• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2024

The riparian area plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The Korean government has recognized the importance of protecting riparian areas and has taken steps to purchase land and create ecobelt to reduce non-point source pollutants(NSPs) that can negatively impact water quality. However, selecting the catchment area and calculating the pollution load can be challenging due to the small area of the purchased land and the limitations of low-resolution DEMs. To address these challenges, this study proposes the use of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) to create a high-resolution DEM and calculate the pollution load through land cover analysis. This approach can provide a more accurate representation of the land use status and help to identify areas that are contributing to NSPs. The quantitative comparison of the difference in water quality improvement ecosystem services according to the scenarios of additional catchment areas shows that even land purchased for the same amount of money may have different ecosystem service values, and this was quantitatively calculated. This can be used to prioritize future land acquisition. Overall, this study's approach could provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of ecobelt in reducing NSPs and inform future efforts to protect riparian areas in Korea and beyond.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.1-13
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• 2017

Recently, due to worldwide industralization and urbanization, natural environment has been severly damaged and global warning is worsening. Heat wave, torrential rainfall, typhoon and other natural disasters continuously occur due to global warming. Policies such as carbon emission regulation are taken into effect to solve such problems. Such global trend has affected interest to natural ecosystem and developed as a concept of ecosystem-services. This study particularly focused on ground water storage capacity among various ecosystem-services such as climate control and soil formation. It is because Korea suffers from drought and flood every year. Therefore, this study aims to understand objective numerical value of ecosystem-services value regarding ground water storage capacity of biotop classes based on relationship among precipitation, amount of evapotranspiration, and runoff of 7 regions of Chilgok-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do and to convert the value into economic value. The study calculated ground water storage capacity based on relationship among precipitation, amount of evapotranspiration, and run off. Calculated amount of each capacity was 29.26 million ton($30.2mm/m^2$), 430.46 million ton($140.4mm/m^2$), 11.30 million ton($150.1.0mm/m^2$), 33 milion ton($3.0mm/m^2$). Economical value of ecosystem-service by each biotop classes appeared 4,128,800 thousand KRW ($21.32KRW/m^2$) for agricultural biotop, and 60,403,600 thousand KRW ($98.52KRW/m^2$) for forest biotop, 1,572,800 thousand KRW ($104.4KRW/m^2$) for grassland biotop, and 47,600 thousand KRW ($2.18KRW/m^2$) for bare ground biotop. The result of this study like above, it will be used as important evidentiary material to preserve natural resource effectively from various development business and policies that damages natural eco-system. Also, it is judged that ecosystem-service value by each land coverage will be used as important material for preparing legalistic institution such as establishing natural environment preservation plan, budget for alternative forest resource creation cost.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.401-412
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• 2016

The sustainable operation and development of ports is a key industry for Korea's national economy. It is increasingly more important to resolve conflicts with local communities due to port environmental problems such as air pollution, water pollution, noise and ecosystem destruction while securing port competitiveness through infrastructure expansion. In case of the Busan New Port development project in Korea, construction has been temporally suspended due to conflict with local fishermen over marine sand mining for construction. A primary reason for this is the absence and limitation of qualitative port environmental impact assessment methodologies in Korea. This includes the current investigation of fisheries damaged by ports. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to propose economic valuation methods for assessing environmental impacts that are essential for efficient port environmental management and for sustainable port operation and development in Korea. To do this, this study examines the overall port environmental problems and their effects (damages) through the analysis of environmental policies and case studies of domestic and overseas ports. Then economic valuation methods are suggested for total economic values (TEV) of damaged environmental goods and services. Among the proposed methods, Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA), as a more scientific data based method, was applied to estimate marine ecosystem service damages from the designation of Busan New Port Anchorages. Finally, based on the study results, more efficient port environmental management will be achieved through the institutional adoption of the proposed economic impact assessment methods for port environmental damages.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.681-691
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• 2022

Zostera marina (ZM), a type of seagrass registered as a marine protected species in South Korea, provides valuable ecosystem services to humans, such as improving marine water quality, providing food, spawning grounds and habitats for marine life, and absorbing carbon dioxide. Therefore, the government is seeking to preserve ZM by designating ZM-protected areas. This study examined the public willingness to pay (WTP) for the preservation of ZM using contingent valuation. The one-and-one-half-bounded model was adopted for WTP elicitation, and the single-bounded model was also applied for comparison. The spike model was employed to deal with many zero WTP responses. The household average WTP was estimated as KRW 4,087 per year, securing statistical significance. The national value was KRW 84.1 billion per year. The preservation value of ZM estimated in this study can be used as important data for economic analysis of various projects or policy implementation for its preservation.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.33-39
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• 2019

The upsurge of population, internal migration, economic activities and developmental works has brought significant land use and land cover (LULC) change over the period of 1990 and 2010 in the Bagmati basin of Nepal. Along with alteration on various other ecosystem services like water yield, water quality, soil loss etc. carbon sequestration is also altered. This study thus primary deals with evaluation of LULC change and its impact on the soil carbon storage for the period 1990 to 2010. For the evaluation, InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) Carbon model is used. Residential and several other infrastructural development activities were prevalent on the study period and as a result in 2010 major soil carbon reserve like forest area is decreased by 7.17% of its original coverage in 1990. This decrement has brought about a subsequent decrement of 1.39 million tons of carbon in the basin. Conversion from barren land, water bodies and built up areas to higher carbon reserve like forest and agriculture land has slightly increased soil carbon storage but still, net reduction is higher. Thus, the spatial output of the model in the form of maps is expected to help in decision making for future land use planning and for restoration policies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.43-57
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• 2024

As coastal areas have a distinct nature with the interaction of the lands and waters, they attract people to enjoy and experience the natural environments physically and intellectually; this generates cultural ecosystem services. Coastal beaches are one of the most common coastal areas for cultural ecosystem services. The purpose of this study was to 1) estimate the economic values of cultural ecosystem services derived from coastal beaches, and 2) expand the estimated values into other beaches across the country using a benefit transfer method. We divided the values of cultural ecosystem services into five different categories based on an extensive literature review: recreation and tourism, landscape and aesthetic, educational, heritage, and inspirational values. The values of tourism and recreation, landscape and aesthetic, and educational services were estimated using the choice experiments. The attributes of the choice experiments consisted of conservation funds, litter, water quality, seascape, landscape, and biodiversity, and the data were collected through online surveys with visitors of 11 representative beaches in Korea. Heritage and inspiration services were estimated using a market goods method based on their expenditures. These values were transferred to 257 beaches across the country. Study results can be used for policy decisions on various restoration and conservation projects caused by coastal erosion and development and on the need and extent of public investments.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.47-58
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• 2018

Protected horticultural complexes would increase crop productivity but would adversely affect the groundwater recharge function in the area because the impervious area would increase. Further, they would limit the movement of living beings, affecting biodiversity. Therefore, this study evaluated the groundwater ecosystem services provided by protected horticultural complexes in terms of consistent utilization of water. The estimated amounts of groundwater loss obtained through quantitative assessment of groundwater infiltration showed that a higher impervious area results in higher losses. We, therefore, predict a much higher loss if similar changes in land use are realized on a nationwide scale. A plan to promote groundwater recharge in impervious areas is actively being discussed for urban areas; however, this plan is not yet applicable to farming areas. We consider it is essential to develop groundwater infiltration facilities for horticultural complexes, infiltration trenches, permeable pavements, surface water storage facilities, water purification facilities, etc. Further research and development of groundwater infiltration facilities is important for consistent utilization of water and the improvement of ecosystem services.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.103-114
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• 2004

As most of environmental impacts caused by development projects are irrevocable, a thorough review is utmost necessary. Ecological-economic integrated approach inspired by Norgaard's co-evolution theory should be applied to the environmentally adjusted CBA, which plays a decisive role in the feasibility analysis. Based on case studies of NamHan River Management Project and Yeongsangang Wetland Reclamation Project, this paper attempts to show the usefulness of linking basic plan and implimentation design to EIA and suggests to integrate EACBA into the current EIA system institutionally as a more effective policy tool for realizing sustainable development in Korea.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.341-351
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• 2019

Background: Standing biomass, litter production, rate of litter decomposition, amount of litter on forest floor, and amount of soil organic carbon distribution were investigated from March 2016 to November 2018 in order to evaluate the ecosystem value through organic carbon distribution in the Pinus densiflora forest at Namsan, Seoul Metropolitan City. Results: The amount of organic carbon in the Pinus densiflora forest was 261.09 ton C ha^-1 during the research period, and fixed organic carbon in plant through net photosynthesis was 3.2 ton C ha^-1 year^-1. The organic carbon in plant was 62.77 ton C ha^-1 (24.04%), in litter on the forest floor was 3.65 ton C ha^-1 (1.40%), and in soil was 194.67 ton C ha^-1 (74.56%). The value of plant, litter on forest floor, and soil organic carbon distribution were each 6,277,000 won ha^-1, 365, 000 won ha^-1, and 19,467,000 won ha^-1. The value per ton of fixed organic carbon in plant through net photosynthesis was 320,000 won ha^-1 year^-1 and the value of ecosystem services stored in carbon in the Namsan forest ecosystem was about 26.1 million won ha^-1 for 3 years. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the pine forests of Namsan rapidly decompose leaves due to the high atmospheric temperature and accumulate a large amount of organic carbon in the soil to provide climate control regulatory service function.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.101-111
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• 2018

The Korean government has been trying to conserve a marine ecosystem that has been shifting due to climate change. As part of this effort, the government designated seventy-seven marine species that have been disappearing and deserve to be protected as endangered managing them specially. To generate basic data to guide policy for these endangered species, their value must be measured. OOf the species declared endangered, coral is particularly threatened by climate change, and its management is important. Accordingly, understanding the potential value of reefs, can be an effective way of proving the benefits of continuous management to decision makers and the general public alike. To this end, we have applied the contingent valuation method (CVM), an economic technique of for valuing a environmental and non-market goods such as a coral reef. A national face-to-face survey of 1,000 randomly selected households was conducted in order to determine the public's willingness to pay (WTP) for conserving coral reefs. A one-and-one-half-bound (OOHB) model was adopted to interpret WTP responses, and a spike model was employed to deal with zero WTP responses. The results show that the conservation value of a coral reef can be estimated at 3,016 won per household per year, statistically significant at the 1 % level. Expanding values to the national population gives an annual value of 58.9 billion won. We can conclude that the public is willing to pay a significant amount to conserve coral reefs.