• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.99-111
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• 2015

The objectives of this study were to investigate the location, shape, environment, and vegetation of the Village Forest in Gyeonggi-do and to evaluate the ecological integration and changes of the Village Forests to figure out the measures for conservation and management. There were 23 Village Forests remain in Gyeonggi-do. Ten Village Forests were established based on Feng-shui background. Many of them were found in Yongin area and southeast of Icheon. The Village Forests were owned by local community at 9 village and privately owned at 8 villages. Most Village Forests were managed by local communities except for the two managed by private person. Fifty-two percent of the Village Forests were in strip shape, and most of them were established by Feng-shui background or for the prevention of disasters. The average size of the Village Forests was relatively small at 3,046m2. The most frequent tree species found at the Village Forest were Zelkova serrata and Pinus densiflora. Over half of the number of Village Forests showed vertical structure of overstory trees only or overstory-sub overstory combination, which seemed to be resulted from the loss of understory plants by the activities of local residents. The Village Forests that had over 30% of damaged trees were found at 7 villages. The damages were caused by the road construction close to the groves, soil compaction, and tree death by covering lower stem with soil. The vitality of the damaged trees seemed to be significantly low compared to that of the undamaged. There were factors that determined the changes in the Village Forests: community ritual, institutional protection, designation as a water resource protection district, road construction, land use change, windstorm hazards, and development of forest areas. In order to conserve and manage the Village Forests appropriately, it is necessary to limit excessive use of the grove areas and maintain proper tree growing conditions by improving the soil environment. The development of neighborhood areas need to be controlled and community activities should be encouraged to maintain or restore the original landscape of the groves. Protection measures and supporting policies need to be enforced to keep the Village Forests from disappearing in near future.