• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.15-27
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• 2003

Objectives: This study was conducted to compare the medical care patterns of hypertensive patients between rural and urban areas. Methods: We selected one rural county(Region A where there were 19 public health centers; one health center, 8 health sub-centers and 10 community health posts) and two urban districts(Region B and C where there was no health sub-center and community health post) in Daegu city. Region B had similar socioeconomic characteristics with rural county A while region C had different characteristics. The medical insurance records of 14,422 incident patients (2,501 in region A, 4,873 in region B and 7,048 in region C) with diagnostic code of hypertension from September 1998 to August 1999 were reviewed. Incident patient was defined as a patient who had no record of medical fee claim for hypertension to the national health insurance corporation in past 6 months and visited a medical facility for hypertension for the first time. The data for annual visit days, annual prescription days and annual total medical expenses were abstracted. The medical care pattern was categorized by the number of annual visit days and prescription days. The most proper care group was defined as the patient who visited 6-15 days with 240 prescription days or more in a year. Results: The type of medical facilities for the most visit was clinics, 373.% and it was followed by general hospitals, 28.2%; public health centers, 24.7%; and hospitals, 9.8% in region A(p<0.05). In region B, it was clinics, 63.1% and followed by general hospitals, 27.6%; health center, 5.2%; and hospitals, 4.1%(p<0.05). In region C, it was clinics, 53.8% and followed by general hospitals, 35.0%; health center, 6.3%; and hospitals, 4.9%(p<0.05). Annual mean total medical expenses per patient was highest in region C(won195,993) and followed by region A(won191,683) and region B(won178,713). The proportion of the most proper care group was 7.7% in region A, 5.2% in region B and 6.7% in region C(p<0.05). According to the type of medical facilities for the first visit, the proportion of the most proper care group was highest(14.7%) in the patients of public health centers, and it was followed by general hospitals, 8.8%; clinics, 3.6%; and hospitals, 2.0% in region A(p<0.05). In region B, it was highest in general hospitals, 9.7% and followed by hospitals, 4.0%; health center, 3.6%; and clinics, 3.4%(p<0.05). In region C, it was highest in general hospitals, 10.1% and followed by clinics, 5.2%; hospitals, 4.1%; and health center, 3.1%(p<0.05). Conclusions: The proportion of proper care for hypertension was higher in rural area and it was attributed to the care of health center, sub-centers and community health posts which appeared to follow patients better than hospitals and clinics.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.697-707
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• 2018

A fast running model comprising the climate change effects is proposed for urban heat environment simulations so as to be used in urban heat island studies and/or the urban planning practices. By combining Hot City Model, a high resolution urban temperature prediction model utilizing the Lagrangian particle tracing technique, and the numerical weather simulation data which are constructed up to year of 2100 under the climate change scenarios, an efficient model is constructed for simulating the future urban heat environments. It is applicable to whole city as well as to a small block area of an urban region, with the computation time being relatively short, requiring the practically manageable amount of the computational resources. The heat environments of the entire metropolitan Seoul area in South Korea are investigated with the aid of the model for the present time and for the future. The results showed that the urban temperature gradually increase up to a significant level in the future. The possible effects of green roofs on the buildings are also studied, and we observe that green roofs don't lower the urban temperature efficiently while making the temperature fields become more homogeneous.

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.381-390
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• 2019

This study investigates the impacts of urban land-use fraction and temperature advection on the urban heat island intensity over the Seoul metropolitan area using the UM (Unified Model) with the MORUSES (Met Office Reading Urban Surface Exchange Scheme) during the heat wave over the region from 2 to 8, August 2016. Two simulations are performed with two different land-use type, the urban (urban simulation) and the urban surfaces replaced with grass (rural simulation), in order to calculate the urban heat island intensity defined as the 1.5-m temperature difference between the urban and the rural simulations. The land-use type for the urban simulation is obtained from Korea Ministry of Environment (2007) land-use data after it is converted into the types used in the UM. It is found that the urban heat island intensity over high urban-fraction regions in the metropolitan area is as large as 1℃ in daytime and 3.2℃ in nighttime, i.e., the effects of urban heat island is much larger for night than day. It is also found that the magnitude of urban heat island intensity increases linearly with urban land-use fraction. Spatially, the estimated the urban heat island intensities are systematically larger in the downwind regions of the metropolitan area than in the upwind area due to the effects of temperature advection. Results of this study indicate that urban surface fraction in the city area and temperature advection play a key role in determining the spatial distribution and magnitude of urban heat island intensity.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2010

This study has intended to evaluate rural subjective landscape through participation of residents and visitors according to space types, and to perform comparative analysis of evaluation results between residents and visitors. This study has employed a survey method for which 58 residents of 8 villages within Seondong region at Gochang-gun and 70 visitors to Green Barley Field Festival in the target region have participated. 42 landscape view points were selected according to landscape scopes and space types, and then the preference was evaluated using landscape adjectives after showing pictures already taken for each landscape view point. This study has found the following results. First, whereas residents gave high points to natural landscape and artificial one at the historical culture areas in comparison with other landscape scopes, visitors gave them low points on the other hand. Second, visitors evaluated the cultivated area among space types of mixed landscapes with high value. Third, based on t-test for comparative analysis, the statistically significant differences of evaluation results appeared at 6 places among 8 natural landscapes, 3 places among 12 artificial landscapes, and 3 places among mixed landscapes.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 2009

This study aims at proposing that high resolution satellite images could be used to form an urban management plan by calculating the amount of green areas and detecting land use changes in each zoning region within urban planning jurisdiction of Jinju in Gyeongsangnam-do selected as a case study area, analysing imagery of IKONOS and KOMPSAT-2 that are high resolution satellite images. In conclusion, application possibilities of high resolution satellite images as assessment data of urban management administration that help to assess changes in each zoning region are indicated after developing modules based on ArcGIS for calculation and detection of green areas and land use changes and then analysing land use changes and spatial distribution of green areas by using those modules.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.99-104
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• 2019

In Korea, nonpoint pollutants have a significant effect on rivers' water quality, and they are discharged in very different ways depending on rainfall events. Therefore, preparing an optimal countermeasure against nonpoint pollutants requires much monitoring. The present study was conducted to help prepare a method for installing an automatic nonpoint pollutant measurement system for the cost-effective monitoring of the effect of nonpoint pollutants on rivers. In the present study, monitoring was performed at six sites of a river passing through an urban area with a basin area of $454.3km^2$. The results showed that monitoring could be performed for a relatively long time interval in the upstream and downstream regions, which are mainly comprised of forests, regardless of the rainfall amount. On the contrary, in the urban region, the monitoring had to be performed at a relatively short time interval each time when the rainfall intensity changed. This was because the flow rate was significantly dependent on the rainfall's intensity. The appropriate sites for installing an automatic measurement system were found to be a site before entering the urban region, a site after passing through the urban region, and the end of a river where the effects of nonpoint pollutant sources can be well-decided. The analysis also showed that the monitoring time should be longer for the rainfall events of a higher rainfall class and for the sites closer to the river end. This is because the rainfall runoff has a longer effect on the river. However, the effect of nonpoint pollutant sources was not significantly different between the upstream and the downstream in the cases of rainfall events over 100 mm.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2015

Purpose: Forests have positive effects on health due to phytoncide, thus increasing physical activity and stress relief. However, research has not been conducted on the daily health benefits of existing forests. Therefore, this study attempts to compare the health status and behaviors of residents in urban and forested areas. Methods: This cross-sectional study used anthropometric measures, blood tests, heart rate variability, depression, stress, and health behavior self-reports for adults between 35 and 79 years from two regions. Results: Adults living in a forested region had better health consequences-including lower prevalence of osteoarthritis (6.4%) and mean bone mineral density (-0.84) -than those in an urban region (osteoarthritis: 13.7%; bone mineral density: -1.55). The percentage of 'physically active' participants (measured in MET-minutes) differed significantly different between the forested (49.1%) and urban (7.3%) areas. However, health behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and regular heath check-up rates were worse among residents from the forested, than the urban area. Conclusion: We concluded that more proactive forest therapy programs are needed to prove the health differences.

• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.229-241
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• 2011

The continuous urbanizations by a rapid economic growth and a steady increase in population are expected to have a possible impact on meteorology in the downwind region. Long-term (1972~2007) trends of precipitation have been examined in the mid-Korean peninsula for the westerly condition only, along with the sensitivity simulations for a golden day (11 February 2009). During the long-term period, both precipitation amount (PA) and frequency (PF) in the downwind region (Chuncheon, Wonju, Hongcheon) of urban area significantly increased for the westerly and light precipitation ($PA{\leq}1mm\;d^{-1}$) cases, whereas PA and PF in the mountainous region (Daegwallyeong) decreased. The enhancement ratio of PA and PF for the downwind region vs. urban region remarkably increased, which implies a possible urbanization effect on downwind precipitation. In addition, the WRF simulation applied for one golden day demonstrates enhanced updraft and its associated convergence in the downwind area (about 60 km), leading to an increase in the cloud mixing ratio. The sensitivity experiments with the change in surface roughness demonstrates a slight increase in cloud water mixing ratio but a negligible effect on precipitation in the upwind region, whereas those with the change in heat source represents the distinctive convergence and its associated updraft in the downwind region but a decrease in liquid water, which may be attributable to the evaporation of cloud droplet by atmospheric heating induced by an increase in an anthropogenic heat. In spite of limitations in the observation-based analysis and one-day simulation, the current result could provide an evidence of the effect of urbanization on the light precipitation in the downwind region.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.155-187
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• 1999

The East Asian Region has experienced remarkable economic growth and transformation of interurban networking over the past three decades, and urban competiti veness for a networking hub in this region has become a critical issue confronting cities. Competitiveness of the Seoul capital region for a networking hub in Northeast Asia is outstripped by other competing cities in East Asia, notwithstanding its geo-politically and geo-economically advantageous location in this region. In this paper, we aim to appraise the Seoul capital region's competitiveness in terms of logistics distribution, financial function and logistics distribution, financial function and agglomeration of transnational corporations (especially of RHOs and other managerial functions), and to advance the networking strategies of the region for a Northeast Asia hyb. As a result of analysis, we suggest that the Seoul capital region be developed as a Northeast Asian center for regional headquarters or leading global corporations and financial services for being a strategic nodal point in Northeast Asia in the 21st century. A recent survey shows that where to locate an RHQ is influenced by various factors, such as potential market and manufacturing site in the city's hinterland, quality of life, such things as culture, health, safety, education, a well-educated, English-speaking population, reliable air transport, state-of-the-art communications, and an active policy to offer foreign companies generous incentives. The Seoul capital region, which is located at a strategic nodal point advantageous as a springboard for its Northeast Asian hinterland, cannot meet the other conditions mentioned above. To overcome these drawbacks in attracting transnational capital and to create competitiveness as a strategic hub of RHQs in Northeast Asia, it is urgent to initiate a structural reform of the Korean economy, politics, and overall society, to minimize the regulation of FDI, and to provide various incentives for foreign investment. Moreover, we propose the construction of an 'International Business Town' in the Seoul capital region, as a medium to intermediate these strategies and to shape them in a spatial scale. The projected 'International Business Town(IBT)' will be a 'free city' open to international business in which liberal economic activities are guaranteed by special legislation and administration, infrastructures needed for international and improved accessibility to the airport are furnished, and the preference of foreign high-income investors for cultural and living environment are satisfactorily met. IBT is conspicuously differentiated from a raft of other cities' incentives in that it combines deregulation and incentive programs to attract the investment of transnational capital, with a spatial program of offering an urban environment preferred by the high-income investors for cultural and living environment are satisfactorily met. IBT is conspicuously differentiated from a raft of other cities' incentives in that it combines deregulation and incentive programs to attract the investment of transnational capita, with a spatial program of offering an urban environment preferred by the high-income and managerial class. Furthermore, it can be an excellent way of overcoming the xenophobia that has spread among the Korean population by concentrating foreign businesses and their lifestyles in a specific foreign businesses and their lifestyles in a specific zone. In conclusion, 'International Business Town', in line with other legislative and administrative incentive programs, will function as a driving force to make the Seoul capital regional more competitive as a regional business hub in Northeast Asia.

• Proceedings of the KOR-KST Conference
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• 1995.05b
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• pp.252-272
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• 1995