• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.273-288
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• 2023

Although many studies have been conducted on techniques and effects that can be applied to forest meditation in domestic forest healing meditation research, there has been little research on the space where forest meditation takes place. Nevertheless, a meditation space is not just a place concept but a forest environment element responsible for the healing function of a forest, i.e., a place containing healing factors, and can be an essential clue to the healing mechanism. Therefore, to determine whether a healing forest meditation space is suitable for meditation, this study selected the attribute items of the meditation space using the Delphi expert survey and then surveyed the user satisfaction of the healing forest meditation space using the IPA (Importance Performance Analysis) technique. The survey was conducted from August to November 2022, targeting 315 adults who used the forest meditation space at the National Center for Forest Therapy, the Saneum Healing Forest, and the Jathyanggi Pureunsup Arboretum in Gyeonggi Province. The result of the IPA analysis showed the average satisfaction with the forest meditation space was relatively high at 4.33 points on a 5-point Likert scale (4.33 points for the National Center for Forest Therapy, 4.34 points for the Saneum Healing Forest, and 4.37 points for the Jathyanggi Pureunsup Arboretum), indicating that the three healing forest meditation spaces were suitable for forest meditation. Satisfaction with the "Sounds of nature" was high in all three forests. On the other hand, all three forests showed a relatively low satisfaction with "Quietness," indicating it to be a priority problem to be addressed. Also, an open-ended questionnaire survey showed that the mediation space's natural elements, such as natural sounds, scenery, air, forest spaces, and scents, had a higher positive impact on meditation satisfaction than artificial elements, such as facilities. Therefore, it is essential to secure sound resources such as the sound of water and birds around the meditation space, and it is also necessary to consider ways to create a meditation forest in an independent area to avoid encounters with visitors and allow only participants in the forest healing meditation program to enter to increase satisfaction with forest meditation.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.327-337
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• 2022

Ecological restoration is considered a good means to prevent biodiversity loss in terms of the ecosystem's health and sustainability. However, there are difficulties in putting it into practice as there is no comprehensive and objective standard for the selection of plant species, such as environmental, ecological factors, and restoration goal setting. Therefore, this study developed an evaluation index necessary for selecting plant species for restoration using the Delphi method that synthesizes the opinions of the expert group. A survey with 38 questionnaires was conducted twice for experts in ecological restoration, etc., and the importance and priority of evaluation indicators were analyzed by dividing the restoration targets into inland and island regions. The result of the importance analysis showed that "native plants" had the highest average of 4.9 among the evaluation indices in both inland and island regions, followed by "seed security", "propagation", and "root growth rate". In the inland region, the index priority was analyzed in the order of "native plants", "appearance frequency", "root growth rate", "distribution range", and "seed security" in the island region, it was analyzed in the order of "native plants", "root growth rate", "appearance frequency", "distribution range", and "tolerance", showing slight differences between the two indicators. As a result of the importance and priority indicator analysis, we set the mean importance and priority of 4.1 and 2.9, respectively, in the inland region and 4.2 and 2.9, respectively, in the island region. As for the criteria of selecting plant species for ecological restoration, the "native plants" had the highest importance and priority. "Seed securing", 'viability", "topography", "proliferation", "tolerance", "soil conditions", "growth characteristics", "early succession", "distribution range", "appearance frequency", and "germination rate" were classified into subgroups of low importance and priority. The lowest indicators were "final stage of succession", "transition period", 'transition stage", "root", "reproduction", "soil", "appearance", "technology", "landscape", "climate", and "germination rate". We expected that the findings through objective verification in this study would be used as evaluation indicators for selecting native plant species for ecological restoration.