• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.149-162
• /
• 2012

Habitat loss and fragmentation are ongoing major anthropogenic impacts on landscapes, which can strongly affect ecosystems, populations and species. The studies on forest fragmentation have been progressed, but the studies on definition of forest fragmentation and their synthetic trend in South Korea still leaves much to be desired. Therefore we set the definition of forest fragmentation and reviewed the related papers. We can give a definition that forest fragmentation is not only a process of spatial landscape transformation, but also a process of ecosystem change by it. The trend of studies on forest fragmentation divided into two fields, landscape and ecosystem changes. Forest fragmentation caused by land change altered the composition and configuration of forest patches. Most studies related on that analyzed the change using landscape index. The effects of forest fragmentation on ecosystem subdivided into three fields : biodiversity, edge effects, and invasive species, but the studies in South Korea is short. The study on relations between forest fragmentation and ecosystem change is necessary to face the Convention on Biological Diversity in South Korea. In addition, the fundamental studies on biodiversity is important to mitigate against forest fragmentation.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.281-294
• /
• 2017

Tropical forests constitute almost half of the global forest cover, account for 35% of the global net primary productivity and thereby have potential to contribute substantially to sequester atmospheric $CO_2$ and offset climate change impact. However, deforestation and degradation lead by unsustainable management of tropical forests contribute to the unprecedented species losses and limit ecosystem services including carbon sequestration. Sustainable forest management (SFM) in the tropics may tackle and rectify such deleterious impacts of anthropogenic disturbances and climatic changes. However, the existing dilemma on the definition of SFM and lack of understanding of how tropical forest sustainability can be achieved lead to increasing debate on whether climate change mitigation initiatives would be successful. We reviewed the available literature with a view to clarify the concept of sustainability and provide with a framework towards the sustainability of tropical forests for enhanced carbon stock and climate change mitigation. We argue that along with securing forest tenure and thereby reducing deforestation, application of reduced impact logging (RIL) and appropriate silvicultural system can enhance tropical forest carbon stock and help mitigate climate change.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.240-250
• /
• 1998

This study is to have attempted to analyze the characteristics of the change in forest landscape pattern of Seoul for 18 years by grasping it through satellite image data on the forest area in Seoul where a rapid change according urbanization and industrialization is going on. On the basis of Landsat MSS data- satellite image data, this writer analyzed the change in the number and size of patch and the mean edge length of each forest land, and the index of patch shape by each year from a landscape -ecological point of view. The results are as follows; First, in the pattern change of the forest patch of Seoul, the highest patch fragmentation area is the forest of the Yangchon-gu district where is decreasing it forest area by 654ha, 511ha, 495ha, 402ha each year from its total size of 742ha in 1979. Second, the change tendency shows that the average forest size decreased at 552.58ha in 1983, 435.03ha in 1988, 396.23ha in 1992, and 379.96ha in 1996. And analysis showed that even in the number of patches, the forest fragmentation phenomenon was presenting by the increase of development disturbance. Third, the mean edge by year was longest at 23,385m in 1979, but it is decreasing continuously. This shows the regular and artificial uniformity of forest landscape by disturbance-effect increase of the built-up development and shows low portion against edge effect by the time-series change like 1979>1983>198>1992>1996. Finally, in the analysis of a shape index indicated by ratio of size and edge, total averages were 2.56, 2.33, 2.17, 2.14, 2.14 each year, so that it is considered that the disturbance and ecological health status against forest landscape can be grasped according to being examined as 1979>1983>1988>1992, 1996 by the time-series change of the landscape.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.104 no.2
• /
• pp.239-247
• /
• 2015

Since 2006, new national forest inventory in Korea has been restructured to assess current status and and monitor the changes in forest resources based on permanent sample plots. The objective of estimate this study is to assess changes in forest resources such as land use/cover categories and forest stand variables. For this study, permanent plot data were collected between 2006-2008 and 2011-2013 in Chungcheongbuk-do, respectively. In order to produce land use/cover change matrix which plays an important role as an activity data for estimating GreenHouse Gas inventory, permanent plots were classified into six land use/cover categories. Additionally, matrixes for assessing the changes in age class and dominant tree species can provide more detailed information. For forest stand variables(tree density, basal area, growing stock, mean diameter at breath height, and mean height), their growth and change were assessed. The periodic annual growth ratios for tree density and basal area were slightly declined whereas that of growing stock was estimated to be about 3.7%. The uncertainty of changes in forest stand variables is less than 5%, except for tree density (RSE: 58%). The variation of tree density is relatively high compared to the other variables.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.111 no.4
• /
• pp.461-472
• /
• 2022

Natural and anthropogenic factors cause forest types to continuously change. Since the ratio of forest area by forest type is important information for identifying the characteristics of national forest resources, an accurate understanding of the prospect of forest type change is required. The study aim was to use National Forest Inventory (NFI) time-series data to understand the characteristics of forest type change and to estimate future prospects of nationwide forest type change. We used forest type change information from the fifth and seventh NFI datasets, climate, topography, forest stand, and disturbance variables related to forest type change to analyze trends and characteristics of forest type change. The results showed that the forests in Korea are changing in the direction of decreasing coniferous forests and increasing mixed and broadleaf forests. The forest sites that were changing from coniferous to mixed forests or from mixed to broadleaf forests were mainly located in wet topographic environments and climatic conditions. The forest type changes occurred more frequently in sites with high disturbance potential (high temperature, young or sparse forest stands, and non-forest areas). We used a climate change scenario (RCP 8.5) to establish a forest type change model (SVM) to predict future changes. During the 40-year period from 2015 to 2055, the SVM predicted that coniferous forests will decrease from 38.1% to 28.5%, broadleaf forests will increase from 34.2% to 38.8%, and mixed forests will increase from 27.7% to 32.7%. These results can be used as basic data for establishing future forest management strategies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.108 no.1
• /
• pp.10-20
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to identify the long-term area changes in the subalpine coniferous forests in Korea in order to understand the changes in the subalpine forest ecosystems vulnerable to climate change. We analyzed 20 years of time-series Landsat satellite images (mid 1990s, mid 2010s) for change detection of coniferous forests and compared with the long term changes of climate information to identify their relationship in the study area. As a result, the area of coniferous forests in the study region decreased by 25% over 20 years. The regions with largest changes are Seoraksan, Baegunsan-Hambaeksan-Jangsan, Jirisan, and Hallasan. The region with the largest decrease in area was Baegunsan (reduced area: 542 ha), and the region with large decrease in area and the largest rate of decrease was Hallasan (rate of decrease: 33.3%). As the Jeju region has the most rapid temperature rise, it is projected that Hallasan is the most vulnerable forest ecosystem affected by climate change. The result of this study shows that from a long-term perspective the overall coniferous forests in the subalpine region are declining, but the trend varies in each region. This national and long-term information on the change of coniferous forests in the subalpine region can be utilized as baseline data for the detailed survey of endangered subalpine coniferous trees in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.573-581
• /
• 2010

Natural ecosystem is an essential part to connect with the plan for biodiversity conservation in response strategy against climate change. For connecting biodiversity conservation with climate change strategy, Europe, America, Japan, and China are making an effort to discuss protection necessity through national biodiversity valuation but precedent studies lack in Korea. In this study, we made biodiversity maps representing biodiversity distribution range using species richness in National Forest Inventory (NFI) and Forest Description data. Using regression tree algorithm, we divided various classes by decision rule and constructed biodiversity maps, which has accuracy level of over 70%. Therefore, the biodiversity maps produced in this study can be used as base information for decision makers and plan for conservation of biodiversity & continuous management. Furthermore, this study can suggest a strategy for increasing efficiency of forest information in national level.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.137-142
• /
• 2016

To achieve large-scale carbon removals, a carbon offset project based on forest management was designed and its carbon stock change was estimated in this study. The project was designed for 874 hectares of forests in the Jin-An Leading Forest Management Zone. For estimating the carbon stock change of the project, the Korean Forest Carbon Standard and VCS (Verified Carbon Standard) methodologies were applied. Three types of management options were considered in the project : extension of rotation age, conversion to productive forests, and conversion to selective harvesting. The estimated carbon removals from the project designed in this study were $259,936tCO_2$ ($8,664tCO_2$ annually), which is 98% of estimated carbon removals from the entire 69 projects currently registered to the Forest Carbon Offset Registry in Korea. The results of this study showed that a large-scale carbon offset project based on forest management could have a huge potential to produce carbon offset credits.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.117-125
• /
• 2010

Korea's researchers have recently studied the prediction of forest change, but they have not considered landuse/cover change compared to distribution of forest vegetation. The purpose of our study is to predict forest vegetation based on landuse/cover change on the Korean Peninsula in the 2090's. The methods of this study were Multi-layer perceptrom neural network for Landuse/cover (water, urban, barren, wetland, grass, forest, agriculture) change and Multinomial Logit Model for distribution prediction for forest vegetation (Pinus densiflora, Quercus Spp., Alpine Plants, Evergreen Broad-Leaved Plants). The classification accuracy of landuse/cover change on the Korean Peninsula was 71.3%. Urban areas expanded with large cities as the central, but forest and agriculture area contracted by 6%. The distribution model of forest vegetation has 63.6% prediction accuracy. Pinus densiflora and evergreen broad-leaved plants increased but Quercus Spp. and alpine plants decreased from the model. Finally, the results of forest vegetation based on landuse/cover change increased Pinus densiflora to 38.9% and evergreen broad-leaved plants to 70% when it is compared to the current climate. But Quercus Spp. decreased 10.2% and alpine plants disappeared almost completely for most of the Korean Peninsula. These results were difficult to make a distinction between the increase of Pinus densiflora and the decrease of Quercus Spp. because of they both inhabit a similar environment on the Korean Peninsula.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.167-179
• /
• 2023

The extent of change in the Land use/Land cover (LULC) of Okomu National Park (ONP) and fringe communities was evaluated. High resolution Landsat imagery was used to identify the major vegetation cover/land use systems and changes around the national park and fringe communities while field visits/ground truthing, involving the collection of coordinates of the locations was carried out to ascertain the various land cover/land use types identified on the images, and the extent of change over three-time series (2000, 2010 and 2020). The change detection was analyzed using area calculation, change detection by nature and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The result of the classification and analysis of the LULC Change of ONP and fringe communities revealed an alarming rate of encroachment into the protected area. All the classification features analyzed had notable changes from 2000-2020. The forest, which was the dominant LULC feature in 2000, covering about 66.19% of the area reduced drastically to 36.12% in 2020. Agricultural land increased from 6.14% in 2000 to 34.06% in 2020 while vegetation (degraded land) increased from 27.18% in 2000 to 38.89% in 2020. The magnitude of the change in ONP and surroundings showed the forest lost -247.136 km² (50.01%) to other land cover classes with annual rate change of 10%, implying that 10% of forest land was lost annually in the area for 20 years. The NDVI classification values of 2020 indicate that the increase in medium (399.62 km² ) and secondary high (210.17 km² ) vegetation classes which drastically reduced the size of the high (38.07 km² ) vegetation class. Consequent disappearance of the high forests of Okomu is inevitable if this trend of exploitation is not checked. It is pertinent to explore other forest management strategies involving community participation.