• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.19-27
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• 2008

Ecosystem fragmentation by human intervention breaks down the biosphere habitat. Wildlife corridors connect biosphere habitats to maintain ecosystem continuity and provide animals with connecting routes. In Korea, there are 17 existing wildlife corridors on highways (as of December, 2006. Korea Freeway Corporation). There are 24 highway routes, 2,923km of highway(as of December, 2004. Korea Freeway Corporation). However, wildlife corridors are not enough and roadkill increases every year, so we need to construct additional wildlife corridors on highways. This study proposes a new approach to the location of wildlife corridors on highways, using a comprehensive analysis method for main location elements, and applies it to a study area. First, it examines traditional approaches to location of wildlife corridors through literature review and field study to analyze the present conditions of existing wildlife corridors. Then, it developes a comprehensive analysis method for the location of wildlife corridors. (1) Field investigation : investigate planting, water bodies and so on. (2) Roadkill analysis : roadkill counts, locations, time, and so on. (3) Monitoring : animal traces were surveyed and sensor cameras were installed to determine target species. (4) Simulation for animal movement : most probable wildlife dispersal was simulated by a computer software. (5) A new comprehensive approach overlays all analysis on a map and determines the location of proposed new wildlife corridors. In conclusion, it proposes an over-bridge type wildlife corridor in Dalnaenae Hill (413-414km from Busan) and an underpass type near the entrance to Gwanhyun temple way (415-416km from Busan). This new approach based on roadkill data, computer simulation of wildlife dispersal, monitoring of animals, and site analysis, may contribute to better location of wildlife corridors on highways.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.69-80
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• 2021

The new town in Korea, developed as a large-scale housing plan, has created urban ecological corridors to provide habitat and movement routes to wildlife and to promote natural ecological flow. This study aimed to investigate the use of wildlife in 10 ecological corridors in Gwanggyo New Town through camera trap technology and confirm effectiveness by identifying environmental factors affecting the use of wildlife's urban ecological corridors. Our researchers installed 20 unmanned sensor cameras at each the entrance and exit of the ecological corridors, and monitored urban wildlife for 10 weeks. According to the monioring results, the main species in Gwanggyo New Town were identified not only raccons, cats, water deer, korean hare and avain but also magpies, dove, eurasian tree sparrow, ring-necked pheasant, and eurasian jay. The number of uses ecological corridors of urban residents was 801(13.49%), as high as that of urban wildlife (1,140, 19.20%), which was judged to have disturbed the use of ecological corridors by wildlife. However, most dominant species of urban wildlife are nocturnal so that, it was judged that they share home range with urban residents at a time interval. In addition, according to the correlation analysis results between the mammal using rate of the urban ecological corridors and environmental factors(ecological corridor-specific length, ecological corridor-specific width, cover degree, shielding degree, connected green area, separation of movement routes, and presence of streetlights), environmental factors were not statistically significant. However, the more the area of green space connected to ecological corridors, the more increasing the mammal using rate of ecological corridor(r=0.71, p<0.05). Therefore, the area of green space connected to the ecological corridors that is associated with rate of wildlife using corridors should be considered as a priority when developing an urban ecological corridors. In the future, this study will extend the observation period of the ecological corridors and continuously accumulate data by adding the number of observation cameras. Furthermore, it is expected that the results of this study can be used as basic data for the standards for urban ecological corridors installation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.41-55
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• 2005

In an effort to preserve biodiversity in increasingly fragmented green patches, Korea has been installing eco-corridors over or under some arterial or expressways. In a survey of 43 such eco-corridors installed up until the year 2003, some problems and issues were identified. Some selected overseas eco-corridors were also investigated to find implications for the improvements of future installations in Korea. Major findings are; - For most existing eco-corridors, target species are not specified and locations of the eco-corridors are not well considered, and consequently it is questionable if wildlifes are crossing them - Most of existing eco-corridors lack supporting facilities such as fences that guide wildlife to cross them and prevent them from running into the road - Planting on the eco-corridors is not sufficient, not diverse enough in species, and not very considerate of wildlife but designed and planted in a similar manner as in urban parks - Where target species are not well specified, the location, width, cross section, and other aspects of the eco-corridors can not be optimized - It is suggested that eco-corridors are planned at early stages of road planning so that the number and locations of eco-corridor(s) decided as necessary and even the alignment and design of roads consider the installation of eco-corridors in advance - Monitoring of wildlife crossings is needed for improved eco-corridor planning and design - Nationwide green network plan is desirable to be made first and eco-corridors fit into it.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.13-24
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• 2011

This study was carried out to analyze ecological characteristics and select target species for effective restoration plans of wildlife corridors at Galmachi of Sungnam City. The actual vegetation in study area was physiognomically mixed with deciduous broad leaved forests dominated by oaks and artificially planted species. And it is a secondary forest formatted by sprout originated stand and being on early succession stage as a young stand. So study site was regarded as not suitable for the habitats for wildlife. The number of mammal species at study site was total 22 species, but most of these species were found as not so many in individual numbers. The individual number of hare was approximately 4 to 8, while the raccoon dog and water deer with 2 to 3 and 1 to 2, respectively. As such, it was estimated as a low population density due to discontinuation of ecosystem and the man-made impacts. In this study, raccoon dog and water deer were selected as the target species because of their migration patterns and ecological value in local ecosystem. It was suggested to establish a wildlife corridors of an over-bridge type at the peak area of Galmachi, known to be the mostly-used migratory route for 2 target species.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.185-198
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• 2016

Korea has put in significant efforts to increase the number of wildlife crossings between fragmented habitats to prevent loss of biodiversity and to encourage the habitat connectivity in Korea. However, there is a lack of biological data on the effect of vegetation structure in these wildlife crossings and guidelines for design and management of wildlife crossing structures in Korea. Therefore, we selected ground beetle assemblages as model organisms to compare the effect of vegetation structure in wildlife crossings, i.e. bare ground- and shrub-type corridors, in agro-forested landscapes. For this study, 4,207 ground beetles belonging to 33 species were collected through pitfall trapping along the northern forest-corridor-southern forest transects from late April to early September in 2015. Dominant species, abundance, and species richness of ground beetles were significantly higher in the shrub-type corridors than the bare ground-type corridors. Also, the species composition of bare ground-type corridor was significantly different compared to the other habitats such as shrub-type corridor and forests. Similarly, environmental variables were also influenced by vegetation management regimes or trap locations. Collectively, our study clearly indicates that the movement of forest associated ground beetles between forest patches can increase as the vegetation in wildlife crossings becomes complex. Although further studies are needed to verify this, there are indications that the current wildlife crossings that comply with the guidelines may be unfriendly to the movement of ground dwelling arthropods as well as ground beetles. To enhance the ecological function of wildlife crossings, the guidelines need to be rectified as follows: 1) Shrubs or trees should be planted along the corridor verges to provide refuge or movement paths for small mammals and ground dwelling arthropods, and 2) Open spaces should be provided in the middle of the corridors to be used as a path for the movement of large mammals.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.70-82
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• 2000

This is a study to generate a theoretical base for the development of wildlife corridor as a solution to the problems of wildlife population size reduction and declining bio-diversity resulting from the fragmented habitats caused by road constructions. This study seeks to examine and define techniques in very aspect of wildlife corridor including planning, site selection, design and development, and maintenance through an actual application. The results of this study are as follows. 1) The wildlife corridor should be developed in an approach supplementing a landscape ecological approach and a restoration ecological approach bilaterally. To this end, systematic methodology and process are required. 2) It was restored an ecosystem as close as possible go to the forest ecosystem before road development. In addition, in order to allow it to function as an ecological corridor, topography restoration, stream development, and ecological plantation were implemented. 3) The result of monitoring activities that continued for one year since the development confirmed the migration and inhabitation of a number of animals including small mammals. It is judged that it functions as a corridor in fragmented habitats as initially expected. 4) Through continuous monitoring in the future, the effects of corridor development on ecological restoration need to be reviewed in a long-term perspective. There is also a need to develop and refine a comprehensive maintenance plan for wildlife corridors and their surroundings. Based on such study results, actual data on the development of wildlife corridor should be accumulated. In follow-up studies, after continuous monitoring for a long period of time, the effects of wildlife corridor development should be evaluated comprehensively and wildlife corridor applicable to Korea should be standardized by correcting disclosed problems.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.36-45
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• 2001

Natural disturbances and human development can cause habitat fragmentation. Plant and wildlife can become isolated, and habitat fragmentation and shrinkage have been recognized as a key issue facing the conservation of biological diversity. However, eco-corridors can alleviate the problem by providing linkages between isolated patches. The purpose of this study is to plan the eco-corridor for connecting urban forest via the urban stream with low cost and to restore the ecosystem. The results were as follows (1) Falco subbuteo, and Dryocopus martius inhabit in the study site. They are protected species designated by Korean Ministry of Environment. Thus the study site should be preserved as urban wildlife habitat species biodiversity (2) If the biodiversity of the study site is maintained properly, the eco-corridor can be constructed with low cost.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.287-298
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• 2019

This study found that wildlife crossing created through environmental impact assessments didn't reduce the number of wildlife accidents on the road by review of "A Study on the Legal and Institutional Review for Reproving Bio-Mobile in Environmental Impact Assessment(2018)". Specific considerations to be reviewed at each stage of the environmental impact assessment consultation were presented for practical site application. Therefore, in this study, the consultation steps for environmental impact assessment were presented in five stages, including planning, design, construction, monitoring, maintenance and management, and detail of the items to be reviewed by public officer. It will be able to prevent loss of habitats and improve biodiversity by improving the practice and institutional problems that were planned and designed at the time of construction.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.29-38
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• 1999

Present green space planning of Korea pay little attention to biodiversity conservation in urban areas. The quality of urban wildlife habitat has been deteriorated severely due to fragmentation and isolation of urban open spaces. The application of ecological corridors to urban green space planning and management can greatly enhance the bird habitat of Seoul. The objectives of this study were to evaluate bird habitat potential of existing urban parks of Seoul, and to investigate methods to develop ecological corridors for wild birds. This study consists of three parts. The first part is to construct bird species/habitat relationship model. The second part is to evaluate 207 urban parks of Seoul with the model. Based on the relative potential for bird habitat, urban parks of Seoul can be classified into cores, nodes, and points of the network. Outcomes of this part can also be used to enhance the quality of bird habitats by identifying limits or weakness of existing green spaces for bird habitat. The final part is to develop three green network plans; north-south network, the Han river network, and a district network for Kangnam-Gu.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.340-344
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• 2006

The objective of this paper was to investigate the potential of road-crossing structures as biological corridors that can overcome wildlife habitat fragmentation caused by road construction. Snow tracking on animal trace adjacent to and under bridges, underpasses, and culverts of eight rural highways in Korea was carried out. A total 89 structures were monitored and the results follow. First, the probability of road crossing increases with the increasing cross sectional size of crossing structures. Second, small to medium sized carnivores such as raccoon dog, leopard cat, and Siberian weasel use all types of structures. Finally, water deer, or large herbivore crossed only under bridges. Consequently, further studies are necessary to identify suitable types of road crossing structures that can mitigate the probability of road-kills and habitat fragmentation of water deer.