• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.354-364
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• 2019

Sri Lanka is an island nation susceptible to climate-related disasters and extreme weather events. Kurunegala City is the developing capital city of the North-Western Province of Sri Lanka. Changes in rainfall patterns and a steadily increasing annual average temperature amounting to 0.69±0.37℃ were observed in the city area. Generally, urban areas are at risk due to the lack of climate change adaptation provisions incorporated in the development plans. This study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of Krunegala City, Sri Lanka and develop an appropriate climate change adaptation plan for the city. Site investigation and qualitative risk assessment were conducted to devise a plan relevant to the climate change adaptation needs of the city. Qualitative risk analyses revealed that drinking water, water resources, and health and infrastructure risks were among the major concerns in Kurunegala City. Low impact development (LID) technologies were found to be applicable to induce non-point source pollutant reduction, relieve urban heat island phenomenon, and promote sound water circulation systems. These technologies can be effective means of alleviating water shortage and reducing urban temperature. The measures and strategies presented in this study can serve as reference for developing climate change adaptation plans in areas experiencing similar adverse effects of climate change.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.75-94
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to analyze the major issues discussed among Parties and provide a framework for predicting the agreements on those issues, prior to the final negotiation on a new legally-binding agreement on climate change adaptation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The analyses of documents, adaptation actions, and work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) under the UNFCCC informed that the adaptation issue has primarily been focused on the support of developed country Parties for the adaptation of developing country Parties following the principle of the Convention, Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC). Three-year work of the ADP acknowledged the major issues on adaptation in the new climate agreement, which would be categorized as long-term and global aspects, commitments/contributions/actions, monitoring and evaluation, institutional arrangements, and loss and damage. A final agreement on each issue could be predicted by setting a zone of possible agreement in-between the two extremes of developing and developed country Parties and considering three major elements affecting the Parties' positions, national priority, adaptation action, and social expectation, which are proposed in this study. The three major elements should be considered in a balanced manner by Parties to draw a durable agreement that will enhance global adaptation actions from a long-term perspective. That is, the agreement needs to reflect adaptation actions occurring outside the Convention as well as social expectations for adaptation. It is expected that the new agreement on climate change adaptation, from a long-term and global perspective, would be an opportunity to reduce vulnerability and build resilience to climate change by incorporating global expectations.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.26-36
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• 2020

This study aimed at investigating present research and knowledge-base on climate change adaptation in ecosystem sector and analyzed the current status of basic information on ecosystem that functions as evidence-base of climate change adaptation to deduce the suggestions for the future development for knowledge and information in biodiversity. In this perspective, a questionary survey titled as "the ecological knowledge-base and information needs for climate change adaptation" with the researchers who were engaged with adaptation studies for biodiversity in the ecosystem related-research institutes including national and 17 regional local governments-affiliated agencies in Korea. The results are as follows; current status of utilizing ecological information which supports climate change adaptation strategy, future needs for adaptation knowledge and ecological information, and activation of utilizing ecological information. The majority of respondents (90.7%) replied that the ecological information has high relevance when conducting research on climate change adaptation. However, only half of all respondents (53.2%) agreed with the real viability of current information to the adaptation research. Particularly, urgent priority for researchers was deduced as intensifying knowledge-base and constructing related information on 'ecosystem change from climate change (productivity, community structure, food chain, phenology, range distribution, and number of individuals) with the overall improvement of information contents and its quality. The respondents emphasized with the necessity of conducting field surveys of local ecosystem and constructing ecosystem inventories, advancing monitoring designs for climate change in ecosystem, and case studies for regional ecosystem changes with the guidance or guidelines for monitoring ecosystem change to enhance the quality of adaptation research and produce related information. In terms of activation for ecological information usage, national and local adaptation network should be working based on the integrated ecological platform necessary to support exchanges of knowledge and information and to expand ecosystem types in time and spatial dimension.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.19-49
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• 2006

As global climate change is expected to influence regional water resources, water resource managers need to establish adaptive management to cope with climate change. We examined adaptive management efforts in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands. Each country is implementing different levels of adaptation efforts based on current water management practices, institutional arrangements, as well as the varying degree of water availability, current climate effects and expected climate change effects. Based on the comparison of these countries, we suggest policy implications for the sustainable water resource management of Korea under climate changes.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1-7
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• 2017

Climate change adaptation must be prepared, because the pattern of climate change in Korea is higher than the global average. In particular, it is estimated that Korea's economic loss due to climate change will reach 2,800 trillion won, and at least 300 trillion won will be needed for adaptation to climate change(KEI, 2011). Accurate climate change forecasts and impact forecasts are essential for efficient use of enormous climate change adaptation costs. For this climate change prediction and impact analysis, it is necessary to grasp not only the global average concentration but also the inhomogeneity of the greenhouse gas concentration which appears in each region. In this study, we analyze the feasibility of developing a greenhouse gas observation satellite, which is a cause of climate change, and present a development plan for a low orbit environmental satellite by examining the current status of the operation of the greenhouse gas observation satellite. The GHG monitoring satellite is expected to expand the scope of environmental monitoring by water/soil/ecology in addition to climate change, along with weather/agriculture/soil observation satellites.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.169-182
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• 2020

ODA finance in the water sector has decreased after reaching a peak in 2012 although total ODA commitments have steadily increased according to OECD DAC data. However, climate finance in the water sector has increased so much since 2013 according to 7 MDB Joint report on Climate Finance. Water, especially, in climate change is the main issue for adaptation, and the total finance in the water sector reached 50% of the international public adaptation finance in 2016. However, the procedures for approval and the requirements of the proposals for climate funds are different from those for development finance. Notwithstanding the changes in money flows in the water sector, most korean engineering consulting firms in the water infrastructure area are not ready to win the funds relating to climate change. Therefore, It is important to understand a variety of sources of climate funds, characteristics, funding scale on each purpose and procedures for approval. Korean government needs to provide the firms the opportunities to buildup experiences by getting involved in climate adaptation projects with the financial support for developing PPFs, concept notes, and proposals.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.22-38
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• 2012

Adaptation of climate change is necessary to avoid unexpected impacts of climate change caused by human activities. Vulnerability refers to the degree to which system cannot cope with impacts of climate change, encompassing physical, social and economic aspects. Therefore the quantification of climate change impacts and its vulnerability is needed to identify vulnerable regions and to setup the proper strategies for adaptation. In this study, climate change vulnerability is defined as a function of climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Also, we identified regions vulnerable to ozone due to climate change in Korea using developed proxy variables of vulnerability of regional level. 18 proxy variables are selected through delphi survey to assess vulnerability over human health sector for ozone concentration change due to climate change. Also, we estimate the weighting score of proxy variables from delphi survey. The results showed that the local regions with higher vulnerability index in the sector of human health are Seoul and Daegu, whereas regions with lower one are Jeollanam-do, Gyeonggi-do, Gwangju, Busan, Daejeon, and Gangwon-do. The regions of high level vulnerability are mainly caused by their high ozone exposure. We also assessed future vulnerability according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A2, A1FI, A1T, A1B, B2, and B1 scenarios in 2020s, 2050s and 2100s. The results showed that vulnerability increased in all scenarios due to increased ozone concentrations. Especially vulnerability index is increased by approximately 2 times in A1FI scenarios in the 2020s. This study could support regionally adjusted adaptation polices and the quantitative background of policy priority as providing the information on the regional vulnerability of ozone due to climate change in Korea.

• KCID journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.33-42
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• 2011

Climate change has impacts on not only the average temperature rise but also the intensity and frequency of extreme events such as flood and drought. It is also expected that the damages on agricultural infrastructure will be increased resulting from increased rainfall intensity and frequency caused by climate change. To strengthen the climate change adaptation capacity, it is necessary to identify the vulnerability of a given society's physical infrastructures and to develop appropriate adaptation strategies with infrastructure management because generally facilities related to human settlements are vulnerable to climate changes and establishing an adaptive public infrastructure would reduce the damages and the repair cost. Therefore, development of mitigation strategies for agricultural infrastructure against climatic hazard is very important, but there are few studies on agricultural infrastructure vulnerability assessment and adaptation strategies. The concept of vulnerability, however, is difficult to functionally define due to the fact that vulnerability itself includes many aspects (biological, socioeconomic, etc.) in various sectors. As such, much research on vulnerability has used indicators which are useful for standardization and aggregation. In this study, for the vulnerability assessment for agricultural infrastructure, 3 categories of climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptation capacity were defined which are composed of 16 sub-categories and 49 proxy variables. Database for each proxy variables was established based on local administrative province. Future studies are required to define the weighting factor and standardization method to calculate the vulnerability indicator for agricultural infrastructure against climate change.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.71-80
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• 2012

Against the backdrop of the clear impact of climate change, it has become essential to analyze the influence of climate change and relevant vulnerabilities. This research involved evaluating the impact of heat waves in Seoul, from among many local autonomous bodies that are responsible for implementing measures on adapting to climate change. To carry out the evaluation, the A1B scenario was used to forecast future temperature levels. Future climate scenario results were downscaled to $1km{\times}1km$ to result in the incorporation of regional characteristics. In assessing the influence of heat waves on people-especially the excess mortality-we analyzed critical temperature levels that affect excess mortality and came up with the excess mortality. Results of this evaluation on the impact of climate change and vulnerabilities indicate that the number of days on which the daily average temperature reaches $28.1^{\circ}C$-the critical temperature for excess mortality-in Seoul will sharply increase in the 2050s and 2090s. The highest level of impact will be in the month of August. The most affected areas in the summer will be Songpa-gu, Gangnam-gu, and Yeongdeungpo-gu. These areas have a high concentration of residences which means that heat island effects are one of the reasons for the high level of impact. The excess mortality from heat waves is expected to be at least five times the current figure in 2090. Adaptation plan needs to be made on drawing up long-term adaptation measures as well as implementing short-term measures to minimize or adapt the impact of climate change.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2011

Fisheries are subject to unexpected weather condition. While some change of it may be positive for some fisheries, the current state suggests that the effects will be undesirable for many fisheries. The aim of this study is to assess the vulnerability to climate change in 11 regional fisheries of Korea using the framework of IPCC. The vulnerability assessment depends upon the interrelation of three key elements; exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, which were derived from Analytical Hierarchy Process method in this study. These elements would contribute to comprehend relative importance at the regional characteristics of fisheries. We compared the vulnerability index of 11 regional fisheries so as to look for strategies and adaptation methods to the impacts of potential climate change. Jeoun-Nam, Kyeong-Nam, and Jeju are identified as the most vulnerable provinces to climate change on their fisheries because they have high level of sensitivity to predicted climate change and relatively low adaptive capacity. The relatively low vulnerability of Ulsan, Gyeonggi reflects high financial independence, well-equipped infrastructure, social capital in these regions. Understanding of vulnerability to climate change suggests future research directions. This paper will provide a guide to local policy makers and fisheries managers about vulnerability and adaptation planning to climate change.