• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.167-176
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• 2008

Korea has made the rapid economical development under the condition with the high population density and low available land. In this context, conservation of land environment, connected directly with living quality of human, has mostly ignored. Prior Environment Review System(PERS) is the one to investigate the locational validity, environmental impacts, harmony with surrounding environment, from the early stage of administrative plan or development project. PERS was amended to include SEA(Strategic Environment Assessment) system on June 1, 2006. But, several problems, including the loss of administrative ability, cost, and time, have been appeared, since the system is applied to all administrative plans without any distinction and plans or projects are delayed generally. In this study, the weaknesses of PERS were indicated through the comprehensive analysis including literature survey, study of legal and internet database, and the recently published PERS reports. Based on that, the improvement schemes were suggested to be harmonized with the nature of SEA. This study was mainly focused on a PERS for the designation of conservational area of hot-spring wells, conducted by authors.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.59-68
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• 2007

Urban streams have been severely degraded with wastewater and concrete structure over a prolonged period. The Chonggyecheon Restoration Project recovered a stream in the downtown Seoul with landscaping, plantings and bridges after the cover concrete and elevated asphalt road were removed. The project has been criticized partly because it is not an ecological restoration but rather the development of an urban park with an unnaturally straight flowing stream, artificial building structures, and artificial water pumping from the Han River. Nevertheless, the public have praised the project and almost 100,000 visitors per day come to see the reeds, catfish, and ducks. The stream restoration project is attractive to central and regional government decision makers because it increases the public concern of landscape amenity. Several projects such as Sanjichon and Kaeumjungchon are on going and proposed. These projects have a common and different respect in scope and procedure. The Chonggyecheon project in the process of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and prior environmental review system (PERS) reviewed the environmental impacts before development. Kaeumjungchon in the PERS and Sanjichon without EIA and PERS are reviewed. EIA and PERS systems contribute to checking the ecological sustainability of the restoration projects. A stream restoration project is a very complex task, so an integrated approach from plan to project is needed for ecologically sound restoration. Ecological stream restoration requires 1) an assessment of the entire stream ecosystem 2) establishing an ecologically sound management system of the stream reflecting not only benefits for people but also flora and fauna; 3) developing the site-specific design criteria and construction techniques including habitat restoration, flood plains conservation, and fluvial management; 4) considering the stream watershed in land use plan, EIA, PERS, and strategic environmental assessment (SEA). Additionally the process needs to develop the methodologies to enhance stakeholder's participation during planning, construction, and monitoring.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.107-120
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• 2007

The introduction of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) has strengthened and extended the value of environmental impact assessment (EIA) as a foundational tool for sustainable development. In particular, SEA helps to overcome the limitation of project EIA as a 'stand alone' approach, applied relatively late in the decision making cycle. SEA is applied to policy, plan and programme (3P) proposals, when major alternatives are open and systematic consideration can be given to their environmental effects. This process also corresponds to options appraisal of development proposal to find the best practical outcome having regard to all potential impacts. There are imperatives for sustainable development (SD) that are shaping future directions for EIA and SEA internationally, regionally and locally. There is a shift toward more integrative approaches of using EIA and SEA as sustainability tools in cooperated environmental management system (EMS). Korea has established and applied EIA for over twenty years for various projects. Given its coverage, the current EIA system is SEA exclusive. The Prior Environmental Review System (PERS), which is a SEA-type of system, was applied in the late 1990s, mainly for various developing planning programs. The current PERS has been modified as a SEA type system, but in general, policy is not going to be covered.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.309-322
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• 2006

During the last decade, Health Impact Assessment (HIA) has been discussed worldwide as being an important tool for the development of healthy public policy. HIA has been advanced as a means of bringing potential health impacts to the attention of policy makers, particularly in sectors where health impacts may not otherwise be considered. HIA, a systematic assessment of potential health impacts of proposed public polices, programs, and projects, offers a means to advance population health by bringing public health research to bear on questions of public policy. In Korea, health-related items under current EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) system can only be found in the categories of hygiene and public health. However, environment and public health are not adequately connected and also health is underestimated even though health is an important objective component for the implementation of Environmental Assessments (EA). As a result, health is not well integrated within criteria for investigating the impacts on environment. This study examines linkages for HIA from the related and relatively well-developed field of Prior Environmental Review System (PERS) which is similar to SEA and EIA in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.113-125
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• 2011

Since the government of Korea (Ministry of Environment, MOE) introduced the policy applying 'Biotope-Area-Ratio-Indicator (BARI)' to huge residential land developments which Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) should be performed, MOE has come to have the necessity to apply the indicator concretely at the stage of Prior Environment Review System (PERS) and EIA in various types of large scale land development projects. This study was conducted with the aim of supporting the application of BARI and related decision making in various other types of EIA projects as well as residential development projects through remodeling the system to apply the indicator of the past. Through the analysis of the problems in applying the past BARI and experimental appraisals to 11 types of EIA projects, the results and implications as follows were drawn. First, it's possible to extend the range of applications of BARI, which has been applied to only residential land development project, to all kinds of projects with area-typed land use pattern out of environmental impact assessment target projects. Second, it's also possible to set a target value into which regional characteristics and differences among locational properties are reflected. In addition, it's come to be able to differentially apply the target value of BARI according to the condition of the existing site. Third, it's improved to be able to suggest a macroscopic target value at the stage of PERS and to set detailed target values in each detailed land use at the stage of EIA. The key point underlies inducing methodology to determine target values to secure more permeable land coverage ratio for detailed land use patterns at the stage of EIA by making it possible to calculate BARI of the present land cover condition of the EIA target projects.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.311-318
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• 2007

This study was conducted based on the 115 development projects of residential areas during 2001-2006 to investigate the current status of park green areas. Prior Environmental Review System (PERS) was categorized into regions, scales, and time of the projects, and regression model was used for a statistical analysis. The ratios of greenness of Seoul and Gyunggi province were greater than those of other regions whereas the ratios of greeness of Cheonnam, Chungbuk, and Jeonbuk provinces showed smaller percentage of green areas. Secondly as the scales of development get bigger areas of greenness become larger indicating a large scale residential development projects are favorable for securing green areas. Thirdly the correlation between planned area and green areas, and that between planned population and the ratio of greenness are relatively low (P>0.05). This implies green areas are not a good indicator but a concrete guideline for green areas. Fourthly the ratio of greenness of small scale project is not reached to 10% so that it is recommended to secure over one million $m^2$ areas for development project.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.269-279
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• 2011

Sustainability assessments tend to integrate ecological, social, and economic concerns. Sustainability assessment could be considered the highest rung in the assessment ladder. Broad strategies that seek to integrate individual SEA(Strategic Environmental Assessment) could be subjected to a sustainability assessment. Sustainability assessment could incorporate global and transboundary effects and priorities into SEA and project-level EIA(Environmental Impact Assessment). SEA could provide an environmental context and direction for project-level EIA. Procedural and substantive EIA requirements can be addressed through tiering such as sustainability assessment, SEA, project-level EIA. In Korea, PERS(Prior Environmental Review System) that has been utilized to evaluate administrative plans related with various kinds of development projects should be evolved not only to incorporate environmental impacts into early stage decision-making, but also to implicate sustainability assessments that include social equity and economic efficiency. Integration of SEA and sustainability assessment can be initiated through the application of DPSIR (Driving Force - Pressure - State - Impact - Response ) framework that was developed by European Environmental Agency.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.139-155
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• 2006

The introduction of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) has strengthened and extended the value of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a fundamental tool for sustainable development. In particular, SEA helps to overcome the limitation of project EIA as a stand alone approach that is applied relatively late in the decision making cycle. SEA is applied to proposals of policy, plan, and/or programme when major alternatives are open. In Korea, similar to SEA, the Prior Environmental Review System (PERS) was introduced to overcome the limitations of the EIA, by checking the environmental impacts on major policy and administrative actions in the early stage of decision making process. SEA appears in various national, regional and international laws. SEA is addressed specifically in the UNECE SEA protocol to the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a transboundary context, as well as the European Commission SEA Directive (2001/42/EC). SEA is a valuable tool for integrating sustainability decisions into country's policies, plans and programmes. This paper reviews the policy direction for implementation of the SEA and efficient Environmental Assessment (EA) through integration of the PERS and the EIA.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.171-188
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• 2003

Environmental Impact Assessment(ElA) in Korea has been used to improve environmental conservation and decision-making since environmental impact statement(EIS) was introduced in 1981 with the promulgation of the Environmental Preservation Act in 1977. which replaoed the Pollution Control Act legislated in 1%3. Together with a rapid growth of environmental perception as well as the diversification of development activities, however, it has recently bring about a strong demand for a new assessment process related to the strategic level of policies, plan, programs. In order to overcome such a limit in ElA system, Prior Environmental Review System(PERS) was introduced for assessment of administrative plans mainly concerned with development projects in 1993. In 1999. the regulations for PERS have been established by an amendment of the Basic Environmental Policy Act.Therefore the foundation of EIA system to integrate environmental concerns in planning processes and project works has been refonned. However the results of the execution of PERS were somewhat insuffident due to the institutional and technical matters. As the world's attention turns to sustainability and the considerations of cumulative effects, the concept of strategic envirorunental assessment(SEA) has taken on more significance and urgency and increasing number of countries and international organizations now undertake some form of SEA. The term SEA, however, is variously defined and understood, generally it means a formal process of systematic analysis of the envirorunental effects of development policies, plans, programmes and other proposed strategic actions. This process extends the aims and principles of EIA upstream in the decision-making process, beyond the project level and when major alternatives are still open. In this paper, we are discussing the significance of SEA and its relevance to EIA and the international trends and institutionalization of SEA. In conclusion we are discussing the comprehensive developing plan for SEA in Korea, then proposing a plan to make institutional arrangements for its application.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.197-204
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• 2010

새만금사업, 신행정수도(행정중심복합도시, 세종시), 한반도 대운하사업(4대강 살리기사업) 등과 같은 대형국책사업은 대통령 선거공약으로 제시되었다. 그러한 대형국책사업이 국가의 이익을 위해 꼭 필요한 것으로 제시되었다 하더라도, 그 결과는 좋은 의도와는 다르게 나타날 수도 있다. 대통령 선거후 환경정책기본법과 환경영향평가법에 따라 대형국책사업에 대한 사전환경성검토(전략환경평가)와 환경영향평가가 이뤄졌지만, 예상하지 못했던 정치적, 사회경제적, 환경적 갈등이 발생하였다. 이러한 개발 및 환경 갈등의 원인은 여러 측면에서 찾을 수 있겠지만, 사회경제적 항목을 중심으로 하는 사회영향평가의 미흡을 그 원인으로 제시하는 연구가 많다. 대규모 국책사업을 둘러싼 개발 및 환경 갈등을 해소하기 위해, 우리나라와 외국의 사회영향평가의 현황과 연구 동향을 고찰하고, 국책사업의 주요 쟁점의 분석을 통하여 사회영향평가의 중요성과 필요성을 강조하였다. 그리고 사회영향평가의 도입, 강화, 지침 마련에 대해 다음과 같이 제안하였다. 첫째, 현재의 사전환경성검토(전략환경평가)시에 사회적 통합, 경제적 측면(B/C분석, 비용, 고용 등), 법제적 측면, 한반도 통일이나 국가균형발전 등과 같은 사회경제적 항목을 평가항목에 추가함으로써 사회영향평가를 도입하고; 둘째, 환경영향평가 시에 공공시설, 교육, 교통, 문화재, 경제적 타당성, 고용, 토지이용을 현재의 사회경제평가항목에 추가시켜 사회영향평가를 보다 강화시키고; 셋째, 한국의 환경적, 정치적, 경제적, 사회적, 문화적 상황을 반영하여(사회영향평가의 원리와 지침(가칭))을 마련하도록 한다.