• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.223-234
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• 2007

The study, executed with Hallasan National Park, which deserves to be a typical ecotourism destination, aims to provide basic information on park management for early establishment of ecotourism in a national park by assessing its visitors' behavior and satisfaction with a nature trail established as a series of an environmental interpretation program. The questionnaire survey was conducted at Eorimok Square in the weekday and on the weekend for two months of August and September in 2006, and finally 144 valid samples were used for the analysis. As a result of the research, it revealed that the demographic characteristics of the visitors to Hallasan National Park tended to coincide with those of the visitors to other national parks In Korea. On the whole, it showed their low recognition level of nature trails built up in national parks and less experience in using them. However, the visitors' satisfaction level and intention of re-visit, and recommendation to others were comparatively higher after actually using the nature trail at the site of Hallasan National Park, which hints at the possibility of national parks' much weightier role as the ground for ecology education and the functional expansion of the environmental interpretation-related facilities and programs. As for the attributes having effects on users' satisfaction with a nature trail, substantial aspects such as accessibility, safety, uniqueness and interest in environmental interpretation, and educational quality as well as physical facility management were revealed to have equal effects on users' satisfaction level, so there still remain a lot of pending issues over the reality of national parks in the initial stage of ecotourism staying at the level of the introduction and establishment of the facilities for environmental interpretation. This research had surveyed visitors to Hallasan National Park and limited to the nature trail only. For more systematic and practical ecological management of a national park, the in-depth understanding of the attributes affecting satisfaction of ecotourists, including nature trails and other environmental interpretation programs, and more sophisticated measuring tools are needed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Environment and Ecology Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.111-114
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• 2009

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.168-175
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• 2007

For maximum utility of trails, there is a need for better knowledge of characteristics of trail use and its users. The purpose of this study is to find out users' attitudes toward trail structures in Eorimok exploring route in Hallasan National Park managerial purposes. A questionnaire survey was conducted to 138 people on the way back home from their visit to the site from July to August, 2007. The geological conditions of 7 types of pedestrian trail structures were rated relatively high both in quantity and quality. The responses were noticeably positive about the natural materials used in wood deck and PP rope railings from the point of three aspects: harmony with nature, visitor convenience and resources conservation. It seems necessary to replace steel structures with native materials because such unnatural materials used in a natural setting are subject to visitor's resistance.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.145-151
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to understand users' attitudes for trail structure conditions in Dobong district, Bukhansan National Park, Korea. For this purpose, the research conducted a respondent's-personal entry-method based questionnaire survey on 250 visitors using inquiry routes in Dobong areas in Bukhansan National Park in July, 2007. The survey result showed that the 6 types of pedestrian trail structures were relatively in better shape in its quality and quantity while the responses for 3 types of structures, such as wood deck, wood railings, and stone paving, were positive in terms of harmony with landscape, preservation of resources, and user convenience. In conclusion, it is considered to be essential to bring in nature-friendly materials for walking facilities in National Parks and also necessary to consider the visual effect arising from the harmony with landscape together with the functions of conservation of resources and inquiry convenience.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.109-113
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine the potentiality of urban forest roads as an environment for enhancing physical fitness. Six male university students participated in the study as subjects. The subjects walked on an urban forest road for 30 minutes. As a control experiment, they also walked on a national park trail for 30 minutes. Subjects' heart rates were monitored during the walks to calculate the ratio of the average time their heart rates were within the target range (from 60% to 80% of the maximal heart rate) for Enhancing Physical Fitness. After the walks, images of the spaces were analyzed using the semantic differential (SD) method. During the walk on the urban forest road, subjects' heart rates were within the target range 63.3% of the time, and lower than the target range 36.7% of the time. During the control experiment on the national park trail, subjects' heart rates were within the target range only 23.3% of the time, and higher than the target range 76.7% of the time. From the spatial perception evaluation using the SD method, subjects' comfortable and natural feelings when they were on the national park trail were significantly greater than when they were on the urban forest trail, but there were no differences in terms of other SD descriptors, such as friendliness and likeability. The results of our study indicate that the urban forest road provides a good environment for walking to enhance physical fitness. Although not as close to nature as national park trails, urban forest roads offer similar natural environments and have a high potentiality for serving as leisure spaces for urban residents who seek physical activities.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.78-89
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• 2009

As 'design for all' and 'adaptable design', universal design is highly demanded to be adopted in neighborhood forest trail. The research areas were Mt. Doeum in Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk Province and Mt. Anma in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province which were equipped based on 7 principles of universal design. The purpose of this research is providing baseline data for effective formulation of forest trail using universal design through visitors' evaluation on forest trail facilities by importance-performance analysis. Visitor's evaluation was achieved through questionnaire survey, and total 247 pieces of subjects were used for the analysis, 114 pieces from Mt. Doeum in Pohang and 113 pieces from Mt. Anma in Chuncheon. The residential areas of the respondents were mainly near each mountain - Mt. Doeum and Mt. Anma. According to the responses, nature study and education were the biggest reasons for the respondents' visits to Mt. Doeum, and so was the health to Mt. Anma, which are representative types of visiting behavior to nearby forest trails. The mean of importance was shown to be 3.87 while that of performance was 4.04, being a little higher than importance's, in importance-performance analysis of Mt. Doeum. This result suggests that the responders placed positive value on the forest trail applying universal design. It is necessary to improve the safety and convenience of guidance-safety handrail, make information sign easy to understand, and introduce an interpretive sign meeting the visiting purposes of visitors. Also, the management to make the road surface flat is in demand for the accessibility to forest trail. The mean of importance was 3.92 and that of performance was 3.99 in Mt. Anma, which suggests the necessity of improvement in safety of pavement material and boundary safety facilities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.89 no.5
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• pp.576-584
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• 2000

The term 'greenways' is a fairly new one. The term greenways refer to linear corridors which set aside pieces of nature. The objective of this study was to find out the feasibility of developing greenways in Taegu. Sample of 446 trail users were asked to describe their use patterns and as well as their perceptions of the benefits and problems associated with trails through on-site interviews conducted during the months of July and August of 1999. Trail users in Taegu were predominately male(61%) and over half of the respondents used private vehicle to access to the study areas as compared to 2% of respondents used bicycle. Trail users responded that health & fitness and open space preservation were the two most important benefits, and the provision of trail access to disabled persons was ranked last. As problems at study areas, lack of interpretive information was the biggest problem followed by lack of drinking water, poor trail marking/signs and not enough information. Most(94.1%) of the trail users surveyed indicated that they would support greenways development and 96.8% of respondent would use after greenways development. Willingness to pay for developing greenways was assessed with hypothetical scenario. Average willingness to pay in the survey was 10,200 won as a tax. The development/application of greenways in Taegu would work best when establish a network of trails with environmentally sensitive manner.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.133-146
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• 2017

This study aimed to develop strategies to re-establish the Park Nature Conservation Area in Bukhansan National Park, reflecting landscape ecological value by using the zonation program Marxan with Zones. Planning unit was set by watershed, and the basic data were mapped, considering topographical and ecological values. Mapped indicators were analyzed with the application framework of Marxan with Zones by indexing some indicators. The zones divided into Park Nature Conservation Area (Zone A), Park Nature Environment Area I(Zone B) which is reflected on the concept of Potential Park Nature Conservation Area and Park Nature Environment Area II(Zone C). The best solution for each of the scenarios was fixed through the sensitiveness analysis. From these, the final solution was selected considering five criteria including area ratio of conservation area and grouping. Lastly, the final solution was verified in the overlapped analysis with recent zonation. According to the results, the number of watersheds was 77, with an average area of $1,007,481m^2$. In terms of basic mapping and indexation, the slope index and number of landscape resources for topographical property were average 0.22 and 38 places, respectively. Biotope index was average 0.69 and legally protected species was 14 species, reflecting ecological values. As the social and economic indicators, trail index was average 0.04, and the number of tour and management facilities was 43 places. Through the framework of Marxan with Zones, the best solution for scenario 1 which was set by the highest conservation criteria was selected as the final solution, and the area ratio of Park Nature Conservation Area and grouping was excellent. As the result of overlapped analysis, suggested zonation of the Park Nature Conservation was better than the recent zonation in the area raito (28.3%), biotope grade I(15.4%) and the distribution points (10 places) of legally protected species with verification of proper distribution of conservation features according to the zone.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.71-80
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze a conservation state and a sustainable use of coastal wetland in Sindu-ri Tae-an, using the plant community structure analysis and the awareness result of local residents by published paper. To investigate a forest structure in Sindu-ri area, twenty plots were set up and surveyed. The community, is divided by three groups. The divided groups are Robinia pseudoacacia(I), Pinus thunbergii-Robinia pseudoacacia(II), Robinia pseudoacacia(III). Survey site I is simple canopy layer and deteriorative forest. Survey site II is grassland and swamp, where Pinus thunbergii-Robinia pseudoacacia is dominant trees of vegetation. Robinia pseudoacacia is competition species with Pinus thunbergii in survey site II. Survey site III is barren land(sand-hill) where main species is Robinia pseudoacacia. As a result, survey II district is considered as the most suitable for the conservation of species diversity. It is proposed in this paper that the ecological nature trail would be connected in survey site I and II for environmental education. The local residents of Tae-an, where natural environment is well-conserved, prefer conservation to development of the region. In case of Tae-an, where the condition of the natural environment is well conserved and the development potential exists, the development is in harmony with the environmental education program.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.87 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 1998

This study has been carried out to lay out a scheme to increase the recreational functions of the forests through improvement of trail environment. To achieve the objective, environmental characteristics of the trails, actual condition of the users, and status of the park management were investigated in the suburb parks of Tokyo, Japan in 1996. As the results, the managing agency of investigated parks has been set itself to activate the use rather than environment conservation and improvement of recreational environment in forests. However, for taking into account the behavior and the purpose of visits in forest, the enhancement of scenic quality and amenity in the parks is a pressing need in recreational conditions. Therefore, to increase the recreational functions in forests, selection of courses and keeping of natural trails in good condition, control of users to ensure amenity, introduction of planting methods to enhance scenic quality and educational effects, and management to efficient conservation of nature ecosystem are required.