• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.77-91
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• 2008

In this study, we developed a technique of applying DRASTIC, which is the most widely used tool for estimation of groundwater vulnerability to the aqueous phase contaminant infiltrated from the surface, and a groundwater flow model jointly to assess groundwater contamination potential. The developed technique is then applied to Buyeo-eup area in Buyeo-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea. The input thematic data of a depth to water required in DRASTIC model is known to be the most sensitive to the output while only a few observations at a few time schedules are generally available. To overcome this practical shortcoming, both steady-state and transient groundwater level distributions are simulated using a finite difference numerical model, MODFLOW. In the application for the assessment of groundwater vulnerability, it is found that the vulnerability results from the numerical simulation of a groundwater level is much more practical compared to cokriging methods. Those advantages are, first, the results from the simulation enable a practitioner to see the temporally comprehensive vulnerabilities. The second merit of the technique is that the method considers wide variety of engaging data such as field-observed hydrogeologic parameters as well as geographic relief. The depth to water generated through geostatistical methods in the conventional method is unable to incorporate temporally variable data, that is, the seasonal variation of a recharge rate. As a result, we found that the vulnerability out of both the geostatistical method and the steady-state groundwater flow simulation are in similar patterns. By applying the transient simulation results to DRASTIC model, we also found that the vulnerability shows sharp seasonal variation due to the change of groundwater recharge. The change of the vulnerability is found to be most peculiar during summer with the highest recharge rate and winter with the lowest. Our research indicates that numerical modeling can be a useful tool for temporal as well as spatial interpolation of the depth to water when the number of the observed data is inadequate for the vulnerability assessments through the conventional techniques.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to analyze the change of environmental capacity in Yong-in City, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea through calculation of ecological footprint indices and analysis of their changes, and to suggest implications for urban development and planning. In this study, we analyzed ecological footprints of 1993, 2003, and 2013 to understand the patterns of land use changes and development in Yong-in City. We also compared the GIS land cover maps and ecological footprint indices to figure out land cover changes associated with resource consumption in Yong-in City. As a result, we found the following three lessons. First, the ecological footprint indices of Yong-in City are 3.20(gha) in 1993, 6.50(gha) in 2003, and 11.15(gha) in 2013. This implies that the ecological footprint of Yong-in City is much larger than 1.80(gha), the globally required ecological footprint per capita and 3.56(gha), the average ecological footprint of South Korea. Second, the forest ecological footprint of Yong-in City was calculated as the largest, followed by the ecological footprints of energy, food, and built environment. In particular, the forest ecological footprint was the most rapidly increased from 0.002(gha) in 1993 to 7.32(gha) in 2013, followed by energy ecological footprint from 0.87(gha) to 2.38(gha). This implies that the provision and consumption of timber are seriously unbalanced, and energy consumption is unsustainable because of the rapid increase of residential and commercial land development in the city. Third, our analysis of the rapid increase of forest ecological footprint indicates that the disturbed forest areas are concentrated in the increased built environment areas. We also observed that the increase of energy ecological footprint indices was caused largely by the increase of the commercial and road areas. This implies that Yong-in City should minimize forest disturbance and expand green areas for future in the city. In addition, this may provide a reasonable ground that the city should reduce the use of fossil fuels and facilitate the use of renewable energy.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.197-207
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• 2016

This study aims at providing basic data to objectively evaluate the areas suitable for reintroduction of the species of Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) in order to effectively preserve the Asiatic black bears in the Korean protection areas including national parks, and for the species restoration success. To this end, this study predicted the potential habitats in East Asia, Southeast Asia and India, where there are the records of Asiatic black bears' appearances using the Maxent model and environmental variables related with climate, topography, road and land use. In addition, this study evaluated the effects of the relevant climate and environmental variables. This study also analyzed inhabitation range area suitable for Asiatic black and geographic change according to future climate change. As for the judgment accuracy of the Maxent model widely utilized for habitat distribution research of wildlife for preservation, AUC value was calculated as 0.893 (sd=0.121). This was useful in predicting Asiatic black bears' potential habitat and evaluate the habitat change characteristics according to future climate change. Compare to the distribution map of Asiatic black bears evaluated by IUCN, Habitat suitability by the Maxent model were regionally diverse in extant areas and low in the extinct areas from IUCN map. This can be the result reflecting the regional difference in the environmental conditions where Asiatic black bears inhabit. As for the environment affecting the potential habitat distribution of Asiatic black bears, inhabitation rate was the highest, according to land coverage type, compared to climate, topography and artificial factors like distance from road. Especially, the area of deciduous broadleaf forest was predicted to be preferred, in comparison with other land coverage types. Annual mean precipitation and the precipitation during the driest period were projected to affect more than temperature's annual range, and the inhabitation possibility was higher, as distance was farther from road. The reason is that Asiatic black bears are conjectured to prefer more stable area without human's intervention, as well as prey resource. The inhabitation range was predicted to be expanded gradually to the southern part of India, China's southeast coast and adjacent inland area, and Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia in the eastern coastal areas of Southeast Asia. The following areas are forecast to be the core areas, where Asiatic black bears can inhabit in the Asian region: Jeonnam, Jeonbuk and Gangwon areas in South Korea, Kyushu, Chugoku, Shikoku, Chubu, Kanto and Tohoku's border area in Japan, and Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian border area in China. This study is expected to be used as basic data for the preservation and efficient management of Asiatic black bear's habitat, artificially introduced individual bear's release area selection, and the management of collision zones with humans.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.129-140
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• 1998

In this study two sites were selected to investigate groundwater contamination and spatial relationship between pollution level and its source. One is the Asan area, agricultural district where pollution sources are scattered. The other is the Gurogu area of Seoul city, industrial district where industrial complex and residential areas are located. Groundwater samples collected from these districts were analysis for chemical constituents. The attribute value files of the chemical constituents of groundwater and the spatial layers have been constructed and the pollution properties have been investigated to find out spatial relationships between the groundwater constituents and pollution sources using CIS. Relatively high contents of Si and HCO$_3$ in groundwater from the Asan area reflect the effect of water-rock interaction, whereas high contents of Cl, NO$_3$, SO$_4$and Ca in groundwater from the Gurogu area are due to the pollution of various sources. Pollution over the critical level of Korean Dinking Water Standard has been investigated from 15 sampling sites out of 40 in the Asan area, and 33 sampling sites out of 51 in the Gurogu area. There is pollution of NO$_3$, Cl, Fe, Mn, SO$_4$and Zn in groundwater from the Gurogu area, and that of NO$_3$, SO$_4$and Zn in groundwater from the Asan area. Principal pollution in both areas is NO$_3$contamination. Deep groundwater from the Asan area is not contaminated with NO$_3$except for one site and most of shallow groundwater near the potential point sources such as factory and stock farm is contaminated seriously. Groundwater from the Gurogu area has been already polluted seriously considering the fact of contamination of deep groundwater. This study reports a spatial relationship between the pollution level and pollution source using GIS.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.174-184
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• 2009

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the major hydrologic processes in terrestrial ecosystems. A reliable estimation of spatially representavtive ET is necessary for deriving regional water budget, primary productivity of vegetation, and feedbacks of land surface to regional climate. Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) provides an opportunity to monitor ET for wide area at daily time scale. In this study, we applied a MODIS-based ET algorithm and tested its reliability for nine flux tower sites in East Asia. This is a stand-alone MODIS algorithm based on the Penman-Monteith equation and uses input data derived from MODIS. Instantaneous ET was estimated and scaled up to daily ET. For six flux sites, the MODIS-derived instantaneous ET showed a good agreement with the measured data ($r^2=0.38$ to 0.73, ME = -44 to $+31W\;m^{-2}$, RMSE =48 to $111W\;m^{-2}$). However, for the other three sites, a poor agreement was observed. The predictability of MODIS ET was improved when the up-scaled daily ET was used ($r^2\;=\;0.48$ to 0.89, ME = -0.7 to $-0.6\;mm\;day^{-1}$, $RMSE=\;0.5{\sim}1.1\;mm\;day^{-1}$). Errors in the canopy conductance were identified as a primary factor of uncertainty in MODIS-derived ET and hence, a more reliable estimation of canopy conductance is necessary to increase the accuracy of MODIS ET.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.153-167
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• 2015

In order to understand the relationship between the distribution of epilithic diatoms and the habitual environments, land-use, water qualities, and epilithic diatoms were studied at 141 sampling sites in the midwestern stream of Korean peninsula (Geum river, Mangyeong river, Dongjin river, and Sapgyo river). The total 183 diatom taxa was appeared in the study, while the dominant species were found to be Nitzschia palea (10.9%) and Achnanthes convergens (8.4%). Based on the abundance of epilithic diatoms, a cluster analysis results indicate that the sampling sites divided the sampling sites into 4 groups (G) at the 25% level. In term of geographic and aquatic environments, G-I and -II accounted for the upper and mid streams of the Geum river, and had large forest areas and good in water quality. G-III accounted for farmland and urban, and high concentration nutrient levels (TN and TP) and electric conductivity. G-IV accounted for mostly farmland, and high levels in turbidity, BOD, nutrient and electric conductivity. CCA results showed that the saproxenous taxa Meridion circulare was the indicator species of G-I, which strongly influenced by altitude and forests. In G-II, the indifferent taxa Navicula cryptocephala was influenced by Chl-a, AFDM, and DO. In G-III and -IV, the indifferent taxa Fragilaria elliptica and saprophilous taxa Aulacoseira ambigua were influenced by electric conductivity, turbidity, and nutrient counts. Meanwhile, random forest results showed that the predicting factor of indicator species appearance in G-I, -II, and -III was found to be electric conductivity whereas in G-IV it was found to be turbidity. Collectively, the distribution of diatoms in the midwestern of Korean peninsula was found to depend more on the land-use and its subsequent water qualities than the inherent characteristics of the aquatic environment.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.686-697
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• 2018

Due to the advance in remote sensing technology, it has become easier to more frequently obtain high resolution imagery to detect delicate changes in an extensive area, particularly including forest which is not readily sub-classified. Time-series analysis on high resolution images requires to collect extensive amount of ground truth data. In this study, the potential of land coverage mapas ground truth data was tested in classifying high-resolution imagery. The study site was Wonju-si at Gangwon-do, South Korea, having a mix of urban and natural areas. KOMPSAT-3A imagery taken on March 2015 and land coverage map published in 2017 were used as source data. Two pixel-based classification algorithms, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF), were selected for the analysis. Forest only classification was compared with that of the whole study area except wetland. Confusion matrixes from the classification presented that overall accuracies for both the targets were higher in RF algorithm than in SVM. While the overall accuracy in the forest only analysis by RF algorithm was higher by 18.3% than SVM, in the case of the whole region analysis, the difference was relatively smaller by 5.5%. For the SVM algorithm, adding the Majority analysis process indicated a marginal improvement of about 1% than the normal SVM analysis. It was found that the RF algorithm was more effective to identify the broad-leaved forest within the forest, but for the other classes the SVM algorithm was more effective. As the two pixel-based classification algorithms were tested here, it is expected that future classification will improve the overall accuracy and the reliability by introducing a time-series analysis and an object-based algorithm. It is considered that this approach will contribute to improving a large-scale land planning by providing an effective land classification method on higher spatial and temporal scales.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.245-257
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• 2012

Vulnerability assessment has been required for establish climate adaptation plan to prevent damage from climate change. In this study we assessed vulnerability with 1 km resolution and determined which sectors have the highest priority in each municipality of Gangwon province based on the result of vulnerability assessment. All sectors of vulnerability assessment are composed of three criteria; sensitivity, exposure and adaptation capacity. And suitable indicators of each sector were selected and spatial data set was prepared using GIS. Priority of vulnerability was classified with the degree of vulnerability in present and variation in vulnerability between present and future. The results of vulnerability assessment were different among municipalities due to the contribution of indicators. Present and future trends in vulnerability showed similar results but high vulnerable area was predicted to expand in the future. In addition increase in temperature led whole area to be more vulnerable generally. The result of prioritizing sectors of vulnerability indicated the most considerable sectors within a municipality. Also, the municipalities which have similar geographic, climatic and social conditions tended to be classified as the same priority class. The method of vulnerability assessment and determining priorities suggested in this study could be used to support decision makers to establish adaptation plan of local area.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.89-100
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• 2021

This study evaluated the degree of interaction between the people and the environment using perceived naturalness measure. The seventh-grade index of Hemeroby was divided into subclasses of land cover according to degrees of human influence. The grade was standardized for each indicator to evaluate the current state of urban parks in Seoul by applying probability density function and weight. User evaluation was conducted on six distinctive parks selected. In the results, three implications were found between spatial evaluation according to the perceived naturalness. First, park users evaluated highly for the spaces such as broad-leaved forest, coniferous forest and mixed forest evaluated highly in the Hemeroby grade index. Park users generally recognized that various types of trees in the area had high naturalness. The density of trees is one of the factors in perceived naturalness. Second, water spaces were highly evaluated for naturalness in the Hemeroby grade index. However, the perceived naturalness of water spaces such as inland wetlands, pond and reservoir evaluated in various ways depending on environmental conditions around the park. Third, perceived naturalness is easily evaluated through vertical landscape elements such as trees rather than horizontal landscapes such as grassland. The perceived naturalness is similar to the naturalness evaluation using land cover. However the study found the perceived naturalness for a specific space was different from the Hemeroby index. Perceived naturalness by the user includes the content that the individual sees, hears, and experiences. Park users are usually structuring naturalness through evaluating the value of urban green spaces based on personal perception. Therefore there is no absolute standard criterion for evaluating the naturalness of urban green spaces. A deeper study is needed that considers user bundles or user groups with conflicting interests on the perceived naturalness in urban parks. These studies will be essential data on the direction of naturalness urban park service should provide.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2023

In the Republic of Korea, the target project scope of the small-scale EIA is stipulated as the plan area above around 5,000~60,000m² depending on a type of project and classification of land use. Whereas, the lower limit of the corresponding local government EIA project is generally located above the small-scale EIA's limits, and overlapping ranges exist. This situation has been enlarged since road construction and district unit planning were included as the target projects for small-scale EIA in the "Enforcement Decree of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act", which was partially revised in November 2016, and the current consultation system needed discussion in that small-scale EIA is allowed to be done without gathering review opinions at the local level. In fact, projects subjected to local government EIA but consulted as small-scale EIAs may seem insignificant because of a small number of total cases; however, it is worth paying attention to the fact that a local government may not add a target project due to the small-scale EIA. This study suggested the three policy measures for improving small-scale EIA to enhance the effectiveness of local government EIA: supplementing the institutional arrangements to incorporate the review opinion from the local region in small-scale EIA, giving priority to local EIA for conducing the projects in overlapping ranges with partial amendments on EIA law regarding exceptions to local government EIA, including small target projects (not to be small-scale EIA targets) to the ordinance that are deemed necessary to be conducted as local government EIA. Even though a positive function of small-scale EIA has been confirmed, efforts should be made to improve the situation in which many projects within local governments are consulted without review from the region.