• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.439-448
• /
• 2018

Conventional Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) detects the propagated P-wave from epicenter which should be achieved within 5 seconds to provide seconds to minutes of warning, allowing people to prepare for protective actions. EEWS in Korea is currently capable of providing a warning within 50 seconds after the primary P-wave detection, however, it is well-known that earthquake warning systems operating around Korean National Parks (KNP) have limited capability to fully monitor earthquake events. This study, therefore, presents a strategy to quantify the potential vulnerability to earthquake hazards by superimposing the distribution of Korea Integrated Seismic System (KISS) and the discretized map of KNP. Total 22 national parks are evaluated, and the results suggest that the improvement of the on-site systems should be necessitated for Gyoengju, Gyeryongsan, Songnisan, Gayasan, and Deogyusan national parks, whereas enhancement of regional systems is required for Bukhansan national park.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.484-489
• /
• 2014

In this paper, we examined factors that influenced light pollution in Korean national parks during peak and off-peak tourist seasons. Cloud-and moonlight-free nighttime satellite images that were collected during October 2012(for peak season) and January 2013(for off-peak season) by the Day and Night Band (DNB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor were used to estimate the levels of light pollution in 19 national parks (excluding the Bukhansan and Mudeungsan National Parks). Bootstrapping regression analyses were conducted to examine the effects of socioeconomic and policy factors on light pollution in the study national parks for peak and off-peak tourist seasons, separately. The characteristics of light pollution in the national parks varied by season. During the peak tourist season, light pollution in the national parks were affected more by night lights nearby the parks than those within in the parks, while in the off-peak season, light sources in the parks were more important. Scattering of light emitted from hotels and other recreational facilities outside the parks that led to the sky glow effect can be attributed to the greater impact of night lights nearby the parks during the peak season. This result suggests that regulating light pollution nearby the park areas is needed to mitigate light pollution in the national parks, especially in a peak tourist season.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.24 no.11
• /
• pp.1405-1415
• /
• 2015

This study is conducted to determine the damage, distinguish the types and identify the restoration by that type for 13 Korea national parks out of 21. There are 21 Korea national parks are in Korea covering 6.67% of the country or $6,656km^2$ ($3,902km^2$ on land and $2,754km^2$ in the sea) currently since the area around Jirisan ($440km^2$) was designated as the first Korea national parks in 1967. With the cancellation of entrance admission on Korea national parks since 2007, annual visitors to the Korea national parks have grown from 37 millions in 2008 to 46 millions by 2013 and continue to grow due to numerous leisure activities, alpine activities and social changes. As such, Korea national parks are natural resource with high value to be conserved and are attracting significant attention as recreational spaces for people at the same time. On the other hand, there have been issues of soil erosions or disturbed vegetation due to increased number of visitor to the national parks. Korea national parks area damage to its type and damage characteristics to analyse the 13 Korea national parks out of 21 on July 2012 March, Korea national parks over the subjects of the National Park from damaged area status Survey analysis by the Korea National Park Service. As a result, 203 million units in the 16 Korea national parks damaged land of the reform package during ecological trail (including non-regular hiking trails) 153 (77.66%), damaged valleys 20(9.14%) independent damaged area, 13 disconnected ecological axis(7.61%), closed trail(2.03%) (3.55%), and line type damage(like a non-regular hiking trails) appears to be a high ratio. Korea national parks damaged land of the results identified, by contrast ratio and the annual number of visitors Bukhansan national park(49.26%), Gyeongju national park(23.65%) damaged land rates, such as Seorasan national park(4.93%), Songnisan national park (4.43 %), Gyeryongsan national park(3.45%), and the annual number of visitors be similar result. The National Park Service has been reporting on damages and restorations but damages and their types have not been established yet. Damages have been generally studied and categorized on hiking trails due caused by heavy traffic on them but the reports were limited on hiking trails only. Since damage to the Korea national parks are not limited on the hiking trails, it is necessary to determine damages in various aspects. Thus, in this study, damage types, spatial characteristics, causes and restorations are analyzed based on the survey results of damages to national parks in order to provide a basis for the efficient management and operation of the Korea national parks.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.104 no.3
• /
• pp.352-359
• /
• 2015

This study was conducted to evaluate how the special protection area designations of degraded trails effect on the soil and vegetation recovery of degraded trails. The study areas were established on an opened trail and a 16-year closed trail, which was prohibited to enter after the designation as a special protection area for recovery, at Bukhansan National Park. Soil core sampling and measurements of vegetation cover were performed to compare soil and vegetation properties of the trails. Soil bulk density increased and soil water total nitrogen decreased on the opened trail, while no significant differences were found on bulk density, soil water, total nitrogen, acidity, and organic matter on the closed trail. On the opened trail, vegetation cover was seemed to be degraded, because vegetation litter cover ratio was low and barren rock cover ratio was high. On the closed trail, litter rock barren cover ratio of the closed trail was recovered, but only limited recovery was found on vegetation cover by applying environmental damage condition rating class. In conclusion, the closed trail was recovered by designation of special protection area, while difference in recovery progress of soil and vegetation was found. Therefore, designation of special protection area of degraded area should be based on scientific basis of recovery characteristics of the area. In order to improve the effectiveness of special protection area system, further specific standards for special protection area designation and management would be needed, considering ecological and social importance of target areas.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.93-104
• /
• 2013

Daejiguksaptapbi (Tapbi) is a memorial stele which is inscribed with personal history of a state preceptor, Daejiguksa Beopkyeong. The Tapbi comprises tortoise-shaped pedestal, dragon top and body stone, and the body stone is remained in 255 pieces by excavation in Samcheonsaji temple site of Seoul. The Tapbi is composed of tuffaceous breccia for the body, coarse-grained pink feldspar granite for the pedestal and fine-grained granite for the top. As a result of geological survey to find a rock provenance of the Tapbi rock, the tuffaceous breccia is found in the banks of Gangwha straits, and the pink feldspar granite and fine-grained granite are found around the temple site in Mt. Bukhansan. Each rock shows similarities to the Tapbi in lithology and mineralogy. Also, geochemical data of major, some trace and rare earth elements verify their cognation in each rock type. It can be interpreted that the provenance of the body stone is distant as Gangwha area, and the provenance of the pedestal and top stones are near the temple site. The results can be utilized to restore the Tapbi by using the same rocks.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.104 no.2
• /
• pp.267-276
• /
• 2015

This study suggests a macroscopic method of evaluating forest recreation function based on physical characteristics of forests. The method was verified by a correlation between forest recreation function in popular top 45 mountains and popularity among them, with using data-mountain area, height, distance between mountain and cities, population around mountain, and size of public service. According to analysis of the forest recreation function, it is shown that top 8 mountains, including Jirisan and Seoraksan, provide over 64% of total recreation function, while they serve the function relatively lower than mountains near mega cities-Bukhansan in Seoul-do, in terms of the function per unit area ($km^2$). It is because, in a case of national and provincial mountains, the size of mountain is likely a critical factor for determining recreation function and the distance influences on it relatively lower. These findings implicate that a large size of forests bring the recreation function to visitors on nationwide level, whileas forests in suburban provide intensively it to near population to near population.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.106-112
• /
• 2008

To investigate the vegetation structure of the mountain ridges ranging from Songchu to Dobong, this research set up 22 plots$(400m^2)$ as survey target areas. As a result of the analysis of woody plant cluster, it was classified as two groups-Quercus mongolica community and Quercus mongolica-Pinus densiflora community. Quercus mongolica was found as a mostly dominant woody plant species in the ridge areas from Songchu to Dobong, while Pinus densiflora, Quercus serrata and Quercus acutissima were mixed up partly in low altitudes. High negative correlations were shown between Quercus mongolica and Quercus serrata, Quercus serrata and Acer pseudosieboldianum, Pinus densiflora and Acer pseudosieboldianum, and relatively high positive correlations were found to exist between Quercus acutissima and Quercus serrata; Quercus mongolica and Rhododendron mucronulatum; Pinus rigid a and Rhododendron schlippenbachii; Sorbus alnifolia and Rhododendron mucronulatum; Pinus rigida and Pinus densiflora; Pinus densiflora and Robinia pseudoacacia; Acer pseudosieboldianum and Styrax obassia; Magnolia sieboldii and Symplocos chinensis. Species diversity index(H') by community at the surveyed areas stayed in the scope of $0.997\sim1.160$, which indexes showed nothing different from the vegetation structure of other national parks.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.109-120
• /
• 2016

This study aims to assess vulnerability in urban thermal environments of Seoul by using indicators frequently used in previous studies as well as effective indicators for spatial planning like urban and environmental planning. For this purpose, fifteen indicators that influence urban thermal environments such as heat waves, urban heat island effects, and urban micro-climates were identified based on literature reviews. Indicators for presenting urban structure and spatial properties were included; for example, building volume as 'exposure to climate', buildings completed before 1980 as 'sensitivity', and green space areas as 'adaptive capacity'. Among them, twelve indicators were applied to assess vulnerability in urban thermal environments of Seoul by using a GIS spatial analysis combined with fuzzy logic. The results show that the Gangnam area is identified as more vulnerable to a heat environment as compared to the Gangbuk area. In the Gangnam area, Seocho-gu, Gangnam-gu, Dongjak-gu, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Gangseo-gu were relatively high in vulnerability, while Dongdaemun-gu, Gangbuk-gu, Gwangjin-gu, Jungrang-gu were relatively high in the Gangbuk area. Gwanak-gu, Dobong-gu, Eunpyeong-gu, and Nowon-gu, which include forested areas, have low vulnerability in the sectors of 'exposure to climate' and 'sensitivity' due to the impact of Gwanaksan and Bukhansan. However, some areas with high vulnerability like Seocho-gu and Gangnam-gu may have lower vulnerability if the indicator 'status of air conditioning' from the sector of 'adaptive capacity' is used. This study could support the establishment of a practicable thermal environment policy and spatial planning to reduce heat-related risks in the field of urban and environmental planning.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.200-208
• /
• 2013

The purposes of this study are developing a stress index for each individual major trail in the national parks and contribute to establishing a park management policy based on scientific analyses using the index. We collected data from 144 sections of trails in national parks, conducted the Delphi survey and factor analysis, and generated the stress index by standardizing scores of factors contributing to the stress for each trail. As aresult, total eight factors contributing to the stress were considered and four of them, i.e. the amount of visits, the effect of visits, the degree of trail destruction, and species diversity, were selected to generate the stress index. How to weigh factors was determined by their importance obtained in the second Delphi survey and the average from a 5 point Likert scale. Then, the cumulative probabilities from the standardized scores were graded into five groups. In conclusion, there were twenty trails from the six national parks including Jirisan, Bukhansan, Deogyusan, Naejangsan, Seoraksan in the first grade which gained over 80 as the stress index.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.47 no.5
• /
• pp.384-397
• /
• 2021

Background: With volatile organic compounds (VOCs) containing aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, and xylene that can adversely affect the respiratory and cardiovascular systems when a certain concentration is reached, it is important to accurately evaluate the source and the corresponding health risk effects. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to provide scientific evidence for the city of Seoul's VOC reduction measures by confirming the risk of each VOC emission source. Methods: In 2020, 56 VOCs were measured and analyzed at one-hour intervals using an online flame ionization detector system (GC-FID) at two measuring stations in Seoul (Gangseo: GS, Bukhansan: BHS). The dominant emission source was identified using the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model, and health risk assessment was performed on the main components of VOCs related to the emission source. Results: Gasoline vapor and vehicle combustion gas are the main sources of emissions in GS, a residential area in the city center, and the main sources are solvent usage and aged VOCs in BHS, a greenbelt area. The risk index ranged from 0.01 to 0.02, which is lower than the standard of 1 for both GS and BHS, and was an acceptable level of 5.71×10^-7 to 2.58×10^-6 for carcinogenic risk. Conclusions: In order to reduce the level of carcinogenic risk to an acceptable safe level, it is necessary to improve and reduce the emission sources of vehicle combustion and solvent usage, and eco-car policies are judged to contribute to the reduction of combustion gas as well as providing a response to climate change.