• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2013

In South Korea, the conflict between development and conservation policy still exist among government ministries, and conventional development plan often has priority over conservation policy. Establishment of sustainable development and comprehensive management policy employing the results of ecosystem service studies are highly warranted, but researchers in South Korea are still limited and often misuse the concept of ecosystem services. Thus, we aimed to introduce the concept of Ecosystem Service (ES) and related terminologies such as Social-Ecological Systems (SESs), ecosystem function, trade-off, and human well-being in this paper. Additionally, this article reviewed and arranged key approaches in ES studies as follows: 1) field works, 2) mapping ecosystem services, 3) valuing ES, 4) quantifying trade-offs between ES and 5) understanding SESs. Based on those results, we suggest that field works for basic information have the first priority to be conducted among ES studies. Once basic information is sufficiently accumulated, researchers can perform applied ES research with accuracy. Finally, results of ES studies conducted by five approaches allow decision makers to consider both natural system and society simultaneously, and hence the results can be utilized for sustainable development and conservation policy based on ecosystem-based management.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.255-263
• /
• 2021

Background: Ecosystem service mapping is an important tool for decision-making in landscape planning and natural resource management. Today, pollination service mapping is based on the Lonsdorf model (InVEST software) that determines the availability of nesting and floral resources for each land cover and estimates pollination according to the foraging range of the desired species. However, it is argued that the Lonsdorf model has significant limitations in estimating pollination in a landscape that can affect the results of this model. Results: This paper presents a free software, named PollMap, that does not have the limitations of the Lonsdorf model. PollMap estimates the pollination service according to a modified version of the Lonsdorf model and assumes that only cells within the flight range of bees are important in the pollination mapping. This software is produced for estimating and mapping crop pollination in agricultural landscapes. The main assumption of this software is that in the agricultural landscapes, which are dominated by forest and agriculture ecosystems, forest patches serve only as a nesting habitat for wild bees and the surrounding fields provide floral resources. Conclusion: The present study provided new software for mapping crop pollination in agricultural landscapes that does not have the limitations of the Lonsdorf model. We showed that the use of the Lonsdorf model for pollination mapping requires attention to the limitations of this model, and by removing these limitations, we will need new software to obtain a reliable mapping of pollination in agricultural landscapes.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.417-430
• /
• 2018

Identification and mangement of ecosystem service hotspots are necessary to set environmental policies that include concepts of ecosystem service. Assessment and mapping of ecosystem service hotspot referring areas with high amount of ecosystem services provide essential information to manage ecosystem services effectively. Assessment of hotspots based on regional environmental stakeholders' perception is an useful approach to identify priority areas where management practices are required. This study estimated weights on regulating ecosystem services from regional environmental stakeholders' surveys in Ansan, and then, identified regulating service hotspots with weights. The result indicated that regulating services are, in order of importance, water quality, air quality, erosion, and climate control. The north-eastern forest of Ansan was mainly revealed as an ecosystem service hotspot. Ecosystem service hotspots were spatially distributed similarly regardless of environmental stakeholders' weights. Identification of ecosystem service hotspot with environmental stakeholders' perception can be applied in decision-support tools for ecosystem service management.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2019.05a
• /
• pp.148-148
• /
• 2019

The 2006 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) defines ecosystem services (ES) as "the benefits people obtain from ecosystems". Identifying where ES originates, whom it benefits and how it is changing over a period of time is critical in rapidly developing country like Nepal, where the risk of ES loss is high. In the context of various ecosystem services provided by watershed, this study, particularly deals with water yield, Soil loss and Carbon sequestration computation and evaluation in Bagmati Basin of Nepal. As Bagmati Basin incorporates capital city Kathmandu of nepal, land use change is significant over decades and mapping of ES is crucial for sustainable development of Basin in future. In this regard, the objectives of this study are 1) To compute the total and sub-watershed scale water yield of the basin, 2) Computation of soil loss and sediment retention in the basin, and 3) Computation of carbon sequestration in the basin. Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST), a popular model for ecosystem service assessment based on Budyko hydrological method is used to compute Ecosystem services. The scenario of ES in two periods of time can be referenced for various approaches of prioritization and incorporation of their value into local and regional decision making for management of basin.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.367-377
• /
• 2018

A cultural ecosystem service(CES), which is non-material benefit that human gains from ecosystem, has been recently further recognized as gross national income increases. Previous researches proposed to quantify the value of CES, which still remains as a challenging issue today due to its social and cultural subjectivity. This study proposes new way of assessing CES which is called Cultural Service Opportunity Spectrum(CSOS). CSOS is accessibility based CES assessment methodology for regional scale and it is designed to be applicable for any regions in Korea for supporting decision making process. CSOS employed public spatial data which are road network and population density map. In addition, the results of 'Rapid Assessment of Natural Assets' implemented by National Institute of Ecology, Korea were used as a complementary data. CSOS was applied to Namyangju-si and the methodology resulted in revealing specific areas with great accessibility to 'Natural Assets' in the region. Based on the results, the advantages and limitations of the methodology were discussed with regard to weighting three main factors and in contrast to Scenic Quality model and Recreation model of InVEST which have been commonly used for assessing CES today due to its convenience today.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.102-111
• /
• 2022

Among protected areas, National Parks are rich in biodiversity, and the benefits of ecosystem services provided to human are higher than the others. Ecosystem service evaluation is being used to manage the value of national parks based on objective and scientific data. Ecosystem services are classified into four services: supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural. The purpose of this study is to evaluate habitat quality among supporting services. Habitat Quality Model of InVEST was used to analyze. The coefficients of sensitivity and habitat initial value were reset by reflecting prior studies and the actual conditions of protected areas. Habitat quality of 21 national parks except Hallasan National Park was analyzed and mapped. The value of habitat quality was evaluated to be between 0 and 1, and the closer it is to 1, the more natural it is. As a result of habitat quality analysis, Seoraksan and Taebaeksan National Parks (0.90), Jirisan and Odaesan National Parks (0.89), and Sobaeksan National Park (0.88) were found to be the highest in the order. As a result of comparing the area and habitat quality of 18 national parks except for coastal-marine national parks, the larger the area, the higher the overall habitat quality. Comparing the value of habitat quality of each zone, the value of habitat quality was high in the order of the park nature preservation zone, the park nature environmental zone, the park cultural heritage zone, and the park village zone. Considering both the analysis of habitat quality and the legal regulations for each zone of use, it is judged that the more artificial acts are restricted, the higher the habitat quality. This study is meaningful in analyzing habitat quality of 21 National Parks by readjusting the parameters according to the situation of protected areas in Korea. It is expected to be easy to intuitively understand through accurate data and mapping, and will be useful in making policy decisions regarding the development and preservation of protected areas in the future.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.298-304
• /
• 2021

This study aimed to determine the applicability of drones and air quality sensors in environmental monitoring of air pollutant emissions by developing and testing two new methods. The first method used orthoimagery for precise monitoring of pollutant-emitting facilities. The second method used atmospheric sensors for monitoring air pollutants in emissions. Results showed that ground sample distance could be established within 5 cm during the creation of orthoimagery for monitoring emissions, which allowed for detailed examination of facilities with naked eyes. For air quality monitoring, drones were flown on a fixed course and measured the air quality in point units, thus enabling mapping of air quality through spatial analysis. Sensors that could measure various substances were used during this process. Data on particulate matter were compared with data from the National Air Pollution Measurement Network to determine its future potential to leverage. However, technical development and applications for environmental monitoring of pollution-emitting facilities are still in their early stages. They could be limited by meteorological conditions and sensitivity of the sensor technology. This research is expected to provide guidelines for environmental monitoring of pollutant-emitting facilities using drones.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.63-73
• /
• 2010

A comprehensive mapping project for agroclimatic zoning in South Korea will end by April 2010, which has required 4 years, a billion won (ca. 0.9 million US dollars) and 22 experts from 7 institutions to complete it. The map database from this project may be categorized into primary, secondary and analytical products. The primary products are called "high definition" digital climate maps (HD-DCMs) and available through the state of the art techniques in geospatial climatology. For example, daily minimum temperature surfaces were prepared by combining the climatic normals (1971-2000 and 1981-2008) of synoptic observations with the simulated thermodynamic nature of cold air by using the raster GIS and microwave temperature profiling which can quantify effects of cold air drainage on local temperature. The spatial resolution of the gridded climate data is 30m for temperature and solar irradiance, and 270m for precipitation. The secondary products are climatic indices produced by statistical analysis of the primary products and includes extremes, sums, and probabilities of climatic events relevant to farming activities at a given grid cell. The analytical products were prepared by driving agronomic models with the HD-DCMs and dates of full bloom, the risk of freezing damage, and the fruit quality are among the examples. Because the spatial resolution of local climate information for agronomic practices exceeds the current weather service scale, HD-DCMs and the value-added products are expected to supplement the insufficient spatial resolution of official climatology. In this lecture, state of the art techniques embedded in the products, how to combine the techniques with the existing geospatial information, and agroclimatic zoning for major crops and fruits in South Korea will be provided.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2007

The use of information on natural resources is indispensable to most agricultural activities to avoid disasters, to improve input efficiency, and to increase lam income. Most information is prepared and managed at a spatial scale called the "Hydrologic Unit" (HU), which means watershed or small river basin, because virtually every environmental problem can be handled best within a single HU. South Korea consists of 840 such watersheds and, while other watershed-specific information is routinely managed by government organizations, there are none responsible for agricultural weather and climate. A joint research team of Kyung Hee University and the Agriculture, forestry and Fisheries Information Service has begun a 4-year project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and forestry to establish a watershed-specific agricultural weather information service based on "high definition" digital climate maps (HD-DCMs) utilizing the state of the art geospatial climatological technology. For example, a daily minimum temperature model simulating the thermodynamic nature of cold air with the aid of raster GIS and microwave temperature profiling will quantify effects of cold air drainage on local temperature. By using these techniques and 30-year (1971-2000) synoptic observations, gridded climate data including temperature, solar irradiance, and precipitation will be prepared for each watershed at a 30m spacing. Together with the climatological normals, there will be 3-hourly near-real time meterological mapping using the Korea Meteorological Administration's digital forecasting products which are prepared at a 5 km by 5 km resolution. Resulting HD-DCM database and operational technology will be transferred to local governments, and they will be responsible for routine operations and applications in their region. This paper describes the project in detail and demonstrates some of the interim results.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.21-28
• /
• 2009

Detailed information on soil characteristics is of great importance for the use and conservation of soil resources that are essential for human welfare and ecosystem sustainability. This paper introduces soil inventory of Korea focusing on national soil database establishment, information systems, use, and future direction for natural resources management. Different scales of soil maps surveyed and soil test data collected by RDA (Rural Development Administration) were computerized to construct digital soil maps and database. Soil chemical properties and heavy metal concentrations in agricultural soils including vulnerable agricultural soils were investigated regularly at fixed sampling points. Internet-based information systems for soil and agro-environmental resources were developed based on 'National Soil Survey Projects' for managing soil resources and for providing soil information to the public, and 'Agroenvironmental Change Monitoring Project' to monitor spatial and temporal changes of agricultural environment will be opened soon. Soils data has a great potential of further application in estimation of soil carbon storage, water capacity, and soil loss. Digital mapping of soil and environment using state-of-the-art and emerging technologies with a pedometrics concept will lead to future direction.