• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.421-424
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• 2006

종래의 개발은 양면성을 가지고 있다. 하나는 개발로 인한 경제적 효율성과 편리성 부분이고, 다른 하나는 그러한 개발로 인한 자연훼손 및 생태계 파괴이다. 이로 인해 개발과 보전은 양립할 수 없는 상반적인 개념으로 받아들여져 왔고, 개발론과 보전론의 대립적 구도가 지속되어 왔다. 우리나라는 국토의 65% 이상이 산지이기 때문에 산지의 부분적 개발은 피할 수 없는 사회적 요구인 동시에, 산지는 자연생태계의 보고로서 생태계 보전이 필수적인 지역이다. 이러한 산지 개발과 보전에 대한 상반적 이해를 통합하여 자연과 인간의 공생체계를 갖추기 위해서는 인간중심의 사고에서 탈피하여 사람과 생태계 그리고 자연을 하나로 보는 총체적인 측면에서 접근하는 새로운 패러다임이 설정되어야 한다. 본 연구에서는 산지의 정량적인 가치를 평가하기 위해 시 공간적으로 다양한 인자들에 대해 시스템적인 관점에서 그 중요성을 고려하고자 하는 에머지 개념을 통해 산지 본래의 가치를 평가하였다. 에머지 개념은 그 동안 생태계가치평가, 개발사업의 편익-비용평가, 환경수용력 평가, 개발대안 평가, 환경계정, 환경훼손 소송관련 비용 평가 등에 적용되었다. 이러한 에머지 개념을 이용한 평가 방법을 통한 의사결정이 이루어지면 산지뿐만이 아닌 생태계의 지속가능한 이용을 실현하기 위한 적절한 정책의 선택과 이의 이행 실효성을 높일 수 있을 것으로 기대되며, 자연환경 가치의 정량적 평가를 통해서 우리는 한층 더 자연환경 및 자원의 다원적 기능에 대한 자각을 할 수 있을 것으로 판단된다.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.134-143
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• 2016

This study analyzed the characteristics of emergy inputs from environmental sources that are essential in maintaining ecological processes and providing ecosystems services of the tidal flat ecosystems in Korea. Environmental sources provided a total of $4.98{\times}10^{21}sej/yr$ of emergy to the tidal flats of Korea. The emergy inputs from environmental sources were worth 1,141 billion ￦/yr. This is the value of environmental conditions that are the basis of ecosystem services provided by the tidal flat ecosystems. The emergy input per hectare to regional tidal flats decreased along the coastline from northwest to southeast, with the highest input in the Incheon-Gyeonggi area in the central western part of the Korean coast and the lowest input in the Busan area in the southeastern end. This reflects the general distribution pattern of the magnitude of tidal ranges along the Korean coast. There was no a clear-cut relationship between emergy inputs per unit area and fishery production(expressed in emergy quantity) per unit area. However, tidal flats in the west coast with higher emery inputs per unit area produced more fishery products than those in the south coast with lower emergy inputs, suggesting a possibility that the emergy inputs could be used for the rapid evaluation and comparison of the potential for ecosystem service provision by individual tidal flats.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.539-541
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• 2007

유채유를 이용한 바이오디젤의 실질적인 가치는 배럴당 355,000원으로, 현재의 가격은 평가절하되어 있으며 에머지 생산비율(EYR)은 1.27으로서 석유의 8.4에 비하여 효율이 낮아 대체에너지로서의 경쟁력은 없으나 1보다 높아 에너지 소비 절감의 효과는 있다. 환경부하비율(ELR)은 2.46으로 수력발전의 3.3과 Bioethanol의 7.7보다 낮아 환경에 미치는 영향은 작은 것으로 나타났다. 에머지 지속가능성지수(ESI)는 0.52로 재생불가능한 에너지와 외부에서 구입한 재화와 용역에 대한 의존도가 높으므로 지속성이 낮은 것으로 나타났다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.60-67
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• 2010

For sustainable use of the resources of uninhabited islands of Korea, their ecological economic potential needs to be fully integrated into their management policy and the carrying capacity of the islands should be evaluated before using or developing them. The emergy methodology was used to evaluate the ecological economic value and carrying capacity of Sungap-do which is an uninhabited island in Incheon, Korea. The system boundary for the emergy evaluation of the island included the sea area within 1km from the high tide level, following the management boundary for the uninhabited islands of Korea stipulated in the Law on the Conservation and Management of Uninhabited Islands. The total renewable emergy input to Sungap-do was $1.04{\times}10^{20}$ sej/yr from tidal energy. The annual ecological economic contribution of the island was evaluated high at 29.9 billion Em￦/yr. If Sungap-do were developed to the national average, its carrying capacity was 6,586 persons at the current living standard of Korea. The carrying capacity of Sungap-do for the long-term sustainability scenario was 2,337 persons at the same living standard as in the developed scenario. When only emergy contribution of the land area was considered, the carrying capacity of Sungap-do sharply decreased to 14 persons for the developed scenario and 5 persons for the long-term sustainability scenario. The carrying capacity of the uninhabited islands of Korea including Sungap-do, thus, needs to be considered from the initial stage of utilization or development projects to sustain the ecosystem benefits and their sustainable uses.

• Proceedings of the KGS Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.161-162
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• 2006

• 한국생태학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.67.2-67.2
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• 1999

• 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.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.141-154
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• 2016

This study was conducted laying the focus on finding the mutual action between the substantial ecological value and economic system in the national land, and calculating the environmental carrying capacity and sustainability of the national land using the emergy synthesis. Particularly, this study pays attention watchfully to the reality that the analytic framework to analyze sustainability is not arranged well, as the concept of sustainable development considering environmental carrying capacity, which becomes a widely discussed topic today, is defined differently according to the subjective views of respective researchers, and the situation which needs in-depth evaluation on the interaction between nature and economy which becomes the fundamental of sustainable development. This study also aims at groping for correct direction for the national land development by calculating the environmental carrying capacity and index value which is appropriate to the national land and providing the framework for preparing the policy to induce the sustainable use and management of the national land. The concept of emergy synthesis which is used for the evaluation of environmental carrying capacity and sustainability in the national land, as in this case, can notify the information on current situation of the national land as well as explain how the national land transforms according to time pass (the role of information synthesis), and gives knowledge if the national land policies advances toward the direction of sustainable development (the role of policy evaluation and observation). Emergy synthesis also can take role for selecting best policy on the process of decision making on the exploitation of the national land (the role on the process of decision making).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2008

An emergy concept was used to evaluate the environment and economy of the estuarine areas of Yeongsan River, Seomjin River, and Han River in Korea. The emergy evaluations clearly showed ecological and socioeconomic characteristics of the estuarine areas that act as ecological and economic centers of surrounding areas. River, tide, and rain provided most of the renewable emergy inputs to the estuarine areas with their contribution to the total emergy input less than 8%. The estuarine areas mostly relied for their operation on the purchased emergy which accounted for $92{\sim}98%$ of the total emergy input to the systems. Emergy indices such as emergy use per unit area, population carrying capacity, environmental loading ratio, and emergy sustainability index revealed that the estuarine areas of Yeongsan River, Seomjin River, and Han River are not sustainable at the current level of economic activities in the areas. The ecological economic values of the environment of the areas were in the range of $7.29{\sim}22.06$ million Em\/ha/yr. They are more than twice that for the whole country, indicating the ecological and economic importance of the eatuarine areas. It is, therefore, urgent to establish and implement estuarine management policies to protect and restore the ecological and economic potentials of the estuarine areas of Yeongsan River, Seomjin River, and Han River. Management plans for the estuarine areas should include both demand-side measures such as reduction of population and economic concentration and consideration of ecological carrying capacity in planning stages for utilization and development of the areas, and supply-side ones such as restoration of degraded ecosystems and construction of new productive ecosystems.