• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

The purpose of ecological risk assessment in soil ecosystem is to protect ecological receptors and to provide a scheme of efficient management for soil contaminants. Developed countries have already prepared the methodologies of ecological risk assessment by considering their soil properties, land use, and ecological receptors. In this study, we compared the soil ecological risk assessment processes in the similarity and differences in methodology. Four countries, except for USA, adjusted the toxicological data for ecological risk assessment, based on their representative soil properties because the soil properties affect toxic effects to ecological receptors. The soil ecological risk assessment methodology of Netherlands and UK was based on 'Technical guidance document on risk assessment (TGD)' of European Chemical Bureau (ECB). Australia, USA, and Canada developed their autonomous methodology. In the Netherlands, UK, Australia, and Canada, they employed the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) approach if sufficient toxicity data are available. The USA determined the ecological soil screening level by obtaining the geometric mean of toxicological data for three species. Furthermore, all countries consider secondary poisoning in their soil ecological risk assessment. The latest risk assessment methodology of soil ecosystem that this study investigated can be used to explore what Korea needs to develop the Korean ecological risk assessment methodology of soil ecosystem in the future.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.169-177
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• 2010

Ecological risk assessment (ERA) has been used to establish environmental quality standards or evaluate ecological risk in site-specific areas. The scope of ERA was expanded based on regions, and the concept of regional-scale ecological risk assessment was recently introduced in developed countries. In the present study, regional ERA approaches of relative risk model (RRM), contaminants in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (CATS) model, and procedure for ecological tired assessment of risks (PETAR) in advanced countries were extensively investigated. Regional ERA was compared with traditional ERA process. Stressors, receptor and response in traditional ERA were replaced with sources of stressors, habitats, and ecological impacts, respectively in regional ERA. This study introduces the concept and assessment process of regional ERA, and provides a wide perspective how the relative ERA could be applied in Korean ecosystem.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.241-246
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• 2013

For effective and efficient environmental management, developed countries, such as the Netherlands, UK, Australia, Canada, and United States apply ecological risk assessment, and they have an autonomous risk assessment methodology to protect native receptors. In this study, soil ecological protective concentration (EPC) of cadmium in Korea was derived using Korean ecological risk assessment methodology. The soil EPC of cadmium was calculated using probabilistic ecological risk assessment based on species sensitivity distribution. The soil EPC was calculated according to land use for residential/agricultural and industrial/commercial purposes. The chronic soil EPCs for residential/agricultural and industrial/commercial lands were derived to be 1.58 and 9.60 mg/kg, respectively. These values were similar to soil EPC of European Commission, the Netherlands, UK, and Canada. However, these values were lower than the established Korean soil standard, because the current soil standard was based on human risk. Therefore, the impact on an ecosystem when establishing environmental standard should be considered.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.7-14
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• 2010

Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) supports a decision-making process such as establishment of environmental quality criteria. Soil quality criteria (SQC) are essential to protect soil organisms from the exposure to various soil contaminants. In this study, ERA methodologies of advanced countries for soil pollution were extensively compared to propose the ERA approach suitable for soil ecosystem in Korea. The soil ERAs in European Chemical Bureau(ECB), The Netherlands, and Canada can be classified as deterministic ecological risk assessment (DERA), and probabilistic ecological risk assessment (PERA) based on species sensitivity distribution (SSD). We propose three ERA methods according to abundance and reliability of soil ecotoxicity data. The method considered land use such as residential/agricultural, and industrial/commercial uses. The taxonomic groups of soil organism were classified as 'Class' level including different trophic levels (Magnoliopsida or Liliopsida, Clitellata, and Insecta or Secernentea). This study can be used to estimate the soil quality criteria to protect soil biota.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Biology Conference
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.127-127
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• 2005

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.494-501
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• 2009

Probabilistic Ecological risk assessment (PERA) is extensive approach to qualify and quantify risk on the multi species based on species sensitivity distribution (SSD). As a while, deterministic ecological risk assessment (DERA) considers the comparison of predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) and predicted exposure concentration (PEC). DERA is used to determine if there is potential risk or no risk, and it doesn't consider the nature variability and the species sensitivity. But PERA can be more realistic and reasonable approach to estimate likelihood or risk. In this study, we compared PERA used in developed countries, and proposed PERA applicable for the Korean water environment. Taxonomic groups were classified as "class" level including Actinopterygill, Branchiopoda, Chlorophyceae, Maxillapoda, Insects, Bivalvia, Gastropoda, Secernentea, Polychaeta, Monocotyldoneae, and Chanophyceae in this study. Statistical extrapolation method (SEM), statistical extrapolation method $_{acutechronicratio}$ ($SEM_{ACR}$) and assessment factor method (AFM) were used to calculate the ecological protective concentration based on qualitative and quantitative levels of taxonomic toxicity data. This study would be useful to establish the PERA for the protection of aquatic ecosystem in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.61-72
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• 2014

We implemented ecological linkage assessment, through the connection components of the urban forests, rivers and parks, for the ecological connection of the urban parks which are standing out as the core of the urban green networks, so as to suggest basic data to compare, evaluate and improve urban green networks, as a basic study for the evaluation of the ecological connectabilities between the cities. For the ecological linkage assessment, we analyzed to see if the urban parks of Goyang, Ansan and Yongin, which are the subject cities, are actually ecologically connected with forests and rivers, using distance and roads, which are physical connection elements, in consideration of the mobility of the wild animals, and greening ratios and impervious pavement ratios, which are ecological connectabilities in consideration of the ecological values. The overall result of the ecological linkage assessment the physical connection elements and the ecological connection elements shows that the ecological green network ratio through direct connection states is 36.62% in Goyang, 42.55% in Ansan and 64.00% in Yongin, respectively, giving the ecological connectability ratio of less than half, with the average urban ecological green network ration of 47.72%. The comparison result of the ecological connectabilities between the object cities employing the connection elements indicates that when you set up green networks, you should consider together the physical connection elements, such as the roads, which will lower the ecological connectabilities - rather than do it simply based on areas and distances - while the ecological connection elements with the forests and the streams should be reinforced, so that the ecological connectabilities of the urban parks may be enhanced.

• Water Engineering Research
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.169-178
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• 2005

Comprehensive assessment of ecological riparian zone is to analyze and evaluate the status of riparian zone ecosystem. The existing problem of the ecosystem can be found through the assessment. The AHP-FUZZY method used in the assessment is based on the hierarchy model of index, grade model of object, and attribution degree of index. Accordingly, the four models have been discussed and presented from the aspect of the stability, landscape, eco-health and eco-safety of riparian zone.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.335-346
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• 2007

This study is aiming at improving the Environmental Conservation Value Assessment Map(ECVAM) of National Land in Korea. The ECVAM items are composed of legal and environmental/ecological assessments. A popular method applied to ECVAM is an overlay environmental/ecological assessment items. The purpose of this study is to offer complementary items of the ECVAM by examining assessment items. In this study we assessed the ECVAM by five methods. Method 1 is Grade 1 areas of each administrative district; Method 2 is comparing overlapped areas of each assessment items Grade 1, 2 and permission of each assessment items duplication; Method 3 is Grade 1, 2 areas by only singular assessment items; Method 4 is Grade 1 areas only of Method 2; and Method 5 is Grade 2 areas only of Method 2. Method 1 showed Seoul and other metropolitan cities revealed a large proportion of Grade I regions by the legal assessment items. Gang won-Do, showed a large proportion of Grade I regions by the environmental/ecological assessment item. Method 2 showed 93.4% of diameter Grade II(standard for stability); forest diameter item accounted for 99.9% by Method 3, Method 4 showed 95.7% of forest diameter, and forest density accounted for 66.4% by Method 5. This study contributes to reduce the complexity in the process of manufacturing ECVAM of National Land, and to raise the flexibility in the process of managing and updating this map.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2017

The objective of this study is to seek for improvement measures to make the Ecosystem and Nature Map by analyzing causes for grade changes and distributional characteristics of areas with public objections to the Ecosystem and Nature Map notified by e-official gazette from 2014 to June 2016. The receipt of public appeals has been recently increased from average 23 cases a year(2007-2013) to average 33 cases a year(2014-June 2016) while there were 42 areas with public appeals for less than the minimum area($62,500m^2$) for the evaluation of grade of the Ecosystem and Nature Map. Most of the public appeals focused on the 1st grade zone of the Ecosystem and Nature Map. Before grade changes by public appeals, the 1st grade zone of the Ecosystem and Nature Map were 76.0% of the whole areas with public appeals. However, after grade changes by public appeals, it was rapidly decreased to 25.2%, which means that a lot of the 1st grade zone with public appeals were lowered. In the results of analyzing the distributional characteristics of areas with public appeals, they were mostly distributed in lowland(less than 250m altitude), section with $10{\sim}20^{\circ}$ slope, and areas close to or within 100m from built-up area. Regarding areas with public appeals, the biggest time difference between the period of the existing research by National Ecosystem Survey and the period of notice after completing the treatment of public appeals was 18 years while areas showing 6-15 years of time difference were about 70%. Thus, there were huge differences in time of research and notice. Also, the biggest causes for grade changes were boundary errors caused by small-scale survey, and then followed by changes in evaluation of endangered species and occurrence of built-up area and damaged land. Analyzing areas with public appeals in each evaluation item of the Ecosystem and Nature Map, vegetation part was 73.0%, and endangered species area was 23.1% while topography and wetland was less.