• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.196-206
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• 2020

Background: The Himalayan forests are of great importance to sustain the nature and community resource demands. These forests are facing pressures both from anthropogenic activities and ongoing global climatic changes. Poor natural regeneration has been considered a major problem in mountainous forests. To understand the population structure and regeneration status of Larix (Larix griffithiana and Larix himalaica), we conducted systematic vegetation surveys in three high-altitude valleys namely Ghunsa (Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, KCA), Langtang (Langtang National Park, LNP), and Tsum (Manaslu Conservation Area, MCA) in Nepal Himalaya. The average values of diameter at breast height (DBH), height, and sapling height were compared for three sites and two species using Kruskal-Wallis test. Population structure was assessed in terms of proportion of seedlings, saplings, and trees. Regeneration was analyzed using graphical representation of frequencies of seedlings, saplings, and trees in histograms. Results: The results showed that the population structure of Larix in terms of the proportion of seedling, sapling, and tree varied greatly in the three study areas. KCA had the highest record of seedling, sapling, and tree compared to other two sites. Seedlings were the least among three forms and many plots were without seedlings. We found no seedling in MCA study plots. The plot level average DBH variation among sites was significant (Kruskal-Wallis χ² = 7.813, df = 2, p = 0.02) as was between species (Kruskal-Wallis χ² = 5.9829, df = 1, p = 0.014). Similarly, the variation in average tree height was significant (Kruskal-Wallis χ² = 134.23, df = 2, p < 0.001) among sites as well as between species (Kruskal-Wallis χ² = 128.01, df = 1, p < 0.001). All the sites showed reverse J-shaped curve but more pronounced for KCA and MCA. In comparing the two species, Larix griffithiana has clear reverse J-shaped diameter distribution but not Larix himalaica. Conclusion: The varied responses of Larix manifested through regeneration status from spatially distinct areas show that regeneration limitations might be more pronounced in the future. In all the three studied valleys, regeneration of Larix is found to be problematic and specifically for Larix griffithiana in MCA and Larix himalaica in LNP. To address the issues of disturbances, especially serious in LNP, management interventions are recommended to sustain the unique Himalayan endemic conifer.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1319-1328
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• 2011

Rhododendron brachycarpum is a evergreen broad-leaved shrub and belongs to the Ericaceae family and the Rhododendron genus. It is well known for its beautiful leaves and flowers. There are 11 species of the Rhododendron genus in Korea. It includes 3 species - Rhododendron brachycarpum, Rhododendron aureum Georgi and Rhododendron brachycarpum var. roseum Koidz. They grow naturally over 1,000 meters above sea level of the Baekdu Mountain Range in Korea. These habitats, according to investigations of 9 Rhododendron brachycarpum natural habitats, are mostly located on the slope of mountains facing north at an altitude of 1,200 m to 1,526 m above sea level with angle of inclination from 30 degrees to 45 degrees. Based on the result of vegetation analysis of dominance species in the quadrates, there are Quercus aliena, Quercus mongolica Fisch. ex Ledeb, Abies holophylla in species of upper trees, and so on. Dominant species of woody plants in tree layer are Quercus aliena, Quercus mongolica Fisch. ex Ledeb, Abies holophylla, Betula platyphylla and Veeatrum patulum Loes. fil, Erythronium japonicum, Dryopteris crassirhizoma, Paeonia japonica var. glabra Makino are founded in herbaceous plants. And we can see another result of the investigation that the flowering rates of the plants with the buds are highly ranked mountains such as Mt. Hambaek 68%, Mt. Gyebang 40%, Mt. Yagksu 9%, Mt. Gaein 7% and Mt. Seolag 0%. The results show that there are 24 over 15-year-old Rhododendron brachycarpums in Mt. Odae and are 56 under 15-year-old trees in Mt. Hambaek and are no trees in Mt. Gyebang and are 9 over 30-year-dead trees only in Mt. Taebaeg. Out of found trees, the highest tree is 7 m in height and 0.6 m in diameter. Also this result shows what are the vulnerability factors of the natural habitats. They are as follows: indiscriminate trails in mountains, damages by mountain climbers, uncareful plant collecting, the fierce competitions with other plants such as Acer pseudosieboldianum var. ishidoyanum Uyeki, Quercus aliena, Celastrus orbiculatus and damages by disease and insect, unusual temperature in natural habitats, etc. Rhododendron brachycarpums have high ornamental value and excellent pharmaceutical effect. But the areas of its habitats decrease dramatically. So we need measures to protect and their natural habitats. It is necessary that we conductfurther investigations to designate conservation area for Rhododendron brachycarpums.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.67-79
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• 2020

Plans to mitigate overheating in urban areas requires the identification of the characteristics of the thermal environment of the city. The key information is the distribution of higher and lower temperatures (referred to as "hotspot" or "coldspot", respectively) in the city. This study aims to identify the areas within Jeonju City that are suffering from increasing land surface temperatures (LST) and the factors linked to such this phenomenon. To identify the hot and cold spots, Local Moran's I and Getis-Ord Gi^* were calculated for the LST based on 2017 images taken using the thermal band of the Landsat 8 satellite. Hotspot analysis revealed that hotspot regions, (the areas with a high concentration of Land Surface Temperature) are located in the old town area and in industrial districts. To figure out the factors linked to the hotspots, a correlation analysis, and a regression analysis taking into account environmental covariates including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and land cover. The values of NDVI showed that it had the strongest effect on the lowering LSTs. The results of this study are expected to provide directions for urban thermal environment designing and policy development to mitigate the urban heat island effect in the future.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.2_1
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• pp.179-197
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• 2020

Topographic normalization reduces the terrain effects on reflectance by adjusting the brightness values of the image pixels to be equal if the pixels cover the same land-cover. Topographic effects are induced by the imaging conditions and tend to be large in high mountainousregions. Therefore, image analysis on mountainous terrain such as estimation of wildfire damage assessment requires appropriate topographic normalization techniques to yield accurate image processing results. However, most of the previous studies focused on the evaluation of topographic normalization on satellite images with moderate-low spatial resolution. Thus, the alleviation of topographic effects on multi-temporal high-resolution images was not dealt enough. In this study, the evaluation of terrain normalization was performed for each band to select the optimal technical combinations for rapid and accurate wildfire damage assessment using PlanetScope images. PlanetScope has considerable potential in the disaster management field as it satisfies the rapid image acquisition by providing the 3 m resolution daily image with global coverage. For comparison of topographic normalization techniques, seven widely used methods were employed on both pre-fire and post-fire images. The analysis on bi-temporal images suggests the optimal combination of techniques which can be applied on images with different land-cover composition. Then, the vegetation index was calculated from the images after the topographic normalization with the proposed method. The wildfire damage detection results were obtained by thresholding the index and showed improvementsin detection accuracy for both object-based and pixel-based image analysis. In addition, the burn severity map was constructed to verify the effects oftopographic correction on a continuous distribution of brightness values.

• The Korean Journal of Soil Zoology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.47-62
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• 2000

This study investigated the effect of soil animals at forest fire area, and it carried out the mountain located at Jundae Ri, Houeng-chen Myen, Ha-dong Gun, Kyoung-Nam Province, southern part of Korea, where burned out about 50 hectars on April 11, 1997. Vegetation of the examined area absolutely dominated with the pines of 7-14 cm in diameter and 20 to 30 years old and the rest were covered with mixed forest with a shrub such as the oak (Quereus mongolia Fisch, Quereus variabilis BI, Quereus dentana Thunb), snowbell(Styrax japonica, S, et, z), lacquer tree (Rhus trichocarpa Mig), azalea (Rhododendron mucronulatum Turcz), etc. And there were simple area organized as a herbaceous plant, and the burnt area was poor experimental sites, where litter layer and herbaceous plant disappeard due to fire, and the unburnt area was rich in surface plant, dead leaves, twigs, etc. But the ground cover vegetations were poor in the unburnt area. The distribution of each animal groups, the seasonal fluctuation in population density, the biomass of meso$.$macroarthropods and the relationship between soil animal and some environmental factors were investigated and analyzed at each experimental area. The result are summarized as follow: 1. Identificated 257,087 individuals of soil microarthropods were classified into 7 classes and 24 orders of Arachinida, Insecta, Chilopoda, Symphyla, Diplopoda, Isopoda and Oligochaeta., and identified 8,006 individuals of the total meso$.$macroarthropods were classified into 7 classes and 20 orders of Arachinida, Insecta, Chilopoda, Symphyla, Diplopoda, Isopoda and Oligochaeta. 2. Among the total soil microarthropods, Arachinida formed 70.9%, followed by Insecta for 28.4% and among the total meso$.$macroarthropod , Insecta formed 57.6%, followed by Chilopoda for 23.8%.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.2741-2748
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• 1972

With 31 existing reservoirs selected in the Yong San River Basin, the sedimentation of the reservoirs has been calulated by comparing the precent capacity with original value, which revealed its reduced reservoir capacity. The reservoirs have a total catchment area of 13,871 ha. with a total capacity of 17.6 million cubic meter, and are short of water supply due to reduction of reservoir capacity. Annual sedimentation in the reservoir ranged from 120 to 3,770 cubic meter per square kilometer with great difference in its distribution, and the average value was 877 cubic meter. This wide disparity is analysed to come principally from the topography, geology, vegetation and hydraulics. The reservoir basin had a large portion of devastated land but has become green more and more in the last 10 years. It can be summarized that in the reservoirs with an average period of sedimentation of 26 years, the reduction rate of reservoir capacity amounts 12.5%, and 0.48% is shown for annual capacity reduction rate.

• 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 Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.189-200
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• 2014

The tropical wet evergreen, tropical semi evergreen and moist deciduous forest types are projected to be impacted by climate change. In the Western Ghats region, a biodiversity hotspot, evergreen forests including semi evergreen account for 30% of the forest area and according to climate change impact model projections, nearly a third of these forest types are likely to undergo vegetation type change. Similarly, tropical moist deciduous forests which account for about 28% of the forest area are likely to experience change in about 20% of the area. Thus climate change could adversely impact forest biodiversity and product flow to the forest dependent households and communities in Uttara Kannada district of the Western Ghats. This study analyses the distribution of non-timber forest product yielding tree species through a network of twelve 1-ha permanent plots established in the district. Further, the extent of dependence of communities on forests is ascertained through questionnaire surveys. On an average 21% and 28% of the tree species in evergreen and deciduous forest types, respectively are, non-timber forest product yielding tree species, indicating potential high levels of supply of products to communities. Community dependence on non-timber forest products is significant, and it contributes to Rs. 1199 and Rs. 3561/household in the evergreen and deciduous zones, respectively. Given that the bulk of the forest grids in Uttara Kannada district are projected to undergo change, bulk of the species which provide multiple forest products are projected to experience die back and even mortality. Incorporation of climate change projections and impacts in forest planning and management is necessary to enable forest ecosystems to enhance resilience.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 1993

Vegetational data obtained from 15 quadrats of Mt. Daeam area were analysed by applying two multivariate methods : two-way indicator species analysis(TWINSPAN) for classification and detrended canonical correspondence analysis(DCCA) for ordination. The dominant tree species were Quercus mongolica, Acer pseudo-sieboldianum, Betula costata, and Acer mono in descending order. The pH ranges were 5.0 to 5.5 in the 15 sites near bog and 5.3 to 5.4 in the 3 sites within bog. The forest communities in Mt. Daeam were classified into Quercus mongolica-Acer mono, Quercus mongolica-Prunus sargentii, Quercus mongolica-Abies nephrolepis-Acer tschonoskii var, rubripes, and Quercus mongolica-Abies nephrolepis-Betula costata according to the TWINSPAN. The relationships between the distribution of dominant species of forest vegetation and soil in the forest of Mt. Daeam were investigated by analyzing soil nutrition gradient. Quercus mongolica-Prunus sargentii forests were distributed in the good sites in nutrition levels of total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, $Mg^{+{+}}$ and $Ca^{+{+}}$ but Quercus mongolica-Abies nephrolepis-Betula costata forests in the poor sites in the nutrition levels.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.75-84
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• 2013

Soil freezing is a phenomenon arising due to temperature difference between atmosphere and ground, and physical properties of soils vary upon the phase change of soil void from liquid to solid (ice). A heat-transfer mechanism for this case can be explained by the conduction in soil layers and the convection on ground surface. Accordingly, the evaluation of proper thermal properties of soils and the convective condition of ground surface is an important task for understanding freezing phenomenon. To describe convection on ground surface, simplified coefficient methods can be applied to deal with various conditions, such as atmospheric temperature, surface vegetation conditions, and soil constituents. In this study, two methods such as n-factor and convection coefficient for the convective ground surface boundary were applied within a commercial numerical program (TEMP/W) for modeling soil freezing phenomenon. Furthermore, the numerical results were compared to laboratory testing results. In the series of the comparison results, the convection coefficient is more appropriate than n-factor method to model the convective boundary condition.