• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.343-352
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• 2015

The landscape setting of a habitat strongly influences the distribution, abundance, and species composition of waterfowl. Thus, habitat assessment is very important to understand the habitat characteristics that sustain waterfowl assemblages. In this study, we hypothesized that the excessive use of artificial materials when new wetlands are constructed negatively influences wintering waterfowl. To test this hypothesis, we measured environmental factors, assessed habitat, and investigated waterfowl at 13 artificial wetlands in the Nakdong River Basin. There were greater numbers of waterfowl species and individuals in artificial wetlands with high habitat assessment scores. In contrast, environmental factors did not affect waterfowl distribution. In particular, features of natural habitats, such as macrophytes and sandbars, and the surrounding land-use patterns were important factors for sustaining waterfowl assemblages in each created wetland. Our results show that promoting naturalness in wetlands and surrounding areas would increase the species diversity and abundance of waterfowl. Further, complex habitats, such as wetlands and some terrestrial habitats, support both aquatic and terrestrial species because mixed habitats feature a larger array of food sources than more limited habitats do.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.11-26
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• 1994

The criteria which have been used for the assessment of wildlife conservation values and particularly botanical values during the last decade, 1969~1986, were reviewed in order to select an appropriate set of criteria applicable for Korea. Fifteen studies, including studies of particular sites reviews of ecological evaluation are reviewed. Four criteria, rarity, diversity, size & extent and naturalness were used in more than half of these studies reviewed. The sixteen components were arranged with the scale of the sites, in view of the Korean situation. The human Interference, ecological fragility. as well as rarity, etc. were major components to be considered at small scale sites. In the contrary, area, diversity position in ecological and geographical unit, and naturalness, etc. considered the major components at larger scale sites. The components such as uniqueness, typicalness, research and educational, etc. were considered both applicable. Although this criteria should be tested by applications in the field and amended there after, It will be one of the first-step to evaluate of the protected areas, as well as specific plant species in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.53-63
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• 1999

This study aims to develop a set of criteria for evaluating the sustainability of forest landuse, which could facilitate the environmentally friendly development of forest lands in Korea. The concept of sustainable development in forest landuse was reviewed from literature and by interviews with experts in forest-related fields. Delphi technique was employed for gathering experts' opinions. According to the results of Delphi test, the concept of sustainable development in forest landuse was confirmed as "Use of forest lands in a lasting manner within the carrying capacity of the ecosystem involved". There are 16 factors which should be considered with care when the development of forest lands is planned. They include the ratio of forest cover left undeveloped, ecological stability, and landscape naturalness. Among them are the ecological factors rated most important. The experts emphasized the importance of local characteristics in setting up the criteria for sustainable forestland development. The study did not attempted to apply the criteria to real settings. Therefore, before applications in real situations, further case studies should be made for the criteria to be safely used in landuse planning.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.503-510
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• 2007

In the area of such a nature-friendly stream improvement, it is not established yet which engineering method is suitable for stream environment, due to lack of technology. Therefore, although nature-friendly stream improvement was done with expensive engineering method, the effect has not been fully confirmed, which results from the absence of overall valuation tool of stream improvement. In this regard, it is necessary to develop and apply comprehensive and diverse valuation methods covering stream functions to the analysis of stream improvement. In this study, we collected data from years' of monitoring on the Gyeongcheon river, which is located in Sunchang-eup, Jeollabuk-do and recently underwent an nature-friendly stream improvement work. Based on the data, we developed a series of valuation methods such as stream naturalness evaluation, life cycle evaluation, amenity evaluation, and economic benefit analysis to consider the environmental function of stream from a comprehensive perspective. Stream naturalness evaluation is a quantitative analysis of how natural a stream is, and includes additional valuation items such as ecosystem and water quality for the purpose of overall valuation, unlike existing research focusing on physical elements and structural characteristics of a stream. We developed a method of stream valuation with life cycle assessment to river reorganization project. Amenity evaluation method was developed as a means to analyze residents' satisfaction with stream improvement through questionnaires. Economic benefit analysis was developed as a means to determine the attributes of environmental water supply, ecosystem, river maintenance, and water quality and predict economic benefits using contingent valuation method (CVM) and multi-attribute utility analysis (MAUA) method in order to analyze economic benefits brought in by stream improvement. It is considered that the four methods developed in this study make possible to conduct an overall and quantitative analysis of stream improvement.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.44-53
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• 2000

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate environmental friendliness for facilities of national park to improve naturalness of national park. We have evaluated environmental friendliness of the facilities in Chirisan national park in terms of resource conservation and environmental integration, which are consisted of 9 and 8 evaluation indicators, respectively. Environmental friendliness of the small facilities was not good due to not using locally obtained materials and natural material, and that of large and complex facilities was bad in the field of excessive damage during construction, inadequate maintenance, use of natural material, locally obtained material, environmental integration with surroundings. In evaluating environmental attributes, new facilities is better than the older ones. The small facilities appeared to be worse than those of the complex, and the large facilities are the worst in terms of environmental friendliness. In general, environmental friendliness turned out to be lower in the light of the facilities in the clustered area than those of the facilities of the other area. In the future, It is required that criteria for evaluating environmental friendliness of natural park facilities is established.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.26
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• pp.7-15
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• 2008

This research is significant in terms of estimating the validity by setting evaluation items in view of integrating not only original beauty and visual areas but also natural ecological areas based on questionnaire. The results are as follows. 1) According to literature study, 17 items such as variety, the character of sites in terms of landscape, the beauty of landscape, visibility, and ratio of green visibility are selected. Also, 21 items such as variety of animals and plants species, size of green area, and ecological naturalness are selected in the area of landscape ecological resources. 2) As a result of questionnaire of the group of landscape experts, animals and plants ecological areas show 5.6341, the highest in importance analysis according to assessment areas. Also, as a result of importance analysis on items in each area, for example, in the area of visual resources, the item of skyline analysis is 6.0488, the highest. 3) As a result of corelation of item meaning on landscape effect assesment, for example, meaningness of psychological assessment item and landscape site item indicate 0.710, the highest coefficient correlation. 4) As critical assessment items per unit project, items such as damage minimization of original land features for project in terms of point, ratio of green visibility, variety of animals and plants species marked above 8.0 as high important medium. The project in terms of line, minimization of original land features, preservation of worthy biotope showed high point and the character of sites in terms of landscape, minimization of original land features, the size of green area, and analysis of skyline marked above 8.5 as high importance points. On the contrary, items for climate and soil showed relatively low points.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.43-56
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to propose management strategies through aesthetic landscape assessments for landscape units in the Han River riparian(HRR) area. First, this research reclassified the HRR into "natural," "artificial," "agricultural," and mixed landscape types and selected 37 representative case areas(about $1km{\times}1km$). This study found 71 landscape units in consideration of topography and land surface classification. Landscape assessment consisted of landscape quality and landscape integration assessment. The criteria for assessing landscape quality were "naturalness," "interest," "uniqueness," and "landscape function." "Landscape quality" was ranked into five grades using a matrix. The landscape integration assessment consisted of an inner integration assessment in each landscape unit and outer integration assessment among landscape units. As a result of the field study, case sites were found to have 4,288 landscape units and an area of $42.8km^2$. The forest area was found to have the most space with $11,580,905m^2$(27.1%), while the wet lands had just $52,348m^2$(0.1%). In the landscape quality assessment, about 30.5% of the total area consisted of landscape units that scored highest in "naturalness". In the landscape integration assessment, about 39.3% of the total area consisted of landscape units which scored highest in "integration", denoting visual interrelation and harmony. The existence of disparities in landscape quality in accordance with the form of the landscaping was determined using a Oneway ANOVA, with "naturalistic" landscaping scoring the highest and "artificial" landscaping scoring lowest. This study may contribute to making the HRR area a more ecologically sound and visually attractive landscape space. It is recommended that the aesthetical and ecological value of the landscape unit should be assessed simultaneously in the future.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.311-321
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate effect of stream channel naturalness on ecological health by using environmental factors and Fish Assessment Index (FAI) in the Han River of South Korea. These samples and data have been released from the research project titled Stream/River Ecosystem Survey and Health Assessment, which was conducted in 444 sites in the Han river watershed from 2008 to 2016. All samples were classified into five groups according to a degree of morphological changes of stream. Water chemistry analyses indicated a decline in water quality by decreasing stream channel naturalness, it is assumed that channelized stream was vulnerable to aquatic pollution compared to the natural meandering stream. In the result of frequency of dominant species, sensitive species and insectivore such as Zacco koreanus, Rhynchocypris kumgangensis and Pungtungia herzi were frequently dominated in the natural meandering stream while tolerant species and omnivores such as Carassius auratus and Cyprinus carpio were more dominated in the channelized streams. The FAI in the channelized stream shows decline to average of $46{\pm}25$ compared with that of the natural meandering stream ($80{\pm}20$). The decrease in FAI was highly influenced by changes in matrixes of fish assemblage structure such as number of sensitive species (M3), portion of omnivores (M5) and insectivores (M6). Moreover, annual average FAIs from 2008 to 2016 were significantly correlated with water chemistry, especially TN, TP and BOD ($r^2=0.59$, p<0.0001). Taken together, all the results suggest that the stream channelization could negatively impact on the water quality and fish assemblage structure, leading to degradation in aquatic ecosystem health.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.431-444
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• 2017

This study was carried out to review the guidelines being used by law and national policy concerned on river environments management and suggest the applicability of newly developed river environment assessment system. In the current legal system, the national river environment management system is insufficient in securing an independent status in the legal institutional system which is separated to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure and the Ministry of Environment. And the river environment assessment system of the national standard, which is a core matter, has not been established yet. In particular, there is a lack of integrated approach between the upper and lower plan or related plans on water resources, water quality, river environment and aquatic ecosystem management. In addition, the consistency and effectiveness as the process of planning and design according to the current status and comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the river environment were not secured either. To integrate national river environment management system and improve efficiency, I proposed the establishment of hierarchy and connection between national river plans, and the adoption and application of developed assessment system based on characteristics of river environment in Korea. Finally, I proposed the separated application with dividing the developed assessment system including the naturalness of river environment and suitability of water friendly activity into both assessment method for management plan of water resources of river basins & basic river plan respectively.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2014

Geological heritages can be defined conveniently as geological records worthy of conservation, and are represented in most cases by geological outcrops. So survey and evaluation of geologic outcrops are necessary for better conservation of geological heritages. As a measure to prevent potential destruction of geological heritages from various development projects, I propose construction of database based on survey and evaluation forms of geological outcrop, which can also be used for environmental impact assessment. The geological survey form consists of survey area, category, subcategory, location, dimension, geologic features, photo, description, and investigator. The evaluation form consists of evaluation category, detailed evaluation, comprehensive evaluation, and evaluation grade. The evaluation category is divided into academic aspect, education effect and landscape. The detailed evaluation items for academic aspects and education effect are representativeness, rarity, diversity and typicality, while those for geomorphology and landscape are peculiarity, aesthetics and naturalness. The evaluation grades are divided into five, where the first grade means a must of conservation.