• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.867-878
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• 2011

Development restriction areas (greenbelt areas) of Korea were recognized in 1970 as a means to control urban sprawl and conserve the natural environment. Although there have been some achievements, for a long time many planners and residents have requested a redefining of the green belt due to individual property rights restrictions and urban management problems. In fact, a lot of the greenbelt area is being destroyed by urban development. Therefore, conservation of ecological spaces in the green belt is needed to maintain urban naturalness. In this regard, this study suggests efficient methods to manage the greenbelt through the adoption of a landscape ecological value assessment. The greenbelt of the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) is represented as the case study because there has been mounting pressure to develop the area in Korea. In this study, the assessment of the landscape ecology in the greenbelt area focuses on landscape structure and function. The assessment consists of the following steps: First, patches were derived by NDVI analysis using landsat remote sensing data. Second, characteristics of the patches were quantified by analyzing the landscape structure, such as patch size and shape index. Lastly, the gravity model and least cost path analysis to assess connectivity were applied to evaluate the landscape function in the green belt areas. The assessment result showed that 48.45% of green belt area should be conserved to maintain ecological stability and function. Moreover, major ecological networks were identified near the large patches in the northern and southern areas. However, relative low ecological values were identified in the western part of the green belt area due to the lack of green spaces. Furthermore, some development plans in the green belt were also identified near the conservation area. Based on these results, the restoration needed areas to enhance ecological value in green belt were displayed. This study suggests efficient management of the greenbelt area, which is disappearing as a result of urban development. The area for conservation chosen in this study should be managed carefully in urban planning. Finally, the results of this study can be used in green belt polices and plans for the promotion of ecological naturalness and stability.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.13-33
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to offer the raw data for establishing the management and restoration plan by objective surveying and analysing the flora distributed in Seoak District, Gyeongju National Park, Korea. The flora summarized as 411 taxa including 92 families, 285 genera, 363 species, 2 subspecies, 41 varieties and 5 forms. The rare plants designated by Korea Forest Service were 2 taxa including Exochorda serratifolia and Potentilla discolor. The Korean endemic plants were 3 taxa including Philadelphus schrenkii, Lespedeza maritima and Weigela subsessilis. The specific plants by floristic region were 16 taxa including Asplenium sarelii, Pyrrosia petiolosa, Vitex negundo var. incisa and so forth. The target plants adaptable to climate change were 2 taxa including Lespedeza maritima and Carpesium macrocephalum, and the plants with approval for delivering oversea were 4 taxa including Exochorda serratifolia, Glycine soja, Lespedeza maritima and Weigela subsessilis. The naturalized plants were 51 taxa including Phytolacca americana, Viola papilionacea, Lamium purpureum and so forth. The invasive alien plants were 3 taxa including Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Aster pilosus and Lactuca scariola. NI(Naturalized Index) was 12.4% of all 411 taxa of surveyed flora in this study and UI(Urbanized Index) was 15.9% of all 321 taxa of naturalized plants in Korea. Potentilla discolor in rare plant, Philadelphus schrenkii in endemic plant and Dictamnus dasycarpus in specific plant were established the conservation plan. Whereas, invasive alien plants such as Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Aster pilosus and Lactuca scariola should be removed as soon as possible. The damaged sites in Seoak District were divided between wildfire area and farmland. To restore a forest fire site, we will have to apply a natural renewal and community planting. In case of farmland, we will have to do ecological planting using native species and constrcut a forest wetland.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.10-17
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• 2011

The paradigm of the use and management of natural resources is changing. Wise use of natural resources can be achieved by enhancing their conservation value and, at the same time, taking them as an opportunity for regional development. It leads to an idea of pursuing regional development by making good use of natural resources. In this paper, natural resources were classified as living species resources, ecosystem and landscape resources, and non-living resources. The resources were divided into 27 detailed analysis indices. The administrative boundaries of 165 municipalities in Korea were defined as spatial analysis units. Finally, a spatial database of natural resources was built. To classify the regional types, we conducted factor analyses with a detailed index of natural resources and a cluster analysis with the factor value. As the result of the factor analysis, six factors have been deduced as follows: forest resources, landscape resources, coastal ecology resources, inland water resources, landform resources, and ecology visit resources. In addition, the cluster analyses were conducted for the points of the factors drawn. The final classification consists of nine groups, and appropriate methods for each regional development have been suggested. Results of this study will contribute to providing fundamental materials for site selection and objective-setting for regional development policies and planning in consideration of natural resources.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1446-1457
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• 2016

Wetlands exhibit intermediate characteristics of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and the biodiversity is rich in these unique biological habitats. The symbiotic relationships between plants and fungi that inhabit these wetlands play an important role in natural resource management, biodiversity, and conservation. Accordingly, the mujechi, having academic value for the study of the natural environment, was investigated in terms of genetic diversity of endophytic fungi, which inhabit the roots of wild plants. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was amplified to identify fungal strains. In total, 226 strains were isolated and categorized into three phyla, seven classes, 10 orders, 22 families, and 31 genera. In plants by endophytic fungi were classified in Isachne globosa (Ig) to 19 genera, Scirpus karuisawensis (Sk) to 11 genera, Utricularia racemosa (Ur) to 19 genera, and one incertae sedis, Eriocaulon decemflorum (Ed) to 11 genera. The fungal taxa was identified the genera Acephala (19.9%), Tolypocladium (16.3%), Neopestalotiopsis (11.5%), and Perenniporia (7.1%). The fungal group isolated from Isachne globosa (Ig) grew the largest number of isolated fungal strains. After comprehensive evaluation, the endophytic fungal group from Utricularia racemosa (Ur) ranked highest in diversity analyses. From the roots of wild plant in mujechi-neup, it confirmed the distribution and diversity of endophytic fungi. This study provides the basic data to understand fungal community structure in peat wetlands.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.74-93
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• 2019

The Bird Track Site in the Haman Formation in Yongsanri (Natural Monument No. 222) was reported on the named Koreanaornis hamanensis and Jindongornipes kimi sauropod footprint Brontopodus and ichnospecies Ochlichnus formed by Nematoda. This site has outstanding academic value because it is where the second-highest number of bird tracks have been reported in the world. However, only 25% of the site remains after being designated a natural monument in 1969. This is due to artificial damage caused by worldwide fame and quarrying for flat stone used in Korean floor heating systems. The Haman Formation, including this fossil site, has lithofacies showing reddish-grey siltstone and black shale, alternately. The boundary of the two rocks is progressive, and sedimentary structures like ripple marks and sun cracks can clearly be found. This site was divided into seven formations according to sedimentary sequences and structures. The results of a nondestructive deterioration evaluation showed that chemical and biological damage rates were very low for all formations. Also, physical damage displayed low rates with 0.49% on exfoliation, 0.04% on blistering, 0.28% on break-out; however, the joint crack index was high, 6.20. Additionally, efflorescence was observed on outcrops at the backside and the northwestern side. Physical properties measured by an indirect ultrasonic analysis were found to be moderately weathered (MW). Above all, the southeastern side was much fresher, though some areas around the column of protection facility appeared more weathered. Furthermore, five kinds of discontinuity surface can be found at this site, with the bedding plane showing the higher share. There is the possibility of toppling failure occurring at this site but stable on plane and wedge failure by means of stereographic projection. We concluded that the overall level of deterioration and stability were relatively fine. However, continuous monitoring and conservation treatment and management should be performed as situations such as the physicochemical weathering of the fossil layer, and the efflorescence of the mortar adjoining the protection facility's column appear to be challenging to control.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2021

In 2012, the National Park Service conducted an ecological health assessment to efficiently preserve and manage the ecosystem. The need for improving pre-existing management indicators was recognized from the revised Natural Park Act because, while the indicators of the existing evaluation system focused on endangered species, ecosystem disturbance, diversity, water quality (BOD, DO), and habitat fragmentation, they did not reflect the lack of indicators for marine ecological assessment, policy changes, and the time demands. The evaluation results comprised a five-point grading system, which made the analysis of immediate changes, difficult. Therefore, the benthic pollution index (BPI) and habitat restoration indicators were added to improve the evaluation system. The National Park was assessed using 10 classifications, however, only four classifications were evaluated. The ratings were divided into five states, and ten classes were presented as pictograms. The assessment results showed a similar trend as the indicators were improved, increasing from level 3 to level 5. However, the results of the Wolaksan National Park after improvement in the indicators were lower than that before the improvement, whereas, for the Juwangsan National Park, it was higher. This study aims at contributing to the scientific and systematic management of the national park ecosystem by improving the ecological health assessment system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.4
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• pp.610-621
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• 2021

The soil creep, primarily caused by earthquakes and torrential rainfall events, has widely occurred across the country. The Korea Forest Service attempted to quantify the soil creep susceptible areas using a discriminant value table to prevent or mitigate casualties and/or property damages in advance. With the advent of advanced computer technologies, machine learning-based classification models have been employed for managing mountainous disasters, such as landslides and debris flows. This study aims to quantify the soil creep susceptibility using several classifiers, namely the k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN), Naive Bayes (NB), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) models. To develop the classification models, we downscaled 292 data from 4,618 field survey data. About 70% of the selected data were used for training, with the remaining 30% used for model testing. The developed models have the classification accuracy of 0.727 for k-NN, 0.750 for NB, 0.807 for RF, and 0.750 for SVM against test datasets representing 30% of the total data. Furthermore, we estimated Cohen's Kappa index as 0.534, 0.580, 0.673, and 0.585, with AUC values of 0.872, 0.912, 0.943, and 0.834, respectively. The machine learning-based classifications for soil creep susceptibility were RF, NB, SVM, and k-NN in that order. Our findings indicate that the machine learning classifiers can provide valuable information in establishing and implementing natural disaster management plans in mountainous areas.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2018

The cactus habitat in Jeju Island has a phytogeographically specific distribution in the East Asian region, and forms a unique landscape as the only native cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.) habitat in Korea. However, there has been no detailed investigation on the distribution of cacti in the habitat and no investigation on the diversity of the mixed composition of plants in the habitats and their correlation with the distribution of cactus populations. This study attempted to investigate the diversity of vascular plants in the Wollyeong-ri cactus habitat and record the actual distribution and trends of cactus distribution. In addition to the distribution characteristics of cacti, we also discuss the characteristics of species reflecting the characteristics of the habitat among the mixed population of plant species, as well as the biological and environmental factors that threaten the maintenance of cactus populations or require management for preservation of cacti. Considering the phenological character, we conducted the field surveys for flora identification six times between June 2015 and September 2017. The Engler classification system was used for the arrangement sequence and names of plants, and the Korean Plant Names Index was adopted for the Korean name of the species. The study results showed that the Wolryung-ri cactus habitat in Jeju Island has the characteristic physiognomy of an area dominated by cactus. For the vascular plants, a total of 125 taxa were identified, including 53 families, 104 genera, 109 species, 15 varieties and 1 forma. Endangered plants specified by the Ministry of Environment were not found. Two species, Cyrtomium falcatum and Asplenium incisum, were identified as the ferns, and no gymnosperms were found. In addition, 123 taxa of angiosperms, 91 taxa of dicotyledones and 32 taxa of monocotyledons were identified. The distributions of cacti were confirmed in 289 meshes corresponding to 59.3% of the total 487 meshes in the cactus protected area, which showed various coverage distributions ranging from 5% to 95%. Most of the meshes where no cacti were found are coastal areas with exposed basalt rocks where the soil depth has not developed or extremely restricted due to repeated waves, or areas where artificial facilities, grasslands, and observation paths have been constructed. On the other hand, there were 71 lattice points in 14.5% of the total area where the cactus showed 70% or higher dominance. Cacti are randomly distributed in these areas. They have adapted to the microhabitat environment and are found to be opportunistically distributed along the growable locations. Considering that the reproduction of cacti in the habitat is mostly dependent on parthenogenesis, the present distribution seems to reflect the potentially distributable regions of cacti in the habitat. Based on the results of field surveys, a management plan for conservation and protection of the protected areas has been proposed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.81-89
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• 1999

To propose basic information for natural resource management and conservation strategy of Schisan-dra nigra Maxim., its habitat environment and vegetation structure of forest communities growing the species was investigated. Fourteen plots (each plot size 400 $m^2$) were set up at the distributed area of Cheju island, southern part of Korea. S. nigra is the economic useful species that scatteringly grows at 850~920 m in the western part, at 660~710 m in the northern part and at 750~1,250 m in the southern part of Mt. Halla. The community of S. nigra in Mt. Halla is the mixed secondary forest of pine and broad leaved trees that are mainly composed of Pinus densif1ora, Quercus serrata, Styrax japonica, Lin-dera erythrocarpa and Carpinus laxiflora. The density in a main distribution sector of S. nigra appears in the range of 3~39 individuals per each 20$\times$20 m plot. The distribution patterns by Morisita's Index showed that S. nigra was distributed randomly in all of the stands. The association analysis showed that the following tree species were positively associated with S. nigra. In other words, the following trees were appeared to require the same ecological niche together with S. nigra: Lindera erythrocarpa, Cornus waltri, Acer mono, and Styrax japonica.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.305-311
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• 2005

For research of the wintering waterbirds we surveyed monthly from October 2000 to March 2001 on Gangjin Bay, Chollanam-do, Korea. During the study period, the waterbirds were observed 9,825 individuals and 36 species. The highest dominant species was Anaspiatyrhynchos which occupied the $48.42\%$, the one followings were Anas crecca $(10.8\%)$, Tadorna tadorna $(9.7\%)$, Anas poecilorhyncha $(9.5\%)$ and Cygnus cygnus $(4.8\%)$. A regularly observed species in every months were 3 species, Egretta garzetta, Anas pin tyrhynchos and Anas poecilorhyncha. The Cygnus cygnus of specially protected species was observed the 232 individuals maximumly in November and the 125 individuals to a minimum in December. The index of species diversity was minimum 1.24 at October and maximum 2.01 at March. This area has provided a suitable roosting and feeding place for waterbirds. The peak count of the wintering whooper swan was 232 individuals in Gangjin Bay. Therefore, We need the conservation and management of Gangjiun Bay.