• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.280-295
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• 2016

Influences on the environment from the consumption of livestock have increased drastically during the last 50 years in Korea. Reduction of bovine meat consumption is one of the alternatives as sustainable food supply. The consumption of bovine meat and the ecological footprint (the sum of the cropland, grazing land, and carbon footprint) from the consumption of bovine meat have increased over 13 and 12 times over the last 50 years. Especially, the consumption of imported bovine meat and the ecological footprint from the consumption of imported bovine meat have increased significantly about 346 and 369 times over the last 40 years. If the consumption of bovine meat decreased by half in Korea in 2023, the ecological footprint from the consumption of bovine meat would be reduced by 40~65% depending on the scenarios. The supportable population number for the consumptions of environmental resources (food (crops, livestock, and fish), energy, forest, and built-up land) and the crops were 0.57~1.56 million and 3.42~6.83 million, respectively, depending on the scenarios and the nationality of the supported people.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Conference
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• 2013.11a
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• pp.30-31
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• 2013

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) due to human activities directly affects natural systems and contributes to changes in carbon exchange and climate through a range of feedbacks. How land use and land cover changes affect carbon exchanges can be assessed using multiyear measurement data from micrometeorological flux towers. The objective of the research is to assess the impact of land use and land cover change on carbon exchange in a heterogeneous cropland area. The heterogeneous cropland area in Haenam, South Korea is also subjected to a land conversion due to rural development. Therefore, the impact of the change in land utilization in this area on carbon exchange should be assessed to monitor the cycle of energy, water, and carbon dioxide between this key agricultural ecosystem and the atmosphere. We are currently conducting the research based on 10 years flux measurement data from Haenam Koflux site and examining the LULCC patterns in the same temporal scale to evaluate whether the LULCC in the surrounding site and the resulting heterogeneity (or diversity) have a significant impact on carbon exchange. Haenam cropland is located near the southwestern coast of the Korean Peninsula with land cover types consisting of scattered rice paddies and various croplands (seasonally cultivated crops). The LULCC will be identified and quantified using remote sensing satellite data and then analyzing the relationships between LULCC and flux footprint of $CO_2$ from tower flux measurement. We plan to calculate annual flux footprint climatology map from 2003 to 2012 from the 10 years flux observation database. Eventually, these results will be used to quantify how the system's effective performance and reserve capacity contribute to moving the system towards more sustainable configuration. Broader significance of this research is to understand the co-evolution of the Haenam agricultural ecosystem and its societal counterpart which are assumed to be self-organizing hierarchical open systems.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.56-72
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• 2018

North Korea has been in ecologically deficit state since 1966, despite of lack of energy and food resources. Trends of the Biocapacity (BC), the Ecological Footprint (EF), and the Ecological Deficit (ED) of North Korea were shown and five factors influencing on the Overshoot Rate (OSR) which is the ratio of the BC and the EF in North Korea was analyzed in this study. The five factors consist of two factors affecting to the EF and three factors affecting to the BC in North Korea. Two of the five factors are affecting to the EF those are population, the EF per capita (EFPC) which indicates the individual environmental consumption intensity, and three are affecting to the BC those are the land area, the yield factor, and the value multiplying the equivalence factor and the intertemporal yield factor. The EF has contributed more than the BC to the OSR. From 1966 to mid-1990s, the EFPC was the most contributing factor at about 60%, and after mid-1990s, population at about 40~60%. Contribution ratio of land area and the yield factor have increased after mid-1990s up to 15% and 18%, respectively. The BC of cropland which has decreased due to a decrease in productivity. In order to reduce the ED of North Korea, improvement of productivity of cropland and restoration of forest. Forest area has decreased significantly since 1990 in NK. And ways to solve the food shortage problem which influences on decrease of both productivity of cropland and forest area.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.358-383
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• 2015

The concept of 'carbon footprint' has been developed as a means of quantifying the specific emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) that cause global warming. Although there are still neither clear definitions of the term nor rules for units or the scope of its estimation, it is broadly accepted that the carbon footprint is the total amount of GHGs, expressed as $CO_2$ equivalents, emitted into the atmosphere directly or indirectly at all processes of the production by an individual or organization. According to the ISO/TS 14067, the carbon footprint of a product is calculated by multiplying the units of activity of processes that emit GHGs by emission factor of the processes, and by summing them up. Based on this, 'carbon labelling' system has been implemented in various ways over the world to provide consumers the opportunities of comparison and choice, and to encourage voluntary activities of producers to reduce GHG emissions. In the agricultural sector, as a judgment basis to help purchaser with ethical consumption, 'low-carbon agricultural and livestock products certification' system is expected to have more utilization value. In this process, the 'cradle to gate' approach (which excludes stages for usage and disposal) is mainly used to set the boundaries of the life cycle assessment for agricultural products. The estimation of carbon footprint for the entire agricultural and forestry sector should take both removals and emissions into account in the "National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report". The carbon accumulation in the biomass of perennial trees in cropland should be considered also to reduce the total GHG emissions. In order to accomplish this, tower-based flux measurements can be used, which provide a direct quantification of $CO_2$ exchange during the entire life cycle. Carbon footprint information can be combined with other indicators to develop more holistic assessment indicators for sustainable agricultural and forestry ecosystems.