• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.115-123
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• 2005

Quantitative understanding of spatial characteristics of the study site is a prerequisite to investigate water and carbon cycles in agricultural and forest ecosystems, particularly with complex, heterogeneous landscapes. The spatial characteristics of variables related with topography, vegetation and soil in Gwangneung forest watershed are quantified in this study. To characterize topography, information on elevation, slope and aspect extracted from DEM is analyzed. For vegetation and soil, a land-cover map classified from LANDSAT TM images is used. Four satellite images are selected to represent different seasons (30 June 1999, 4 September 2000, 23 September 2001 and 14 February 2002). As a flux index for CO₂ and water vapor, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is calculated from satellite images for three different grid sizes: MODIS grid (7km x 7km), intensive observation grid (3km x 3km), and unit grid (1km x 1km). Then, these data are analyzed to quantify the spatial scale of heterogeneity based on semivariogram analysis. As expected, the scale of heterogeneity decreases as the grid size decreases and are sensitive to seasonal changes in vegetation. For the two unit grids where the two 40 m flux towers are located, the spatial scale of heterogeneity ranges from 200 to 1,000m, which correspond well to the climatology of the computed tower flux footprint.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2016

As the deforestation in North Korea gets severed, the interest for REDD+ is also increasing. This study analyzed historical land cover changes of the study area which is 10,000 ha in Hwanghaebukdo of North Korea for assessing change in landcover and carbon storage. The result showed that the forest area had decreased from 7,035 ha to 4,293 ha which is approximately 39% of total forest area between 1989 and 2013. The deforestation caused that forest carbon storage had decreased approximately $284,399tCO_2$. Set the baseline and analysed the potential reduction amount of carbon emission, it was estimated that REDD+ project could store approximately $364,704tCO_2$ for next 30 years. This study still has limitations such as lacking in direct field survey and the data of stand volume of each tree species which was replaced with the data of stand volume in South Korea. But, study can be applied for future REDD+ projects in North Korea.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.221-233
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• 2018

This study was carried out to predict the current and future potential distribution and to identify the factors affecting potential distribution of 7 plants(Lamium amplexicaule L., Trigonotis peduncularis(Trevir.) Benth. ex Hemsl, Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) L. W. Medicus, Taraxacum officinale Weber, Veronica persica Poir., Conyza sumatrensis E. Walker, Hypochaeris radicata L.) selected as indicators for climate change in agricultural ecosystem. We collected presence/absence data of 7 indicator plants at 108 sites in South Korea and applied the Maxent model. According to future climate scenario, the distribution area of C. bursa-pastoris(L.) L. W. Medicus, T. officinale Weber, and V. persica Poir. was expected to be reduced, but the distribution range was to be maintained. The distribution areas and range of the C. sumatrensis E. Walker and H. radicata L. were expected to be increased. The distribution area and range of T. peduncularis (Trevir.) Benth. Ex Hemsl. and L. amplexicalue L. were rapidly decreased. Non-climatic factors such as land cover and altitude were the most important environmental variable for T. officinale Weber, C. bursa-pastoris(L.) L.W.Medicus, V. persica Poir., T. peduncularis (Trevir.) Benth. Ex Hemsl., and L. amplexicalue L.. Climatic factors were the most important environmental variable for C. sumatrensis E. Walker and H. radicata L.. It is expected that the future potential distribution of 7 indicator plants response to climate change will be used to monitor and to establish the management plan.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.27-39
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• 2019

Agricultural risks are exacerbated by a variety of factors ranging from climatevariability and change, frequent natural disasters, uncertainties in yields and prices, weakrural infrastructure, imperfect markets and lack of financial services including limited spanand design of risk mitigation instruments such as credit and insurance. Indian agriculture has little more than half (53%) of its area still rainfed and this makes it highly sensitive to vagaries of climate causing unstable output. Besides adverse climatic factors, there are man-made disasters such as fire, sale of spurious seeds, adulteration of pesticides and fertilizers etc., and all these severely affect farmers through loss in production and farm income, and are beyond the control of farmers. Hence, crop insurance' is considered to be the promising tool to insulate the farmers from risks faced by them and to sustain them in the agri-business. This paper critically evaluates the performance of recent crop insurance scheme viz., Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana (PMFBY) and its comparative performance with earlier agricultural insurance schemes implemented in the country. It is heartening that, the comparative performance of PMFBY with earlier schemes revealed that, the Government has definitely taken a leap forward in covering more number of farmers and bringing more area under crop insurance with the execution of this new scheme and on this front, it deserves the appreciation in fulfilling the objective for bringing more number of farmers under insurance cover. The use of mobile based technology, reduced number of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) and smart CCEs, digitization of land record and linking them to farmers' account for faster assessment/settlement of claims are some of the steps that contributed for effective implementation of this new crop insurance scheme. However, inadequate claim payments, errors in loss/yield assessment, delayed claim payment, no direct linkage between insurance companies and farmers are the major shortcomings of this scheme. This calls for revamping the crop insurance program in India from time to time in tune with the dynamic changes in climatic factors on one hand and to provide a safety-net for farmers to mitigate losses arising from climatic shocks on the other. The future research avenues include: insuring the revenue of the farmer (Price × Yield) as in USA and more and more tenant farmers should be brought under insurance by doling out discounts for group coverage of farmers like in Philippines where 20 per cent discount in premium is given for a group of 5-10 farmers, 30 per cent for a group of 10-20 and 40 per cent for a group of >20 farmers.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

As topographic characteristics of Korea where 64 % of the national land area is forest and only 17 % is being used as farmland, remediation of farmland contaminated by heavy metals is a considerably important issue. In this study, as an alternative of practically and effectively remediating farmland which was abandoned as its crop plants exceeded maximum residue limit of heavy metals due to mining impact, applicability of stabilization method was examined through the pilot-scale field experiment. Three plots ($L{\times}W{\times}D=3m{\times}2m{\times}0.3m$) were installed at the selected farmland and in plot 1, only soil of the selected farmland was applied, in pilot 2, soil of the selected farmland plus 3 % limestone (w/w) was applied and in pilot 3, soil of the selected farmland plus 3 % limestone was applied and then uncontaminated soil was covered thereon (0.3 m). After that, seeds of radish, Korean cabbage and soybean of which characteristics of edible portions are different were sowed on each plot and cultivated. Afterwards, at a proper harvesting time (app. 80 days later), crop plants and soil were collected and phytoavailability (0.11 M HOAc extractable) of heavy metals in soil and accumulated concentration of heavy metal in edible portion of crop plants were examined. As a result, it was revealed that phytoavailability of heavy metals in soil added with limestone (plot 2) was clearly reduced compared with plot 1 (untreated) and owing to this treatment, accumulated concentration of heavy metals in edible portion of crops was also clearly reduced compared with plot 1. While radish cultivated in plot 1 had exceeded maximum residue limit of agricultural products, in particular, plot 2 using limestone had shown concentration lower than maximum residue limit and this plot had shown little difference with 3 plot where crop was cultivated in uncontaminated soil cover. Therefore, it was considered that for abandoned farmland like the selected farmland, reducing mobility and phytoavailability of heavy metals and reducing crop uptake through stabilization method would be an effective and practical alternative for producing safe agricultural products on a sustained basis.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.41 no.3 s.114
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• pp.331-345
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• 2006

This study deals with geomorphological process of the sand dune landform including the distribution and surface environments, characteristics of sediments, origins and moving processes in lower reach and mouth delta of Duman River, Northeast Korea and China. The methodology of the study includes image analysis of Landsat TM(1992.10) and ETM(2000.9) and Spot(2005.4) for analysis of land cover, 2 times field survey for recognition of landform and acquisition of sediments raw data materials, and grain analysis and exoscopy about raw data materials. The geomorphic elements from satellite image analysis are composed of the delta, sand spit, active and stable dune, sand bar and riparian vegetated zone. Results of the grain analysis indicate the sediments originated from marine coastal zone than riverine one. This means that present sand dune not so much reflect present climatic and geomorphic environments. Result of the exoscopy analysis show that ratio of quartz, which is comparatively resistant to environment, is highest as $65{\sim}83%$ out of sediments. But the surface of the $30{\sim}40%$ of mineral grains was coated by yellow-colored stained materials, due to chemical weathering. Some grains show rough skin, looking as acicular, network structure and etching pits, affected by physical and chemical weathering.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.39-56
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• 2021

The seed zone is a map that describes the areas where plant material can be transferred with little risk for properly adapting to a new location. The seed zone study is largely divided into studies based on genetic data and studies based on climatic data. Can be. This study was conducted to establish a temporary domestic seed zone applicable to the entire Korean Peninsula and evaluate its possibility based on the US climate-based seed zone establishment methodology. The temporary seed zone was constructed in the same way as the US case by superimposing the data obtained by dividing the winter minimum temperature into 12 grades and the data obtained by dividing the annual heat: moisture index into 6 grades. As a result of the analysis, 65 temporary seed zones were formed throughout the Korean Peninsula, and the areas of the seed zones representing the smallest and largest areas were 3.0km² and 29,423.0km², respectively, and it was confirmed that they had an average size of about 5,064.9km². Temporary seed zones applied in Korea show a pattern of changes in temperature according to the relatively horizontal forest zone, and it was confirmed that the area where the Baekdu-daegan ecological axis is located has a tendency to show lower dryness than other areas. This study applied the US climate-based seed zone methodology in Korea as a pilot, and confirmed the climatic similarity across the Korean Peninsula. Furthermore, it is expected to provide an optimal seed map that improves the success rate of restoration in the future by revising the seed zone grade suitable for the domestic environment in consideration of the results of this study and the possibility of seed adaptation to the field survey and environmental space.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.265-278
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• 2019

Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) data help to enable rapid emergency responses through detection of the artificial and natural disasters occurring at night. The DNB data without correction of lunar irradiance effect distributed by Korea Ocean Science Center (KOSC) has advantage for rapid change detection because of direct receiving. In this study, radiance differences according to the phase of the moon was analyzed for urban and mountain areas in Korean Peninsula using the DNB data directly receiving to KOSC. Lunar irradiance correction algorithm was proposed for the change detection. Relative correction was performed by regression analysis between the selected pixels considering the land cover classification in the reference DNB image during the new moon and the input DNB image. As a result of daily difference image analysis, the brightness value change in urban area and mountain area was ${\pm}30$ radiance and below ${\pm}1$ radiance respectively. The object based change detection was performed after the extraction of the main object of interest based on the average image of time series data in order to reduce the matching and geometric error between DNB images. The changes in brightness occurring in mountainous areas were effectively detected after the calibration of lunar irradiance effect, and it showed that the developed technology could be used for real time change detection.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.126-137
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• 2021

Recently, the number of damages on social infrastructure has increased due to natural disasters and the frequency of earthquake events that are higher than magnitude 3 has increased in South Korea. Liquefaction was found near the epicenter of a 5.4 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Pohang, South Korea, in 2017. To explore increases in soil moisture index due to soil liquefaction, changes in the remote exploration index by the land cover before and post-earthquake occurrence were analyzed using liquefaction feasibility index and multi-cyclical Landsat-8 satellite images. We found that the soil moisture index(SMI) in the liquefaction region immediately after the earthquake event increased significantly using the Normal Vegetation Index(NDVI) and Surface Temperature(LST).

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.156-166
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• 2022

Understanding the characteristics of reservoir water quality is fundamental in reservoir ecosystem management. The water quality of reservoirs is affected by various factors including hydro-morphology of reservoirs, land use/cover, and human activities in their catchments. In this study, we classified 83 major reservoirs in South Korea based on nine physicochemical factors (pH, dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solid, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total organic carbon, electric conductivity, and chlorophyll-a) measured for five years (2015~2019). Study reservoirs were classified into five main clusters through hierarchical cluster analysis. Each cluster reflected differences in the water quality of reservoirs as well as hydromorphological variables such as elevation, catchment area, full water level, and full storage. In particular, water quality condition was low at a low elevation with large reservoirs representing cluster I. In the comparison of eutrophication status in major reservoirs in South Korea using the Korean trophic state index, in some reservoirs including cluster IV composed of lagoons, the eutrophication was improved compared to 2004~2008. However, eutrophication status has been more impaired in most agricultural reservoirs in clusters I, III, and V than past. Therefore, more attention is needed to improve the water quality of these reservoirs.