• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2019

This study applies the concept of climate change vulnerability assessment in order to suggest climate change adaptation effects in a quantitative manner, given that previous studies have hitherto rely on qualitative assessment, as climate change adaptive policies are currently being implemented by local governments of Korea. The vulnerability assessment tool used in this study is VESTAP ("Vulnerability assESsment Tool to build a climate change Adaptation Plan"), which was developed by the Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change (KACCC), and applied to gauge the vulnerability of pine trees to diseases and pests within Chungcheongnam-do. The climate change adaptation project for vulnerability improvement was assessed only in terms of forest disaster prevention and change in regional climate change vulnerabilities within 16 regions of Chungcheongnam-do as the result of 2016 Climate Change Adaptation Project (Forest Disaster Prevention Project). As a result, it was observed that climate change adaptive capacity has improved according to change in the area of forestland with disaster prevention, and the vulnerability indicator decreased, confirming the impact of the climate change adaptation (forest disaster prevention) project. Also, analysis of regional climate change adaptation project scales and change in vulnerabilities allowed us to determine the regional propriety of climate change adaptation (forest disaster prevention) projects launched in 2016.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.789-798
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• 2011

Climate change assessment, together with climate change adaptation process, would be one of the worldwide important issues, and the study on climate change vulnerability indicator has been an essential problem for climate change adaptation. Vulnerability indicator can be used as a good tool to estimate the impact of climate change and to map out the distribution of its vulnerability over the given area both in Korea and other countries. This study addressed the conceptual summary on the assessment of climate change and its adaptation process. Previous studies on how to yield the vulnerability indicators of climate change are reviewed and several previous results of vulnerability indicators applied to Korean provinces are also discussed here.

• Atmosphere
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.59-68
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• 2005

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) introduced the Adaptation Policy Framework (APF) to support the developing countries in order to help to make adaptation policy and strategy to climate change. This study provides the summary of the APF and will help for preparing policy regarding the impact of climate change and its adaptation. APF consists of five basic and two cross-cutting steps. Five basic steps are made of (a) defining project scope and design, (b) assessing current vulnerability and adaptation, (c) assessing future climate-related risks, (d) developing an adaptation strategy, and (e) continuing the adaptation process. Cross-cutting steps consist of engaging stakeholder and enhancing adaptive capacity. The project scope and design process includes four major tasks: scope the project and define its objectives, establish the project team, review and synthesize existing information on vulnerability and adaptation, and design the APF project. The main purpose of assessing current vulnerability and adaptation is to understand the characteristics of current climate-related vulnerability in priority systems and the scope of adaptive responses. Future climate-related risks are assessed in order to characterize future climate-related risks, so that adaptation policies and measures can be designed to reduce the system's exposure to future climate hazard. In developing an adaptation strategy, all of the preceding APF-related work is synthesized into a well-considered strategy that can direct real adaptation action. Continuing the adaptation process is in order to implement and sustain the APF-strategy, polices, and measure. The purpose of involvement of stakeholders is to communicate between individuals and groups about projects. Finally, enhancing adaptive capacity provides guidance on how adaptive capacity can be assessed and enhanced.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

Climate change is the issue that attracts the most attention in the field of environment, as well as the most challenging task faced by the human race. There are various ways to resolve this issue. South Korea has established the primary and secondary national climate change adaptation plans at the national level, and is making it compulsory for each local government (lower and municipal-level) to establish climate change adaptation plans. Climate change vulnerability assessment plays an essential role in establishing climate change adaptation action plans. However, vulnerability assessment has a difficulty performing individual assessments since the results are produced through complex calculations of multiple impact factors. Accordingly, this study developed a web-based supporting tool(VESTAP) for climate change vulnerability assesment that can be used by lower and municipal-level local governments. The VESTAP consists of impact DB and vulnerability assessment and display tool. The index DB includes total 455 impacts of future climate data simulated with RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways) 4.5 and 8.5, atmospheric environment data, other humanities and social statistics, and metadata. The display tool has maximized convenience by providing various analytical functions such as spatial distribution, bias and schematization of each vulnerability assessment result. A pilot test of health vulnerability assessment by particulate matters in Sejong Metropolitan Autonomous City was performed using the VESTAP, and Bukang-myeon showed the highest vulnerability. By using the developed tool, each local government is expected to be able to establish climate change adaptation action plans more easily and conveniently based on scientific evidence.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.347-357
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• 2009

This study conducted a vulnerability assessment on Korea's physical infrastructure to provide base data for developing strategies to strengthen Korea's ability to adapt to climate change. The assessment was conducted by surveying professionals in the field of infrastructure and climate change science. A vulnerability assessment was carried out for seven climate change events: average temperature increases, sea level rise, typhoons and storm surges, floods and heavy rain, drought, severe cold, and heat waves. The survey asked respondents questions with respect to the consequences of each climate change event, the urgency of adaptation to climate change, and the scale of investment for adaptation to each climate change event. Thereafter, management priorities for infrastructure were devised and implications for policy development were suggested. The results showed that respondents expected the possibility of "typhoons and storm surges" and "floods and heavy rain" to be the most high. Respondents indicated that infrastructure related to water, transportation, and the built environment were more vulnerable to climate change. The most vulnerable facilities included river related facilities such as dams and riverbanks in the "water" category and seaports and roads in the "transport and communication" category. The results found were consistent with the history of natural disasters in Korea.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2012

Understanding climate change is not only complex but also extensive. Humanity has never embarked on such a huge challenge of trans-national scope: a problem that began in the past continues now and will be continuing for a long time in the future. Nepalese have also significantly felt the impact of global climate change. The scenarios of climate change indicate that the increased temperatures will cause snow-melt which will result in floods, droughts, and uneven weather patterns. The impact of such unexpected climate hazards and weather patterns have already been felt and will continue to be felt in Nepal. These climate change-induced hazards and risks particularly threaten the agriculture sector, which results in food insecurity and makes poor and vulnerable people face increasingly unanticipated impacts to their lives and wellbeing. This paper explores the climate vulnerability of the Nepalese in terms of their physical, social, economic and primarily agricultural losses due to the increasing impact of climate change. The paper argues the need for a timely adaptation of measures to maintain an environment suitable for agriculture and for the well-being of the population residing in the area.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.204-204
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• 2016

Thailand had set the National Water Management Strategy which covered main six areas in the next 12 years, i.e., by priority: (1) water for household, (2) water for agricultural and industrial production, (3) water for flood and drought management, (4) water for quality issue, (5) water from forest conservation and soil erosion protection, (6) water resources management. However due to the climate change impact, there is a question for all strategies is whether to complete this mission under future climate change. If the impact affects our target, we have to clarify how to mitigate or to adapt with it. Vulnerability assessment was conducted under the framework of ADB's (with the parameters of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) and the assessments were classified into groups due to their different characteristic and the framework of the National Water Management Strategy, i.e., water supply (rural and urban), water for development (agriculture and others), water disasters (floods (flash, overflow), drought, water quality). The assessments identified the parameters concerned and weight factors used for each groups via expert group discussions and by using GIS mapping technology, the vulnerability maps were produced. The maps were verified with present water situation data (floods, drought, water quality). From the analysis result of this water resources management strategy, we found that 30% of all projects face the big impacts, 40% with low impact, and 30% for no impact. It is clear that water-related agencies have to carefully take care approximately 70% of future projects to meet water resources management strategy. It is recommended that additional issues should be addressed to mitigate the impact from climate risk on water resource management of the country, i.e., water resources management under new risk based on development scenarios, relationship with area-based problems, priority definition by viewpoints of risk, vulnerability (impact and occurrence probability in past and future), water management system in emergency case and water reserve system, use of information, knowledge and technology in management, network cooperation and exchange of experiences, knowledge, technique for sustainable development with mitigation and adaptation, education and communication systems in risk, new impact, and emergency-reserve system. These issues will be described and discussed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.492-504
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• 2013

Objectives: This analysis seeks to evaluate the impact of environmental health factors (EHF; e.g. hospital beds per capita, employees of medical institutions) on extreme-heat vulnerability assessment in Busan Metropolitan City during 2006-2010. Methods: According to the vulnerability concept suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), extreme-heat vulnerability is comprised of the categories of Exposure, Sensitivity, and Adaptive Capacity (including EHF). The indexes of the Exposure and Sensitivity categories indicate positive effects, while the Adaptive capacity index indicates a negative effect on extreme-heat vulnerability. Variables of each category were standardized by the re-scaling method, and then each regional relative vulnerability was computed with the vulnerability index calculation formula. Results: The extreme-heat vulnerability index (EVI) excepting EHF was much higher in urban areas than in suburban areas within the metropolitan area. When EHF was considered, the difference in the EVI between the two areas was reduced due to the increase of the Adaptive capacity index in urban areas. The low EVI in suburban areas was induced by a dominant effect of natural environmental factors (e.g. green area) within the Adaptive capacity category. Conclusions: To reduce the vulnerability to extreme heat in urban areas, which were more frequently exposed to extreme heat than others areas, public health and natural environments need to be improved in sensitive areas.

• Journal of Korea Spatial Information System Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.63-69
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• 2009

Climate change has influenced on various sectors including ecosystem, water resource, natural hazards and health and so on. Thus, it is essential to more accurately assess climate change impact and prepare adaptation strategy. However, it is difficult to assess for climate change impact on various sectors with integrated form due to various data format by sectors. In this study, we prepared criteria and indicators for assessing climate change impact and integrated GIS based data which in correspond to indicators based on spatio-temporal information using GIS. Finally we suggest a guideline to assess vulnerability of each sectors to climate change based on integrated spatio-temporal information.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.185-205
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• 2010

Climate change vulnerability assessment based on local conditions is a prerequisite for establishment of climate change adaptation policies. While some studies have developed a methodology for vulnerability assessment at the national level using statistical data, few attempts, whether domestic or overseas, have been made to develop methods for local vulnerability assessments that are easily applicable to a single city. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to develop a conceptual framework for climate change vulnerability, and then develop a general methodology for assessment at the regional level applied to a single coastal city, Mokpo, in Jeolla province, Korea. We followed the conceptual framework of climate change vulnerability proposed by the IPCC (1996) which consists of "climate exposure," "systemic sensitivity," and "systemic adaptive capacity." "Climate exposure" was designated as sea level rises of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 meter(s), allowing for a simple scenario for sea level rises. Should more complex forecasts of sea level rises be required later, the methodology developed herein can be easily scaled and transferred to other projects. Mokpo was chosen as a seaside city on the southwest coast of Korea, where all cities have experienced rising sea levels. Mokpo has experienced the largest sea level increases of all, and is a region where abnormal high tide events have become a significant threat; especially subsequent to the construction of an estuary dam and breakwaters. Sensitivity to sea level rises was measured by the percentage of flooded area for each administrative region within Mokpo evaluated via simulations using GIS techniques. Population density, particularly that of senior citizens, was also factored in. Adaptive capacity was considered from both the "hardware" and "software" aspects. "Hardware" adaptive capacity was incorporated by considering the presence (or lack thereof) of breakwaters and seawalls, as well as their height. "Software" adaptive capacity was measured using a survey method. The survey questionnaire included economic status, awareness of climate change impact and adaptation, governance, and policy, and was distributed to 75 governmental officials working for Mokpo. Vulnerability to sea level rises was assessed by subtracting adaptive capacity from the sensitivity index. Application of the methodology to Mokpo indicated vulnerability was high for seven out of 20 administrative districts. The results of our methodology provides significant policy implications for the development of climate change adaptation policy as follows: 1) regions with high priority for climate change adaptation measures can be selected through a correlation diagram between vulnerabilities and records of previous flood damage, and 2) after review of existing short, mid, and long-term plans or projects in high priority areas, appropriate adaptation measures can be taken as per this study. Future studies should focus on expanding analysis of climate change exposure from sea level rises to other adverse climate related events, including heat waves, torrential rain, and drought etc.