• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.333-343
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• 2024

This study aimed to investigate whether inhaling the aroma of essential oils could alleviate physiological stress responses and mimic the effects of forest therapy in urban settings. Briefly, 31 participants underwent stress index assessments for two days and inhaled the selected plant essential oils. The effects of this treatment on physiological responses were determined through electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements taken before and after inhaling the aroma of essential oils, extracting results for low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) components of HRV, as well as 𝜃 and 𝛼 brainwave activities. The results indicated that lavender oil did not yield significant differences, whereas pine, chamomile, and cypress oils exhibited significant differences in effects. Overall, stress relief was associated with enhanced 𝜃 and 𝛼 brainwave activities, a decrease in the LF component and an increase in the HF component of HRV. Among the essential oils studied, pine oil was the most effective. These findings underscore the potential of plant essential oils in replicating the therapeutic benefits of forest therapy, even in urban environments. Further investigations into their utilization are warranted to better understand and harness their therapeutic potential.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.254-260
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• 2023

A sensor system has been developed that uses an ultrasonic sensor to detect the downhill slope on the side of a forest road and prevents a vehicle-type forest machine from rolling down a mountainside. A specular reflection of ultrasonic wave might cause severe issues in measuring distances to targets. By investigating the installation angle of the sensor to minimize the negative effects of specular reflection, the installation angle of lateral monitoring ultrasonic sensor could be determined based on the width of road shoulder. Obstacles such as small rocks or piece of log in a forest road may cause the forest machine to be overturned while the machine riding over due to excessive its posture change. It was determined that the laser sensor could be a part of a sensor system capable of specifying the location and size of small obstacles. Not only this sensor system including ultrasonic and laser sensors can issue a warning of dangerous sections to drivers in forest forwarders currently in use, but also it can be used as a driving safety sensor in autonomous forest machine or remote-control forest machine in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.502-513
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• 2018

Objectives: Stress hormone (cortisol) can be used to analyze psychological and physiological changes and healing effects before and after in blood and saliva. Here it is applied to scientifically validate the effects of the healthy forest experience in Deogyusan Mountain National Park. Methods: A healthy forest experience program was provided to college students (males and females) at Deogyusan National Park. Stress, hormones (cortisol), blood pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation and stress, anxiety, and depression were measured. This study was designed to objectively analyze the effects of stress hormones before and after. Results: Depression, stress, anxiety, and satisfaction with the forest experience program in Deogyusan National Park were very high in reliability in terms of Cronbach's Alpha: depression scored 0.910, stress 0.558, anxiety 0.934, program satisfaction 0.826, and program effectiveness 0.894. Conclusions: In this study, we utilized the Healthy Forest Experience Program and the 'Health and Medical Center Health Record Book' of the Health Forest Experience Program (Ministry of Environment's Environmental Education Certification Program). In the future, we will seek ways to utilize saliva since it is easier to collect than blood samples and apply the stress hormone cortisol as a saliva authentication program. In addition, by implementing ecological welfare programs in which nature and human beings coexist through systematic preservation and restoration, the national park management can utilize ecological, scenic and cultural services wisely. We expect to be able to provide exploration and welfare services.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.71-80
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• 2013

This study aimed to categorize mountain villages according to business expense investments and investigate residents' supplementation demands and differences between expected effects by the categories. For the study, 35 villages where are completely developed on and after 2007 were selected to consider fairness among local governments. Each village leader(the head of the village or the chairperson of the management committee) was conducted a survey from 2012 May to August and one copy of survey was eliminated from the study. The study is summarized into four results. First, the types of mountain villages were categorized as a type of mountain village practice(18), a type of life environment improvement(8) and a type of forestry income(8) according by the itemized reports of the business expense investments. Second, the result of F-test(One Way ANOVA) for the average analysis by types showed that 3 out of 6 demands for the operation were significant differences and a supplementation necessity of the program was identified significant differences in p<0.01 level. The necessity of forestry resources use and sprawling development prevention are also showed significant differences among types in p<0.05 level. Third, F-test results from 7 questions of desired effects through mountain village creation project revealed that promotion and market security of forestry products and local patriotism instillation through a personal exchange are significant differences between types in p<0.05 level. Forth, the results of duplication benefits(the mountain village development projects and the village support programs with other departments) on the residents' development expectation found that when a village received a large number of projects, residents' expected effects were higher than other village residents where received relatively a small number of projects. However, the expected effects from the increasing quantities of projects were decreased.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.3
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• pp.247-254
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• 2009

In this study, linear programming was applied to a case study in Gwangreung Experimental Forest of Korea Forest Research Institute investigating the effect of the desired future conditions on forest management. Considering the social, economic and ecological demands of people from the forest, the forest functions were classified into four including natural conservation, timber production, water yield and scenic conservation. The forest land areas were divided into four-types of forest functional zones and forest management prescriptions including the desired future conditions by the forest function type were established. The Model II linear programming was used in optimizing the forest management planning. The model includes management policies, as the constraints, for non-declining yield, allowable cutting area, allowable % age class distribution and allowable % species allocation as well as the land and other accounting regimes. Maximization of timber production was used the objective function. Based on the Model II formulations, the effects of the desired future conditions by the forest function type on forest management planning were investigated in terms of timber production, net present value and stand structures over time.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.246-248
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• 2018

Urban development and population have augmented the increase of impervious land-cover. This phenomenon has amplified the effects of climate change and increasing urban island effects due to increases in urban temperatures. Seoul, South Korea is one of the largest metropolitan cities in the world. While land uses in Seoul vary, land cover patterns have not changed much (under 2%) in the past 10 years, making the city a prime target for studying the effects of land cover types on the urban temperature. This research seeks to generalize the urban temperature of Seoul through a series of statistical tests using multi-temporal remote sensing data focusing on multiple scales and typologies of green space to determine its overall effectiveness in reducing the urban heat. The distribution of LST values was reduced as the size of urban forests increased. It means that changing temperature of large-scale green-spaces is less influenced because the broad distribution could be resulted in various external variables such as slope aspect, topographic height and density of planting areas, while small-scale urban forests are more affected from that. The large-scale green spaces contributed significantly to lowering urban temperature by showing a similar mean LST value. Both of concentration and dispersal of urban forests affected the reduction of urban temperature. Therefore, the findings of this research support that creating urban forests in an urban region could reduce urban temperature regardless of the scale.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.81-99
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• 2000

The shelterbelts are very important to conserve and protect the sandy land, vegetation coverage, farmland, livestock and human life in the desertified land. The shelterbelts are constructed by the several row-plantings of high-adaptable species in the desertified land. The shelterbelts have various kind of type, and there are shelterbelts for conservation of farmland in dry the region, the protective shelterbelts (windbreaks for blowing-sand, artificial sanddune fixation by revegetation, and construction of farmland shelterbelts to protect farmland and pasture from wind erosion, etc.) in the semi-dry steppe, shelterbelts around the villages and oasis for sanddune fixation, shelterbelts for protection of railroads, and so on. The shelterbelts consist of main she1terbelts and minor shelterbelts. The main shelterbelts were constructed by being perpendicular to main wind direction, and the minor shelterbelts were constructed by being perpendicular to the main shelterbelts. Generally, the width of shelterbelts is 8~20m, and the number of row-planting is 4~10. The grid sizes of shelterbelts networks are $400{\times}400m$, $300{\times}500m$, $100{\times}200m$, and so on, and there are ventilation type and closing type in the type of shelterbelt. The width, number of row-planting, grid size and type of shelterbelt are selected by the local characteristics. The effects of shelterbelts are mainly the climate improvement and mitigation, such as prevention of occurrence of strong wind, cold wind and blowing-sand. And, the other effects of shelterbelts are effect of reforestation, increase of agricultural productions, establishment of greenbelts and green forests, construction of landscape-eco shelterbelts, improvement of life environment of local villages, supply of fuel wood and agricultural wood, land amelioration, effect of revegetation and restoration of desertified land, and so on. The kinds of the tree species mainly used for the construction of shelterbelts have differences between regions, but main species are Populus euphratica, Populus simonii, Populus bolleana, Populus tomentosa, Salix flavida, Salix mongolica, Tamarix chinensis, Hedysarum scoparium, and so on.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.217-224
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to clarify the effects of the conversion of the forest management type from a natural deciduous broad-leaved forest to an artificial evergreen coniferous forest based on organic matter dynamics. We investigated the amounts and carbon contents of the forest floor and the litterfall, soil chemical characteristics and cellulose decomposition rates in the natural deciduous broad-leaved forest and adjacent artificial evergreen coniferous forest. In the artificial evergreen coniferous forest were planted Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) on the upper slope and Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) on the lower slope. The soil carbon and nitrogen contents, CEC and microbial activity had decreased due to the conversion of the forest management type from a natural deciduous broad-leaved forest to an artificial Japanese cypress forest, and were almost the same for the conversion to a Japanese cedar forest. Under the same conditions, it is considered that the soil fertility was different by planting specific tree species because the organic matter dynamics were changed by them.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.83 no.1
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• pp.38-49
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• 1994

To investigate the effects of national forest management on the regional community, the inter-relationship between the local communities and neighbouring forest owned by the state was surveyed in the three locations, namely pyungchang-gun, Bonghwa-gun, and Kwangyang-gun, which have a large area of national forest. The effect of national forest management on the local community was different depending upon the relationship between the local community and the national forest, the resource base and infrastructure and facilities installed within the national forest. The major contribution of the national forest to regional society is the provision of land resources, forest products, employment opportunities, and social functions of forest. The supply of land resource from the national forest has been increasing steadily due to the increase in demand for public facilities. About one quarter of household income in the forest villages surveyed came out of the sales of forest products, mainly non-timber products. Due to the low level of forest operations for timber production, there are very limited opportunities of employment provided by the national forest. And the use of forest roads by local residents was also to a limited extent. Therefore, it is suggested that the national frosts should be managed such that help to revive the economy of local communities which are disadvantaged in the national investment priority due to the low economic returns.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.88 no.4
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• pp.446-453
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• 1999

In this study, the effects of stand planting density on parameters of stand height and basal area growth models were investigated. We used the Korf equation as the base model in estimating the parameters of the growth models for cryptomeria plantation forest stands. Then, in order to investigate the effects of the change in plantation density on the parameter estimates, the "extra sums of square" principle, which provided a reasonable statistical procedure for a performance test, was used. The results of the test coincide with the understandings that stand height growth is not affected significantly by the planting density and the growth curves of stand basal area approaches a common asymptote regardless of the stand density for a given site. However, the shapes of the basal area growth curves were affected significantly by the planting density. Based on the results of the test, we developed a basal area growth model to account for the effects of initial planting density in cryptomeria plantation forest stands.