• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.27-34
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• 2023

Background: The understanding of ecosystem services can be quantified and qualitative to assess the impacts of changes in the ecosystem to support human well-being. In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, sustainable use of ecosystem services has attracted the interest of a range of decision-makers. However, although there is a concern for biodiversity, natural ecosystem, and their services, linking ecosystems with conservation planning remains challenging. Results: This study assessed the first qualitative ecosystem services provided by the Mundok wetland with decision makers of the West/Yellow Sea region. Furthermore, this study applied the Rapid Assessment Wetland Ecosystem method to support natural resources management, improving living conditions. We identified that cultural and supporting services index are highly provided, but preparing a plan to increase the provisioning and regulating services in Mundok wetland is necessary. Conclusions: The assessment results can provide helpful information for ecosystem services assessment, habitat conservation, conservation planning, and decision-making at local level.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.147-153
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• 2023

Urbanization has been causing such new pollutants as micro-plastic, thus the environmental impact of new pollutants on ecosystem is rapidly increasing. When it comes to micro-plastic, a representative artificial trace pollutant, its risk has been increased at a much faster rate, however the depth study associated with stormwater sediment and wetland was relatively rare. In this research, soil samples from storm water sediment were analyzed for distribution characteristics of micro-plastics in the J wetland (registered as Ramsar wetland, May 2021 and a representative environmental site in South Korea). Analyzed soil samples found approximately 201 ± 93 particle/kg (based on unit weight, Total micro plastic particles / Total Sample weight) micro-plastics in the samples. When considering the total quantitative numbers in stormwater sediment in the entire area of the J wetland, over 15,000 micro-plastics were estimated to be contaminating such area. In addition, in terms of qualitative numbers, micro-plastics were contaminating the J wetland with 94.7 % ratio of styrofoam type (43.9%) and polyethylene type (50.8%). These research results can be used as base data sets for controlling micro-plastics in the J wetland.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.222-232
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• 2014

The flora of vascular plants in Sumeunmulbaengdui wetland located in Hallasan National Park was surveyed 9 times from September, 2010 to May, 2014. This survey resulted in 236 taxa in total composed of 202 species, 2 subspecies, 27 varieties and 5 forms of 148 genera under 69 families. They were categorized by their life forms into 8 groups of 37 megaphanerophytes, 26 nanophanerophytes, 2 epiphytes, 3 chamaephytes, 84 hemicryptophytes, 33 geophytes, 21 hydrophytes, 30 therophytes. Among them, 10 taxa of Korean endemic plants and 9 taxa of rare and endangered plants were included. In addition, the floristic regional indicator plants were 43 taxa comprised of 3 taxa of grade V, 7 taxa of grade IV, 12 taxa of grade III, 8 taxa of grade II and 13 taxa of grade I. 2 species of alien plants, Erechtites hieracifolia Raf. and Taraxacum officinale Weber were found. Sustainable interest and protective measures to Sumeunmulbaengdui wetland are required, since this area is comparatively larger in size and higher in plant diversity than other Ramsar wetlands in Jeju-do Province.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.575-605
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• 2007

Korea's tidelands policy IS examined and criticized in the paper. Korea's major tidelands in the west coast might disappear within a decade. The anachronistic development IS driven by the political interest group, forming coalition for reclamation and busily fulfilling its own profits under the facade of public good and regional development. But all regions of the world have been gradually scrapping the massive reclamation projects since the 1970's and active movements to reverse the reclamation and restore the nature are on the rise. In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to suspend the construction of the dam and to protect the snail darter despite that over 100 million dollars had been injected. This court ruling became famous and caused the American public to change their perception about the environment. In the Netherlands, following a prolonged discussion on pros and cons of reclamation, open type seawall was adopted to strike a balance among the available alternatives. Japan's Ministry of Environment was praised for forming the National Wetland Committee in order to designate 20 new Ramsar sites by 2008, with an objective to reach 33 designated Ramsar sites. Away from the large-scale reclamation projects, Korea has to move towards smaller-scale projects focusing on the knowledege intensive and circular economy society that are more in harmony with the environment.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.453-460
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• 2006

Upo wetland is the largest inland wetland in Korea as Ramsar Convention Area. The purposes of the study were to investigate the levels of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) in the sediment and Cipangopaludina chinensis malleata from three sites of the wetland and to assess the potential of the gastropod as a bioindicator for heavy metal levels. The gastropods were dissected into shell and soft tissue without the digestive and excretive organs. The levels of Cd, Cu and Pb were below the guideline of Soil Environment Conservation Act and the heavy metals except Cr were slightly different among the sites. Cd was higher in Upo site ($0.32{\mu}g/g$) than Sajipo site ($0.28{\mu}g/g$). Cu and Zn showed the highest value in Sajipo as $43.5{\mu}g/g\;and\;39.8{\mu}g/g$, respectively while the concentrations of Pb and Zn were the highest in Upstream as $58.8{\mu}g/g\;and\;138{\mu}g/g$, respectively. In the soft tissues and shells of the gastropod, the overall common trend in the concentrations of the heavy metals was revealed with the following order: Zn > Cu > Cr > Ni > Pb > Cd and Ni > Zn > Cr > Cu > Pb > Cd, respectively. Although the soft tissues exhibited higher concentrations of the heavy metals except Ni than the shell in the gastropod, the levels of Cd and Pb in the gastropod were generally below the restrictive values set up by Korea Food & Drug Administration. From Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) results, the concentrations of Pb and Zn in the sediments among the sites were reflected on the soft tissue (Pb) and the shell (Pb and Zn) of the gastropod in the same order. The lower value of coefficient of variation (CV) in Pb concentration of the shell than in that of the soft tissue supports the usefulness of the shell as a bioindicator for Pb pollution. Although the CV value in the shell was a little higher than in the soft tissue, DMRT results and the stability of incorporated Zn into the shell support the use of the shell of the gastropod as a potential bioindicator for long-term contamination of Zn.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.242-264
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• 2016

Tourism is a major sector of the national and regional economy in Southeast Asia endowed with rich natural environment and a variety of cultural and historical heritages. Tourism has been recognized as the industry without chimneys. However, as tourism sector is getting larger and being globally standardized, various problems such as environmental degradation as well as profits leakage from locals have been gradually aggravated. Against negative impacts from massive tourism various efforts have been tried and community-based ecotourism(CBET), seeking environmental conservation and community development at the same time, has emerged as a noteworthy alternative. By comparing the two cases of CBET in Indonesia and Cambodia, this paper aims to review the current status and future challenges of community development through ecotourism in Southeast Asia's rural villages. In the concrete, this paper analyses in-depth on case of JED(the village ecotourism network) in Bali, Indonesia and CBET project in Ramsar wetland reserves of Steung Treng province, Cambodia and founds out the possibility and main obstacles of community developmental strategy through CBET. Both cases have proven the positive outcomes in terms of environmental protection, local people's awareness improvement, and direct/indirect economic gain from CBET project. However, there are significant, but differentiated limitations in management capacities and stabilities of internal governance of two villages. Both villages are still in need of brisk networks with and assistance from the outside. In the conclusion part, this paper suggests CBET development program in Southeast Asia through Korea's social enterprises as one of the possible ODA programs(in tourism sector).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.639-647
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• 2009

In line with the rapid settlement of information society, the demand for geospatial information and its applications are dramatically increasing. The Project of National Geographic Information System(NGIS) is actively on going to meet up-to-dateness and accuracy of geospatial data. It is fact that the public interest in environmental issues is increasing than ever in accordance with the restoration of the four major rivers, core project of Green New Deal Policy, and the event of the Ramsar General Meeting. Because the Nakdong River Estuary is a place of great importance in both aspects of wetland and environment conservation, a variety of researches related to this area are progressing. Although artificial developments and natural phenomena are rapidly changing the topography and ecosystem of this area, the effort to build topographic DB for change monitoring is very slow. This study describes a Lidar surveying project over the restored wetland Eulsukdo, the southermost part of the Nakdong River, to establish precise topographic DB throughout producing 3D topographical maps and wetland classification maps. The results of this study will make a large contribution to the systematic maintenance and management for the restored Eulsukdo wetland.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.260-276
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• 2021

Wetlands are constantly affected by internal and external environments that make up the wetlands, and these effects make wetlands change. East Asia countries where about 15% of Ramsar's registered wetlands are located, is valuable conservation area due to various wetland types and biodiversity. However, due to climate change and other factors, the total area of wetlands has been reduced and biodiversity have been damaged. To mitigate these problems and to manage wetlands efficiently, it is important to identify the factors that change wetlands and to identify how each factor affects them. In this study, we conducted a wetland-related literature analysis in East Asia to derive factors that affect the changes in wetlands, and analyzed the relationships among the factors. Finally we presented research directions considering wetland change factors. In most of the East Asia countries, it was found that there is deficiency in research studies about extraction in direct factors and water-energy infrastructure, tourism & recreation in indirect factors. Also, we presented the necessity for future research using the result between connectivity & relationship analysis and indirect drivers of change and their influence on direct drivers of change. The results of this study could contribute to the establishment of an R&D cooperation system in East Asia region and strengthen wetland management.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_3
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• pp.1731-1745
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• 2023

Within the framework of the post-2020 climate regime, the Paris Agreement's emphasis on Nationally Determined Contributions and Biennial Transparency Reporting is paramount in addressing its long-term temperature goal. A salient issue is the treatment of wetland ecosystems within the context of Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry, as defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In the 2019 National Inventory Report, wetlands were recategorized as emission sources due to their designation as inundated areas. This study employs C-band radar imagery to discriminate between inundated and non-inundated regions of wetlands, enabling the quantification of their spatial dynamics. The research capitalizes on 24-period Sentinel-1 satellite data to cover both the inundation and desiccation phases while centering its attention on Ungok Wetland, a Ramsar-designated inland wetland conservation area in Korea. The inundated area is quantitatively assessed through the integration of multi-temporal Sentinel-1 Single-Look Complex (SLC) data, aerial orthophotography, and inland wetland spatial information. Furthermore, the study scrutinizes fluctuations in the maximum and minimum inundated areas, with substantial changes corroborated via drone aerial reconnaissance. The outcomes of this investigation hold the potential to make substantive contributions to the refinement of national greenhouse gas absorption and emission factors, thereby informing the development of comprehensive greenhouse gas inventories. These efforts align directly with the overarching objectives of the Paris Agreement.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.235-243
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• 2009

Wetlands considered to be an important natural resources because they provide biodiversity and habitat for species to breed and survive. In this regard, many countries in the world provide wetlands and have policies and laws to protect them. In Korea we hosted RAMSAR COP-10 at Changwon in 2008 representing Korea's endeavor to wetland protection. But, in the process of development Wetlands are easy target to be lost due its easy access and the laws and regulations to protect them are relatively weak. Thus, this research focused on the introduction of No Wetland Loss(NWL) and we can achieve wetland protection in the economy market ways. Thus, NWL should consider 1) a clear definition of NWL and harmony and consensus of introduction of NWL, 2) considering most wetlands be private we need a financial support for securing wetlands, 3) inventories for wetlands in Korea, draw a line of demarcation, technic to evaluate wetlands, 4) wetland restoration considering function of ecosystem not total amount of wetlands. Wetland protection should be a part of Basic Law of Water Management which in its progress and we need further studies on wetland protection because of watershed management, deserted agricultural paddies, etc.