• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.121-140
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• 2008

The impervious cover ratio has been used as an important measure for tracing water environment characteristics in watershed. Impervious cover is divided into total impervious cover and effective impervious cover, and its size varies depending on the land use characteristics of a watershed. Total impervious cover can be easily measured using existing land use maps or land cover map, while it takes a considerable amount of time and labor to measure the effective impervious cover, as water flow should be identified at each site. This study is intended to calculate the total impervious cover and effective cover of a sample site, compare their characteristics, and find a method to apply effective and total impervious cover ratios toward watershed management. The analysis of the sample site showed that the effective impervious cover rate(39.7%) was less than the total impervious cover rate(43%). This suggests that it would be acceptable, in terms of time and cost, if total impervious cover is applied as the representative impervious cover ratio of a watershed considering that it was used as basic data to analyze the effect that impervious cover has on the water environment.