• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.159-176
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• 2023

The conservation of the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in South Korea requires the protection and preservation of natural habitats while additionally ensuring coexistence with human activities. Applying habitat map modeling techniques provides information regarding the distributional patterns of raccoon dogs and assists in the development of future conservation strategies. The purpose of this study is to generate potential habitat distribution maps for the raccoon dog in South Korea using geospatial technology-based models. These models include the frequency ratio (FR) as a bivariate statistical approach, the group method of data handling (GMDH) as a machine learning algorithm, and convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) as deep learning algorithms. Moreover, the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) is used to fine-tune the hyperparameters of the machine learning and deep learning models. Moreover, there are 14 habitat characteristics used for developing the models: elevation, slope, valley depth, topographic wetness index, terrain roughness index, slope height, surface area, slope length and steepness factor (LS factor), normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference water index, distance to drainage, distance to roads, drainage density, and morphometric features. The accuracy of prediction is evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. The results indicate comparable performances of all models. However, the CNN demonstrates superior capacity for prediction, achieving accuracies of 76.3% and 75.7% for the training and validation processes, respectively. The maps of potential habitat distribution are generated for five different levels of potentiality: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.36-45
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• 2001

Natural disturbances and human development can cause habitat fragmentation. Plant and wildlife can become isolated, and habitat fragmentation and shrinkage have been recognized as a key issue facing the conservation of biological diversity. However, eco-corridors can alleviate the problem by providing linkages between isolated patches. The purpose of this study is to plan the eco-corridor for connecting urban forest via the urban stream with low cost and to restore the ecosystem. The results were as follows (1) Falco subbuteo, and Dryocopus martius inhabit in the study site. They are protected species designated by Korean Ministry of Environment. Thus the study site should be preserved as urban wildlife habitat species biodiversity (2) If the biodiversity of the study site is maintained properly, the eco-corridor can be constructed with low cost.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.62-69
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• 2008

This study was conducted in order to recommend forest-based wildlife protection areas in Chung-nam Province using several basic habitat conditions. The conditions used in this study were the forest patch size with the potential to keep wildlife animals safe, the distance from water sources, and the availability of food for wildlife. The fractal dimension index was also used to find the edge line dynamics, which can influence on habitat conditions for edge species. The natural conservation management indices including a forest map (indicating the level of forest age), a slope map, and an elevation map were used to find the forest patches with enough space for wildlife to live on. Water resources and their buffer areas were considered as factors to protect the space as an ecological corridor. Deciduous trees and trees mixed with deciduous trees and conifers were chosen to provide wildlife animals their food. In total, 525 forest patches were chosen and recommended for the wildlife protection area. Five of these forest patches were recommended as wildlife protection areas managed by the provincial government. The other 520 forest patches were recommended to protect local wildlife animals and be managed by each county or city. These forest patches were located around the Geum-buk and Geum-nam mountains, and the forest patches are important resources as habitats to keep wildlife in the area. An ecological network consists of these separate forest patches with the ecological integration. A fractal dimension index was used to divide forest patches into several categories in order to find how patches are shaped. The forest patches with longer edges or more irregular shapes have a much higher possibility of being inhabited by various types of edge species. Through comparison of the wildlife protection areas recommended in this study to the current wildlife protection areas, we recognized that the current wildlife protection areas need boundary adjustments in order for wildlife animals to survive by themselves with water sources and food.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.100-112
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to construct the evaluation criteria based on the relative importance and various combination of each evaluation index and then to evaluate urban biotope in terms of conservation of species and habitat. After the standard of evaluation had been developed through the literature review, the relative importance of the evaluation index through expert survey was found out, and the evaluation model of biotope value has been established. The results of this study are as follows; 1) We have constructed the nineteen evaluation criteria through literature reviews, and have provided relative importance to each evaluation index of the diversity of typical species in biotope, afforestation rate, stratification, Hemeroby grads, and the diversity of landscape patterns based on the results of expert survey. and then we have constructed the evaluation system using the relative importance criteria. 2) To evluate urban biotope using the evaluation system constructed, we selected 14 sites. The final evaluation results of each site is as follows; The III grade areas are Seohan and Hwasung high-rise apartment at Beummul-Dong, Korea Men Power /Agency in Sungs 대 industrial zone, the adjacent area of St. Tongil, and Hyomyung elementary school. The II grade areas are the farm land behind the third Anshim Jugong apartment, and Ehyun park. The I grade areas are swampy land in front of Kangchon and Anshim construction site, water space with semi-natural style in front of Gangchon Woobang apartment, forest zone near page Temple at mt. Palgong, the edge area of Jisan and Gosan, and the tendril yard against Anshim middle school. The only grade IV area is the commercial zone near Taegu Department 3) It is highly useful to evaluate urban biotope using the evaluation criteria constructed for this research, the evaluation criteria we developed may be difficult to guarantee the ability for reproduction and recovery, the appearance-number of the rare and endangered species are difficult to estimate urban biotopes. In the future, it is highly useful to evaluate biotope in terms of conservation of species and habitat through its valuation criteria developed in this research and it is necessary to develop the evaluation criteria applicable to estimation of biotope inventory and reproduction of biotope.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.611-618
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• 2009

Road construction has been worked on by focusing on cost effectiveness such as the reduction of construction costs without understanding the natural environment and ecosystems. In addition, since ecosystems have been destroyed and the habitats of animals and plants have been isolated, wild animals have sought other habitats or have moved into isolated habitats. Thus, issues such as roadkills or the extermination of species are increasingly occurring. Based on this background, the development and application of a general assessment method need to be researched in order to verify whether or not spaces or habitats where animals can be inhabited and their species can be maintained exist. The purpose of this study is to develop an ecosystem map where a conservation value evaluation method considering the functions of an ecosystem where animals live as well as the naturalness of ecosystems is used and can be made into a drawing. The items applied to evaluate the habitat conservation values were naturalness, rarity, and functionality, and sub-items for evaluation were created. GIS as well as the evaluation items were used to create a digital map about the level of importance based on the evaluation criteria. The created digital map showed that it was not limited to the adjustment or distribution of the fauna and flora but was applicable for a general ecosystem evaluation method for the conservation of habitats. It is expected that the isolation of habitats would be able to be minimized if the digital map is used for road construction projects. The digital map is deemed to be able to be used for the construction of environmentally friendly roads, which will minimize the destruction of ecosystems and the isolation of habitats for creatures.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.24 no.2 s.62
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• pp.160-165
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the prey composition and utilization of the Eurasian otter, Lutra lutra, in the ecosystem conservation region of the Seomjin River. The study was conducted for a 12-month period from March 2003 to February 2004 by spraints analysis and an investigation using artificial holts. We found seasonal variation in the number of spraints and composition of prey items. Fish were the main prey items throughout the period (82%), and other prey items included birds (14%), amphibians (2%) and arthropods (1%). In addition to prey identification, we investigated habitat utilization by otters through spraints distribution. The traces of otters were discovered in five of the six total artificial holts. However, the utilization of the artificial holts in the study area seemed to be limited as evidenced by the low frequency of traces in the holts.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.130-137
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• 2000

New Seoul Town is a new town in Seoul Mapo-Gu, Which is planed by Seoul metropolitan government. There are Nanji Waste reclaimed land and Seoul world-cup stadium, which is under construction in the new town. This study is executed for urban nature conservation by assessing the biotope in the new town. The biotope map is mae by the selective mapping method, and assessing the biotope is executed by a quick method, which is originated with R. Wittig and Scheriber(1983). The assessment criteria include the period of development, area, rarity and variety of habitat condition. In the result from this study, biotope type of the new town is classified eight types, and all biotope type is valuable for nature conservation. The reason of this result is because of little natural area which is rice field, farm field, forest, swampy land, etc, except New Seoul Town, in Seoul Mapo-Gu. And so, Biotope in New A Seoul Town, must be conserved and restored in new town urban planning.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1341-1353
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• 2017

This study aimed to identify the aquatic and riparian factors associated with the presence/absence of the Eurasian otter in the Nakdong river basin, where the species is relatively more abundant than other otter species. Environmental factors and presence records were collected. Geographical Information System technology and chi-square test were used to compare environmental gradients in aquatic and riparian factors between presence and absence sites. Aquatic habitat attributes were evaluated with natural riverside sandbars and channel crossing artificial structures, the ratio of channel width to alluvial plain width, riverbed substrate, and flow diversity. Riverbank characteristics, bank materials, man-made embankment types, and land use/land cover of inland and riverside areas were selected as riparian habitat attributes. Compared to the aquatic attributes, riparian attributes were highly significant when assessing otter presence and absence sites, suggesting that conservation of suitable riparian areas to provide maternity and resting areas for otter species is essential in the Nakdong river basin. None of the aquatic attributes examined were statistically significant when evaluating otter presence or absence. These results indicate that the presence of suitable riparian area for resting and reproduction habitats is more critical to the presence of Eurasian otter than food availability in aquatic areas. To inform implementation of effective conservation actions, broad-scale factors, such as watershed attributes, would be needed to further assess habitat conditions of the Eurasian otter.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.412-423
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• 2018

In this study, we investigated the distribution and habitat of Tscherskia triton from 2014 to 2016 in Jeju Island. Nine individuals of T. triton were observed and captured from four habitat sites. Most of the habitats were of the natural and rural type, and urban type coexisted in some of the areas. The natural type of habitat comprised of forests, shrubs, and grasslands. The habitat of T. triton ranged vertically from 102 m in lowland to 742 m in a mountainous area and was not observed in altitude over 1,000 m. Small brooks, dry streams or wetlands were found to be located nearby the habitat of T. triton. The T. triton was distributed mainly in areas with natural vegetation and artificial plantation in company with the upper story vegetation on the ground of intact or incomplete layer structure, or the area with the relatively large distribution of shrubs and long grassland. The presence of roads and forest paths in these habitats suggested that the T. triton can thrive in areas with human disturbance. The designation of Halla Mountain National Park in Jeju Island as a conservation area prevents damage or loss of the habitat due to any artificial development. However, frequent human disturbances occurring in grassland is tolerated by small mammals. Therefore, in order to help T. triton maintain a stable population density, it is essential that various types of the habitat should be conserved in the middle mountain areas and the grasslands in lowlands should be well protected.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2005

Chirisan National Park, the first and largest one out of 20 national parks in Korea, is divided into five zones. They are composed of nature preservation zone, natural environment zone, natural residential zone, concentrated residential zone, and collective facility zone. However, the park is not a continuous habitat: roads, trails, local residences, and various facilities created the habitat mosaics severely fragmented. We investigated the fragmentation pattern of the park due to roads and mountain trails using GIS. Based on perimeter length, area, and the ratio of perimeter to area of each patch, we obtained landscape analysis indices which reflect the regularity of the patch shape. The 1 m-wide hiking trails divided the park into 491 fragments. The legal trails with 1.5 m - 3 m width which have been heavily used by hikers generate 58 fragments. Even the nature preservation zone, corresponding to a core zone comprising 31.8% of the park area, was divided into 37 fragments because of the roads and mountain trails. With the different widths of buffer applied, the core sizes of the fragments were reduced. When the 60 m buffer was applied, the patch interior areas ranged from 0.0001 to 47.77 $km^2$ with a mean of 7.08 $km^2$. The landscape shape indices were far greater than 1 for most of the cases with a maximum value of 25. These results clearly indicate that Chirisan National Park is not a continuous habitat, but mosaics of small, irregularly shaped habitat fragments. It is necessary to take the size and shape of the fragmented habitats into consideration when nature conservation is planned, especially for large wildlife such as brown bears.