• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.94 no.3 s.160
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• pp.183-190
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• 2005

This study was carried out to find out the possibility for developing methodologies on the index for forest sustainability and to assess sustainability indices of metropolitan and provincial districts based on conditions of their forest health and management programmes in Korea. To find out some indicators to be utilized in developing the forest sustainability indices, total 84 possible indicators were selected and combined from 69 major programmes contained in the 4th Forest Development Plan and the Forest Vision for 21st Century and other 15 indicators selected separately from other forest policies. Those candidate indicators were reviewed throughly under evaluation processes and 33 indicators were finally chosen in developing the forest sustainability indices. Those indicators were classified into 3 categories, namely indicators for pressure, state, and response. Forest health could be represented by pressure and state indicators, while forest management programmes could be assessed by response indicators. Scores of importance for each indicator were assigned through Delphi survey and analyzed to project the extra weight value by summing rankings given to each index an applied to the standardized value of each index. Forest sustainability indices of metropolitan and provincial districts were analyzed and compared, based on relevant data of the year 2002. This study was kind a preliminary one in forest sustainability index and the names of metropolitan and provincial districts were not identified in this study. The indices could be very valuable in assessing quantitatively the level of forest health and intensity of forest management programmes in each districts and comparisons could be made among them, if all self-governing districts agree unanimously on the indices of forest sustainability and relevant indicators chosen in the study.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.95 no.6
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• pp.696-704
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• 2006

This study was carried out to evaluate the forest sustainability index of metropolitan and provincial districts in Korea. The forest sustain ability was assessed on the bases of economic, social, environmental axes (phase), which are essential for sustainable development, and establishment. Score of importance for each phase was analyzed by the pairwise comparison of analytic hierachy process (AHP). The forest sustainability indices were measured by 15 indicators of each 3 indicators in economic, social and environmental aspects and 6 indicators in the establishment of infrastructure. The extra weight values of indicators were assigned by the value sum weight method. The forest sustainability indices were assessed for each phase, forest management and health, and integrated index, based on the data from 1995 to 2004. The forest sustain ability indices showed the highest score of 71.8 in Gyeongsangbuk-do and the lowest score of 22.9 in Incheon as of 2004.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.472-483
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• 2014

Major cities have strengthened their efforts to improve the environmental function of the urban forest through aspects of quantity and quality. Yet, it is difficult to propose both long-term improvement and management policy direction continuously due to a lack of evaluating method that social needs could be reflected. After all, effective strengthening of the function of an urban forest, composed of social and biotic environments, is essential to create evaluation criteria. Such data reflects a quantity variation and identifies the distribution and habitation of biotic sources as well. An assessment of utilization possibilities presents such values as a green connectivity, an ecological healthiness, and usage and access opportunities. Consequently, this research was executed to create an urban forest sustainability index that proposes a management and policy direction based on the evaluation of quantity and quality aspects. This study was processed by the following steps: a degree of importance of ecological aspect, a sub-classification index choice, and an examination of adequacy. This research was conducted from premises that urban forest had another functions comparisons to a natural forest. As a result, a criteria of sustainability should be considered to evaluate an ecological aspect, as well as the social and management aspects regarding human disturbance. This research is designed to develop an evaluation index for ecological aspect. In order to evaluate the ecological healthiness of an urban forest, a vegetation index considers aspects of related rarity, damage possibility, naturalness, area, and diversity. In a wildbird index-related study, forest duration and area were selected. Finally, a variance analysis is presented, inclusive of stability, naturalness, diversity, potentiality, and possibility of wildlife inhabitation, which is indicative of an urban forest sustainability index.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.111 no.1
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• pp.61-71
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• 2022

Data from an investigation of vulnerable conifer species in the subalpine zone in Korea obtained by the Korea Forest Service in 2017-2018 and monitoring research conducted by the National Institute of Forest Science since 2014 were used to analyze the status of distribution and growing condition of three major conifer species (Abies nephrolepis, Abies koreana, and Picea jezoensis) in the subalpine zone in the Baekdudaegan protected area. The distribution area of the studied species in the Baekdudaegan protected area was ca. 74% (8,035 ha) of the total distribution area in Korea, indicating that Baekdudaegan is a core area for conservation and restoration of subalpine conifer species. From decline index [A. nephrolepis in Mt. Taebaeksan and Mt. Deogyusan increased by 77.3% and 29.6%, respectively; A. koreana in Mt. Jirisan (Chunwangbong Peak) increased by 45.2% in four years; and P. jezoensis in Mt. Jirisan (Chunwangbong Peak) increased by 47.8% in two years] and seedling frequency (lower frequency of newly recruited seedlings than dead seedlings) results, the studied species are expected to face difficulties in sustainability. In contrast, at Mt. Seseoksan and Chunwangbong Peak in Mt. Jirisan, the health of trees and seedling frequency showed a partial tendency to recover and increase. In addition, we identified the relationship between the decline index and seedling frequency. These results will support the implementation of conservation strategies for vulnerable conifer species in the subalpine zone.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.22-34
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• 2004

An artificial disturbance like fragmentation in watershed forest has impacted a sustainability of watershed ecosystem, therefore this research quantified the landscape structure in the Geumho river watershed using landscape indices and GIS. Landscape indices were calculated from the forest distributed maps for 24 subwatersheds. Three common factors, which explained about 85% of the variation in the original data, were extracted by a factor analysis. The fragmentation gradient in forest landscape, which was calculated from the factor scores, was correlated with proportion of urban land (r=0.827, p<0.01, $R^2$=0.685), elevation (r=-0.637, p<0.01) and slope gradient (r=-0.593, p<0.01). The result of the study presented that the methodology and the values of landscape indices to assess the structural patterns of forest landscape for the Geumho river watershed management. Future research will be directed towards the detection of impacts of landscape patterns and their changes on the integrity of watershed environments.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.517-525
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• 2013

Time-series data of Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) obtained by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) satellite imagery gives a waveform that reveals the characteristics of the phenology. The waveform can be decomposed into harmonics of various periods by the Fourier transformation. The resulting $n^{th}$ harmonics represent the amount of NDVI change in a period of a year divided by n. The values of each harmonics or their relative relation have been used to classify the vegetation species and to build a vegetation map. Here, we propose a method to estimate the annual amount of carbon absorbed on the forest from the $1^{st}$ harmonic NDVI value. The $1^{st}$ harmonic value represents the amount of growth of the leaves. By the allometric equation of trees, the growth of leaves can be considered to be proportional to the total amount of carbon absorption. We compared the $1^{st}$ harmonic NDVI values of the 6220 sample points with the reference data of the carbon absorption obtained by the field survey in the forest of South Korea. The $1^{st}$ harmonic values were roughly proportional to the amount of carbon absorption irrespective of the species and ages of the vegetation. The resulting proportionality constant between the carbon absorption and the $1^{st}$ harmonic value was 236 tCO2/5.29ha/year. The total amount of carbon dioxide absorption in the forest of South Korea over the last ten years has been estimated to be about 56 million ton, and this coincides with the previous reports obtained by other methods. Considering that the amount of the carbon absorption becomes a kind of currency like carbon credit, our method is very useful due to its generality.