Abstract
The Korean government has purchased land properties alongside any significant water bodies before setting up the buffers to secure water qualities. Since the annual budgets are limited, however, there has always been the issue of which land parcels ought to be given the priority. Therefore, this study aims to develop efficient mechanism for land acquisition priorities in stream corridors that would ultimately be vegetated for riparian buffer zones. The criteria of land acquisition priority were driven through literary review along with experts' advice. The relative weights of their value and priorities for each criterion were computed using the Analytical Hierarchy Process(AHP) method. Major findings of the study are as follows: 1. The decision-making structural model for land acquisition priority focuses mainly on the reduction of non-point source pollutants(NSPs). This fact is highly associated with natural and physical conditions and land use types of surrounding areas. The criteria were classified into two categories-NSPs runoff areas and potential NSPs runoff areas. 2. Land acquisition priority weights derived for NSPs runoff areas and potential NSPs runoff areas were 0.862 and 0.138, respectively. This implicates that much higher priority should be given to the land parcels with NSPs runoff areas. 3. Weights and priorities of sub-criteria suggested from this study include: proximity to the streams(0.460), land cover(0.189), soil permeability(0.117), topographical slope(0.096), proximity to the roads(0.058), land-use types(0.036), visibility to the streams(0.032), and the land price(0.012). This order of importance suggests, as one can expect, that it is better to purchase land parcels that are adjacent to the streams. 4. A standard scoring system including the criteria and weights for land acquisition priority was developed which would likely to allow expedited decision making and easy quantification for priority evaluation due to the utilization of measurable spatial data. Further studies focusing on both point and non-point pollutants and GIS-based spatial analysis and mapping of land acquisition priority are needed.