• Title/Summary/Keyword: Forest Resource

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Habitat use and preferences of the least weasel (Mustela nivalis) in South Korea

  • Areum Kim;Donggul Woo;Je Min Lee;Jinhwi Kim;Anya Lim
    • Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.47 no.4
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    • pp.193-199
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    • 2023
  • Background: The least weasel (Mustela nivalis) holds the distinction of being the world's smallest carnivorous animal, yet its presence in South Korea has remained poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, this study investigates the habitat preferences and distribution of the least weasel in South Korea. Results: Our study compiled presence data from various sources, including citizen reports, national surveys, and expert observations. The results confirmed the nationwide presence of the least weasel in mainland South Korea, with notable concentration regions such as Gangwon province. Among the various habitats, forest edges and forests emerged as the predominant choice, with over half of the documented locations situated within these environments, particularly in broadleaf forests. Additionally, the data reveal a year-round presence of the least weasel, with recorded cases occurring at varying levels throughout the year. Conclusions: Our research advances the understanding of least weasels in South Korea. Despite the relatively modest dataset, our results provide as a valuable resource for future conservation initiatives, emphasizing the significance of forested landscapes. Additionally, it assists in identifying priority areas for protection and management efforts. To secure the future of the least weasel in South Korea and beyond, further research, including long-term monitoring and genetic studies, is imperative.

Solution to promote the Circular Economy in Agriculture in Vietnam for Sustainable Development

  • Thi Huyen Tran;Hoang Tuan Nguyen;Quoc Cuong Nguyen
    • International journal of advanced smart convergence
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.276-283
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    • 2024
  • Currently, the overall tendency for green and sustainable economic development is creating a circular economy. In actuality, agricultural output is currently benefiting greatly from the growth of the circular economy. The creation of a circular economy helps address resource scarcity, save the environment, combat climate change, and increase economic efficiency. Vietnam's economy can grow quickly and sustainably by shifting to a circular economy production model. Comparing prior growth techniques to the digital age and implementing circular economic development connected with high technology will be a fantastic opportunity to boost growth efficiency. In actuality, Vietnam currently has a large number of agricultural circular economy models. These are models: Creating and using gas from waste and wastewater in livestock and farming; model combining cultivation, livestock, and aquaculture; agro-forestry model; garden-forest model; Circular model using agricultural by-products as a catalyst or creating other valuable products; model of moderation, linked to reducing the use of growth hormones, veterinary medications, pesticides, and artificial fertilizers in agriculture and animal husbandry. Unfortunately, there have been few studies and applications of the aforementioned models, which has made it difficult to build the agricultural sector sustainably. In this paper, we outline the current situation and propose solutions to develop a circular economy model in agriculture in Vietnam for sustainable development.

The Royal and Sajik Tree of Joseon Dynasty, the Culturo-social Forestry, and Cultural Sustainability (근세조선의 왕목-사직수, 문화사회적 임업, 그리고 문화적 지속가능성)

  • Yi, Cheong-Ho;Chun, Young Woo
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.98 no.1
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    • pp.66-81
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    • 2009
  • From a new perspective of "humans and the culture of forming and conserving the environment", the sustainable forest management can be reformulated under the concept of "cultural sustainability". Cultural sustainability is based on the emphasis of the high contribution to sustainability of the culture of forming and conserving the environment. This study extracts the implications to cultural sustainability for the modern world by investigating a historical case of the culturo-social pine forestry in the Joseon period of Korea. In the legendary and recorded acts by the first king Taejo, Seonggye Yi, Korean red pine (Pinus densiflora) was the "Royal tree" of Joseon and also the "Sajik tree" related intimately with the Great Sajik Ritual valued as the top rank within the national ritual regime that sustained the Royal Virtue Politics in Confucian political ideology. Into the Neo-Confucian faith and royal rituals of Joseon, elements of geomancy (Feng shui), folk religion, and Buddhism had been amalgamated. The deities worshipped or revered at the Sajik shrine were Earth-god (Sa) and crop-god (Jik). And it is the Earth god and the concrete entity, Sajik tree, that contains the legacy of sylvan religion descended from the ancient times and had been incorporated into the Confucian faith and ritual regime. Korean red pine as the Royal-Sajik tree played a critical role of sustaining the religio-political justification for the rule of the Joseon's Royalty. The religio-political symbolism of Korean red pine was represented in diverse ways. The same pine was used as the timber material of shrine buildings established for the national rituals under Neo-Confucian faith by the royal court of Joseon kingdom before the modern Korea. The symbolic role of pine had also been expressed in the forms of royal tomb forests, the Imposition Forest (Bongsan) for royal coffin timber (Whangjangmok), and the creation, protection, conservation and bureaucratic management of the pine forests in the Inner-four and Outer-four mountains for the capital fortress at Seoul, where the king and his family inhabit. The religio-political management system of pine forests parallels well with the kingdom's economic forest management system, called "Pine Policy", with an array of pine cultivation forests and Prohibition Forests (Geumsan) in the earlier period, and that of Imposition Forests in the later period. The royal pine culture with the economic forest management system had influenced on the public consciousness and the common people seem to have coined Malrimgat, a pure Korean word that is interchangeable with the Chinesecharacter words of prohibition-cultivation land or forest (禁養地, 禁養林) practiced in the royal tomb forests, and Prohibition and Imposition Forests, which contained prohibition landmarks (Geumpyo) made of stone and rock on the boundaries. A culturo-social forestry, in which Sajik altar, royal tomb forests, Whangjang pine Prohibition and Imposition forests and the capital Inner-four and Outer-four mountain forests consist, was being put into practice in Joseon. In Joseon dynastry, the Neo-Confucian faith and royal rituals with geomancy, folk religion, and Buddhism incorporated has also played a critical humanistic role for the culturo-social pine forestry, the one higher in values than that of the economic pine forestry. The implications have been extracted from the historical case study on the Royal-Sajik tree and culturo-social forestry of Joseon : Cultural sustainability, in which the interaction between humans and environment maintains a long-term culturo-natural equilibrium or balance for many generations, emphasizes the importance that the modern humans who form and conserve environment need to rediscover and transform their culturo-natural legacy into conservation for many generations and produce knowledge of sustainability science, the transdisciplinary knowledge for the interaction between environment and humans, which fulfills the cultural, social and spiritual needs.

Detection of Irrigation Timing and the Mapping of Paddy Cover in Korea Using MODIS Images Data (MODIS 영상자료를 이용한 관개시기 탐지와 논 피복지도 제작)

  • Jeong, Seung-Taek;Jang, Keun-Chang;Hong, Seok-Yeong;Kang, Sin-Kyu
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.69-78
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    • 2011
  • Rice is one of the world's staple foods. Paddy rice fields have unique biophysical characteristics that the rice is grown on flooded soils unlike other crops. Information on the spatial distribution of paddy fields and the timing of irrigation are of importance to determine hydrological balance and efficiency of water resource management. In this paper, we detected the timing of irrigation and spatial distribution of paddy fields using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor onboard the NASA EOS Aqua satellite. The timing of irrigation was detected by the combined use of MODIS-based vegetation index and Land Surface Water Index (LSWI). The detected timing of irrigation showed good agreement with field observations from two flux sites in Korea and Japan. Based on the irrigation detection, a land cover map of paddy fields was generated with subsidiary information on seasonal patterns of MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI). When the MODISbased paddy field map was compared with a land cover map from the Ministry of Environment, Korea, it overestimated the regions with large paddies but underestimated those with small and fragmented paddies. Potential reasons for such spatial discrepancies may be attributed to coarse pixel resolution (500 m) of MODIS images, uncertainty in parameterization of threshold values for discarding forest and water pixels, and the application of LSWI threshold value developed for paddy fields in China. Nevertheless, this study showed that an improved utilization of seasonal patterns of MODIS vegetation and water-related indices could be applied in water resource management and enhanced estimation of evapotranspiration from paddy fields.

Growth Environment Characteristics and Decline in Mt. Seunghak's Miscanthus sinensis Community (승학산 참억새군락의 생육환경 특성 및 쇠퇴에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Seul-Gi;Choi, Song-Hyun;Hong, Suk-Hwan;Lee, Sang-Cheol;Yu, Chan-Yeol
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.45 no.5
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    • pp.14-28
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    • 2017
  • Mt. Seunghak's Miscanthus sinensis community is not only a landscape resource in terms of cultural services within the Ecosystem Services but also a site that is visited by many mountaineers in autumn. As the current Miscanthus sinensis community has been experiencing a rapid decline due to Korean forest succession characteristics, ongoing artificial management is thought to be needed for landscape resource use. The purpose of this study was to determine growth environment characteristics and the cause of the rapid decline of the Miscanthus sinensis community in Mt. Seunghak, which is located inside a large city with a large scale and outstanding accessibility. As the Miscanthus sinensis community is the representative early vegetation that appears temporarily in dry, barren soil, the Miscanthus sinensis community in Korean forest succession tends to be unsustainable. As the current soil on Mt. Seunghak is inappropriately fertile for the Miscanthus sinensis community, other wetland woody plant communities are anticipated to succeed it. If Miscanthus sinensis community maintenance is needed for Miscanthus sinensis landscape scenery, various alternatives apart from overall Miscanthus sinensis community maintenance should be determined for cost-effective management. For example, while many byways toward the inside of the Miscanthus sinensis community have affected the Miscanthus sinensis community growth environment, the installation of wooden fences and ropes has been a control in approach. As a result of this positive effect, many byways toward the inside of Miscanthus sinensis community have been restored naturally. Through viewable range analysis, as good scenery sites on the observatory have a good viewable range on the main trail as well, if these scenery sites are intensively managed, effective Miscanthus sinensis ccommunity management will be done despite maintenance budget cutbacks. This study is expected to be used as a basic material regarding the alternatives for a sustained Miscanthus sinensis community and the possibility of cultivating other growth in poor soils of fallow fields and unused land.

A Study on Proposal of Landscape Management Improvement on the Quantitative Analysis of National Parks (국립공원(國立公園) 자연경관(自然景觀)의 계량적(計量的) 분석(分析)을 통(通)한 경관관리(景觀管理) 개선방안(改善方案)에 관(關)한 연구)

  • Kim, Sei Cheon
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.80 no.1
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    • pp.32-41
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    • 1991
  • This study is focusted to the national park of Korean typical mountain Chi-ri, its visual resources of forests, and practiced inspectind course by way of hypothesis and tests, to show visual resource management objectively, and that of quantitative basic data. spatial image structure measured by Semantic Differential(S.D.) Scale was shown through factor analysis algorithm for the analyzing psychological amount and examined the flowing out of decisive factor and the objective importance related mutual factors by appling the measurement of visual quality. Also, it has been investigated the differences between the degrees of expectation which is used before and of satisfaction which is used, by appling instrumental expectation theory. And showed patterns of investigation area through factor analyzing algorithm. As a national Park, visual factors that have natural landscape harmonized forest, sky, surface of the water, curious stones and rocks, temples should be escalate their values affirmatively so as to be the scenery of pointed direction and enjoyable, and it is needs the techniques visual resource management and its controlling technique to make artificial structures more intentional planning and systemical setting. Manmade distinctive quality in the spatials that affect complementally or harmonizingly, should be received considering relations between the distifution and joining which in line with various visual presenting massive factors. More than that, it is needed united basic standard to the beauty of arrangements which contain visual continuity considered balance between nature and human work, simplicity of structural types, assimilation, emphasis, unification of different factors and pro rata.

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An Analysis of Ecological Footprint of Yong-in City (용인시 생태발자국 지수의 분석과 고찰 - 음식, 건조환경, 산림, 에너지 부문을 중심으로 -)

  • Park, Ji Young;Kim, Jin-Oh
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.44 no.2
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    • pp.1-10
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    • 2016
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze the change of environmental capacity in Yong-in City, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea through calculation of ecological footprint indices and analysis of their changes, and to suggest implications for urban development and planning. In this study, we analyzed ecological footprints of 1993, 2003, and 2013 to understand the patterns of land use changes and development in Yong-in City. We also compared the GIS land cover maps and ecological footprint indices to figure out land cover changes associated with resource consumption in Yong-in City. As a result, we found the following three lessons. First, the ecological footprint indices of Yong-in City are 3.20(gha) in 1993, 6.50(gha) in 2003, and 11.15(gha) in 2013. This implies that the ecological footprint of Yong-in City is much larger than 1.80(gha), the globally required ecological footprint per capita and 3.56(gha), the average ecological footprint of South Korea. Second, the forest ecological footprint of Yong-in City was calculated as the largest, followed by the ecological footprints of energy, food, and built environment. In particular, the forest ecological footprint was the most rapidly increased from 0.002(gha) in 1993 to 7.32(gha) in 2013, followed by energy ecological footprint from 0.87(gha) to 2.38(gha). This implies that the provision and consumption of timber are seriously unbalanced, and energy consumption is unsustainable because of the rapid increase of residential and commercial land development in the city. Third, our analysis of the rapid increase of forest ecological footprint indicates that the disturbed forest areas are concentrated in the increased built environment areas. We also observed that the increase of energy ecological footprint indices was caused largely by the increase of the commercial and road areas. This implies that Yong-in City should minimize forest disturbance and expand green areas for future in the city. In addition, this may provide a reasonable ground that the city should reduce the use of fossil fuels and facilitate the use of renewable energy.

A Study on the Conservation and Management of the Village Forest in Gyeonggi-do (경기도 마을숲의 보전 및 관리에 관한 연구)

  • Hwang, Dong-Kyu;Kim, Dong-Yeob
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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    • v.33 no.4
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    • pp.99-111
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    • 2015
  • The objectives of this study were to investigate the location, shape, environment, and vegetation of the Village Forest in Gyeonggi-do and to evaluate the ecological integration and changes of the Village Forests to figure out the measures for conservation and management. There were 23 Village Forests remain in Gyeonggi-do. Ten Village Forests were established based on Feng-shui background. Many of them were found in Yongin area and southeast of Icheon. The Village Forests were owned by local community at 9 village and privately owned at 8 villages. Most Village Forests were managed by local communities except for the two managed by private person. Fifty-two percent of the Village Forests were in strip shape, and most of them were established by Feng-shui background or for the prevention of disasters. The average size of the Village Forests was relatively small at 3,046m2. The most frequent tree species found at the Village Forest were Zelkova serrata and Pinus densiflora. Over half of the number of Village Forests showed vertical structure of overstory trees only or overstory-sub overstory combination, which seemed to be resulted from the loss of understory plants by the activities of local residents. The Village Forests that had over 30% of damaged trees were found at 7 villages. The damages were caused by the road construction close to the groves, soil compaction, and tree death by covering lower stem with soil. The vitality of the damaged trees seemed to be significantly low compared to that of the undamaged. There were factors that determined the changes in the Village Forests: community ritual, institutional protection, designation as a water resource protection district, road construction, land use change, windstorm hazards, and development of forest areas. In order to conserve and manage the Village Forests appropriately, it is necessary to limit excessive use of the grove areas and maintain proper tree growing conditions by improving the soil environment. The development of neighborhood areas need to be controlled and community activities should be encouraged to maintain or restore the original landscape of the groves. Protection measures and supporting policies need to be enforced to keep the Village Forests from disappearing in near future.

Characterizing the Spatial Distribution of Oak Wilt Disease Using Remote Sensing Data (원격탐사자료를 이용한 참나무시들음병 피해목의 공간분포특성 분석)

  • Cha, Sungeun;Lee, Woo-Kyun;Kim, Moonil;Lee, Sle-Gee;Jo, Hyun-Woo;Choi, Won-Il
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.106 no.3
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    • pp.310-319
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    • 2017
  • This study categorized the damaged trees by Supervised Classification using time-series-aerial photographs of Bukhan, Cheonggae and Suri mountains because oak wilt disease seemed to be concentrated in the metropolitan regions. In order to analyze the spatial characteristics of the damaged areas, the geographical characteristics such as elevation and slope were statistically analyzed to confirm their strong correlation. Based on the results from the statistical analysis of Moran's I, we have retrieved the following: (i) the value of Moran's I in Bukhan mountain is estimated to be 0.25, 0.32, and 0.24 in 2009, 2010 and 2012, respectively. (ii) the value of Moran's I in Cheonggye mountain estimated to be 0.26, 0.32 and 0.22 in 2010, 2012 and 2014, respectively and (iii) the value of Moran's I in Suri mountain estimated to be 0.42 and 0.42 in 2012 and 2014. respectively. These numbers suggest that the damaged trees are distributed in clusters. In addition, we conducted hotspot analysis to identify how the damaged tree clusters shift over time and we were able to verify that hotspots move in time series. According to our research outcome from the analysis of the entire hotspot areas (z-score>1.65), there were 80 percent probability of oak wilt disease occurring in the broadleaf or mixed-stand forests with elevation of 200~400 m and slope of 20~40 degrees. This result indicates that oak wilt disease hotspots can occur or shift into areas with the above geographical features or forest conditions. Therefore, this research outcome can be used as a basic resource when predicting the oak wilt disease spread-patterns, and it can also prevent disease and insect pest related harms to assist the policy makers to better implement the necessary solutions.

Seed Rain, Seedling Emergence and Mortality of Fraxinus rhynchophylla in Natural Broad-leaved Forests in the Mt. Gariwang Area, Gangwon-do (강원도 가리왕산 지역 천연 활엽수림에서 물푸레나무(Fraxinus rhynchophylla)의 천연하종과 치수 발생 및 고사 특성)

  • You Lim Jang;Jong Bin Jung;Hyun Jung Kim;Jongwoo Kim;Kyu-Suk Kang;Kwang Hyun Nam;Pil Sun Park
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.112 no.3
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    • pp.280-289
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    • 2023
  • Diverse native tree species are distributed in Korean forests; however, information on their regeneration strategies is limited. This study analyzed seed rain from 2011 to 2013, seedling emergence, seedling survival, lifespan distribution, and the relationship between seedling mortality and herbaceous vegetation for 3 years, from 2012 to 2014, to understand the natural regeneration and early survival characteristics of Fraxinus rhynchophylla Hance in natural broad-leaved forests. Seed rain and emerged seedling density significantly differed among the years (p < .05). An increase in seed rain was followed by an increase in seedling emergence in the following year. Seed rain in 2013 and seedling emergence in 2014 showed a significant correlation (p < .05), confirming the trait of F. rhynchophylla seeds that germinate in the following year after seed production. Seedlings emerged in late spring and early summer. Of the seedlings, 78% emerged in the early summer of 2014. Most seedlings died immediately after emergence. Of the seedlings that emerged in August 2012, 56% died within 2 months, and 38% of those that emerged in July 2014 died within 1 month. Shade and competition against ground vegetation chiefly affected the seedling survival of F. rhynchophylla. Fraxinus rhynchophylla showed mast seeding, with a large number of seed production in a particular year. A surge of seedling emergence followed in the early summer of the next year. However, most seedlings died in the same year of emergence. Fraxinus rhynchophylla has a high seedling mortality, but mast seeding and the resulting high seedling emergence produce a few survived seedlings, enabling the continuation of the F. rhynchophylla population. Efforts and research on the natural regeneration of native tree species are required to effectively manage natural forests in Korea.