• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.37-47
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• 2004

In Korea, over three hundreds of the coal mines were closed or abandoned due to the depression of the mining industry since the late 1980s. Many of them locate in the steep mountain valleys and the coal mine wastes had been disposed without a proper treatment From these mines, enormous amounts of coal mine overburdens have been abandoned in the slopes and the ample amounts of acid mine drainage (AMD) from either portal or overburdens have been discharging directly to the streams, causing the detrimental effects on soil and water qualities. Objectives of this research were to reclaim the coal mine overburdens using the lime waste cake from the soda ash production by stabilizing the overburden slopes, introducing the vegetation alleviate the environmental problems caused by the closed coal mines. The percentages of the grass distribution ratio (%) and the surface coverage ($\textrm{cm}^2$) in each treatment plot were determined during June to August after seed spraying grasses such as orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata L), Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) and Eulalia (Miscanthus sinensis Anderss) at the end of May. The grasses covered only 15.5 % of the coal overburden plot at the early stage but the coverage was increased with time to 33% in August. Growth of such grasses was enhanced with the combined treatments of lime waste and topsoil resulting in the increased surface coverage by the grasses. The Increment of the surface coverage from June to August was higher with lime waste treatments. The distribution percentages and surface coverage were highest when the lime wastes were treated at 25 % of the lime requirement. This might be related with the high salt contents in the hire wastes. Results demonstrated that the amounts of lime wastes at 25% of the lime requirement were sufficient for neutralizing the acidic coal overburden and introducing the re-vegetation. Either layering between the coal waste and topsoil or mixing with coal overburdens could be adopted as the lime waste treatment method. The combined treatment of lime wastes and topsoil was recommended for re-vegetation in the coal overburden slopes. The lime wastes from the soda ash production might have a potential to be recycled for the reclamation of the abandoned coal mines to alleviate the environmental problems associated with coal mine waste.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.436-445
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• 2020

The number of protected areas has been steadily increased in Korea to achieve Aichi Target 11, and there are studies on potential protected areas that required additional designation. However, there has been an insufficient assessment of the complementarity of protected areas to conserve biodiversity effectively. This study identified the potential habitat areas using the species distribution model for plant species from the 3rd National Ecosystem Survey and compared the plant species abundance in the existing protected area and the potential protected areas using the similarity indices, such as the Jaccard index, Sorenson index, and Bray-Curtis index. As a result, we found that the complementarity of the existing protected areas and most potential protected areas were low, leading to the preservation of similar plant species. Only the buffer zone for Korea National Arboretum had high complementarity and thus is important to conserve some species with the other protected areas. This study confirmed that it was necessary to select additional protected areas outside the existing or potential protected areas to protect plant species with a low inclusion ratio of potential habitats within the protected area. This study is significant because it identified the ecological representativeness of each protected area to examine if the individual protected area can conserve unique and various species and proposed a method of finding candidate areas for additional conservation spatially. The findings of this study can be a valuable reference for the qualitative improvement of protected areas through the complementarity assessments, including animals and the effectiveness assessment study of protected areas using the National Ecosystem Survey data in the future.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2014

Considering the wide coverage, the transparency from climate condition, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) possesses a great potential for the landcover classification as shown in many precedent researches. In addition to the merits of InSAR products for the landcover classification, the time series analysis of InSAR pairs can provide a highly reliable basis to interpret landcover. We applied such idea with the test site in Mountain Baekdu located on the border between North Korea and China. Since it is recently noted as the potential volcanic activation site, the landcover especially the vegetation distribution information is highly essential to validate the reliability of Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) over Mt. Baekdu. The algorithms combining the auxiliary information from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to analyze the phase coherence and backscatter coefficient of Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) was established. The results using InSAR signatures from two polarization modes of ALOS PALSAR showed high reliability for mining landcover and spatial distribution.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.30-41
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• 1998

This study analyzed urban greenspace area and vegetation structure by land use types for Kangnam-gu and Junglang-gu in Seoul different in income and building construction date. The study districts had a similar areal distribution of land use types. Residential lands accounted for about 32~37% of total area, natural lands, 19~22%, commercial and industrial lands(including transportation), 13~18%, and institutional lands, 13~17%. Greenspace covered only 20~30% of urban residential and commercial area in which human activities of living concentrate. Canopy stocking level in urban lands (all land uses except natural and agrecultural lands) was about 39% for Kangnam-gu and 50% for Junglang-gu, showing tree planting potential slightly higher in Kangnam-gu than in Junglang-gu. Woody plant cover was approximately 13%, and tree density was 3 trees/100m$^{2}$ forurban lands in both districts. The tree-age structure was largely characterized by young, growing tree population, and species diversity within a diameter class decreases as the diameter classes get larger. Urban lands of both districts had quite a similar species composition of woody plants (similarity indez of 0.70). Income and bulding construction date did not result in significant diference between the two districts in vegetation structure for urban lands. Some strategies were ezplored to solve problems found in the present greenspace structures. They included increase of biomass and greenspace area through minimization of unnecessary impervious surfaces, creation of multilayered and multiaged vegetation structures, and avoidance of intensive tree pruning and relocation of above ground utility lines.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.51-66
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• 1991

In the stability analysis of hillside slopes, the roots of vegetation have been considered to act as a soil reinforcement. In order to predict the amount of increase in soil shear resistance, produced by tensile strength of roots that intersect a potential slip surface in hillside slopes, new soil -root interaction models are proposed in this paper. For this purpose, firstly, laboratary teats and in-situ tests wert performed on soil-root systems, and experimental results were compared with a couple of soil-root interaction models which had been proposed by Gray, Waldron, and Wu etc. Based on this comparison, a new soil-root interaction model is proposed. Secondly, a probabilistic soil-root model is proposed based on statistical analysis considering random nature of root distribution, root characteristics, and soil-root interactions. Finally, to examine the effect of this root reinforcement system on stability of hillside slopes, a simple three-dimensional stability analysis was performed, and it was shown that root reinforcement had a significant stabilizing influence on shallow slips rather than deep slips in hillside slopes.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.105-118
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• 2017

The debris slope landforms which are existent in Korean mountains is generally on the steep slopes and mostly covered by vegetation, it is difficult to investigate the landform. Therefore a scientific method is required to come up with an effective field investigation plan. For this purpose, the use of Remote Sensing and GIS technologies for a spatial analysis is essential. This study has extracted the potential area of debrisslope landform formation using Fuzzy set and Bayesian Predictive Discriminate Model as mathematical data integration methods. The first step was to obtain information about debris locations and their related factors. This information was verified through field investigation and then used to build a database. In the second step, the map that zoning the study area based on the degree of debris formation possibility was generated using two modeling methods, and then cross validation technique was applied. In order to quantitatively analyze the accuracy of two modeling methods, the calculated potential rate of debrisformation within the study area was evaluated by plotting SRC(Success Rate Curve) and calculating AUC(Area Under the Curve). As a result, the prediction accuracy of Fuzzy set model wes 83.1% and Bayesian Predictive Discriminate Model wes 84.9%. It showed that two models are accurate and reliable and can contribute to efficient field investigation and debris landform management.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.77-91
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• 2017

Many debris landforms in the mountains of Korea have formed in the periglacial environment during the last glacial stage when the generation of sediments was active. Because these landforms are generally located on steep slopes and mostly covered by vegetation, however, it is difficult to observe and access them through field investigation. A scientific method is required to reduce the survey range before performing field investigation and to save time and cost. For this purpose, the use of remote sensing and GIS technologies is essential. This study has extracted the potential area of debris landform formation using a fuzzy set model as a mathematical data integration method. The first step was to obtain information about the location of debris landforms and their related factors. This information was verified through field observation and then used to build a database. In the second step, we conducted the fuzzy set modeling to generate a map, which classified the study area based on the possibility of debris formation. We then applied a cross-validation technique in order to evaluate the map. For a quantitative analysis, the calculated potential rate of debris formation was evaluated by plotting SRC(Success Rate Curve) and calculating AUC(Area Under the Curve). The prediction accuracy of the model was found to be 83.1%. We posit that the model is accurate and reliable enough to contribute to efficient field investigation and debris landform management.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.32-32
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• 2019

The aim of this study was to provide basic guidelines for conservation and management of endangered plants in the national parks of Korea. Iris dichotoma Pall. (Iridaceae), which is a popular garden plant, is considered a second-class endangered species by Korean government and it is listed as a EN (Endangered) species in Red Data Book of Korea. We analyzed ecological conditions of I. dichotoma habitats based on vegetation properties and soil characteristics. This species which is known to inhabit in grassland adjacent to the ocean of lowlands slope and its population was located at an elevation of 8 m to 11 m. In the study sites, the mean of soil organic matter, total nitrogen and soil pH were 6.16%, 0.234% and 5.39 respectively. Additionally, the genetic variation and structure of three populations were assessed using ISSR (Inter Simple Sequence Repeat) markers. The genetic diversity of I. dichotoma (P = 59.46%, H = 0.206, S = 0.310) at the species level was relatively high. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed 82.1% of the total genetic diversity was occurred in within populations and 17.9% variation among populations. Lastly, we developed predicted distribution model based on climate and topographic factors by applying SDMs (Species Distribution Models). Consequently, current status of I. dichotoma habitats is limited with natural factors such as the increase of the coverage rate of the herbs due to ecological succession. Therefore, it is essential to establish in situ and ex situ conservation strategies for protecting natural habitats and to require exploring potential and alternative habitats for reintroduction.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.69-78
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• 2011

Rice is one of the world's staple foods. Paddy rice fields have unique biophysical characteristics that the rice is grown on flooded soils unlike other crops. Information on the spatial distribution of paddy fields and the timing of irrigation are of importance to determine hydrological balance and efficiency of water resource management. In this paper, we detected the timing of irrigation and spatial distribution of paddy fields using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor onboard the NASA EOS Aqua satellite. The timing of irrigation was detected by the combined use of MODIS-based vegetation index and Land Surface Water Index (LSWI). The detected timing of irrigation showed good agreement with field observations from two flux sites in Korea and Japan. Based on the irrigation detection, a land cover map of paddy fields was generated with subsidiary information on seasonal patterns of MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI). When the MODISbased paddy field map was compared with a land cover map from the Ministry of Environment, Korea, it overestimated the regions with large paddies but underestimated those with small and fragmented paddies. Potential reasons for such spatial discrepancies may be attributed to coarse pixel resolution (500 m) of MODIS images, uncertainty in parameterization of threshold values for discarding forest and water pixels, and the application of LSWI threshold value developed for paddy fields in China. Nevertheless, this study showed that an improved utilization of seasonal patterns of MODIS vegetation and water-related indices could be applied in water resource management and enhanced estimation of evapotranspiration from paddy fields.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.375-387
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• 2024

This study investigated the ecological characteristics of Fraxinus chiisanensis Nakai, one of the endemic and rare plant species in Korea, based on its distribution status, characteristics of the growth environment, and species composition. A vegetation survey that analyzed the correlation between species distribution patterns and environmental variables, along with the traits of the emergent plant species, was performed according to the explanation of environmental growth conditions and phytosociological method for the location where F. chiisanensis is found. A total of 19 dominant locations and 9 non-dominant locations of F. chiisanensis were observed in 28 study sites in 12 regions, and a total of 155 taxa were observed. According to the vegetation climate of Korea, the growth environment of the study site where F. chiisanensis is located is characterized as cold and is primarily situated within the northern temperate deciduous broadleaf forest zone. The average elevation was 859m above sea level, with an average rock exposure of 60.4%, soil exposure of 24.7%, and an average slope of 18.7°. The taxa belonging to the top P-NCD(Percentage of Net Contribution Degree) among the emergent species were mostly designated as the taxa emerging in valley vegetation. The correlation analysis of environmental variables revealed that altitude had the strongest correlation, with rock exposure showing the second highest correlation. The ongoing dynamics of the F. chiisanensis forest are anticipated to persist due to the high P-NCD values exhibited by the F. chiisanensis within the shrub and herbaceous layers among the taxa associated with tree species. Most F. chiisanensis habitats are currently situated within protected regions such as national parks, provincial parks, and county parks, where there are relatively minimal human-induced disturbances. However, there is potential for damage in areas not designated as protected, such as forest tending operation sites or new hiking trails. Concerns about declining habitat quality have prompted suggestions for management strategies such as establishing Forest Genetic Resource Reserves in these locations. In addition, follow-up and further research should be conducted to identify possible sites for distribution and establish candidate conservation areas based on various environmental conditions of F. chiisanensis.