• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.275-296
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• 2012

Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University The national health insurance system in Korea is characterized as relatively high out-of-pocket payments, which are the principal source of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE). The objectives of this study are to estimate the incidence of household CHE and to clarify the characteristics that affect the occurrence and recurrence of household CHE using the Seoul Welfare Panel Survey database for 2008 and 2010. Thresholds to estimate CHE were 10% and 20% of the total household income (T/X), and 25% and 40% of the income excluding food share (T/Y). Determinants of the occurrence and recurrence of CHE at the threshold of T/X=10% were analysed using multiple logistic regression models. Out of the 3,665 households that responded in 2008 survey, households with CHE were 12.07% (T/X${\geq}$10%), 5.34% (T/X${\geq}$20%), 6.84% (T/Y${\geq}$25%), and 4.44% (T/Y${\geq}$40%). Risk factors associated with household CHE included living with a spouse, non-Medicaid beneficiary, householder unemployment, low household income, the number of disabled members, poor subjective health, and the number of chronic diseases. A total of 41.78% of households with CHE in 2008 repeatedly experienced CHE in 2010. Risk factors of CHE recurrence included decreased household income and an increase in chronic diseases over the two time periods, the number of members with disability or chronic diseases, and the presence of cancer patients in 2008. Households with lower socioeconomic and health status had a higher financial burden on health care than do their counterpart households. There is a need to enhance society-wide financial protection from health spending among vulnerable citizens in Seoul, particularly, households with low income, disabled members or cancer patients.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.13-26
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• 2023

Recently, South Korea has prepared laws and systems to systematically manage rural spaces in response to the era of population decline and is making various efforts to promote related policies. However, various basic studies that can support this are still insufficient. In particular, in this study, the functions and roles of each settlement class were established along with the classification of the sedentary classes in rural areas, and the classification system for rural living services was established, and the hierarchy by functional facilities and the minimum standards for vulnerable areas (accessibility) were established. Specifically, in this study, the settlement class was divided into 4 classes of "central area - midpoint area - small point area - hinterland", and each function and role was presented, and the rural living service classification system was finally reestablished as 10 sectors and 31 functional facilities. In addition, the hierarchy and accessibility standards of rural living service functional facilities was set within 5 to 15 minutes for 'lower and basic services', within 10 to 20 minutes for 'medium and basic services', within 15 to 30 minutes for 'intermediate and complex services', within 20 to 60 minutes for 'high car/complex service' and within 10 minutes for 'urgent service'.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.10.1-10.10
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• 2023

The purpose of this paper was to review the problems relating to Korea's occupational health services and suggest ways to improve them. Korea can be classified as a welfare state type of conservative corporatism partially interwoven with liberalism. While experiencing compressed economic growth, the economic sectors of developed (excess areas) and developing (deficient areas) countries are interwoven. Therefore, it is necessary to perfect conservative corporatism along with a complementary reinforcement of liberal contents and to apply a multilayered approach focusing on complementing the deficient areas. It is essential to form a national representative indicator related to occupational health, and a strategy for selection and concentration is needed. The proposed central indicator is the occupational health coverage rate (OHCR), which is the number of workers who have applied for mandatory occupational health services under the Occupational Safety and Health Act in the numerator with the total working population in the denominator. This paper proposes ways to raise the OHCR, which is currently at the level of 25%-40%, to 70%-80%, which is the level of Japan, Germany, and France. To achieve this target, it is necessary to focus on small businesses and vulnerable workers. This is an area of market failure and requires the active input of community-oriented public resources. For access to larger workplaces, the marketability of services should be strengthened and personal intervention using digital health resources should be actively attempted. Taking a national perspective, work environment improvement committees with tripartite (labor, management, and government) participation for improvement of the working environment need to be established at the center and in the regions. Through this, prevention funds linked to industrial accident compensation and prevention could be used efficiently. A national chemical substance management system must be established to monitor the health of workers and the general public.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.131-145
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• 2019

Korea has set up a radiation emergency planning zone based on the 「Act on Physical Protection and Radiological Emergency」 to protect residents living near nuclear power plants in the event of nuclear disasters. Little research has been conducted on the appropriateness of existing nuclear evacuation facilities because of a general lack of interest in nuclear accidents. This research addresses this gap by analyzing the location adequacy of evacuation facilities in Busan's emergency protection planning area based on vulnerable populations and accessibility analyses. The Gijang-gun which has the greatest risk, shows that only 4.05% of the total urban area was included in the evacuation service area within 5 minutes while only 36.93% of Geumjeong-gu and 37.23% of Haeundae-gu were included in the evacuation-enabled area. In addition, evaluation facilities in the elderly population hotspots were lacking, and there was a wide gap between dongs within the same Gu. Thus, additional evacuation facilities need to be designated and installed considering the spatial equity between areas and safety of both the public and vulnerable populations.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.751-761
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• 2014

This study was carried out to analyze the vegetation properties, soil characteristics and ordination of Rhododendron brachycarpum population in South Korea. Rhododendron brachycarpum were mainly distributed along the Ulleungdo and Baekdudaegan of the Korean penninsula and it's population was located at an elevation of 872m to 1466m. The Rhododendron brachycarpum population was classified into Taxus cuspidata var. latifolia dominant population, Magnolia sieboldii dominant population, Thuja koraiensis dominant population and Rhododendron brachycarpum typical population. The composition of soil properties in the same areas are as follows: organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorous, exchangeable $K^+$, exchangeable $Ca^{2+}$, exchangeable $Mg^{2+}$ contained, and soil pH. The capacities of these chemical properties of the soil ranged from 10.45~15.28%, 0.37~0.61%, $0.21{\sim}0.35cmol^+/kg$, $0.39{\sim}2.54cmol^+/kg$, $0.17{\sim}0.50cmol^+/kg$, $18.28{\sim}22.81cmol^+/kg$ and 4.66~5.23 respectively. The results of the correlation between communities and soil conditions of vegetation of Rhododendron brachycarpum by DCCA ordination method are as follows: Taxus cuspidata var. latifolia dominant population was found in the very steep sloped area that has low percentage of total organic matter and nitrogen than other populations. Magnolia sieboldii dominant population and Thuja koraiensis dominant population was found in the steep sloped area that has high percentage of total organic matter and nitrogen than other populations. Thuja koraiensis dominant population was found in the gentle sloped area that has high percentage of altitudinal and rock exposure. Current status of Rhododendron brachycarpum is very vulnerable with a collection of herbs constantly threatening the species' survival. Thus, concrete conservation plans to protect natural habitats should be set up as soon as possible.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.100-105
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• 2020

Northern pipevine (Aristolochia contorta) commonly inhabits marginal areas between waterside and terrestrial vegetation. In particular, A. contorta is ecologically important in the marginal areas as a food plant of dragon swallowtail butterfly (Sericinus montela), which is designated as vulnerable species in the Republic of Korea. For long-term sustainability of the plant population, assessment of the genetic diversity of exist populations should be conducted. Genomic DNA of A. contorta leaf samples were extracted from four populations where the vigorous growth were observed in the South Korea. Intra-population genetic diversity and inter-population genetic distance were assessed using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) with five polymorphic random primers. Overall genetic diversity was lower, compared to other wetland species (h: 0.0607 ~ 0.1401; I: 0.0819 ~ 0.1759), while GP showed the highest intra-population genetic diversity. Despite of the geographical distance, GP showed the larger genetic distance from other populations. This result seemed to be caused by the fragmented habitat and lower sexual reproduction of A. controta. Mixture of the different source populations and construction of the proper environmental condition such as shade and physical support for sexual reproduction should be considered for conservation of A. contorta population.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.210-218
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• 2012

This study was carried out to analyze the vegetation properties, soil characteristics and ordination of Bletilla striata population in South Korea. The $Bletilla$ $striata$ population was classified into $Juniperus$ $rigida$ dominant population, $Rhododendron$ $yedoense$ var. $poukhanense$ dominant population, $Rhus$ $javanica$ dominant population, $Bletilla$ $striata$ typical population. $Bletilla$ $striata$ were mainly distributed along the coast of south-western regions of the Korean penninsula and it's population was located at an elevation of 4m to 40m. In the study sites, soil organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphate, exchangeable potassium, exchangeable calcium, exchangeable magnesium, cation exchange capacity and soil pH were 2.38-6.70%, 0.09-0.27%, 1.81-6.85mg/kg, 1.08-1.72$cmol^+/kg$, 3.56-7.71$cmol^+/kg$, 1.52-3.21$cmol^+/kg$, 5.28-16.95$cmol^+/kg$ and 4.60-6.01 respectively. $Rhododendron$ $yedoense$ var. $poukhanense$ dominant population was found in the steep sloped area that has high percentage of organic matter, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity and pH than other populations. $Rhus$ $javanica$ dominant population was found in the gentle sloped area that has less percentage of organic matter, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity and pH. $Juniperus$ $rigida$ dominant population and $Bletilla$ $striata$ typical population were found in the medium sloped area that has medium percentage of organic matter, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity and pH. Current status of $Bletilla$ $striata$ habitats is very vulnerable with local development constantly threatening the species' survival. Thus, concrete conservation plans to protect natural habitats should be set up as soon as possible.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

Cities are highly susceptible to disasters due to concentration of population and infrastructure and intensive land use, and there are various factors that affect vulnerability according to regional characteristics. This study analyzed the vulnerability of the heat wave and the surface temperature extracted from Landsat 8 satellite data. Areas with high surface temperature and with high vulnerability did not match. This study overlaid the results of vulnerability analysis and the land surface temperature(LST) in order to identify causes of vulnerability. The results showed that some areas within high-density commercial and semi-residential areas were the most vulnerable, with climate exposure factors, the ratio of the vulnerable populations and residential defective areas being the main causes. Accordingly, alternatives such as green space and residential environmental improvement could be suggested. Various policies for reducing and adapting to heat wave have been established and implemented. However, it is necessary to examine the regional and spatial characteristics of the city, to accurately diagnose the cause of the heat wave, and to prepare appropriate long-term alternatives accordingly.

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.169-186
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• 2018

The social influence of the elderly population will accelerate in a rapidly aging society. The purpose of this study is to establish a methodology for extracting vulnerable districts of the welfare of the aged through machine learning(ML), artificial neural network(ANN) and geospatial analysis. In order to establish the direction of analysis, this progressed after an interview with volunteers who over 65-year old people, public officer and the manager of the aged welfare facility. The indicators are the geographic distance capacity, elderly welfare enjoyment, officially assessed land price and mobile communication based on old people activities where 500 m vector areal unit within 15 minutes in Yongin-city, Gyeonggi-do. As a result, the prediction accuracy of 83.2% in the support vector machine(SVM) of ML using the RBF kernel algorithm was obtained in simulation. Furthermore, the correlation result(0.63) was derived from ANN using backpropagation algorithm. A geographically weighted regression(GWR) was also performed to analyze spatial autocorrelation within variables. As a result of this analysis, the coefficient of determination was 70.1%, which showed good explanatory power. Moran's I and Getis-Ord Gi coefficients are analyzed to investigate spatially outlier as well as distribution patterns. This study can be used to solve the welfare imbalance of the aged considering the local conditions of the government recently.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.37-44
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• 2012

There are approximately 25,724 shelters to which people can be quickly evacuated for safety in case of emergency across the nation, and Seoul has about 3,870 shelters. Those nationwide shelters are located at a point within a five-minute radius for quick evacuation. Seoul's shelter capacity can hold 285% of its population. The problem is, however, that there is no knowing how many shelters are reachable within five minutes when considering walking speed according to individual differences in age, height, health state, and physical condition. In addition, available service areas become different according to the spatial allocation and distribution of shelters with possible vulnerable points. This study thus defined the pedestrian walking speed at 1m/s, 1.3m/s, and 2m/s by reviewing previous studies and conducted network analysis of the Location Allocation Model with the designated shelters and road networks in Seoul. The results identified the shelter service and vulnerable areas in each administrative district of Seoul according to walking speeds. It was analyzed that the vulnerable areas in which the elderly could not reach a shelter were more than twice as big as those of adult men and women with a fast walking speed.