• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.103 no.2
• /
• pp.264-269
• /
• 2014

The aim of this study was to determine the current distribution area of Robinia pseudoacacia habitat and to estimate its stand yield as well as its carbon stocks. In order to do so, the area of R. pseudoacacia distribution is obtained based on the large-scaled forest type map (1:5,000). Also, Weibull diameter distribution model is used to predict the yield of R. pseudoacacia stands. In addition, carbon emission factor is applied to calculate carbon stocks and removals. To obtain the stand yield of R. pseudoacacia, we developed estimation equation considering growth factors of the stand, e.g. mean diameter, the basal area, maximum and minimun diameter and etc. and tested it to ensure accuracy. Consequently, estimation equation derived from all growth factors have shown significance that could also be used for analysis. Site index was also established to determine the productivity of the forestland that later turned out to be ranging from 16 to 22. Based on these results, stand yield tables were drawn up. R. pseudoacacia is widely distributed in inland areas of Gyeongsang, Chungcheong and Gyeonggi provinces which covers total area of 26,770 ha. And when it is converted into carbon stocks, it amounts to 2,517,598tC with annual carbon uptake of 3.76tC/ha which is comparable to Querqus species that is known to storer large amounts of carbon. Therefore, R. pseudoacacia is also expected to serve as a viable carbon pool that would contribute to the mitigation of climate change. Furthermore, stand yield tables, an outcome of this survey would assist not only in proper management but also in sustainable management policy of R. pseudoacacia.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.89-102
• /
• 2016

Damyang riverine wetland was designated as a wetland protected area in 2004; that is located in the Yeongsan river mainstream. Total 30 phytosociological releves at field studies were classified with 22 vegetation types including of 101 species (unidentified 1 species). Legends of actual vegetation map were separated by 6 types; riparian forest, substitute vegetation, synanthropic vegetation, wet meadow vegetation, open water, an area of wetland vegetation is about 35 % ($386,841.86m^2$). Results of this study area as follows. The plant society of Damyang riverine wetland was conjectured that it was formed by rapidly water environment change with installed weir on the upstream of protected area and operating of Damyang dam on top of the basin. Until recently, the terrace land on the river was used to cultivate, but that would be formed fallow vegetation scenery on riverfront caused by no cultivation after designated protected area. Paspalum distichum var. indutum community designated as invasive alien plant by Korea Ministry of Environment was widely developed and Myriophyllum spicatumunrecorded in the country as newly alien species was discovered in the study zone. The plants as lapped over developing environment for Leersia japonica must be occupied habitat of native plant species having similar niche. The various plant society in Damyang riverine wetland should be developed because of environmental changes, disturbances and damages of stream.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.25-56
• /
• 2006

We reviewed and compared nationwide surveys conducted in advanced countries (i.e., Japan, Germany, USA, and UK) with those in Korea, including the third Nationwide Survey of Natural Environments, which began in 2006 and will proceed until 2010. Based on this comparative analysis, we suggest alternatives to the nationwide survey of natural environments that are suited to Korea. Given the focus on species abundances and distributions in previous nationwide surveys in Korea, surveys of habitats, ecosystems, and ecoregions are required to more effectively protect biological resources in Korea. Furthermore, their spatial distributions should be mapped using periodical satellite images and aerial photographs. In particular, satellite images can be used to survey species, habitats, and ecosystems. Natural resources monitoring and management specialists are needed to collect various data and improve survey results. The participation of community volunteers is also important to develop an awareness in local residents of natural environment conservation. Independent survey institute (i.e., a 'National Ecosystem Institute') should be established to develop a database and survey scheme for species, habitats, and ecosystems throughout Korea. Moreover, the survey institute could develop natural environmental policy through the data analysis to meet the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The establishment of a survey institute will allow the completion of a natural environment survey that considers various factors, including physical habitat conditions. This will allow us to detect subtle changes in species abundance and spatial distributions and provide accurate and timely information on natural environments.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.625-641
• /
• 2013

This study is analyzed the environmental ecological status of Suncheon Bay and its applicable possibility to the selection criteria of UNESCO World Natural Heritage (hereafter Criteria). The study shows that the formation process of the tidal-flats in Suncheon bay could apply to the Criteria VIII, "to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history." The landscape pattern of Suncheon Bay is deduced various patterns based on 5 biotope types: tidal-flat, rice-paddy, field area, coniferous natural forest, and broadleaf natural forest. Its landscape characteristic is a harmonized composition of various landscape including mountains, rivers, fields, and tidal-flats. It is judged that the unique landscape of Suncheon Bay falls under the criteria VII, "areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance." In addition, Suncheon Bay, the habitat of the Hooded Crane as internationally endangered species, comes under the criteria X, "the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of threatened species." The study shows, however, that any other designation for protected area including national park or biosphere reserve is a prerequisite for designation of World Nature Heritage. In particular, it could evaluate whether it is qualified of the Criteria after the integrated conservation and management to the Sucheon bay as well as the southwestern tidal-flat is preceded.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.14-20
• /
• 2015

We created species richness maps of mammals, birds and plants using "Nnational Ecosystem Survey" data and identified correlations between species richness maps of each taxa. We examine the distribution of species richness of each taxa and calculated conservation priority rank through plotting species-area curves using an additive benefit function in Zonation. The conclusions of this study are as follows. First, plant showed high species richness in Gangwon province and Baekdudaegan, and mammals showed high species richness at eastern slope of Baekdudaegan in Gangwon province unusually and the species richness of mammals distributed equally except Gyeonggi and Chungnam province. However, birds showed high species richness in the west costal because the area is the major route of winter migratory birds. Second, correlation of each taxa's distribution is not significant. Correlation between mammals and birds is positive but correlations between birds and others are negative. Because mammals inhabit in forest but birds mostly live in coastal wetlands and rivers. Therefore, bird's habitats are not shared with other habitats. Third, the probability of mammals occurrence is very low under 25% in species-area curve, others increase proportionally to area. Birds increase dramatically richness at 10% because bird's habitat is concentrated in coastal wetlands and rivers. Plants increased gently species richness due to large forest in Gangwon province. We can calculate the predicted number of species in curves and plan various conservation strategies using the marginal number of species. Finally, high priority ranks for conservation distributed mainly in Gangwon province and Baekdudaegan. When we compared with priority map and terrestrial national parks, the parks were evaluated as high priority ranks. However, the rank of parks away from Baekdudaegan was low. This study has the meaning of selecting conservation priority area using National Ecosystem Survey. In spite of the omission of survey data in national parks and Baekdudaegan, the results were good. Therefore, the priority rank method using species distribution models is useful to selecting protected areas and improving conservation plans. However, it is needed to select protected areas considering various evaluation factors, such as rarity, connectivity, representativeness, focal species and so on because there is a limit to select protected area only using species richness.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.55-63
• /
• 2008

The characteristics of forest damage in the Geum-buk Mountains were analyzed by using satellite images and a field survey for landscape conservation purposes. A survey scope was fixed using DEM, and areas of damage in the mountain range were analyzed via ArcMap v. 9.2 using SPOT 5 images, a high resolution satellite image. All damaged areas were reviewed and corrected in a field survey. As a result, 75 roads were found to completely fragment forest patches. Of those roads, 26 have the width under 3m, which means that the fragmentation of the forest by these roads may have a minor effect on forest habitat and its ecosystems, while other roads such as two-lane roads may have broader detrimental influences on the ecosystem. Two thousand eighty-three sections of accounted for a total area of about 5,760.7ha. Orchard areas including chestnut tree plantations were ranked as the largest in the damaged area within the Geum-buk Mountains, followed by public facility areas and grassland areas. This means that man-made land usage has progressed in the area regardless of slope and elevation.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.193-203
• /
• 2021

As endangered species are gradually increasing due to land development by humans, it is essential to secure sufficient protected areas (PAs) proactively. Therefore, this study checked priority conservation areas to select candidate PAs when considering the impact of land development. We determined the conservation priorities by analyzing four scenarios based on existing conservation areas and reflecting the development impact using MARXAN, the decision-making support software for the conservation plan. The development impact was derived using the developed area ratio, population density, road network system, and traffic volume. The conservation areas of endangered species were derived using the data of the appearance points of birds, mammals, and herptiles from the 3rd National Ecosystem Survey. These two factors were used as input data to map conservation priority areas with the machine learning-based optimization methodology. The result identified many non-PAs areas that were expected to play an important role conserving endangered species. When considering the land development impact, it was found that the areas with priority for conservation were fragmented. Even when both the development impact and existing PAs were considered, the priority was higher in areas from the current PAs because many road developments had already been completed around the current PAs. Therefore, it is necessary to consider areas other than the current PAs to protect endangered species and seek alternative measures to fragmented conservation priority areas.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.299-313
• /
• 2023

Stellaria pallida (Dumort.) Crép., S. ruderalis M. Lepší, P. Lepší, Z. Kaplan & P. Koutecký, and Cerastium pumilum Curtis are unrecorded alien species of Caryophyllaceae found in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do in the Republic of Korea. Stellaria pallida is readily distinguished from other taxa in the same genus by its petals, as it's considerably smaller than the sepals or absent. In contrast, S. ruderalis is difficult to identify as it has intermediate traits between S. media L. and S. neglecta (Lej.) Weihe. However, S. ruderlais clearly identified by seed morphology, and S. ruderalis, unlike S. media and S. neglecta, has conical shape of outer periclinal wall and papillate on the basely surface of that. Cerastium pumilum is similar to C. glomeratum Thuill. and belongs to the same subgenus (Sub gen. Fugacia); however, it has some distinct characteristics, including stamens that are primarily 8 (5-10), upper bracts with membranous edges, and the length of the pedicels and petals being longer than that of the sepals. The three of alien plants was recorded for the first time in this study, and information of their habitat, distribution map, description and photographs are presented.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.64-73
• /
• 2024

As the seriousness of habitat destruction caused by development projects emerges, the importance of environmental impact assessment (EIA) is increasing to preserve biodiversity. In previous studies, research is being conducted to quantitatively evaluate the biodiversity impact of development factors and surrounding environmental factors on the landscape scale, but research on the factors affecting the reduction of biodiversity based on development projects is insufficient. This study examined whether independent variables (size of development project, type of the development, DEM, ecosystem and nature map, distance from the green land, distance from the protected area), which have been proven to effect biodiversity through the previous researches, have a significant effect on the change of richness index (RI) through multi-class logistic regression analysis, T-test, and analysis of the development type. As a result, only the size of development project and the first richness index in EIA showed p-value less than 0.05. And it was confirmed that the reduction in biodiversity was significantly changed in the following construction types: installation of sports facilities, energy development, and development of industrial location and industrial complex. Since the results of this study confirmed that the impact of the variables may be inconsistent depending on the analysis scale, additional study of necessary indicators at the development project is needed to analyze biodiversity changes in EIA accurately.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.53-63
• /
• 2024

Biodiversity holds significant importance within the framework of environmental impact assessment, being utilized in site selection for development, understanding the surrounding environment, and assessing the impact on species due to disturbances. The field of environmental impact assessment has seen substantial research exploring new technologies and models to evaluate and predict biodiversity more accurately. While current assessments rely on data from fieldwork and literature surveys to gauge species richness indices, limitations in spatial and temporal coverage underscore the need for high-resolution biodiversity assessments through species richness mapping. In this study, leveraging data from the 4th National Ecosystem Survey and environmental variables, we developed a species distribution model using Random Forest. This model yielded mapping results of 24 mammalian species' distribution, utilizing the species richness index to generate a 100-meter resolution map of species richness. The research findings exhibited a notably high predictive accuracy, with the species distribution model demonstrating an average AUC value of 0.82. In addition, the comparison with National Ecosystem Survey data reveals that the species richness distribution in the high-resolution species richness mapping results conforms to a normal distribution. Hence, it stands as highly reliable foundational data for environmental impact assessment. Such research and analytical outcomes could serve as pivotal new reference materials for future urban development projects, offering insights for biodiversity assessment and habitat preservation endeavors.