Abstract
This study was carried out to investigate the current urban forest network and future plan of forest framework using nearest features program where stepping stones within 5km from the core forest were selected in the program. We found several conclusions as follows: First, we found that cities in inland area including Daegu, Dajeon and Gwangju have quite different types of forest network with comparing to the cities nearby coastline including Busan, Incheon and Ulsan. The cities in inland area have large mountain patch around each city. However they have small and lower number of island forests within their urban area. Otherwise, cities nearby coastline have more forest patches than in the cities in inland area, and Busan and Incheon especially have strong forest network using various size of forest patches. Second, Daegu and Daejeon have much smaller forest patches distributed in each urban area. So additional forest patches should be added to have highly strong forest network within urban area. Third, Ulsan and Gwangju have most stepping-stone forests close to the large mountain patches in suburban area, which are not able to connect to the forest patches in the central area of each city So additional forest patches are needed to be added in the central area of each city for reinforcing the effect of stepping stone in the central area. Though there should be an addition approach except for forest size and its isolation to construct the ecological network in an urban area, this indices can be a good method to check an environmental and ecological status in an urban area.
