• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.457-465
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• 2016

Around the world, a lot of people are migrating to the urban areas, and new cities are continuously being constructed. Currently about 54 percent of the world's population live in the urban areas, and by 2050, it is expected to increase to 66 percent; thus, managing the urban areas is one of the most important challenges of sustainable development in the 21st century. The key to successful urban management is to preserve the urban green spaces, which provide aesthetic, psychological and health benefits to the urban citizens. However, the benefits of the urban green spaces are not fully appreciated within the societies due to the difficulty of economic valuation of the urban green spaces. This study examined whether the view of the Songdo Central Park has a positive influence on the prices of the surrounding apartments, using the hedonic pricing method. The results showed that a positive relation exists between the view of the Songdo Central Park and the price of apartment. The price of an apartment with the view of the Songdo Central Park was 5 percent higher than that of an apartment without the view. In addition, it was estimated that the proximity to the Songdo Central Park has an influence on the housing price as well.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.487-501
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• 2016

This study aims to establish basic data of operating status for ecological learning facilities in Korea, investigate their characteristics for operating methods, and present proposals for the efficient operation and management of ecological learning facilities. For this purpose, a list of ecological learning facilities in Korea was established and 50 facilities were surveyed about the current status regarding the operation and management. Based on the survey, operation form, interpreter and volunteer, visitor, budget and revenue, promotion method, and other items were analyzed. Concerning the operating forms, most of the facilities were direct-operated facilities by government, and they are operating mainly by officials. Visitors are mostly families on weekends, while kindergarten children are main visitors during weekdays. Most facilities have higher proportion of visitors nationwide, and they get information mainly from websites operated by facilities and related organization. The annual operating budget and revenue depend on the facility size and operating forms, and the direct-operated facilities by government use higher budget compared to commission-operated ones. For the efficient operation of ecological learning, expert with specialized knowledge should participate in the operation, and intuitive and informative websites should be established and continually managed. In addition, it is necessary to support revenue of by national and local governments and to secure external funding network like local companies and donation.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.335-344
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• 2018

As the damage caused by the abnormal climate due to climate change is increasing, the interest in resilience is increasing as a countermeasure to this. In this study, the resilience of Suwon city was examined and the plan to improve the resilience were derived against climate impacts such as drought, heatwave, and heavy rain. Urban resilience is divided into social resilience (e.g. vulnerable groups, access to health services, and training of human resources), economic resilience (e.g. housing stability, employment stability, income equality, and economic diversity), urban infrastructure resilience (e.g.residential vulnerability, capacity to accommodate victims, and sewage systems), and ecological resilience (e.g. protection resources, sustainability, and risk exposure). The study evaluated the urban resilience according to the selected indicators in local level. In this study, the planning elements to increase the resilience in the urban dimension were derived and suggested the applicability. To be a resilient city, the concept and value of resilience should be included in urban policy and planning. It is critical to monitor and evaluate the process made by the actions in order to continuously adjust the plans.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.144-155
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• 2020

This research developed an approach to identify ecologically important areas at local scales and explained how the results of this approach could contribute to extend the protected areas in the Republic of Korea (ROK). While most developed countries have considered various biotic and abiotic factors, ecological processes, migration routes, habitat connectivity, ecosystem services, and etc. to determine the protected areas, ROK has considered a few factors focusing on biodiversity, landscape, and the habitats of endangered organisms. However, for sustainable management of our nature, we need comprehensive understanding of various ecosystem factors and interactions among them at local scales in designating protected areas. Forthis, we developed a conceptual model based on the ecological engineering approach and then explained how the results of this approach could contribute to extend the protected areas. In particular, we considered future land-use and climate change in determining the priority areas for novel protected areas. Our research suggested an effective methodology 1) to include various ecosystem factors and 2) to consider future environmental changes as well as current environmental conditions in finding the ecologically important areas and prioritizing these areas. However, our approach has limitations on the real-world applications due to the lack of fundamental information and data on our ecosystems. To improve the effectiveness of our approach in the real-world applications, we need various long-term ecological research results, environmental and ecological monitoring data, and both current and future spatial environmental data.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.53-65
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• 2006

Topographic condition is one of the most important things in farming activities. The topographic condition didn't matter for farming in the past because agricultural products had competitive power in the market. So farmers tried to extend their farms without any concern of topographic condition. We need less labor-consuming farming as industrial structure has been changed and the competitive power of the farming has been getting weak. This study analyzed the fallow potential in agricultural area by topographic condition so that we have got results as follows. Maps of elevation, slope, distance from roads and water resources were made for getting a fallow probability model in farms, and these 4 factors were used as independent variables while a variable on whether it is fallow or not is a dependent variable in logistic regression model. In an analysis of the fallow potential depending on farm land types, the fallow probability in fallow orchard showed the highest value of farm lands, 0.973. Cultivated orchard had 0.730 and upland had 0.616 of the fallow probability. The fields having high fallow potential had high elevation, steep slope, and long distance from water resources and roads. Especially, fields having a probability over 0.99 appeared in orchards, fallow uplands and single cropping uplands, which were recognized to have several disadvantages related to the fallow like as high elevation, steep slope, and long distance from water resources and roads. With the logistic analysis, the suitable farm lands appeared at 16.45m of the mean elevation, 1.89 degree of the mean slope, 39.91m of the average distance from water resources, and 32.39m of the average distance from roads. On the contrary, non-suitable land appeared at 114.7m of the mean elevation, 24.9 degree of the mean slope. The distance from roads was more important variable than the distance from water resources for analyzing suitable farm land.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2006

Changes in the soil physical property and the topographic condition derived from agricultural activities like as farming activities, land clearance and cutting down resulted in environmental and economic problems including the outflow of nutrient from farms and the water pollution. Several theories on the soil conservation have been developed and reviewed to protect soil erosion in the regions having a high risk of erosion. This study was done using the USLE model developed by Wischmeier and Smith (1978), and model for the slope length and steepness made by Desmet and Govers (1996), and Nearing (1997) to evaluate the potential of the soil erodibility. Therefore, several results were obtained as follows. First, factors affecting the soil erosion based on the USLE could be extracted to examine the erosion potential in farms. Soil erodibility (K), slope length (L), and slope steepness (S) were used as main factors in the USLE in consideration of the soil, not by the land use or land cover. Second, the soil erodibility increased in paddy soils where it is low in soil content, and the very fine sandy loam exists. Analysis of the slope length showed that the value of a flat ground was 1, and the maximum value was 9.17 appearing on the steep mountain. Soil erodibility showed positive relationship to a slope. Third, the potential soil erodibility index (PSEI) showed that it is high in the PSEI of the areas of steep upland and orchard on the slope of mountainous region around Dokjigol mountain, Dunji mountain, and Deummit mountain. And the PSEI in the same land cover was different depending on the slope rather than on the physical properties in soil. Forth, the analysis of land suitability in soil erosion explained that study area had 3,672.35ha showing the suitable land, 390.88ha for the proper land, and 216.54ha for the unsuitable land. For unsuitable land, 8.71ha and 6.29ha were shown in fallow uplands and single cropping uplands, respectively.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.181-194
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• 2017

While over 90 percent of fishways are made up with concrete material, nature-like fishways are started to be established as a form of small stream using natural materials. Recently, the central government in collaboration with a university has proposed a 'Standard Model of Nature-like Fishway' with a purpose to provide as a national design standard of nature-like fishway. This study aims to criticize the proposed design model of nature-like fishway and to propose improvements by examining other international cases. As a result, we found problems and limitations of the proposed design model due to the lack of research and experience about making nature-like fishway in Korea. Especially, for designing bypass nature-like fishway we found the lack of studies about structure management strategies, establishment of rocks or pebbles inside the stream, and natural materials. In this sense, more studies about nature-like fishway design adaptable to our environment need to be conducted. In addition, since the proposed design standard for nature-like fishway has been created based on the limited examination of existing domestic cases, it is desirable to improve the design standard on the basis of hydrological and biological research so that they could be adapted effectively to regional and local contexts.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.175-189
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to analyze characteristics of distribution of amphibian species and the affecting ecological factors. For the study, habitat environment factors were determined and applied to a habitat suitability model for the data collected from the Seom River in Hoengseong County and Wonju City, Gangwon Province, Korea between March 2013 to October 2013. The analyzed amphibian species were Rana nigromaculata, Hyla japonica, Rana dybowski, and Rana rugosa Temminck and Schlegel, and a logistic regression model was used with the pseudo-absence data. The result of the model analysis suggests that the major factors for Rana nigromaculata are distance to vegetation and rock and that for Hyla japonica is waterway. Rana dybowski and Rana rugosa Temminck and Schlegel have similar habitat characteristics, but the latter is shown to be dominant due to its wider habitat preference. According to the species richness model, the analyzed amphibian species are shown to have tendency to move between valleys or streams. This study quantitatively analyzed habitat environment characteristics using species distribution model, however, there is a limitation in terms of analysis on food factor and connectivity with other species. Combined with additional density or habitat analysis on birds or fish, this study can lead to more comprehensive analysis on biological environment factors.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.279-290
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• 2018

The importance of monitoring and assessing the status of urban forests in the aspect of urban forest management is emerging as urban forest edges increase due to urbanization and human impacts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of vegetation condition of urban forest edge that is affected by different land cover types using $NDVI_{max}$ images derived from FSDAF (Flexible Spatio-temporal DAta Fusion). Among 4 land cover types,roads had the greatest effect on the forest edge, especially up to 30m, and it was found to affect up to 90m in Seoul urban forest. It was also found that $NDVI_{max}$ increased with distance away from the forest edge. The results of this study are expected to be useful for assessing the effects of land cover types and land cover change on forest edges in terms of urban forest monitoring and urban forest management.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.169-177
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• 2010

One of the most obvious climatic manifestations of urbanization in Korea is a trend towards higher air temperature. The trends of long-term annual temperature generally well describe the warming of urban areas. The increase of air temperature in urban area has been observed to the present since the meteorological observations in Korea began. The objective of this study is to explore the actual increase and the regional long-term trends of air temperature attributed to urbanization in the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, temperatures of the selected urban areas were compared with that of the surrounding rural areas, with the results varying by the application of the estimates of each region. The second objective is to separate the long-term trend of surface air temperature of global warming from urbanization and to find the actual temperature increase from urbanization in Korean peninsula. For the data analysis, daily air temperatures observed by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) during between from 1961 and 2005 were used at five rural sites and cities. The re-analyzed surface air temperatures by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) was also carried out to compare the result from the observed air temperature in the Korean climate domain. In this study, the urban areas in Korea showed high increase rate of air temperature with $0.4^{\circ}C$ per decade during past 50 year period, while rural sites as Chupungryung with the $0.2^{\circ}C$ decadal increase rate. The analyses reflect that the urban area shows the high rate of temperature increase with $1.39^{\circ}C$ of regression value at the urban area, Seoul, and $0.43^{\circ}C$ at the rural site, Chupungnyeong during the period of 30 years. The temperature increas due to the urbanization only showed the increase range between $0.44^{\circ}C$ and $0.86^{\circ}C$, and the observed decrease in diurnal temperature range at five urban areas during the 30 years period.