Acknowledgement
Supported by : 한국과학재단
It has been rare to obtain reliable information related to the size of forest land in North Korea. Several sources of forest statistics, ranging from the first map of forest distribution in Korean Peninsula produced in 1910 to official data reported by the North Korea Government in 1997, were gathered and analyzed to define the characteristics of forest cover changes over years. In addition, Landsat satellite data obtained from 1973 to 1993 were processed for the two study areas of the provinces of Pyungyang and Heasan, where the topography and land use pattern are significantly different each other. Using three sets of multitemporal Landsat imagery, land cover ma-ps were produced by computer classification. Although forest statistics reported before 1990 are somewhat inconsistent, they mere gradually decreasing over years. The estimates of 1991 satellite data and the recent statistics reported in 1998 shows very steep decline in forest lands as compared to the ones before 1990. The abrupt decrease of forest lands after 1990 was also found on the detailed analysis of Landsat data for the two study areas of Pyungyang and Heasan. The rapid decline of forest lands may have something to do with the poor economic situation of the country and the continuing natural disasters of severe flooding and drought. Unstocked forest, which was not classified into forest land, was a very distinct and pervasive land cover type that can be easily observed on satellite imagery. Since unstocked forest land in North Korea may be a critical factor for degrading environmental quality as well as for the continuing natural disasters, further analysis is necessary to define the exact extent and the physical characteristics of the cover type.
북한의 산림면적 변화에 대한 규모와 특성을 파악하기 위하여 1910년 제작된 조선임야분포지도와 그동안 국내외에 발표된 다양한 통계자료를 종합 분석하였다. 또한 지형적으로나 지리적 특성이 서로 대조적인 평양주변지역과 혜산주변지역에 대하여 1973년부터 약 10년 주기로 촬영된 Landsat 위성영상자료를 처리하여 각 시점의 토지피복도를 작성하여 산림변화의 공간적 특성을 분석하였다. 1990년대 이전에 발표된 북한 전체의 산림면적은 약
Supported by : 한국과학재단