• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.339-346
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• 2017

The Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change (KACCC) located in Korea Environment Institute has serviced a climate change vulnerability assessment support tool (VESTAP) since 2014 in order to help local governments to establish their own adaptation plans. Owing to its easy usage, the VESTAP has been utilized by not only local governments but also academia for examination of climate change vulnerability in various fields. However, the KACCC has not suggested a standard usage how to compose indices for climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptation capacity which are main components of vulnerability although the KACCC manages operation and application of the VESTAP. Many users had no choice but to compose indices based on their own interpretation on the components of vulnerability. This technical note suggests the standard usage of VESTAP by reevaluating some vulnerability assessments previously developed. This may help users to correctly compose indices for climate change vulnerability assessment, and may minimize possibility of inter-user inconsistency in definition of vulnerability assessments.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2019

This study applies the concept of climate change vulnerability assessment in order to suggest climate change adaptation effects in a quantitative manner, given that previous studies have hitherto rely on qualitative assessment, as climate change adaptive policies are currently being implemented by local governments of Korea. The vulnerability assessment tool used in this study is VESTAP ("Vulnerability assESsment Tool to build a climate change Adaptation Plan"), which was developed by the Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change (KACCC), and applied to gauge the vulnerability of pine trees to diseases and pests within Chungcheongnam-do. The climate change adaptation project for vulnerability improvement was assessed only in terms of forest disaster prevention and change in regional climate change vulnerabilities within 16 regions of Chungcheongnam-do as the result of 2016 Climate Change Adaptation Project (Forest Disaster Prevention Project). As a result, it was observed that climate change adaptive capacity has improved according to change in the area of forestland with disaster prevention, and the vulnerability indicator decreased, confirming the impact of the climate change adaptation (forest disaster prevention) project. Also, analysis of regional climate change adaptation project scales and change in vulnerabilities allowed us to determine the regional propriety of climate change adaptation (forest disaster prevention) projects launched in 2016.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.133-142
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to compare the results of climate change prospect and vulnerability assessment and the awareness of those by public officials and citizens at Yeongwol county, Gangwon province where experiencing the most climate change vulnerability. Data of 12 meteorological categories such as mean temperature at Yeongwol weather station from 1995 to 2013 were analyzed. Climate change vulnerability was assessed with 29 sub-categories in 6 categories (health, emergency/disaster, agriculture, forestry, water management, ecosystem) of National Institute of Environment Research's LCCGIS (2013). The awareness of climate change and its vulnerability was surveyed with 154 citizens and 130 officials at Yeoungwol county. The climate change prospect and its vulnerability was similar to the actual climate change effect. However, the awareness of climate change was different between some officials and citizens. The results of this study would be base data for the Yeoungwol county's future climate change adaptation poicy making.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.22-38
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• 2012

Adaptation of climate change is necessary to avoid unexpected impacts of climate change caused by human activities. Vulnerability refers to the degree to which system cannot cope with impacts of climate change, encompassing physical, social and economic aspects. Therefore the quantification of climate change impacts and its vulnerability is needed to identify vulnerable regions and to setup the proper strategies for adaptation. In this study, climate change vulnerability is defined as a function of climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Also, we identified regions vulnerable to ozone due to climate change in Korea using developed proxy variables of vulnerability of regional level. 18 proxy variables are selected through delphi survey to assess vulnerability over human health sector for ozone concentration change due to climate change. Also, we estimate the weighting score of proxy variables from delphi survey. The results showed that the local regions with higher vulnerability index in the sector of human health are Seoul and Daegu, whereas regions with lower one are Jeollanam-do, Gyeonggi-do, Gwangju, Busan, Daejeon, and Gangwon-do. The regions of high level vulnerability are mainly caused by their high ozone exposure. We also assessed future vulnerability according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A2, A1FI, A1T, A1B, B2, and B1 scenarios in 2020s, 2050s and 2100s. The results showed that vulnerability increased in all scenarios due to increased ozone concentrations. Especially vulnerability index is increased by approximately 2 times in A1FI scenarios in the 2020s. This study could support regionally adjusted adaptation polices and the quantitative background of policy priority as providing the information on the regional vulnerability of ozone due to climate change in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.789-798
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• 2011

Climate change assessment, together with climate change adaptation process, would be one of the worldwide important issues, and the study on climate change vulnerability indicator has been an essential problem for climate change adaptation. Vulnerability indicator can be used as a good tool to estimate the impact of climate change and to map out the distribution of its vulnerability over the given area both in Korea and other countries. This study addressed the conceptual summary on the assessment of climate change and its adaptation process. Previous studies on how to yield the vulnerability indicators of climate change are reviewed and several previous results of vulnerability indicators applied to Korean provinces are also discussed here.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.106-117
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• 2012

In an effort to analyze the impact of climate change, Gangwon provincial forest was divided into three sectors; forest ecology, forest disaster, and forest productivity and analysis of their current status from 2000 to 2009 and vulnerability assessment by climate change has been carried in this study. In case of vulnerability assessment, except for the forest ecology, forest disaster (forest fires and forest pests) and forest productivity sectors were analyzed in current status, the year of 2020, and 2050. It turned out that vulnerability of forest fires in the field of disaster would become worse and forest pests also would make more impact even though there is some variation in different areas. In case of the vulnerability of forest productivity there would be not a big difference in the future compared with current vulnerability. Systematic research on the sensitivity index used for vulnerability assessment is necessary since vulnerability assessment result greatly depends on the use of climate exposure index and adaptive capacity index.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.275-285
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• 2017

Chungnam region has established and executed the 2nd Climate Change Adaptation Initiative Execution Plan (2017~2021) based on the Framework Act on Low Carbon, Green Growth. The Execution Plan is established based on the results of climate change vulnerability assessment using the CCGIS, LCCGIS, and VESTAP analysis tools. However, the previously developed climate change vulnerability assessment tools (CCGIS, LCCGIS, VESTAP) cannot reflect the local records and the items and indices of new assessment. Therefore, this study developed a prototype of climate change vulnerability assessment analysis tool that, unlike the previous analysis tools, designs the items and indices considering the local characteristics and allows analysis of grid units. The prototype was used to simulate the vulnerability to forest fires of eight cities and seven towns in Chungcheongnam-do Province in the 2010s, 2020s, and 2050s based on the RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways) 8.5 Scenario provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration. Based on the analysis, Chungcheongnam-do Province's vulnerability to forest fires in the 2010s was highest in Seocheon-gun (0.201), followed by Gyeryong-si (0.173) and Buyeo-gun (0.173) and the future prospects in the 2050s was highest in Seocheon-gun (0.179), followed by Gyeryong-si (0.169) and Buyeo-gun (0.154). The area with highest vulnerability to forest fires in Chungcheongnam-do Province was Biin-myeon, Seocheon-gun and the area may become most vulnerable was Pangyo-myeon, Seocheon-gun. The prototype and the results of analysis may be used to establish the directions and strategies in regards to the vulnerability to wild fires to secure each local government's 2nd execution plan and attainability.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2011

Fisheries are subject to unexpected weather condition. While some change of it may be positive for some fisheries, the current state suggests that the effects will be undesirable for many fisheries. The aim of this study is to assess the vulnerability to climate change in 11 regional fisheries of Korea using the framework of IPCC. The vulnerability assessment depends upon the interrelation of three key elements; exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, which were derived from Analytical Hierarchy Process method in this study. These elements would contribute to comprehend relative importance at the regional characteristics of fisheries. We compared the vulnerability index of 11 regional fisheries so as to look for strategies and adaptation methods to the impacts of potential climate change. Jeoun-Nam, Kyeong-Nam, and Jeju are identified as the most vulnerable provinces to climate change on their fisheries because they have high level of sensitivity to predicted climate change and relatively low adaptive capacity. The relatively low vulnerability of Ulsan, Gyeonggi reflects high financial independence, well-equipped infrastructure, social capital in these regions. Understanding of vulnerability to climate change suggests future research directions. This paper will provide a guide to local policy makers and fisheries managers about vulnerability and adaptation planning to climate change.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.331-348
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• 2013

The frequency and intensity of abnormal climate caused by climate change is increasing in Korea. Also, the amount of damage from disaster is increasing rapidly. The research on vulnerability assessment analyzes environmentally, socially and economically vulnerable indicators and is ongoing to reduce the intensity of damage and establish adaptation policies for climate change. Therefore, in this study, we assessed vulnerability using weighting value derived by the regression equation. There are 3 evaluation items : vulnerability assessment for farmland erosion to flood, vulnerability assessment for health to heat wave, vulnerability assessment for forest fire to drought. For this study, indicators for each sectors were selected and spatial data for each sectors were established using GIS program. Results showed that vulnerability to heat wave was more affected by climate factors. On the other hand, vulnerability to flood and drought was more affected by social-economic factors. Then, to analysis efficiency of the regression analysis, vulnerability result was compared between the existing vulnerability research with no weighting applied and the vulnerability research with the influence of weighting value derived by the regression. This study showed that the regression analysis is efficient to provide practical and feasible alternatives in terms of planning climate change adaptation policies and it is expected to be utilized for vulnerability assessment in the future.

• KCID journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.33-42
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• 2011

Climate change has impacts on not only the average temperature rise but also the intensity and frequency of extreme events such as flood and drought. It is also expected that the damages on agricultural infrastructure will be increased resulting from increased rainfall intensity and frequency caused by climate change. To strengthen the climate change adaptation capacity, it is necessary to identify the vulnerability of a given society's physical infrastructures and to develop appropriate adaptation strategies with infrastructure management because generally facilities related to human settlements are vulnerable to climate changes and establishing an adaptive public infrastructure would reduce the damages and the repair cost. Therefore, development of mitigation strategies for agricultural infrastructure against climatic hazard is very important, but there are few studies on agricultural infrastructure vulnerability assessment and adaptation strategies. The concept of vulnerability, however, is difficult to functionally define due to the fact that vulnerability itself includes many aspects (biological, socioeconomic, etc.) in various sectors. As such, much research on vulnerability has used indicators which are useful for standardization and aggregation. In this study, for the vulnerability assessment for agricultural infrastructure, 3 categories of climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptation capacity were defined which are composed of 16 sub-categories and 49 proxy variables. Database for each proxy variables was established based on local administrative province. Future studies are required to define the weighting factor and standardization method to calculate the vulnerability indicator for agricultural infrastructure against climate change.