• KIEAE Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.13-19
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• 2012

The Earth's surface temperature still continues to rise, and extreme weather phenomena such as heat waves, drought, and precipitation have been repeated every year. It is reported that international communities attribute the main cause of the Earth's surface temperature rise to the excessive use of the fossil energy. Recently, the damage caused by climate change is getting worse, and the place where we live is suffering the most. Cities have been continuously growing not only meeting the basic functions of human habitation, work and leisure but also being places for various economic and social activities. But Cities, the victims of climate change, have grown only considering human needs and convenience rather than predicting their physical and ecological systems(Albedo effects, urban microclimate, resources and energy of the circulatory system, etc). In other words, the cities offer the cause of the problems of climate change, and even worsen the extreme weather phenomena without coping with them. Therefore, it is urgent priorities to protect the climate, to prevent the causes of the extreme weather phenomena and to enhance the adaptive capacity for the worse weather events. This study is to derive the concept for adapting to these climate changes which can make cities escape from exposure to these climate change impacts and make themselves safer places to live. And it analyzes some European cities and present developing models to implement planning methods. In this study, the concept of the climate adaptive cities will be suggested to prepare the adaptation measures for urban planners, and climate change adaptation models will be presented by analyzing some preliminary cases.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.15.1-15.14
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• 2020

Background: Large rivers are ecological treasures with high human value, but most have experienced decades of degradation from industrial and municipal sewage, row-crop agricultural practices, and hydrologic alteration. We reviewed published analyses of long-term fish diversity publications from three intensively managed large river ecosystems to demonstrate the conservation potential of large river ecosystems. Results: We show how the incorporation of recent advances in river concepts will allow a better understanding of river ecosystem functioning and conservation. Lastly, we focus on the Wabash River ecosystem based on high conservation value and provide a list of actions to maintain and support the ecosystem. In the Wabash River, there were originally 66 species of freshwater mussels, but now only 30 species with reproducing populations remain. Although there were multiple stressors over the last century, the largest change in Wabash River fish biodiversity was associated with rapid increases in municipal nutrient loading and invasive bigheaded carps. Conclusions: Like similarly neglected large river systems worldwide, the Wabash River has a surprising amount of ecological resilience and recovery. For instance, of the 151 native fish species found in the 1800s, only three species have experienced local extinctions, making the modern assemblage more intact than many comparable rivers in the Mississippi River basin. However, not all the changes are positive or support the idea of recovery. Primary production underpins the productivity of these ecosystems, and the Wabash River phytoplankton assemblages shifted from high-quality green algae in the 1970s to lower less nutritional blue-green algae as nutrient and invasive species have recently increased. Our recommendations for the Wabash River and other altered rivers include the restoration of natural hydrology for the mainstem and tributaries, nutrient reductions, mechanisms to restore historical hydrologic patterns, additional sediment controls, and improved local hydraulics.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.77-82
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• 2017

In power supply systems for urban areas, issues such as a progressive tax have escalated recently. In this regard, photovoltaic power generation, which is appraised as an alternative power generation system, is drawing attention increasingly for its high stability and applicability to existing infrastructure. This study assessed the realistic feasibility of photovoltaic power generation and also analyzed the economic benefits expected when it is linked with green roof, which is likely to promote ecological functions in urban areas, based on the Seoul solar map, RPS, and actual monitoring data. The economics analysis of 30kW photovoltaic power generation applied with the monthly average horizontal solar radiation of six grades in the Seoul solar map showed that positive NPV was up to grade 4, while grade 5 or poorer showed negative NPV and indicated that it is difficult to assure appropriate feasibility. Compared with non-afforestation, when green roof was applied, monthly average power improvement efficiency was 7.2% at highest and 3.7% at lowest based on yearly actual monitoring data. The annual average was 5.3%, and the efficiency was high relatively in summer, including September and November. As for the economic benefits expected when 30kw photovoltaic power generation is combined with green roof based on the average horizontal solar radiation of grade 1 in the Seoul solar map, SP has improved 0.2 years to 7.4 years, and EP has improved 0.5 years to 8.3 years.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.229-236
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• 2010

As air pollution has emerged as one of the most pressing urban environmental concerns, many studies have investigated the influence of air pollutants(ex: $O^3$, $NO^2$, $SO^2$, Acid rain, etc.) on roadside trees and urban grove. In Korea, population density started to increase since the industrialization. Since dense population aggravates our living conditions, it's very important for us to preserve and keep a lively and refreshing nature in order to live with green nature in harmony under the current artificial environment-dominating world. In metropolitan cities, the production of pollutants increases in proportion to population growth. The vehicle exhaust gas and air pollutants from cooling and heating systems have been the major causes of acid rain. Furthermore, tire particles which are naturally produced by tire wearing on roads and other toxic substances in exhaust gas have caused a problem in human health directly and indirectly. In fact, a lot of studies have analyzed air pollution, roadside trees and plants in Korea. However, they are mostly limited to covering the influence of air pollution on the growth of plants. No paper has clearly explained why air pollution-resistant or-vulnerable species has shown different reactions yet. Even though a lot of urban roadside trees have died or stopped to grow from time to time, this kind of problem has not been properly examined. This paper is aimed to comparatively analyze physio-ecological characteristic such as photosynthesis, chlorophyll contents, soil volume water figure out their relationship with environmental factors against the expanding roadside trees in Cheong-ju, and provide basic data for management of roadside trees and elaboration of urban environment preservation policies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.55-71
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• 2018

To improve the ecological function of urban areas, the guideline for applying the Biotope Area Ratio to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was developed in 2005 and modified in the July, 2017. This study investigates whether the guideline has been actually practiced in the real world by searching reports including 648 cases of the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) and 471 cases of the EIA. The results show that the 38% of SEIA and the 43% of EIA include sections about Biotope Area Ratio, and the 15% of SEIA and the 25 % of EIA are satisfied the threshold of the Biotope Area Ratio suggested by the guideline. The statistical analysis results show that this low level of practice was not improved through the modification of the guideline in 2017. This is because the guideline is forcibleness, its explanation is unclear, and stockholders' understanding of it lacks. In addition, lack of tracking management on SEIA and EIA also contributes to the low level of practice of the guideline. To promote the practice, the efforts to legislate and publicize the guideline are required.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.158-167
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the ecological factors influencing school adjustment of adolescents from low-income families. Methods: Secondary data analysis was performed using data of 1,321 low-income adolescents in 123 regions found on the Survey on Service Satisfaction with Community Child Care Center. Results: The results of multi-level analysis identified the factors influencing school adjustment of low-income adolescents as follows: individual-level factors were gender, grade in school, and emotional problem; an interpersonal-level factor was family structure; organizational-level factors were length of time attending center and satisfaction with the service of the center; community-level factors were region and perception of community. Conclusion: The results suggest that low-income adolescents' adjustment to school is influenced not only by individual factors but also by diverse environmental factors. Community factors suggest that more education support systems and leisure facilities for adolescents need to be built in small and medium cities. Strategies to enhance positive perception of community are also needed for this population. Further, it is necessary to develop multi-level interventions to improve the school adjustment of adolescents from vulnerable social groups.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.5-13
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• 2014

This paper introduces emergy(spelled with "m") that is a new environmental indicator in architecture, aiming to clarify conflicting claims of building design components in the process of energy-retrofit. Much of design practitioners' attention on low energy use in operational phases, may simply shift the lowered environmental impact within the building boundary to large consumption of energy in another area. Specifically, building energy reduction strategies without a holistic view starting from natural formation, may lead to the depletion of non-renewable geobiological sources (e.g. minerals, fossil fuels, etc.), which leaves a building with an isolated energy-efficient object. Therefore, to overcome the narrow outlook, this research discusses the total ecological impact of a building which embraces all process energy as well as environmental cost represented by emergy. A case study has been conducted to explore emergy-driven design work. In comparison with operational energy-driven scenarios, the results elucidate how energy and emergy-oriented decision-making bring about different design results, and quantify building components' emergy contribution in the end. An average-size ($101.9m^2$) single family house located in South Korea was sampled as a benchmark case, and the analysis of energy and material use was conducted for establishment of the baseline. Adoption of the small building is effective for the goal of study since this research intends to measure environmental impact according to variation of passive design elements (windows size, building orientation, wall materials) with new metric (emergy) regardless of mechanical systems. Performance simulations of operational energy were developed and analyzed separately from the calculation of emergy magnitudes in building construction, and then the total emergy demand of each proposed design was evaluated. Emergy synthesis results verify that the least operational energy scenario requires greater investment in indirect energy in construction, which clearly reveals that efficiency gains are likely to be overwhelmed by increment of material flows. This result places importance on consideration of indirect energy use underscoring necessity of emergy evaluation towards the environment-friendly building in broader sense.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.194-200
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• 2006

Recently, the population growth, industrial and agricultural development are rapidly undergoing in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) in Texas. The Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) composed of the 4 counties and three of them are interesting for Non-point and point source pollutant modeling: Starr, Cameron, and Hidalgo. Especially, the LRGV is an intensively irrigation region, and Texas A&M University Agriculture Program and the New Mexico State University College of Agriculture applied irrigation district program, projects in GIS and Hydrology based agricultural water management systems and assessment of prioritized protecting stream network, water quality and rehabilitation based on water saving potential in Rio Grande River. In the LRGV region, where point and non-point sources of pollution may be a big concern, because increasing fertilizers and pesticides use and population cause. This project objective seeks to determine the accumulation of non-point and point source and discuss the main impacts of agriculture and environmental concern with water quality related to pesticides, fertilizer, and nutrients within LRGV region. The GIS technique is widely used and developed for the assessment of non-point source pollution in LRGV region. This project shows the losses in $kg/km^2/yr$ of BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand), TN (total Nitrogen) and TP (total phosphorus) in the runoff from the surface of LRGV. Especially, farmers in Cameron County consume a lot of fertilizer and pesticide to improve crop yield net profit. Then, this region can be created as larger nonpoint source area for nutrients and the intensity of runoff by excess irrigation water. And many sediment and used irrigation water with including high nutrients can be discharged into Rio Grade River.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.251-262
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• 2017

This study distinguishes between factors that affect mental health of college students, establishes an effective approach to integrating model building, mental health promotion, and development of nursing intervention based on the Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory. The study method investigate the causal relationship between the factors. The SPSS 20.0 program was used for general characteristics and mental health related characteristics. The fitness of the model was verified and the Amos 20.0 program was used for hypothesis verification. In the study, the fit index of the model was $x^2=614.90$ (p = .000), Q value = 3.5, GFI = .88, AGFI = .84, NFI = .92, NNFI = .94, CFI = .02, and RMSEA = .08, respectively. The results showed that stress was the most influential on mental health, and that stress coping strategies, self - esteem and parenting attitude affect mental health. In order to improve the mental health of college students, intervention should be carried out to develop nursing interventions to improve stress management, self - esteem, and coping with stress.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.73-87
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• 2012

This study was conducted to provide sustainable measures for conservation and management to protect valuable natural/ecological resources, offer differentiated quality assurance services for eco-tourism products, and explore measures for eco-tourism certification/designation systems. To achieve its goals, the study discussed domestic and overseas trends and literatures that concern eco-tourism certification/designation system and investigated case studies that were presently operational. A group of experts and a group of non-experts were surveyed separatedly to investigate the awareness of the national eco-tourism certification/designation system. The results from the investigation indicate that Europe, since the late 1990s to early 2000, has actively introduced a system that establishes and operates a dedicated institution, and European members have created a cooperation framework to formulate international partnerships and develop standardized assessment benchmarks to adhere to the goals of the system, the period for certification was designated from one year to five years, and renewals were granted based on periodic monitoring and reassessment. In Korea, from early 2000, the Ministry of Culture, Sorts and Tourism and other organizations have certified product quality and assessed travel products and national park tour programs. The certification period was established to be set between one and three years, and the vast majority were not reassessed. Upon investigating the results for awareness of national eco-tourism certification/designation system, a high number of respondents agreed with the need to establish a eco-tourism certification/designation system (90% of respondents), and the respondents cited eco-tourism quality assurance, conservation of value, means to maintain established institutions, and environmental education and information as reasons for needing a certification/designation system. In Korea, a certification/designation system for the eco-tourism industry is presently in operation, but the system regulates target institutions based on their characteristics. Therefore, this study proposes its suggestions via various categories, including designated institutions, designated purpose, designated subjects, designated organization, laws, regulations, and incentives.