• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.654-676
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• 2012

This study aims to develop an ecoregion classification using a multi-hierarchy of environmental factors for spatial patterns in the capacities and potentials of ecological systems in mountain regions. To achieve the objectives, we describe the spatial distribution of environmental factors and identify the multi-hierarchy of these factors using spatial statistics. Lastly, we assess ecosystem-units using both a forest type map (yung & kung) and a forest soil map in order to present a ecoregion classification. This study was performed at a $1,168km^2$ area in Gangwon-do, Korea. Sedimentary rocks, particularly limestone (36.6%) exist in high proportions in the research area. While higher mountains are present in the north and central Korean peninsula, plain areas show large proportions along Odae and Pyeongchang river. In a multi-hierarchy, geology and elevation are identified as upper levels and landform classification (surface curvature, upslope area) is considered as a lower level. 'Geology+elevation+landform' shows equally higher ${\chi}^2$ values than that of other classifications and we map ecoregions based on this result. Uniqueness of environmental characteristics in the research area such as high proportions of sedimentary rocks and higher elevations influences our ecoregion classification. We are looking forward to considering this study as an effective approach to integrating various ecological themes for mountain ecosystem management.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.48-54
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• 2024

This study conducted a survey from April 2021 to December 2022 to investigate habitat factors affecting bird diversity in the region between Cheonwangbong Peak and Aghwibong in Baekdudaegan protected area, South Korea. Since the region has a spatial scale of 736.4 km² and is an area where a wide variety of habitats are mixed, we selected 20 survey areas of 3 km x 3 km by analysis of habitat homogeneity. As a result of analyzing the relationship between habitat environment and bird diversity in the survey area, it was found that the diversity of bird communities was directly or indirectly related to the diversity of terrestrial insects, slope, average habitat area, mean size of patches, elevation, and forest type, and distance from agricultural land. The slope of habitat, forest type, and distance from agricultural land affect the occurrence of food sources directly and indirectly, and the average area of habitats and forest type is closely related to the structural diversity of habitats. Therefore, it is determined that the diversity of bird communities is affected by the amount of food generated within the habitat and the diversity of habitats. It is determined that the relationship between bird communities and habitat environments in this surveyed region can be basic ecological data for establishing forest management measures to promote the diversity of bird communities.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.109-126
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• 2015

This study is for constructing detailed data to secure biological diversity and maintain a healthy ecosystem in Backsasil Valley Ecological and Scenery Conservation Area, and for preparing an ecological management plan fit for the protected area. The period for this study was from April 2010 to May 2013. Recently, the increase of visitors to Baeksasil Valley, as well as the plantation and dissemination of introduced vegetable species, become factors accelerating ecological disturbance. Major research contents included the reviews of the management system of the protected areas, the necessity of ecological management at the basin level, establishing the system of a management plan, research and analysis of environment ecology, analysis of threatening factors, goal-setting, management strategies, and a plan through SWOT analysis. Survey items were the natural environment, major components of ecosystem, and human-use. The goals of ecological management were basin zone management for amphibians, conservation and restoration of forest vegetation for conservation habitat of Dryocopus martius, conservation habitat of Zelkova serrta for nature landscape, and management of users for environment protection. The conservation management plan at a basin zone level contains the management of point and non-point pollution sources in the upstream, securing growing conditions for native plants, securing safe habitats for amphibians, and securing of habitats for major wild birds. Also, restoration of natural forests, management of native plants and introduced vegetable species, and restoration of degraded forest paths are suggested for the restoration plans.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.77-87
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• 2019

The first grade zones in Ecology and Nature Map are important regions for the conservation of the ecosystem, but it would be degraded by various anthropogenic factors. This study analyzes the relationship between potential land cover change and degradation of the first grade zones using land cover transition probability. As a result, it was shown that most of the first grade zones with degraded were converted from forest to urban(5.1%), cropland(27.2%), barren(11.0%) and grass(27.5%) in Gangwon and forest to urban(18.0%), cropland(15.3%), grass(28.4%), barren(12.3%) in Gyeonggi. The result of the logistic regression analysis showed that the probability of degradation of first grade zone was higher in area where was expected the higher probability of urban, cropland, barren, grass transition. The barren transition probability was the most influential and grass was the next highest. There were regional differences in the probability of urban transition and cropland transition, and the urban transition probability was more influential in Gyeonggi-do. This is because development pressure such as housing site development is high in Gyeonggi-do. Due to the limitations of the Act on Mountain Districts Management, even in the first grade zones, the grade may be degraded. Therefore, if Ecology and Nature Map are used to prevent deforestation or conversion of mountainous districts, it may contribute to the preservation of the ecosystem.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.149-149
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• 2019

Gross Primary production (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) are the two critical components of carbon and water cycle respectively, linking the terrestrial surface and ecosystem with the atmosphere. The ratio between GPP to ET is called ecosystem water use efficiency (EWUE) and its quantification at the forest site helps to understand the impact of climate change due to large scale anthropogenic activities such as deforestation and irrigation. This study was conducted at the FLUXNET forest site CN-Qia (2003-2005) using Community land model (CLM 5.0). We simulated carbon and water fluxes including GPP, ecosystem respiration (ER), and ET using climatic variables as forcing dataset for 30 years (1981-2010). Model results were validated with the FLUXNET tower observations. The correlation showed better performance with values of 0.65, 0.77, and 0.63 for GPP, ER, and ET, respectively. The model underestimated the results with minimum bias of -0.04, -1.67, and -0.40 for GPP, ER, and ET, respectively. Effect of climate 'CLIM' and '$CO_2$' were analyzed based on EWUE and its trend was evaluated in the study period. The positive trend of EWUE was observed in the whole period from 1981-2010, and the trend showed further increase when simulated with rising $CO_2$. The time period were divided into two parts, from 1981-2000 and from 2001 to 2010, to identify the warming effect on EWUE. The first period showed the similar increasing trend of EWUE, but the second period showed slightly decreasing trend. This might be associated with the increase in ET in the wet temperate forest site due to increase in climate warming. Water use efficiency defined by transpiration (TR) (TWUE), and inherent-TR based WUE (IT-WUE) were also discussed. This research provides the evidence to climate warming and emphasized the importance of long term planning for management of water resources and evaporative demand in irrigation, deforestation and other anthropogenic activities.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.62-68
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• 2021

Despite numerous efforts on reducing road-kill worldwide, the collisions have been occurring continuously. Many factors are affecting road-kill occurrences and the effect is various by species. We investigated Hydropotes inermis argyropus road-kill characteristics on the national highway. We examined 9,099 H. i. argyropus road-kill points with distance to the gaps on road (interchange and intersection) and distance to six natural land-cover types as explanatory variables. We also examined the number of road-kill occurrences according to temporal variation using chi-square test with 9,658 events. In general, H. i. argyropus road-kill location tended to occur close to the gaps on road, agricultural lands and forests. The average distance from road-kill to the gap was 694.7 m and 78.6% of the collisions were occurred within 1 km from the gaps. In addition, Kruskal-Wallis test showed the distance between road-kill points and each land cover and the gaps was significantly different. The temporal analyses showed that the differences of the H. i. argyropus road-kill frequency are significant in both month and season. Our results implies H. i. argyropus road-kill location tended to occur close to the gaps on road, agricultural lands and forests in general, especially during May and June, according to their seasonal behavior. Thus, we suggest there is a need of concentrated management on the roads with specific characteristics for both wildlife and human safety.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.94-106
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• 2008

As populations inhabiting in natural ecosystem are fragmented by artificial barriers and habitats are destructed by development, extinction possibility of species is getting higher. It is necessary to design and to manage conservation areas and corridors considering animals' movement and migration for sustainable species diversity in present circumstances. 'Least-cost modeling' is one commonly employed approach in which dispersal costs are assigned to distinct habitat types and the last-costly dispersal paths among habitat patches are calculated using a geographical information system (GIS). This study aims to design ecological corridor using least-cost path method and to apply it to a regional ecological network considering movability of medium-large size mammals. This study was carried out over the metropolitan area, which has been deforested by rapid urbanization. Nevertheless there is connected with Gangwon province, Baekdudaegan mountain range and DMZ, considered where many forest species can migrate to this region. This study employs such an approach to develop least-cost path models for medium-large size mammals, have inhabited for this entire region. Considering those species, two forest areas as a source of species supply and forest areas more than 1,000ha are selected as focal forest areas. Movement and migration paths from species supply sources to focal forest areas are calculated by applying landscape permeability theory using land cover map, road density map and land slope map. Results showed least-cost paths from species supply sources to focal forest areas on two species. Wildcat and roe deer are different in some least-cost paths caused by their landscape permeability but paths show generally same specifics. The result of considering regional distribution of expected movement and migration paths to regional ecological network, low altitude mountains of western metropolitan area are evaluated important area for species connectivity. In national or regional levels ecological connectivity is essential to promote species diversity and to preserve integrated ecosystem. This study concludes that developing least-cost models from similar empirical data could significantly improve the utility of these tools.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.29-41
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• 2012

This study was conducted in Ningxia Hui autonomous region, located at southern part of Mu Us sand land in China. To investigate relationships between windbreak effect and installation cost of sand barriers, plastic net is utilized by using four kind of heights (0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5m) and four kind of porosities (20, 30, 50 and 70%). These heights and porosities are measured for estimating distances for effective windbreak. It is shown that porosity and the distance have a positive relationship at same heights and porosity on ground indicates a constant figure when height reaches a certain level, regardless of the porosity. This implies that there is a difference of level of windbreak with different porosities; however, distance of windbreak effect is same at the same height of sand barrier. As a result of comparison between porosity of sand barrier on the ground and installation cost in each sand barrier with various heights and porosities (16 combinations), 0.4m and 0.5m height sand barriers describe highest economical efficiency. Within two variables, we concluded that height has a higher impact on windbreak effect than porosity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.43-58
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• 2011

This paper is performed to study for the plants ecosystems for the rural community forest of designated as natural monument. In addition, it is also proposed the plan of the rural community forest's conservation and restoration for avoiding to the destroy of indiscriminate development such as land-use, cultivation. The rural community forest is a mirror that reflect the regional culture and history, as well as environment. According to this view, undoubtedly, we need to recognise the formative background of rural community forest, the relations between the environment around and the characteristic of plants ecosystem comprehensively. For the purpose of proposing to the plan of rural village forests' conservation and restoration, therefore, this study is: 1) reviews the previous research and ancient documents, and 2) surveys the vegetation structure and the growing conditions in rural village forest directly.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.72-74
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• 2003

Forest canopy density is an ideal representative of the forest habitat situations. It can directly or indirectly depict the canopy structure and gap size in the forestland, thus could be applied to assessment of wildlife’s diversit y. Since population survey of vegetation and wildlife diversities is a key issue for sustainable forest ecosystem management, many research efforts have been focused on forest canopy density using multispectral data in the last two decades. Unfortunately, prediction of canopy density using large scaling remote sensing data remains a challenging issue. Due to recent advances in hyperspectral image sensors hyperspectral imagery is now available for environmental monitoring. In this paper, we conduct experiments to monitor complicated environments of forestland that can be captured by using hyperspectral imagery and further be analyzed to test a prediction model of forest canopy density. The results show that 95% of canopy density could be well described by using 2 difference vegetation indices (DVIs), which are difference of blue and green reflectances rband_100-rband_150 and difference of 2 short wave infrared reflectancse rband_406-rband_410 With the wavelengths of band no. 100, 150, 406, and 410 specified by 462.39 nm, 534.40 nm, 918.22 nm and 924.41 nm respectively.