• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.120-132
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• 2021

The ecosystem and landscape conservation areas of Seoul were designated according to the Natural Environment Conservation Act and the Natural Environment Conservation Ordinance. With the adoption of the "Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Service (RAWES)" approach and the "wetland ecosystem service" for the Ramsar Wetland City Accreditation at the 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 2018, the need for data evaluating wetland ecosystem services has become a necessity. Therefore, in this study, we selected five wetlands from the ecosystem and landscape conservation areas in Seoul, having high ecological conservation values, and evaluated their carbon sequestration and economic value assessment using the InVEST model, which is an ecosystem service evaluation technique. The evaluation results for carbon storage in each wetland are as follows: Tancheon Wetland: 3,674.62 Mg; Bamseom Island in the Hangang River: 1,511.57 Mg; Godeok-dong Wetland: 5,007.21 Mg; Amsa-dong Wetland: 7,108.47 Mg; and Yeouido Wetland: 290.27 Mg. Particularly, the Tancheon Wetland showed the lowest carbon sequestration of 1,130.37 Mg, as compared to the results acquired in 2013, of 4,804.99 Mg. When the average effective carbon rate of $16.06 (US) was applied to the decreased carbon sequestration value, a loss of $15,910.58(US) was calculated. Furthermore, if the average social cost of carbon ($204 (US)) is considered, which includes the impact of climate change on productivity and ecosystems, the total loss is equivalent to $202,101.97 (US). This study aims to examine the natural resource value of urban wetlands by evaluating selected major wetlands in Seoul. This study can be utilized as basic data to plan for the protection and management of the ecosystem and landscape conservation areas. Additionally, because wetland value assessment is considered essential, the results of this study can be used in future research to provide measures for evaluating ecosystem services in the Ramsar Wetland City Certification System. Moreover, this study can be utilized for selecting important wetlands as Ramsar sites, and to raise awareness about the significance of conserving urban wetlands, and for expanding international exchange among the Ramsar Wetland sites.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.187-210
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• 2009

Space law(or outer space law) and the law of the sea are branches of international law dealing with activities in geographical ares which do not or do only in part come under national sovereignty. Legal rules pertaining to the outer space and sea began to develop once activities emerged in those areas: amongst others, activities dealing with transportation, research, exploration, defense and exploitation. Naturally the law of the sea developed first, followed, early in the twentieth century, by air law, and later in the century by space law. Obviously the law of the sea, of the air and of outer space influence each other. Ideas have been borrowed from one field and applied to another. This article examines some analogies and differences between the outer space law and the law of the sea, especially from the perspective of the legal status, the exploration and exploitation of the natural resources and environment. As far as the comparisons of the legal status between the outer space and high seas are concerned the two areas are res extra commercium. The latter is res extra commercium based on both the customary international law and treaty, however, the former is different respectively according to the customary law and treaty. Under international customary law, whilst outer space constitutes res extra commercium, celestial bodies are res nullius. However as among contracting States of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, both outer space and celestial bodies are declared res extra commercium. As for the comparisons of the exploration and exploitation of natural resources between the Moon including other celestial bodies in 1979 Moon Agreement and the deep sea bed in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the both areas are the common heritage of mankind. The latter gives us very systematic models such as International Sea-bed Authority, however, the international regime for the former will be established as the exploitation of the natural resources of the celestial bodies other than the Earth is about to become feasible. Thus Moon Agreement could not impose a moratorium, but would merely permit orderly attempts to establish that such exploitation was in fact feasible and practicable, by allowing experimental beginnings and thereafter pilot operations. As Professor Carl Christol said until the parties of the Moon Agreement were able to put into operation the legal regime for the equitable sharing of benefits, they would remain free to disregard the Common Heritage of Mankind principle. Parties to one or both of the agreements would retain jurisdiction over national space activities. In so far as the comparisons of the protection of the environment between the outer space and sea is concerned the legal instruments for the latter are more systematically developed than the former. In the case of the former there are growing tendencies of concerning the environmental threats arising from space activities these days. There is no separate legal instrument to deal with those problems.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.307-319
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• 2009

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology has been regarded as one of the most possible and practical option to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and consequently to mitigate the climate change. Korean government also have started a 10-year R&D project on $CO_2$ storage in sea-bed geological structure including gas field and deep saline aquifer since 2005. Various relevant researches are carried out to cover the initial survey of suitable geological structure storage site, monitoring of the stored $CO_2$ behavior, basic design of $CO_2$ transport and storage process and the risk assessment and management related to $CO_2$ leakage from engineered and geological processes. Leakage of $CO_2$ to the marine environment can change the chemistry of seawater including the pH and carbonate composition and also influence adversely on the diverse living organisms in ecosystems. Recently, IMO (International Maritime Organization) have developed the risk assessment and management framework for the $CO_2$ sequestration in sub-seabed geological structures (CS-SSGS) and considered the sequestration as a waste management option to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This framework for CS-SSGS aims to provide generic guidance to the Contracting Parties to the London Convention and Protocol, in order to characterize the risks to the marine environment from CS-SSGS on a site-specific basis and also to collect the necessary information to develop a management strategy to address uncertainties and any residual risks. The environmental risk assessment (ERA) plan for $CO_2$ storage work should include site selection and characterization, exposure assessment with probable leak scenario, risk assessment from direct and in-direct impact to the living organisms and risk management strategy. Domestic trial of the $CO_2$ capture and sequestration in to the marine geologic formation also should be accomplished through risk management with specified ERA approaches based on the IMO framework. The risk assessment procedure for $CO_2$ marine storage should contain the following components; 1) prediction of leakage probabilities with the reliable leakage scenarios from both engineered and geological part, 2) understanding on physio-chemical fate of $CO_2$ in marine environment especially for the candidate sites, 3) exposure assessment methods for various receptors in marine environments, 4) database production on the toxic effect of $CO_2$ to the ecologically and economically important species, and finally 5) development of surveillance procedures on the environmental changes with adequate monitoring techniques.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.166-173
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• 2008

Recently, problem of earth environment being attended with international issue, people are concerned about the environmentally-friendly and renewable biomass energy. Especially, the forest biomass is more important because Korea have to control carbon footprint for Kyoto Protocol and Convention on Climate Change. In case of Korea, forest area covers the land about 2/3 of all country. It is needed that more economical and efficient method to estimate the biomass by remote sensing data which include wide coverage and is progressed by one-step. In this study, we estimate forest biomass with LiDAR data and aerial photograph. Three biomass equation is used and estimate mean biomass of single tree and entire biomass in plots. The results are compared with field data. $R^2$ of the mean biomass of single tree is greater than 0.8 and that of entire biomass in plots is greater than 0.65. In conclusion, the method using remote sensing data is verified more economical and efficient than previous field data method.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.773-781
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• 2016

The present SOLAS Convention has maintained safety regulations in a largely prescriptive form and this has become overly prescriptive now. The prescriptive rules do not properly reflect technical advances and changing environments in the maritime sector in a timely manner. The purpose of this study is to provide preliminary research to lay a foundation for the development of a new regulatory framework based on safety performance which is not a prescriptive rule making bases. This study reviewed the concept and characteristics of a minimum requirement, the implications of safety regulations in terms of strategic, commercial and technical aspects, the compensative correlation between constructional requirements and operational measures, the concept of safety with regard to final stage confirmation of functions, expansion of implementers and objects of safety regulations, and the balance between safety and environmental protection requirements. Based on these research, 10 principles for the rule formulation process has been suggested such as consideration on the hardware requirements and software requirement, the multi-stage approval concept, new safety concerns for complex shipboard systems, considerations on the human element, regulatory impact assessments and measures to reduce administrative burdens.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.50-64
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• 2019

According to the Maritime Safety Act, there are all 34 routes including 5 traffic safety zones, 3 traffic separation schemes, 26 routes designated by regional maritime affairs departments in the Republic of Korea. In the SOLAS convention, the route information should be is effectively used for the safe navigation. However, the route information is complicatedly composed of the location of the route, the navigation rule by each route, the restriction of the navigation, and the anchorages. Moreover, the present method of providing information using the navigational chart and other publications is not effective for users to grasp the navigational information. Therefore, it was conducted to study the design of the S-100 based routing information data model developed by the International Hydrographic Organization to find ways to more effectively provide route information. To do this, the analysis of route requirement, selection of items, encoding test and users' review were carried out. Through expert user review, it was evaluated that the study on the design of the route information data model can be utilized as a good basic data for the route information integration service. Future research on the development of route information data models is expected to provide integrated route information services.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.439-446
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• 2020

The IMO has adopted emission standards through Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) that strictly prohibit the use of bunker C oil for vessels. In this study, we have adopted the turret-moored Floating LNG-Bunkering Terminal (FLBT) which is designed to receive the LNG from LNGCs and transfer it to LNG-bunkering shuttles in side-by-side moored condition. Numerical analyses were carried out using the high-order boundary-element method for four vessels at various relative distances. Mean wave drift forces were compared in an operational sea state. A model test was performed in the ocean engineering basin at the Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering (KRISO) to verify the safety of the berthing/unberthing operation. In the model test, a jig was designed to simulate tug boats pushing or pulling the bunkering vessels, so that the friction force of the g operation was not affected. Safety depended on the environmental direction, with more stable operation possible if the heading-control function of FLBT is applied to avoid beam-sea conditions.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.556-561
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• 2020

The aging and declining agricultural population in the modern society requires improvement of the agricultural environment and is one of the representative problems. And since most of the work systems always require a transport work, the ratio of labor consumed in the transport work is very high. Accordingly, many types of transport vehicles are being developed and sold, and in the early days, most of them are powered transport vehicles using fossil fuels. However, it is paying attention to next-generation eco-friendly energy such as hydrogen, fuel cells, solar power, and bio due to the strengthening of international environmental regulations such as global warming and the Convention on Climate Change and the depletion of fossil fuels. Therefore, in this study, the ultimate goal is to develop an eco-friendly, easy-to-operate, safe agricultural electric vehicle that replaces fossil fuels. It was designed with a focus on controlling a wide range of vehicle speeds and securing stability of electric agricultural vehicles. Considering the performance and design, it is composed of a frame, a driving part, a steering part, and a controller system, and we are going to review and manufacture each part. It is believed that the manufactured electric vehicle for agriculture can be easily and conveniently operated in an agricultural society where young manpower is scarce, and can be helpful to the agricultural society through high efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.987-994
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• 2021

The Yellow sea, as described in article 123 of UNCLOS, is semi-enclosed sea surrounded by the Republic of Korea, the People's Republic of China and North Korea. In addition, the Yellow Sea is one of the 66 large marine ecosystems as it contains large amounts of marine resources. According to article 194 of UNCLOS, states should be aware of rights and duties with respect to the protection and preservation of the marine environment to be engaged with countries directly as regional entity or indirectly. Therefore, the legal blank is urgent in terms of trans-boundary environmental pollutant issues. The UNDP has conducted a project called Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME) which has reached the 2^nd phase. The project has some notable achievements, namely performing joint activities on analysis of diagnostic trans-boundary issues in collaboration with China and South Korea, developing a strategic action plan based on TDA, and establishing regional strategic action plan. However, on the other hand, the project could not reflect the full participation of North Korea as a state party. As a result, the project has a limitation on effective implementation of RSAP. Therefore, this study focuses on the suggestion of a legally-binding trilateral treaty as a blue print for the next, 3^rd phase of the project. By analyzing the best practice of the Wadden Sea Trilateral Treaty case, the study verifies the validity of legislative measures on establishing and managing a legally-binding trilateral YSLME Commission. By suggesting a three phase treaty, incorporating a joint declaration by establishing the commission, the signing of the treaty, and formulating an umbrella convention and implementation arrangement, the study expects to guarantee the consistency and sustainability of the trilateral treaty regardless of political issues pertaining to North Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.205-226
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• 2018

For sustainable development of air transport, the establishment and application of international standards of environmental protection area is significant. The development and use of alternative fire extinguishing agent to Halon, which is used for the fire extinguishing systems of engine nacelles/APU and cargo compartments, has been requested in order to protect the ozone layer. The ICAO has been active in preparing international standards and recommended practices (SARPs); however, certification of alternative fire extinguishing agents has been postponed due to technical readiness problem.. Consequently, the implementation of SARPs has also been postponed by two years from the end of 2016. to the end of 2018. As such consequences have caused confusion among Member States regarding its implementation, it is necessary to discuss and pay more attention to this issue. ICAO Council and Air Navigation Commission should consider between setting the implementation time frame earlier or giving enough time for mature readiness and preparedness. Also in order to minimize the unnecessary discharge of Halon owned by Member States, it is necessary to consider efficient management methodologies; for example, requesting fire extinguisher manufacturers to recharge in professional ways. For the successful implementation of the SARPs, ICAO developed an implementation task list as including notification of differences, establishment of a national implementation plan, drafting of the modification to the national regulations and means of compliance, adoption of the national regulations and means of compliance. Member States can develop their own rule making process in reference with the ICAO implementation task list. This issue was presented and discussed during the 54th Conference of Directors General of civil aviation, Asia and Pacific Regions which was held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 2017 with significant attention among participated Contacting States. In this regards, ICAO Council and Air Navigation Commission should consult with Legal Bureau lawyers regarding SARPs preparing process to eliminate difficulties and confusions for proper implementation within effective date.