• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.144-155
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• 2020

This research developed an approach to identify ecologically important areas at local scales and explained how the results of this approach could contribute to extend the protected areas in the Republic of Korea (ROK). While most developed countries have considered various biotic and abiotic factors, ecological processes, migration routes, habitat connectivity, ecosystem services, and etc. to determine the protected areas, ROK has considered a few factors focusing on biodiversity, landscape, and the habitats of endangered organisms. However, for sustainable management of our nature, we need comprehensive understanding of various ecosystem factors and interactions among them at local scales in designating protected areas. Forthis, we developed a conceptual model based on the ecological engineering approach and then explained how the results of this approach could contribute to extend the protected areas. In particular, we considered future land-use and climate change in determining the priority areas for novel protected areas. Our research suggested an effective methodology 1) to include various ecosystem factors and 2) to consider future environmental changes as well as current environmental conditions in finding the ecologically important areas and prioritizing these areas. However, our approach has limitations on the real-world applications due to the lack of fundamental information and data on our ecosystems. To improve the effectiveness of our approach in the real-world applications, we need various long-term ecological research results, environmental and ecological monitoring data, and both current and future spatial environmental data.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.171-180
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• 2013

As the second-largest 1st degree of ecological zone in Kangwon Province, Pyeongchang County is expected to play an important role in expanding the protected areas of the Republic of Korea. However, Pyoungchang County is expected to experience an increase in demand for development due to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Problems related to various stakeholders and limited budget will arise regarding the issue of expanding the protected areas. In this study, in order to effectively control these problems, we designed expansion plans for the 1st degree ecological zoning map areas and the observed data of threatened species I and II in Pyoungchang County by using the MARXAN Software. As for the methods, we first set the planning units(PUs) for the spatial analysis. The PUs include boundary length, land cost, land status, etc. Then, we made the input data by controlling the conservation features, BLM(Boundary Length Modifier) and iteration numbers. There are two measures for the establishment of the protected areas, one of which only concerns with the ecological priority, and the other with combining the land cost on forest. The one illustrated shows that the larger patches that include the conservation feature was selected as a candidate of the protected areas. The other one presented shows that inexpensive land cost areas were selected. As this study produces visual results and enables an efficient application of various values in selecting protected areas, we believe that it will be useful to various stakeholders in spatial decision-making process.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.105-114
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• 2010

The principal objective of this study was to characterize the relationships between geographical conditions (e.g., island area, distance to mainland) and landscape structures of uninhabited islands, and to evaluate the effects of islands and their landscape structures on species richness. One hundred randomly selected islands and 5,000 m buffered areas derived from the boundaries of each island were used to summarize the number of observed bird species, and landscape pattern indices, particularly patch density, edge density, shape index, and mean nearest neighboring distance. Spatial arrangements of individual patch type at the class level, which are markedly affected by the distance from an island to the mainland, have a superior ability to explain the variances in species richness, as compared to the geographical conditions and landscape pattern indices at the landscape level. The results demonstrate that the patch type landscape structure is the primary factor affecting species richness, as well as the distance to the mainland. In particular, landscape pattern indices of cropland/pasture and woody cover are statistically significant in terms of explaining species richness, which suggests that food resources and appropriate conditions in landscape structures of habitat types are assumed as important elements in attracting bird species. This study also proposes the importance of evaluation on the landscape structure of each island, in order to designate protected areas and to establish a management plan for species conservation in uninhabited islands.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.98-106
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• 2002

This study was designed to present a river model with the aim of restoring the ecosystem and improving the landscape along the urban rivers on the basin of the Namhanl river, a core life channel for the National Capital regin. The revelation of botanical status, transition trend and correlation of plants might lead to providing the urban river restoration projects and ecological river formation projects with basic data for a model of ideal aquatic ecology and landscape. The outcomes of this study could be summed up as follows: 1. The plant communities of river flora found on the basin of the Namhan river could be categorized largely into 39 plant communities 2. Most diverse plants were distributed in the rivers lower reaches such as Unsim-ri where the protected zone of Paldang reservoir for city water borders the body of Jodae swamp where natural streams flow nearby. 3. One of the greatest threats to the biomass of the River Namhan is that the communities of such invasive alien plants as Panicum dichotomiflorum and Ambrosia artemisiifolia var. elatior dominate most parts of the area, a fact that has resulted in a reduced variety of plants and will, sooner or later, be likely to cause an ecological imbalance in the hitherto healthy Aquatic plant life. It is highly advisable to gradually diversify the species of trees and to return the plants bark to their original state since, besides the naturalized plants, plantations afforested with Erigeron canadensis and Erigeron annuus stocks in buckwheat field, Robinia Pseudo-accacia in riverside forest, Pinus rigida in terrestrial forest on the river basin and Larix leptolepis are anticipated to act as interceptors of normal migrations of the fluvial and terrestrial ecosystems. Finally, it seems also desirable to continue to explore the relationship between fluvial and terrestrial ecologies with the purpose of building up a model of natural streams in urban areas based on the surveyed factors for plant life, soil and landscape and, moreover, on the forecasting for overall influences derived from the rotation upon the ecosystem.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.685-695
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• 2011

Through the analyses of the distribution characteristics and management practices of the wildlife protection areas, this study intends to present basic data for improving the management of protected areas. 1) Based on the aggregate results of the protected areas, the average ratio of the metro-city and provincial areas to the designated protected areas was 1.49%; except for Chungcheongbuk-do (8.83%) and Gyeongsangnam-do (3.43%), most regions showed specified percentages of about 1%, whereby the analysis suggested that the designated protected areas were too small. 2) Considering the fact that most (86.16%) of the wildlife protection areas are in the regions that are of ecological nature level of grade 1, green nature level of grade 8 or better, and of legal conservation regions and districts, it was shown that these reserves are distributed in regions with excellent natural environmental conditions. 3) Designation of protected areas for the protection of wildlife and fish is deemed to be necessary. Although there are 588 wildlife & plant reserves, there are absolutely no designated areas for protecting plant and fish species. 4) Based on the results of an analysis of the current distribution by types, 92.47% of protected areas were concentrated in the mountains, 0.24% in the agricultural lands, and 7.29% distributed in the lakes/rivers/costal areas. 5) As major improvement projects, proposed were: advancement of management systems for protected areas, expanded designation of protected areas, overhaul of managed areas, designation of protected areas for the protection of wild plants and fish, need for management measures for private property and the surrounding areas, need to secure appropriate management personnel and collaboration, locally-adapted management, eco-information-based management, total management of protected areas, etc.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.45-62
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• 2020

This study is to present the basic data for the conservation and management of natural resources of National Park by understanding the ecological characteristics of special protected areas located in Tohamsan District, Gyeongju National Park, South Korea. The numbers of vascular plants were summarized as 106 taxa including 47 families, 79 genera, 96 species, 1 subspecies, 7 varieties and 2 forms. For status by sites, there were 59, 50 and 55 taxa in A area(Pedicularis ishidoyana), B area(Millettia japonica) and C area(Cypripedium macranthos), respectively. In the dominant species, the tree layer was Quercus serrata(A area), Platycarya strobilacea and Pinus koraiensis(B area) and Fraxinus rhynchophylla(C area), the subtree layer was Carpinus cordata and Quercus serrata(A area), Pinus koraiensis and Castanea crenata(B area) and Fraxinus rhynchophylla(C area), the 1^st shrub layer was Toxicodendron trichocarpum and Rhododendron schlippenbachii(A area), Lindera erythrocarpa and Styrax japonicus(B area) and Fraxinus rhynchophylla and Lindera erythrocarpa(C area), 2^nd shrub layer was Styrax obassis and Lespedeza maximowiczii(A area), Lespedeza maximowiczii and Rhododendron mucronulatum(B area) and Lindera erythrocarpa(C area), the herbaceous layer was Athyrium yokoscense, Dryopteris chinensis, Dryopteris lacera and Lindera obtusiloba(A area), Athyrium yokoscense, Millettia japonica, Carex humilis Leyss. var. nana and Carex ciliato-marginata(B area) and Hydrangea macrophylla (Thunb.) Ser. subsp. serrata, Ajuga spectabilis and Oplismenus undulatifolius(C area).

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.365-370
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• 2001

The vegetation of the Khogno Khan Natural Reserve of the central Mongolia was studied in terms of the Zurich-Montpellier School's method. Twenty plant communities were identified from the three different landscape types such as mountain areas(63%), plains(32%), and wetlands(5%). Actual vegetation map using five vegetation domains was accomplished in order to understand the spatial distribution of regional vegetation. Steppe vegetation of 88% vegetation cover to the whole area is representative, which is composed of a matrix of landscape. The birch-aspen forests and the elm bush forests are relics as a patch distribution. It is recognized that the whole territory of protected area be under the effects of severe grazing from the phytosociological viewpoint.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.154-171
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• 2010

This study was performed to show criteria of a National Ecological Network (NEN) for South Korea and it was a part of a study of ecological network for broad areas on national land showed by Ministry of Environment of Korea. After 1970s, many european countries presented methods and criteria not on individual protected area but on networking among many habitats. The PEEN (Pan European Ecological Network) and NATURA 2000 are results of those. In South Korea, concepts and mapping metheods of ecological network was studied but those were not applied to the whole national land because the equality and local specialities were not reflected. So, in this study, we presented the criteria composed of forest, river, wildlife and coastal evaluation items in conservation ecology and showed the mapping method which can applied to the national land. After the evaluation on land area which composed of forest, river and wildlife axis. Core areas were $30,616km^2$, buffer zone were $21,870km^2$ and each accounted for 31% and 22% of the national land. Except for Taebaeck-Gangwon region, whole region's core areas were accounted for 20~30% of it and buffer zone were accounted for 20~25% of it, so these can be applied to the national land with equality and local specialities. Forest axis and river axis were clearly linear and connected, but the wildlife axis was dispersed in point form. Therefore, to apply the NEN, a detailed habitat map is important and the interconnected implementation of forest, river, wildlife, and coastal axis is required.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.287-299
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• 2015

If the Nakdong River estuary is to be sustainable, land use management practices need to consider bird habitat requirements, especially given that the area serves as an important migratory bird sanctuary. In this study, bird habitats found in the Nakdong River estuary were classified into 11 different types including Phragmites australiss, mud flat, farmland, open surface in freshwater, sand bar, riparian forest, Scirpus planiculmis, waterway, construction, grasslands, and open surface in sea or brackish water. Taking into consideration the regional characteristics, habitat properties, and landscape indices, a total of 12 study sites were analyzed. Mud flat, construction, farmland, and P. australis account for 80% of the total land area. The high area ratio of construction and farmland to other types of habitat revealed a high amount of historical human activity and intervention in the area. Both patch numbers as well as patch density were high in West Nakdong River, Samrak Waterfront, Maekdo River, and Daejeo Floodgate, with these areas showing the greatest fragmentation as well. Total numbers of species and individuals had a positive correlation with the area and the number of habitat types. Findings suggest that protecting the habitat area, especially in S. planiculmis, is the most important factor for bird habitat management and that future development could result in habitat loss, having a profoundly adverse impact on bird populations. Therefore, it is important that the total area should be carefully protected by land use regulations in order to ensure that the Nakdong River estuary maintains its functional integrity as a migratory bird sanctuary.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 1996

Ecological approach to conservation of Korea's National Parks (KNP) was reviewed. Four hundred twenty five reports on 15 national parks for 80 years (1915~1994) were analyzed in consideration of phytocoenotic information such as flora, plant community and landscape. Total species was recorded as 157 familles, 752 genera, and 2,369 species (64.3% of Korean flora), in which is included only 75 species of the protected plant species designated by the Ministry of EnvironMent. Occurrence patterns of plant species in national parks were quite similar to one another, but those of plant community were rather unique. Seventy-four of 97 plant communities were reported in only one of 15 national parks, which might be regarded as an endemic or local vegetetation type. These facts are far different from actual status of the KNP＇s ecosystem, which indicate that not only original data in previous reports are less informative, but also tools of investigation and description are too subjective, and thus these can never afford to monitor the ecosystem. From the correlation analysis between 10 ecological characteristics, the following results were obtained: (1) the species richness was positively associated with the area of national park, (2) the number of visitors was related to landscape diversity, (3) occurrence of the designated species was closely related to the vegetation diversity. Numerical analysis (cluster analysis and ordination) using dissimilarity ratio by ecological characteristics divided 15 national parks into 4 groups. The first group, composed of national parks of Chirisan, $S\v{o}laksan$, Sokrisan, Hallasan, $T\v{o}kyusan$, Odaesan, and Sobaeksan, is recognized as the best national parks in terms of ecological conservation values. Nevertheless, they have been faced with the threat of visitor stress. This study will contribute to the establishment of strategy for appropriate conservation and sustainable use of KNP.