• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.240-245
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• 2017

In this study, we developed a method to assess quantitatively the amount and the economic value of water quality regulating service of ecosystem services. Numbers of species and aquatic organisms such as fish increased because of the improved water, but it was due to complex factors such as water quality regulation services of ecosystems, installation of environmental facilities for water quality treatment, and water quality regulation. Therefore we sought ways to quantitatively estimate the value of ecosystem regulation services. In this study, we propose a method to estimate the quantitative value of water quality regulation service of ecosystem by utilizing the total amount of water pollution. In addition, the economic value evaluation method was proposed by multiplying the estimated the quantitative value of water quality regulation service of ecosystem by the unit cost per unit capacity. Finally, the ecosystem water quality regulation service was estimated by using the evaluation method for BOD and T-P in Nakdong river watershed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.580-587
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• 2016

This study aims to estimate the values of freshwater ecosystem services from demand and supply perspectives. From demand side, unit-values of ecosystem services are derived from Environmental Valuation Information System (EVIS) and aggregated to 5 main watersheds in Korea. The derived unit-values are based on the willingness to pay estimates per household from stated preference methods. The nation-wide average total values of water quantity supply, water purification, and natural disaster control are estimated as 501.2, 410.4, and 242.4 billion won/year, respectively. From supply side, we examine the direct and indirect public expenditures (or investment) in 2013 to improve freshwater ecosystem services by the government. The total sum of government expenditures corresponds to 8,882 billion won in 2013, where 12.9, 81.3, 0.3 and 5.3% are spent to improve provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services, respectively, indicating that most efforts are concentrated in enhancing regulating services.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.102-115
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• 2015

Several emergy researches have been carried out to estimate the value of marine ecosystem services in Korea over the last decade. Their results cannot be compared mainly due to inconsistency in emergy-money ratios used to convert emergy unit into monetary unit. This study aimed at providing a standardized format for the emergy evaluation of the Korean economy and environment for different emergy evaluations to be compatible. Even though the area of the continental shelf increased in this study compared to those of previous studies, areaweighted average tidal range for the entire continental shelf of Korea resulted in smaller tidal range, decreasing the final emergy input from tide. However, emergy inputs from nonrenewable resources and purchased goods and services increased with new categorization and use of more detailed data, combined with updated unit emergy values. This led to higher emergy-money ratio for the Korean economy, indicating that previous emergy valuations might have overestimated the contributions of marine ecosystem to the real wealth of the Korean society. The base year for gross domestic product used in the emergy evaluation needs to be clearly indicated due to its impact on the calculation of the emergy-money ratio. A standardized emergy table for the Korean economy will contribute to ensuring consistency among future emergy researches on the valuation of marine ecosystem services.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.683-696
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• 2023

The conservation of wetland ecosystems has a significant role in climate change. Notably, the Han River Protected Area, including the Siam-ri wetland and Janghang wetland, provides high biodiversity value. Thus, it is necessary to comprehensively evaluate the function and value of wetland ecosystems. This study evaluated the ecosystem services of Siam-ri and Janghang Wetlands located in the Han River Protected Area using the Rapid Assessment Wetland Ecosystem Services approach, a function-oriented ecosystem analysis. The results were calculated using the Ecosystem Services Index formula to analyze wetland ecosystem services. We also assessed the key ecosystem services based on a focus group interview. We identified that the supporting and cultural services index scores were relatively high in the study area. The results can provide helpful information for sustainable wetland conservation, conservation planning as primary data, and raising awareness for the Han River Protected Area.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.69-76
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• 2019

Ecosystem services are contributing to human welfare by enabling us to maintain our survival and quality of life. A metod of quantifying ecological functions is needed. We discussed the introduction and applications of ecosystem services to applied ecological engineering. The concept and assessment system of ecosystem services were applied to the economic valuation of river, the construction of blue-green-white network in urban area, ecological restoration, and integrated water management in Korea. The conceptual framework and assessment of ecosystem services can be used to promote value of ecological protection and restoration, helping stakeholders understand the benefits of ecosystems and increasing applications of the applied ecological engineering.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2013

An emergy concept was used to evaluate the contributions of the Youngsan River Estuary to the Korean economy from systems and ecosystem service perspectives. Total emergy input to the estuary was $9.42{\times}10^{20}$ sej/yr with the chemical potential of river inflow accounting for 73% of the total and tidal energy for the remaining 27%, reflecting the unique environmental characteristics of estuaries where rivers meet sea. From the systems perspective, the estuary ecosystem contributed 179.9 billion em\/yr (14.91 million em\/ha/yr or 13,526 em$/ha/yr). Four ecosystem services of the Youngsan River Estuary were selected for the emergy evaluation: fishery production, pollutant removal, aesthetic function, and scientific research information. Aesthetic function contributed the most to the Korean economy with 179.9 billion em\/yr, followed by fishery production (101.1 billion em\/yr), pollutant removal (32.6 billion em\/yr), and scientific research information (934 million em\/yr). Emergy-based values of the selected ecosystem services of the estuary were higher than those calculated by economic methodologies.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.337-343
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• 2017

This study is going to contribute the activation of ecosystem services written in the 3rd National Basic Plan for Nature Conservation(2016~2025) in Korea. Meanwhile we considered the benefits that the nature has given to the humankind as free goods or services which we may consume traditionally without due payment therefore. But on account of the expansion of cities and expedition of development, as the carrying capacity of the nature has been breached, people have come to try to restore and enhance artificially such vulnerable capacity. It is necessary to compensate the opportunity cost which the land owners or occupiers have to pay for conservation and maintenance of natural capitals which yield the ecosystem services. Therefore the institutionalization of ecosystem services should be established that the consumers who enjoy such services should share the interest from enjoying services with the land owners or occupiers who produce the ecosystem services, under the legal system which will make it possible to connect the benefit sharing with the conservation of environment. However it is the first task that the present legal system could not realize the fair and equitable benefit sharing between the producers and consumers of ecosystem services. And the second task in such legal system is that the value of ecosystem services could not be fully considered in the process of development planning. According to the analysis of this study, the institutionalization of ecosystem services in the government side and the civilian side could be realized to somewhat extent, although not sufficient. Especially the transactions of ecosystem services through the private contract among stakeholder are possible in the course of development planning or without any relevancy to a development project. The final task in the institutionalization of ecosystem services is how to assess the ecosystem services and to value the economic benefits therefrom on the basis of what kinds of procedures relating to some development processes. To overcome such difficulties, it is necessary that the state, trend and change of ecosystem services confronting with a developing project should be assessed concretely at the threshold of development. It is possible to integrate the ecosystem services into the environmental impact assessment(IEA), not by way of the Act of IEA, but by way of the Decree thereof.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.286-294
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• 2020

This study aims to economically evaluate rice production and various ecological services provided by organic rice paddy carrying out rice-fish mixed farming. It was also conducted to find a stable structure for increasing the income of rice-producing farmers and promoting ecological services by evaluating the economic feasibility of organic rice paddy for rice-fish mixed farming. As a result of the analysis of expected effects by ecological service functions according to the types of agriculture in the rice-fish mixed farming, general conventional paddy fields were evaluated to have an effect of continuously decreasing biodiversity such as amphibian reptiles, aquatic insects, bird habitats, experience and ecological education, and vegetation diversity, while the biodiversity of organic and rice-fish mixed paddy fields was assessed to increase. As a result of evaluating the economic value, as the area for fish production increases compared to the common practice and organic paddy fields, rice production decreases, but fish production increases and total income was analyzed to increase. In addition, if the value of ecosystem service functions is assessed in the future, it will increase further. It is hoped that these findings will be used as basic data for solving oversupply problems in the rice industry, preserving safe farm income, and improving sustainable farming and ecosystem service functions.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2016

The study of ecosystem service assessment has been actively researched and developed from Millennium Ecosystem Assessment(MA) and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity(TEEB). However, current assessments are limited to monetary assessments of ecosystem function and do not account for the effects of environmental factors and socioeconomic status. This study proposes methods to evaluate ecosystem service based on environmental and socioeconomic factors. The study assesses water yield function through the water yield model in InVEST Tool, and evaluates the overall ecosystem service of water yield as reflected by the amount of precipitation and population of the area. Results show that a difference exists between spatial distributions of the ecosystem function of water yield derived from natural conditions such as land cover and soil, and the spatial distribution of the ecosystem service that accounts for climate and socioeconomic factors. The value of ecosystem service increases for an area of higher population and lower precipitation with similar water yield. Thus, the ecosystem service of water yield should be evaluated not only by the water yield function, but also by climate and socioeconomic factors. The evaluation process described for this study should also be applicable to the evaluation of ecological services in other sectors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture Conference
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• 2015.11a
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• pp.83-84
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• 2015