• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.503-507
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• 2015

Sustainability continues to gain traction in all industry sectors as people become aware of the advantages of green products. The voluntary use of green products in buildings in the United States continues to grow due to long-term cost saving and the ecological benefit to nature. The voluntary installation of green products is associated with end-users' expectations and perceptions including cost saving, sustainable behavior, and social responsibility. Although involuntary use of green products has similar expectations and perceptions, the installation decision is not based on the goodwill from end-users. This paper surveys college students to capture current experience levels, expectations, and perceptions in regard to green products and/or sustainability and to understand their attitudes about involuntary use of a green product. The installation of low water pressure showerheads in a dormitory provides data to support perception, expectation, and future direction of adoption of green products in public buildings. This information may be used to facilitate sustainable behaviors among involuntary groups regarding to the adoption of green products. The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the college students' perception of a green product, particularly when the students are involuntarily exposed to the green products. As a secondary objective, the paper also attempts to address the college students' general understanding on sustainability and green products. The findings of this study could support the growing importance of sustainable behavior among higher education beyond social responsibility and provide a benchmark against which to improve future change while fostering sustainable behaviors over time among the public.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.118-125
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• 2012

World population has increased rapidly following the industrial revolution, reaching 7 billion in 2012. Several forecasts estimate that this number will rise to about 8 billion in 2025. Improvements of living standards in developing nations have also raised resource and energy demands worldwide. In consequences, human beings have faced many global and urgent problems, such as global warming, water and food shortages, resource and energy crises, and so on. Many ocean utilization technologies for avoiding or reducing such big problems have been developed, for examples $CO_2$ ocean sequestration, seawater desalination, artificial upwelling, deepwater mining, and ocean energies. It is important, however, to assess such technologies from the viewpoints of sustainability and public acceptancy, since the aims of those technologies are to develop sustainable social systems rather than conventional ones based on fossil resources. Inclusive Marine Pressure Assessment and Classification Technology Research Committee (generally called IMPACT Research Committee) of Japan Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineers, has proposed Inclusive Impact Index "Triple I" as an indicator, which can predict both environmental sustainability and economical feasibility, in order to assess the ocean utilization technologies from the viewpoints of sustainability and public acceptancy. This index was considered by combining Ecological Footprint and Environmental Risk Assessment. The Ecological Footprint and the Environmental Risk Assessment are introduced in the first part of this paper. Then the concept and the structure of the Triple I are explained in the second part of this paper. Finally, the economy-ecology conversion factor in Triple I accounting is considered.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.137-147
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• 2011

In 2009, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized the unique outstanding ecosystem biodiversity and distinct ecocultural values of the Shinan Dadohae Biosphere Reserve in the island region. The Dadohae area, which has been sustainably conserved for scores of years, boasts not only a unique ecosystem, but also has residents with a wide range of traditional ecological knowledge. In terms of understanding the soundness of the ecosystem network known as the landscape system, the recent expansion of environmental development has served to heighten the degree of consideration given not only to biodiversity, which has long been used as an indicator to assess ecosystem soundness, but also to assess cultural diversity. Man has used the surrounding landscape and living organisms as his life resources since the beginning. Moreover, whenever necessary, man has developed new species through cultivation. Biodiversity became a foundation that facilitated establishing cultural diversity such as food and housing. Such ecological knowledge has been conveyed not only to adjacent regions, but also at the international level. The recent rapid changes in the Dadohae area island ecosystem caused by the transformation of fishing grounds by such factors as climate change, excess human activities, and marine pollution, is an epoch event in environmental history that shows that the balance between man and nature has become skewed. Furthermore, this issue has moved beyond the biodiversity and landscape diversity level to become an issue that should be addressed at the cultural diversity level. To this end, the time has come to pay close attention to this issue.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.53-63
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• 1999

This study aims to develop a set of criteria for evaluating the sustainability of forest landuse, which could facilitate the environmentally friendly development of forest lands in Korea. The concept of sustainable development in forest landuse was reviewed from literature and by interviews with experts in forest-related fields. Delphi technique was employed for gathering experts' opinions. According to the results of Delphi test, the concept of sustainable development in forest landuse was confirmed as "Use of forest lands in a lasting manner within the carrying capacity of the ecosystem involved". There are 16 factors which should be considered with care when the development of forest lands is planned. They include the ratio of forest cover left undeveloped, ecological stability, and landscape naturalness. Among them are the ecological factors rated most important. The experts emphasized the importance of local characteristics in setting up the criteria for sustainable forestland development. The study did not attempted to apply the criteria to real settings. Therefore, before applications in real situations, further case studies should be made for the criteria to be safely used in landuse planning.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.54-58
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• 2011

The need and importance of developing and utilizing the oceans, not only as sources of renewable energy and mineral resources, but also as countermeasures to global warming such as for CCS (carbon capture and storage), have continued to increase, especially in countries with limited land areas and resources. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the sustainability of an ocean utilization technology or system not only from an economic point of view but also from an ecological one. For this purpose, it might be effective to develop a comprehensive evaluation method and/or index, by which the assessment of and decisions about a technology and system can be made more objectively. It would also be useful to have an environmental simulation model, which was developed and reported in a previous research. The aim of this study was to modify a reasonable and quantitative index, with which a comprehensive evaluation system can be established, to assess environmental sustainability and risk.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.482-496
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• 2023

Many changes in the scale and structure of the Korean rice cropping system have been made over the past few decades. Still, insufficient research has been conducted on the sustainability of this system. This study analyzed changes in the Korean rice cropping system's sustainability from a system ecology perspective using an emergy approach. For this purpose, an emergy table was created for the Korean rice cropping system in 2011, 2016, and 202, and an emergy-based indicator analysis was performed. The emergy analysis showed that the total emergy input to the rice cropping system decreased from 10,744E+18 sej year^-1 to 8,342E+18 sej year^-1 due to decreases in paddy field areas from 2011 to 2021, and the proportion of renewable resources decreased by 1.4%. The emergy input per area (ha) was found to have decreased from 13.13E+15 sej ha^-1 year^-1 in 2011 to 11.89E+15 sej ha^-1 year^-1 in 2021, and the leading cause was a decrease in nitrogen fertilizer usage and working hours. The amount of emergy used to grow 1 g of rice stayed the same between 2016 and 2021 (specific emergy: 13.3E+09 sej g^-1), but the sustainability of the rice cropping system (emergy sustainability index, ESI) continued to decrease (2011: 0.107, 2016: 0.088, and 2021: 0.086). This study provides quantitative information on the emergy input structure and characteristics of Korean rice cropping systems. The results of this study can be used as a valuable reference in establishing measures to improve the ecological sustainability of the Korean rice cropping system.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.205-219
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• 2010

In general, industrial production involves large amounts of harmful by-product, causing serious pollution and ecological risk. Eco-efficiency, which indicates how efficient the economic activity is by considering both the environmental risks and economic performance, is a new concept for economic sustainability analysis and quantitative ecological risk analysis. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been widely used to examine eco-efficiency in recent years. Whereas traditional DEA models such as CCR and BCC model neglect undesirable outputs, this paper adopts a stochastic undesirable-output DEA model to measure the eco-efficiency of each province of China and Korea. The results indicate that whereas the eco-efficiency of the eastern region was the highest, that of the western region was the lowest. The reason may come from the negative external dis-economies of environment. And thus the governmental efforts for outreach on the underdeveloped regions should be promoted.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.77-85
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the DPD development plan of Kyungpook province, which was established in 1996 and slightly revised in 1997 in terms of a theoretical framework, fair distribution and ecological sustainability, and the feasibility of capital supply of the proposed plan. The early part of the proposed plan introduces various theories and approaches developed in regional (or local) development planning as a general after the 1970s. However, the theories and approaches mentioned are not used as a guideline to establish the DPD development plan of Kyungpook province as a historically developed particular place. Most of the plans were tourism-oriented and did not seriously take the local characteristics into account. All the DPDs of Kyungpook province are located in the upper parts of the Nakdong River basin. So those regions are ecologically vulnerable. But a lot of problems remain concerning the environmental impacts of the proposed development plan. In terms of fair distribution and ecological sustainability, it seems that the DPD development plan was routinely made by a handful of professors and administrators, based on a standard format of regional (or local) development as a genera]. Finally, capital is the key factor for successfully implementing the DPD development plan. It came from the national and local government and private investors. The government have generally financed the construction of infrastructures, not profit-oriented projects such as tourism and resort businesses. However, the feasibility of private capital was not carefully examined in the plan.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.38-48
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• 2012

Since the late 20th century, sustainability is one of the most pressing concerns for the security and well-being of our society when we are witnessing the rapid change in urban landscape patterns. Responding to this issue, the discipline of environmental designs including landscape architecture has also attempted to realize this concept in various ways. The purpose of this study lies in introducing and redefining the meaning of ecological aesthetics as an alternative "sustainable" design theory. This paper theoretically discusses about the role of aesthetics in landscape design and the relationship between landscape and aesthetics to emphasize the importance of ecological aesthetics. Based on extensive literature review and analysis, the study attempts to redefine the characteristics of ecological aesthetics: an emphasis on cognitive process in landscape appreciation, environmentalism, unrestricted from style, and nonnative aesthetics. Having defined the characteristics, this study also finds several design subjects to adapt the concept of ecological aesthetics to actual design practice. Founded on the big idea "make nature visible", the defined subjects are ecological functions, temporality of landscape, and history of landscape, security, and accessibility. Also, this study stresses the importance m the creativity of the design(er) in order to effectively represent these subjects to the public.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.117-125
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• 2010

Entering into the 21th century, the whole world is facing the various problems such as environmental disruption, resource exhaustion, and social isolation due to the consequences of population growth and economic development. Especially, as the world population is aging, the solutions for these problems are being suggested with a new paradigm of environmental design for sustainable society providing more affluent and safer life for them. Aging societies are experiencing the difficulty in pursuing persistent vitality of life when aged population is socially excluded, and communities are stagnant due to the decrease of economic activities. In other words, those factors are causing the problems of social sustainability associated with the vital duration of local society and communities. In order to develop successful environment for aging society, it is necessary for us to precisely review how advanced countries are changing their directions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine current trends of the aging friendly environment and find out the measures to promote social sustainability under the crisis of aging society. For this purpose, using qualitative methods, this study analyzed the contents presented at a professional conference , that showed current trends clearly, into three dimensions of social sustainability; the social integration of senior living communities with local society, the vitality of the communities, and the invigoration of individual senior lives. As a result, this study found that the measures that attempt to enhance the social sustainability of aging population can be also used to invigorate the communities.