• Journal of Korea Spatial Information System Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.63-69
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• 2009

Climate change has influenced on various sectors including ecosystem, water resource, natural hazards and health and so on. Thus, it is essential to more accurately assess climate change impact and prepare adaptation strategy. However, it is difficult to assess for climate change impact on various sectors with integrated form due to various data format by sectors. In this study, we prepared criteria and indicators for assessing climate change impact and integrated GIS based data which in correspond to indicators based on spatio-temporal information using GIS. Finally we suggest a guideline to assess vulnerability of each sectors to climate change based on integrated spatio-temporal information.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.185-205
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• 2010

Climate change vulnerability assessment based on local conditions is a prerequisite for establishment of climate change adaptation policies. While some studies have developed a methodology for vulnerability assessment at the national level using statistical data, few attempts, whether domestic or overseas, have been made to develop methods for local vulnerability assessments that are easily applicable to a single city. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to develop a conceptual framework for climate change vulnerability, and then develop a general methodology for assessment at the regional level applied to a single coastal city, Mokpo, in Jeolla province, Korea. We followed the conceptual framework of climate change vulnerability proposed by the IPCC (1996) which consists of "climate exposure," "systemic sensitivity," and "systemic adaptive capacity." "Climate exposure" was designated as sea level rises of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 meter(s), allowing for a simple scenario for sea level rises. Should more complex forecasts of sea level rises be required later, the methodology developed herein can be easily scaled and transferred to other projects. Mokpo was chosen as a seaside city on the southwest coast of Korea, where all cities have experienced rising sea levels. Mokpo has experienced the largest sea level increases of all, and is a region where abnormal high tide events have become a significant threat; especially subsequent to the construction of an estuary dam and breakwaters. Sensitivity to sea level rises was measured by the percentage of flooded area for each administrative region within Mokpo evaluated via simulations using GIS techniques. Population density, particularly that of senior citizens, was also factored in. Adaptive capacity was considered from both the "hardware" and "software" aspects. "Hardware" adaptive capacity was incorporated by considering the presence (or lack thereof) of breakwaters and seawalls, as well as their height. "Software" adaptive capacity was measured using a survey method. The survey questionnaire included economic status, awareness of climate change impact and adaptation, governance, and policy, and was distributed to 75 governmental officials working for Mokpo. Vulnerability to sea level rises was assessed by subtracting adaptive capacity from the sensitivity index. Application of the methodology to Mokpo indicated vulnerability was high for seven out of 20 administrative districts. The results of our methodology provides significant policy implications for the development of climate change adaptation policy as follows: 1) regions with high priority for climate change adaptation measures can be selected through a correlation diagram between vulnerabilities and records of previous flood damage, and 2) after review of existing short, mid, and long-term plans or projects in high priority areas, appropriate adaptation measures can be taken as per this study. Future studies should focus on expanding analysis of climate change exposure from sea level rises to other adverse climate related events, including heat waves, torrential rain, and drought etc.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2013

Average cumulative precipitation in summer have increased by 350 mm compared with 1980s. As precipitation is expected to increase, the risk of landslides by heavy rainfall also is expected to rise. Therefore, establishment of adaptation plan for landslides is urgently needed. In 2011, Korea Ministry of Environment(KME) conducted vulnerability assessment to support establishment of adaptation plan for local governments. However, the result of vulnerability assessment had three limitations. First, KME didn't use standard scenario of Korea Meteorological Administration(KMA). Second, They conducted same standardization method for all variables. Third, They derived relative vulnerability which is not quantitative. The purpose of this study is to improve the limitations of existing vulnerability assessment and identify quantitative criteria to ensure scientific reliability. To achieve this purpose, we carried out three ways of advancement. First, application of new climate scenario, which is RCP 8.5 from KMA. Second, improvement of variables of vulnerability assessment. Third, derivation of quantitative criteria of vulnerability. The findings can support establishment of adaptation plan for local governments more effectively.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.13-24
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• 2012

CCGIS (Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit based on GIS) was developed to use as a tool for the climate change assessment and any relevant tasks involving climate change adaptation policy over Korean peninsula. The main objective of CCGIS is to facilitate an efficient and relevant information for the estimation of climate change vulnerability index by providing key information in the climate change adaptation process. In particular, the atmospheric modeling system implemented in CCGIS, which is composed of climate and meteorological numerical model and the atmospheric environmental models, were used as a tool to generate the climate and environmental IPCC SRES (A2, B1, A1B, A1T, A1FI, and A1 scenarios) climate data for the year of 2000, 2020, 2050, and 2100. This article introduces the components of CCGIS and describes its application to the Korean peninsula. Some examples of the CCGIS and its use for both climate change adaptation and estimation of vulnerability index applied to Korean provinces are presented and discussed here.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.100 no.2
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• pp.256-265
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• 2011

This study was aiming at assessing the vulnerability of forest distribution by the A2 and B1 climate change scenarios of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The vulnerability of forest distribution was assessed using its sensitivity and adaptation to climate change with the help of the simulations of Korean-specific forest distribution model, so-called the Thermal Analogy Group (TAG), and the Plant Functional Type (PFT) defined in the HyTAG (Hydrological and Thermal Analogy Groups) model. As a result, the vulnerable area occupied 30.78% and 2.81% of Korea in A2 and B1 scenario, respectively. When it comes to the administrative districts, Pusan in A2 and Daegu in B1 appeared the most vulnerable area. This study would be employed into preparation of adaptative measures for forest in future in terms of using climate change scenarios reflecting different future development conditions.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.13-24
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• 2012

To prevent the damage to human health by climate change, vulnerability assessment should be conducted for establishment of adaptation strategies. In this study, vulnerability assessment was conducted to provide information about vulnerable area for making adaptation policy. vulnerability assessment for human health was divided into three categories; extreme heat, ozone, and epidemic disease. To assess vulnerability, suitable indicators were selected by three criteria; sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and exposure, spatial data of indicators were prepared and processed using GIS technique. As a result, high vulnerability to extreme heat was shown in the low land regions of southern part. And vulnerability to harmful ozone was high in the surrounding area of Dae-gu basin and metropolitan area with a number of automobiles. Vulnerability of malaria and tsutsugamushi disease have a region-specific property. They were high in the vicinity of the Dimilitarized zone and south-western plain, respectively. In general, vulnerability of human health was increased in the future time. Vulnerable area was extended from south to central regions and from plain to low mountainous regions. For assessing vulnerability with high accuracy, it is necessary to prepare more related indicators and consider weight of indicators and use climate prediction data based on the newly released scenario when assessing vulnerability.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.57-62
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• 2016

This study evaluated the risk of forest fires due to climate change in Jeju using the VESTAP. The study primarily aimed at assessing the risks posed to Jeju city and Seogwipo city, and uses actual and projected date from the period of 2000's to 2040's based on RCP 8.5 scenario. Forest fire vulnerability throughout Jeju-do was determined through the standardization of vulnerability index. The highest vulnerability was determined for the towns of Chuja-myeon, Udo-myeon, two downtown areas in Jeju city, Daejeong-eup, and five downtown areas in Seogwipo city, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.204-204
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• 2016

Thailand had set the National Water Management Strategy which covered main six areas in the next 12 years, i.e., by priority: (1) water for household, (2) water for agricultural and industrial production, (3) water for flood and drought management, (4) water for quality issue, (5) water from forest conservation and soil erosion protection, (6) water resources management. However due to the climate change impact, there is a question for all strategies is whether to complete this mission under future climate change. If the impact affects our target, we have to clarify how to mitigate or to adapt with it. Vulnerability assessment was conducted under the framework of ADB's (with the parameters of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) and the assessments were classified into groups due to their different characteristic and the framework of the National Water Management Strategy, i.e., water supply (rural and urban), water for development (agriculture and others), water disasters (floods (flash, overflow), drought, water quality). The assessments identified the parameters concerned and weight factors used for each groups via expert group discussions and by using GIS mapping technology, the vulnerability maps were produced. The maps were verified with present water situation data (floods, drought, water quality). From the analysis result of this water resources management strategy, we found that 30% of all projects face the big impacts, 40% with low impact, and 30% for no impact. It is clear that water-related agencies have to carefully take care approximately 70% of future projects to meet water resources management strategy. It is recommended that additional issues should be addressed to mitigate the impact from climate risk on water resource management of the country, i.e., water resources management under new risk based on development scenarios, relationship with area-based problems, priority definition by viewpoints of risk, vulnerability (impact and occurrence probability in past and future), water management system in emergency case and water reserve system, use of information, knowledge and technology in management, network cooperation and exchange of experiences, knowledge, technique for sustainable development with mitigation and adaptation, education and communication systems in risk, new impact, and emergency-reserve system. These issues will be described and discussed.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.190-203
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• 2015

VRI(Vulnerability-Resilience Index), which is defined as a function of 3 variables: climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, has been quantified for the case of Typhoon which is one of the extreme weathers that will become more serious as climate change proceeds. Because VRI is only indicating the relative importance of vulnerability between regions, the VRI quantification is prerequisite for the effective adaptation policy for climate in Korea. For this purpose, damage statistics such as amount of damage, occurrence frequency, and major damaged districts caused by Typhoon over the past 20 years, has been employed. According to the VRI definition, we first calculated VRI over every district in the case of both with and without weighting factors of climate exposure proxy variables. For the quantitative estimation of weighting factors, we calculated correlation coefficients (R) for each of the proxy variables against damage statistics of Typhoon, and then used R as weighting factors of proxy variables. The results without applying weighting factors indicates some biases between VRI and damage statistics in some regions, but most of biases has been improved by applying weighting factors. Finally, due to the relations between VRI and damage statistics, we are able to quantify VRI expressed as a unit of KRW, showing that VRI=1 is approximately corresponding to 500 hundred million KRW. This methodology of VRI quantification employed in this study, can be also practically applied to the number of future climate scenario studies over Korea.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.577-596
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• 2020

Drought is a natural disaster that directly affects agriculture, which has a great impact on the global agricultural production system and yield. The lack of water storage in most parts of the country due to the lack of precipitation has caused a great increase in social interest in drought due to the dryness of rice fields and crops. As the drought period increases and the drought intensity becomes stronger, it is believed that drought damage to crops will continue; thus, it is necessary to understand the vulnerability to irrigation performance and the ability of irrigation facilities. Therefore, this study conducted a vulnerability assessment of irrigation facilities (public Groundwater well) in cities across the country. The survey was conducted using statistical data from 2007 to 2016, and the vulnerability score was calculated according to the vulnerability evaluation procedure for drought in the irrigation facilities (public groundwater wells). Among 157 regions, 136 areas were very vulnerable; 14 areas were vulnerable; 3 areas were normal; 4 areas were good, and 0 areas were excellent. The vulnerability assessment can be used as basic data for the development or maintenance of field irrigation facilities in the future by understanding the vulnerability of irrigation facilities.