• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.298-311
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• 1993

Simulation modeling was applied to predict the response of northeast Florida coastal wetlands to futrue sea levl rise due to global warming. Remote sensing and geographic information systems (GLS) were used to develop, manipulate, and synthesize input data, including land cover, digital elevation data, and site characteristics data. The SLAMM3 model evaluated this input data to predict responses of coastal wetlands and lowlands to inundation and erosion by sea level rise, and determined transfers from one habitat to another on a cell-by-cell basis. Significant changes were predicted from different scenarios of sea level rise: 0.5m, 1.0m, and 1.25m. The simulations indicated that 31.9 percent and 40.0 percent of wetlands within the study area would be lost with 1.0m and 1.25m sea level rise respectively, and a 6.5 percent loss with 0.5m rise.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.617-623
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• 2019

Numerous water disasters have recently occurred all over the world, including South Korea, due to global climate change in recent years. As water-related disasters occur extensively and their sites are difficult for people to access, it is necessary to monitor them using satellites. The Ministry of Environment and K-water plan to launch the next-generation medium satellite No. 5 (water resource/water disaster satellite) equipped with C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in 2025. C-band SAR has the advantage of being able to observe water resources twice a day at a high resolution both day and night, regardless of weather conditions. Currently, RADARSAT-2 and Sentinel-1 equipped with C-band SAR achieve the purpose of their launch and are used in various environmental fields such as forest structure detection and coastline change monitoring, as well as for unique purposes including the detection of flooding, drought and soil moisture change, utilizing the advantages of SAR. As such, this study aimed to analyze the characteristics of the next-generation medium satellite No. 5 and its application in environmental fields. Our findings showed that it can be used to improve the degree of precision of existing environmental spatial information such as the classification accuracy of land cover map in environmental field works. It also enables us to observe forests and water resources in North Korea that are difficult to access geographically. It is ultimately expected that this will enable the monitoring of the whole Korean Peninsula in various environmental fields, and help in relevant responses and policy supports.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.275-291
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• 2023

Global warming has made the polar regions more accessible, leading to increased demand for the construction of new resource-development plants in oil-rich permafrost regions. The selection of locations of resource-development plants in permafrost regions should consider the surface displacement resulting from thawing and freezing of the active layer of permafrost. However, few studies have considered surface displacement in the selection of optimal locations of resource-development plants in permafrost region. In this study, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis using a range of geospatial information variables was performed to select optimal locations for the construction of oil-sands development plants in the permafrost region of southern Athabasca, Alberta, Canada, including consideration of surface displacement. The surface displacement velocity was estimated by applying the Small BAseline Subset Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar technique to time-series Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar images acquired from February 2007 to March 2011. ERA5 reanalysis data were used to generate geospatial data for air temperature, surface temperature, and soil temperature averaged for the period 2000~2010. Geospatial data for roads and railways provided by Statistics Canada and land cover maps distributed by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation were also used in the AHP analysis. The suitability of sites analyzed using land cover, surface displacement, and road accessibility as the three most important geospatial factors was validated using the locations of oil-sand plants built since 2010. The sensitivity of surface displacement to the determination of location suitability was found to be very high. We confirm that surface displacement should be considered in the selection of optimal locations for the construction of new resource-development plants in permafrost regions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.112 no.4
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• pp.459-471
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• 2023

This study identified the characteristics of changes in forest areas of North Korea's major regions (Gaesong, Goseong, Pyongyang, and Hyesan·Samsu) using data on degraded lands collected via monitoring by the National Institute of Forest Science. The data, spanning 1999 to 2018, were cross-analyzed to determine trends in land cover change, and hotspot analysis was conducted to confirm evident changes in the forest areas. The results showed that the areas of interest substantially transitioned to other land use types from 1999 to 2008. Contrastingly, the range of changes decreased from 2008 to 2018, with some areas regenerating into forests. Nevertheless, the hotspot analysis indicated that hotspots occurred more intensively in the outskirts of cities and forest edges from 2008 to 2018 than from 1999 to 2008. The analysis also showed that the aforementioned changes were caused by various aspects, depending on regional characteristics and social factors. This study can be used as a basic reference for decision-making on the selection of basic forest restoration targets and restoration methods in inter-Korean forest cooperation initiatives.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_3
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• pp.1721-1730
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• 2023

As awareness of the problem of global warming emerges around the world, the role of carbon sinks in settlement is increasingly emphasized to achieve carbon neutrality in urban areas. In order to manage carbon sinks in settlement, it is necessary to identify the current status of carbon sinks. Identifying the status of carbon sinks requires a lot of manpower and time and a corresponding budget. Therefore, in this study, a map predicting the location of trees was created using already established tree location information and Sentinel-2 satellite images targeting Seoul. To this end, after constructing a tree presence/absence dataset, structured data was generated using 16 types of vegetation indices information constructed from satellite images. After learning this by applying the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model, a tree prediction map was created. Afterward, the correlation between independent and dependent variables was investigated in model learning using the Shapely value of Shapley Additive exPlanations(SHAP). A comparative analysis was performed between maps produced for local parts of Seoul and sub-categorized land cover maps. In the case of the tree prediction model produced in this study, it was confirmed that even hard-to-detect street trees around the main street were predicted as trees.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.2_1
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• pp.217-229
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• 2020

Recently, weather changes in Korea have intensified due to global warming, and the five major natural disasters that occur mostly include heavy rains, typhoons, storms, heavy snow, and earthquakes. Busan is vulnerable to snow disaster, given that the amount of natural disaster damage in Busan accounts for more than 50% of the total amount in the entire metropolitan cities in Korea, and that the Busan area includes many hilly mountains. In this study, we attempted to identify vulnerable areas for snowfall disasters in Busan areas using the geographic information system (GIS) with the data for both geographical and anthropogenic characteristics. We produced the maps of vulnerable areas for evaluating factors that include altitude, slope, land cover, road networks, and demographics, and overlapped those maps to rank the vulnerability to snowfall disasters as the 5th levels finally. To weight each evaluating factor, we used an entropy method. The riskiest areas are characterized by being located in mountainous areas with roads, including Sansung-ro in Geumjeong-gu, Mandeok tunnel in Buk-gu, Hwangnyeongsan-ro in Suyeong-gu, and others, where road restrictions were actually enforced due to snowfall events in the past. This method is simple and easy to be updated, and thus we think this methodology can be adapted to identify vulnerable areas for other environmental disasters.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 2003

Rice, which occupies about 60% of the farmland in Korea, is a staple crop in Asia. It not only absorbs $CO_2$ from the atmosphere, but also emits carbon in a form of CH$_4$. It has a potential role in the global budget of greenhouse gases because of its relative contributions of carbon absorption and emission associated with changing hydrologic cycle. To better understand its current and future role, seasonal variations of energy and $CO_2$ exchange in this critical ecosystem need to be quantified. The purpose of this study was to measure, document and understand the exchange of energy and $CO_2$ in a typical rice paddy in Korea throughout the whole growing season. Since late April of 2002, we have conducted measurements of energy and $CO_2$ exchange in a rural rice paddy at Hari site, one of the Korea regional network of tower flux measurement (KoFlux). After the quality control and gap-filling, the observed fluxes were analyzed in the context of micrometeorology and biophysics. $CO_2$ and energy exchanges varied significantly with land cover changes (e.g., plant growth stages), in addition to changes in weather and climate conditions. This study, reporting first direct measurement of energy and $CO_2$ exchange over a rice paddy in Korea, would serve as a useful database as one of the reference sites in AsiaFlux and FLUXNET.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.214-225
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• 2022

This study emphasized the soil of environmental impact assessment to devise measures to minimize the negative impact of project implementation on the environment. As a series of efforts for impact assessment procedures, a national inventory-based database was established for urban development projects, and three machine learning model performance evaluation as well as soil pollutant concentration distribution mapping were conducted. Here, nine soil pollutants were mapped to the metropolitan area of South Korea using the Random Forest model, which showed the best performance. The results of this study found that concentrations of Zn, F, and Cd were relatively concerned in Seoul, where urbanization is the most active. In addition, in the case of Hg and Cr6+, concentrations were detected below the standard, which was derived from a lack of pollutants such as industrial and industrial complexes that affect contents of heavy metals. A significant correlation between land cover and pollutants was inferred through the spatial distribution mapping of soil pollutants. Through this, it is expected that efficient soil management measures for minimizing soil pollution and planning decisions regarding the location of the project site can be established.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.162-173
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• 2009

Information on the expected geographical shift of suitable zones for growing crops under future climate is a starting point of adaptation planning in agriculture and is attracting much concern from policy makers as well as researchers. Few practical schemes have been developed, however, because of the difficulty in implementing the site-selection concept at an analytical level. In this study, we suggest site-selection criteria for quality Fuji apple production and integrate geospatial data and information available in public domains (e.g., digital elevation model, digital soil maps, digital climate maps, and predictive models for agroclimate and fruit quality) to implement this concept on a GIS platform. Primary criterion for selecting sites suitable for Fuji apple production includes land cover, topography, and soil texture. When the primary criterion is satisfied, climatic conditions such as the length of frost free season, freezing risk during the overwintering period, and the late frost risk in spring are tested as the secondary criterion. Finally, the third criterion checks for fruit quality such as color and shape. Land attributes related to these factors in each criterion were implemented in ArcGIS environment as relevant raster layers for spatial analysis, and retrieval procedures were automated by writing programs compatible with ArcGIS. This scheme was applied to the A1B projected climates for South Korea in the future normal years (2011-2040, 2041-2070, and 2071-2100) as well as the current climate condition observed in 1971-2000 for selecting the sites suitable for quality Fuji apple production in each period. Results showed that this scheme can figure out the geographical shift of suitable zones at landscape scales as well as the latitudinal shift of northern limit for cultivation at national or regional scales.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.5_3
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• pp.855-866
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• 2017

Several research cases using remote sensing methods to analyze changes of storage and dynamics of groundwater aquifer were reviewed in this paper. The status of groundwater storage, in an area with regional scale, could be qualitatively inferred from geological feature, surface water altimetry and topography, distribution of vegetation, and difference between precipitation and evapotranspiration. These qualitative indicators could be measured by geological lineament analysis, airborne magnetic survey, DEM analysis, LAI and NDVI calculation, and surface energy balance modeling. It is certain that GRACE and InSAR have received remarkable attentions as direct utilization from satellite data for quantification of groundwater storage and dynamics. GRACE, composed of twin satellites having acceleration sensors, could detect global or regional microgravity changes and transform them into mass changes of water on surface and inside of the Earth. Numerous studies in terms of groundwater storage using GRACE sensor data were performed with several merits such that (1) there is no requirement of sensor data, (2) auxiliary data for quantification of groundwater can be entirely obtained from another satellite sensors, and (3) algorithms for processing measured data have continuously progressed from designated data management center. The limitations of GRACE for groundwater storage measurement could be defined as follows: (1) In an area with small scale, mass change quantification of groundwater might be inaccurate due to detection limit of the acceleration sensor, and (2) the results would be overestimated in case of combination between sensor and field survey data. InSAR can quantify the dynamic characteristics of aquifer by measuring vertical micro displacement, using linear proportional relation between groundwater head and vertical surface movement. However, InSAR data might now constrain their application to arid or semi-arid area whose land cover appear to be simple, and are hard to apply to the area with the anticipation of loss of coherence with surface. Development of GRACE and InSAR sensor data preprocessing algorithms optimized to topography, geology, and natural conditions of Korea should be prioritized to regionally quantify the mass change and dynamics of the groundwater resources of Korea.