• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.391-407
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• 2012

The loss of connectivity and fragmentation of forest landscapes are seriously hindering dispersal of many forest-dwelling species, which may be critical for their viability and conservation by decreasing habitat area and increasing distance among habitats. For understanding their environmental impacts, numerous spatial models exist to measure landscape connectivity. However, general relationships between functional connectivity and landscape structure are lacking, there is a need to develop landscape metrics that more accurately measure landscape connectivity in whole landscape and individual patches. We reviewed functional and structural definition of landscape connectivity, explained their mathematical connotations, and applied representative 13 indices in 3 districts of Seoul having fragmented forest patches with tits, the threshold distance was applied 500m by considering the dispersal of tits. Results of correlation and principal component analysis showed that connectivity indices could be divided by measurement methods whether they contain the area attribute with distance or not. Betweenness centrality(BC), a representative index measuring distance and distribution among patches, appreciated highly stepping stone forest patches, and difference of probability of connectivity(dPC), an index measuring including area information, estimated integrated connectivity of patches. Therefore, for evaluating landscape connectivity, it is need to consider not only general information of a region and species' characteristics but also various measuring methods of landscape connectivity.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.154-162
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• 2019

Lateral connectivity between the channel and the floodplains has been damaged by the levee construction and channelization in most streams of South Korea. The purpose of this study was to develop a technique for easily and remotely assessing lateral connectivity using GIS in the streams and to evaluate the effectiveness of the assessment method by applying it to Cheongmi-cheon Stream, a representative stream in the central Korean Peninsula. The metrics of the lateral connectivity assessment are composed of (1) existence of remaining wetlands and (2) land use property as a habitat quality of the former floodplain outside the levee and (3) existence of levee barrier, (4) connectivity to the stream and (5) connectivity to the upland natural habitats as a connectivity from the channel through floodplain to the upland forest. According to the result of applying the assessment method to Cheongmi-cheon Stream, the lateral connectivity was severely damaged due to the levee construction and land use change in the former floodplain. The GIS-based assessment of the lateral connectivity developed in this study is expected to be used as a useful tool for identifying limitations of current connectivity in various attempts to restore lateral connectivity in riparian ecosystems.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2003

Connectivity is a quantitative indicator of landscape structure, and connectivity of urban green areas is an indicator of ecological integrity in urban landscapes. The purposes of this study are to assess the connectivity of urban green areas in Seoul, and to develop a method of siting new green areas for better connectivity. Diverse methods for connectivity assessment and indices of connectivity are reviewed and applied to the connectivity assesment of green areas in Seoul. The indices of connectivity of green areas in Seoul turned out to be higher than expected, maybe because many of them are rather evenly distributed, serving as stepping stones, and because there are many riparian corridors, including the Han River. Analysis also shows the optimum location of new green space patches or corridors will be those spots that would link the mainland, or large green areas outside the city, and existing green areas in the city. Restoration of urban streams as ecological corridors will significantly enhance connectivity. Three different scenarios with increasing numbers of new green areas in the city were then prepared. The changes of connectivity were measured and the possible success rates of animal dispersal were simulated. The results revealed that restoration of streams will increase the connectivity and success rates of animal dispersal.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 2014

Urban Green Area has ecologically deteriorated along with quantitative loss, being developed as a dot itself rather than connected to forests and green networks around the park. The present study aims to propose a connected plan on Urban Ecological Network establishment through 'assessment of the connectivity of the entire urban parks' in accordance with distance of forest and river and 'assessment of trends in connection fragmentation of urban parks' in accordance with the past change of forest and river. According to the result of this study, criteria based on previous research was "directly linked type is less than 300m, conceptually linked type is between 300m to 1km, the isolated type is greater than 1km". And the result of 'assessment of the connectivity of the entire urban parks' is analyzed as the rate of park and green network, 41.7% in Suwon, 80.0% in Seongnam, 88.9% in Namyangju on the basis of office and field investigation. Also, according to the result of 'assessment of trends in connection fragmentation of urban parks', consideration for connection to the original forest is insufficient.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.219-230
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• 2013

Species distribution modeling is one of the most effective habitat analysis methods for wildlife conservation. This study was for evaluating the suitability of species distribution to distance between forest patches in Seoul city using tits. We analyzed the distribution of the four species of tits: varied tit (Parus varius), marsh tit (P. palustris), great tit (P. major) and coal tit (P. ater), using the landscape indexes and connectivity indexes, and compared the resulting suitability indexes from 100m to 1,000m. As factors affecting to the distribution of tits, we calculated landscape indices by separating them into intra-patch indices (i.e. logged patch area (PA), area-weighted mean patch shape index (PSI), tree rate (TR)) and inter-patch indices (i.e. patch degree (PD), patch betweenness (PB), difference probability of connectivity (DPC)), to analyze the internal properties of the patches and their connectivity by tits occurrence data using logistic regression modeling. The models were evaluated by AICc (Akaike Information Criteria with a correction for finite sample sizes) and AUC (Area Under Curve of ROC). The results of AICc and AUC showed DPC, PA, PSI, and TR were important factors of the habitat models for great tit and marsh tit at the level of distance 500~800m. In contrast, habitat models for coal tit and varied tit, which are known as forest interior species, reflected PA, PSI, and TR as intra-patch indices rather than connectivity. These mean that coal tit and varied tit are more likely to find a large circular forest patch than a small and long-shaped forest patch, which are higher rate of forest. Therefore, different strategies are required in order to enhance the habitats of the forest birds, tits, in a region that has fragmented forest patches such as Seoul city. It is important to manage forest interior areas for coal tit and varied tit, which are known as forest interior species and to manage not only forest interior areas but also connectivity of the forest patches in the threshold distance for great tit and marsh tit as adapted species to the urban ecosystem for sustainable ecosystem management.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.275-286
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• 2019

In order to prevent local extinction of organisms and to preserve biodiversity, it is important to ensure connectivity between habitats. Even if the habitat is exposed to various disturbance factors, it is possible to avoid or respond to disturbances if they are linked to other habitats. Habitat connectivity can be assessed from a variety of perspectives, but the importance of functional connectivity based on species movement has been emphasized in recent years due to the development of computational capabilities and related software. Among them, Circuitscape, which is a connectivity evaluation tool, has an advantage it can provide detailed reference data for the city planning because it maps ecological flows on individual grid based on circuit theory. Therefore, in this study, the functional connectivity of Suwon was evaluated by applying Circuitscape and then, the ecological corridor to be conserved and supplemented was suggested based on it. The results of this study are expected to effectively complement the methodology related ecological corridor/axis, which was previously provided only in the form of a diagram, and to be effective in management of development project and urban planning.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.377-386
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• 2014

Objective: In this study, we used resting-state fMRI data to map differences in functional connectivity between a comprehensive set of 8 distinct cortical and subcortical brain regions in healthy controls and Internet addicts. We also investigated the relationship between resting state connectivity strength and the level of psychopathology (ex. score of internet addiction scale and score of Barratt impulsiveness scale). Background: There is a lot of evidence of relationship between Internet addiction and impaired inhibitory control. Clinical evidence suggests that Internet addicts have a high level of impulsivity as measured by behavioral task of response inhibition and a self report questionnaire. Method: 15 Internet addicts and 15 demographically similar non-addicts participated in the current resting-state fMRI experiment. For the connectivity analysis, regions of interests (ROIs) were defined based on the previous studies of addictions. Functional connectivity assessment for each subject was obtained by correlating time-series across the ROIs, resulting in $8{\times}8$ matrixs for each subject. Within-group, functional connectivity patterns were observed by entering the z maps of the ROIs of each subject into second-level one sample t test. Two sample t test was also performed to examine between group differences. Results: Between group, the analysis revealed that the connectivity in between the orbito frontal cortex and inferior parietal cortex, between orbito frontal cortex and putamen, between the orbito frontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, between the insula and anterior cingulate cortex, and between amydgala and insula was significantly stronger in control group than in the Internet addicts, while the connectivity in between the orbito frontal cortex and insula showed stronger negative correlation in the Internet addicts relative to control group (p < 0.001, uncorrected). No significant relationship between functional connectivity strength and current degree of Internet addiction and degree of impulsitivy was seen. Conclusion: This study found that Internet addicts had declined connectivity strength in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and other regions (e.g., ACC, IPC, and insula) during resting-state. It may reflect deficits in the OFC function to process information from different area in the corticostriatal reward network. Application: The results might help to develop theoretical modeling of Internet addiction for Internet addiction discrimination.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.320-326
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• 2020

The present study aimed to assess the longitudinal connectivity owing to migrant characteristics of the target fish. The study area was Wonju-cheon Stream, and the target species were Zacco platypus and Minnows. The HEC-RAS model was used for the computation of the flow, and the ICE (Information sur la Continuite Ecologique) method was used to analyze the longitudinal connectivity. The longitudinal connectivity was assessed using the minimum overflow height, velocity, and depth of the cross sectional structure of a plunge pool and considering the swimming speed of the target fish. Simulation results indicated that the longitudinal connectivity scores for the Zacco platypus and Minnows were approximately 76 and 23, respectively.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.503-515
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• 2023

The disconnection and fragmentation of ecological spaces that occur during the development process pose a significant threat to biodiversity. Urban center areas with high development pressure are particularly susceptible to low connectivity due to a scarcity of ecological space. This issue tends to be more pronounced in larger cities.To address this challenge, continuous efforts are needed to assess and improve the current state of ecological space connectivity at the level of individual projects and urban management. However, there is a lack of discussion regarding the analysis and improvement of ecological connectivity in metropolitan cities In line with this objective, this study evaluated the connectivity of ecological spaces in the city centers of Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon, and Ulsan. The evaluation revealed that city centers exhibited lower connectivity of ecological spaces compared to their peripheries or the overall city. In addition, in the ecological network analysis that reflected regional characteristics, such as the species distribution model conducted on Daejeon, 510 optimal paths connecting forests of more than 1ha were derived. This study is significant as an example of deriving an ecological network based on regional characteristics, including quantitative figures necessary for establishing goals to improve urban ecological connectivity and biodiversity. It is anticipated that the results can be utilized to propose directions for enhancing ecological connectivity in environmental impact assessments or urban management and to establish an evaluation framework.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 2011

This study was established to build and suggest the Ecological Performance Standards for replaced wetlands as the mitigation strategies for the construction projects. The request performance and assessment factors and standards were derived by bibliographic review and verified by the field survey for the reference wetlands. And the weights for each factor were derived by AHP(Analytical Hierarchy Process) method. The results are as follows : 1) Assessment factors were induced by in-depth research of many wetland assessment models and benchmarks evaluated ecological functions. This study proposed final 12 assessment factors through ecological specialist and experts interviews added with literature analysis. 2) 10 natural wetlands were selected as Reference Wetlands as the measure to propose assessment factors and assessment criteria. Those reference wetlands are well-conserved inland natural wetlands classified to the one having worthy to conserve (grade "high") according to RAM(Rapid Assessment Method). Reference wetlands chosen by the study are Parksilji, Jeongyangji, Mulkubi, Bawineupkubi, Jilnalneup, Jinchonneup, Doomoso, Haepyung wetland, Whangjeong wetland, and Whapo wetland. The research developed assessment criteria for the performance assessment factors based on several explorations of the reference wetlands. 3) "Requiring performance" of replaced wetlands is defined as "to carry out similar or same ecological functions provided by natural wetlands", in overall. The detailed requiring performances are as follows; ${\bullet}$ to play a role of wildlife habitats ${\bullet}$ to have biological diversity ${\bullet}$ to connect with other ecosystems ${\bullet}$ to provide water environment to perform good ecological functions 4) The assessment factors for required performance are categorized by wildlife habitat function, biological diversity, connectivity of adjacent ecosystem, and water environment. Wildlife habitat category is consisted of wildlife habitat creation, size of replacement wetland, and site suitability. Biological diversity category contains the number of plant species, the number of wildlife species, and number of protected species as the sub-factors. Connectivity of adjacent ecosystem is comprised of wildlife corridor, green network and distance from other ecosystem. Finally, water environment make up with water quality, depth of water body, and shape of waterfront. 5) Finally, every assessment factors were verified and weighted by the AHP methods and the final standards were proposed. The weights of factors of requiring performance suggested as habitat (0.280), connectivity (0.261), diversity (0.260), hydraulic environment (0.199). And those of detailed sub-factors are site suitability (0.118), protected species (0.096), distance to neighbor ecosystem (0.093), habitat creating (0.091), green corridor (0.090) etc.