45.9% of total land and one of the typical marginal region, from 1995 to achieve the equilibrium development of national land and the sustainable mountain development in Chapter 13 in Agenda 21, and it has been accelerated to increase the happiness and the quality of life of mountain community residents through the expansion by province and the improvement of related laws and regulations. This study has been aimed to analyze the response of main stakeholder's -mountain village residents and local government officials - on mountain villages development, and to provide the future plan as community development. The survey and interview data were collected from the mountain villages which already developed 59 villages and developing 15 villages in 2003. The mountain village development program has achieved the positive aspects as community development plan in the several fields, - the voluntary participation of residents, the establishment of self-support spirit as the democratic civilians, the development of base of income increasement, the creation of comfortable living environment, the equilibrium development with the other regions. Especially the mountain residents and local government officials both highly satisfy with the development of base of income increasement and the creation of comfortable living environment which are the main concerns to both stakeholder. However through the mountain development program, it is not satisfied to increase the maintenance of local community and the strengthening of traditional value of mountain villages. Also to improve the sustainable income improvement effects, it is necessary to develop the income items and technical extension which good for the each region. In the decentralization era, it is necessary for local government should have the more active and multilateral activities for these. With this, the introduction of methods which the mountain community people and the local government officials could co-participate in the mountain villages' development from the initial stages and the renovation of related local government organizations and the cooperatives will be much helpful to the substantiality of mountain development program. Also it is essential for the assistance of central government to establish the complex plan and the mountain villages network for all mountain area and the exchange of information, the education and training of mountain villages leader who are the core factor for the developed mountain villages maintenance, the composition of national mountain villages representatives. In case the development proposals which based on the interests of the main stakeholder's on mountain community could be positively accepted, then the possibility of the mountain village development as one of community development will be successfully improved in future.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.255-276
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• 2015

This paper presents a multi-agent system model of land-use and cover changes, which is developed and applied to the Gariwang-san and its vicinity, located in Pyeongchang and Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon province, Korea. The Land Use Dynamics Simulator (LUDAS) framework of this study is well suited for representing the spatial heterogeneity and dynamic interactions between human and natural environment, and capturing the impacts of forest-opening policy interventions to future socio-economic and natural environment changes. The model consists of four components: (1) a system of human population, (2) a system of landscape environment, (3) decision-making procedures integrating human(or household), environmental and policy information into forest land-use decisions, and (4) a set of policy scenarios that are related to the forest-opening. The results of model simulation by different combination of various forest management scenarios are assessed by the levels of household income, ecosystem service value and income inequality in the study region. As a result, the optimal scenario of forest-opening policies in the study region is to open the forest to local residential community for the purpose of recreation, considering the distinctive topographical feature. The model developed in this research is expected to contribute to a decision support system for sustainable forest management and various land-use policies in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.709-717
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• 2008

This study is to analyze environmental problems which have caused by changes of the population and agriculture in North Korea. Main results of the research are following. First, Population of the North Korea shows lower increase ratio less than 2% growth from 1970's to middle of 1990's. This is interpreted by food shortages. Second, population distribution by provinces represented that northern and eastern part of the North Korea were comparatively lower and other western areas were higher. Third, Food situation of the North Korea was relatively better in 1970's, but, 1990's was the worst in the way. Fourth, on the agricultural productivity according to each province, western areas possessing more plains were more higher than mountainous areas of the northern and eastern parts of North Korea. Fifth, Growth ratio of food production and population have grown very steadily until 1990's, but the increase ratio of population exceeded food productivity after 1990's. Sixth, Cropland reclamation for improving these situation have caused deforestation and environmental problems and especially eastern and northern areas became more serious. For the solving these problems of North Korea, it is necessary to get the help of South Korea and international societies with efforts by itself.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.201-214
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• 2019

The concept of ecosystem services is important for the effective management of regional ecological resources. Multiple ecosystem services provided by regional ecosystems are represented as ecosystem service bundles, which define the co-occurrent ecosystem services in a specific region. Bundles provide useful information to identify regional characteristics of ecosystem services and categorize sub-regions with similar patterns of ecosystem service provision. We assessed eleven ecosystem services using modeling approaches and statistical data and produced bundles of cities in Gyeonggi-do.We also conducted principal component analysis and cluster analysis to categorize these cities according to the characteristics of ecosystem services. The results indicated that the cities in Gyeonggi-do were categorized into three groups depending on the types of provision,regulation, and cultural services, and were designated as urbanized, urban-forest, agriculture, or forest cities. These groups were influenced by land use patterns reflecting regional social-environmental features. The results provide useful information for identifying regional ecosystem services and facilitate decision-making in regional ecosystem service management.