• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.117-129
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• 2021

In this review, we aimed to synthesize the current knowledge on the observed and projected effects of climate change on the ecosystems of Korea (i.e., the Republic of Korea (ROK) or South Korea), as well as the main causes of vulnerability and options for adaptation in these ecosystems based on a range of ecological and biogeographical data. To this end, we compiled a set of peer-reviewed papers published since 2014. We found that publication of climate-related studies on plants has decreased in the field of plant phenology and physiology, whereas such publication has rapidly increased in plant and animal community ecology, reflecting the range shifts and abundance change that are occurring under climate change. Plant phenology studies showed that climate change has increased growing seasons by advancing the timing of flowering and budburst while delaying the timing of leafing out. Community ecology studies indicated that the future ranges of cold-adapted plants and animals could shrink or shift toward northern and high-elevation areas, whereas the ranges of warm-adapted organisms could expand and/or shift toward the areas that the aforementioned cold-adapted biota previously occupied. This review provides useful information and new insights that will improve understanding of climate change effects on the ecosystems of Korea. Moreover, it will serve as a reference for policy-makers seeking to establish future sectoral adaptation options for protection against climate change.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.23-44
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• 2013

Climate change affects human and natural environment. Many countries, including Korea, are trying to develop climate change adaptation strategies to minimize adverse impacts of climate change. To deal with climate change efficiently, decisions have to be made among many options. The objectives of this paper is to analyzes methodologies for prioritizing climate change adaptation measures. Each methodology has strength and weakness and information requirements are differ. We find multi-criteria analysis is one of useful tools considering current level of understanding on climate change adaptation. We suggest climate change risks(timing, likelihood, intensity of climate change impacts), feasibility of policy (equity, main-streaming, democracy), effectiveness (economic effectiveness, co-benefits, propagation effects) of adaptation measures as main evaluation criteria of prioritization.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.359-366
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• 2014

This research was conducted to estimate methane emission from paddy field of 16 local government levels using the DNDC(DeNitrification-DeComposition) model from 1990 to 2010. Four treatments used in DNDC model for methane emission calculations were (1) midseason drainage with rice straw, (2) midseason drainage without rice straw, (3) continuous flooding with rice straw, and (4) continuous flooding without rice straw. Methane emissions at continuous flooding with rice straw were the highest ($471kg\;C\;ha^{-1}$) while were the lowest ($187kg\;C\;ha^{-1}$) at midseason drainage without rice straw. The average methane emission for 21 years was the highest ($1,406Gg\;CO_{2-eq}$.) in Jeonnam province because of its large cultivation area. Jeju province had the highest the average methane emission per unit area due to the organic content in soil.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.120-122
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• 2003

Geographical position and associated climatic influences can be a negative environmental condition that affects sustainable use of land resources, especially pastoral livestock production. Vegetation condition of the country is sensitively changes upon climate changes and human impacts. Within last 60 years data the annual air temperature has increased in 1.66 degrees in average and the total precipitation amount had almost no change. The main goal of this work is to relate climate change within last 20 years with pasture condition, estimated by NOAA/NDVI data set.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.103-115
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• 2018

The uncertainty of climate scenarios, as initial information, is one of the significant factors among uncertainties of climate change impacts and vulnerability assessments. In this sense, the quantification of the uncertainty of climate scenarios is essential to understanding these assessments of impacts and vulnerability for adaptation to climate change. Here we quantified the precision of surface temperature of ensemble scenarios (high resolution (1km) RCP4.5 and 8.5) provided by Korea Meteorological Administration, with spatiotemporal variation of the standard deviation of them. From 2021 to 2050, the annual increase rate of RCP8.5 was higher than that of RCP4.5 while the annual variation of RCP8.5 was lower than that of RCP4.5. The standard deviations of ensemble scenarios are higher in summer and winter, particularly in July and January, when the extreme weather events could occur. In general, the uncertainty of ensemble scenarios in summer were lower than those in winter. In spatial distribution, the standard deviation of ensemble scenarios in Seoul Metropolitan Area is relatively higher than other provinces, while that of Yeongnam area is lower than other provinces. In winter, the standard deviations of ensemble scenarios of RCP4.5 and 8.5 in January are higher than those of December. Especially, the standard deviation of ensemble scenarios is higher in the central regions including Gyeonggi, and Gangwon, where the mean surface temperature is lower than southern regions along with Chungbuk. Such differences in precisions of climate ensemble scenarios imply that those uncertainty information should be taken into account for the implementation of national climate change policy.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.81-86
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• 2011

By strengthening the insulation performance of a building, a great deal of energy can be saved and a comfortable indoor environment can be offered to people. On the other hand, the climate, which has a great influence on the indoor environment, is changed by global warming. Therefore, in planning building envelope structure and design, climate change should be considered. In this paper, the optimal insulation thickness of exterior walls was calculated by an economic assessment method using heating degree-days. Additionally, how much influence climate change has on planning building insulation was investigated. The examination showed that heating degree-days have decreased by about 10% due to climate change in the past few decades. It was also shown that the optimal insulation thickness of exterior walls was thin, at about 6%, in three representative Korean cities (Seoul, Daejeon, Jeju).

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.237-247
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• 2016

Global climate change is becoming one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. This article proposes a psychological perspective of climate change adaptation. Climate change-related severe adverse weather events may trigger mental health problems, including increased post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, violence, and even suicide. Forced migration could be considered a coping method for dealing with weather events, but it may also pose a psychological threat. People respond to severe weather events in different ways based on their individual characteristics. Psychological risks from adverse weather events are mediated and moderated by these factors, which are influenced by personal cognition, affect, and motivation. Examinations from a psychological perspective, which have been neglected in the science of climate change thus far, may provide keys to successful adaptation and the prevention of serious psychological problems resulting from the experience of severe weather events. A new prevention strategy has been suggested for coping with climate threats through encouraging attitude change, establishing proactive support systems for vulnerable groups, establishing a PTSD network, and implementing a stress inoculation program.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.133-139
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• 2010

Global human activities associated with the use of fossil fuels have aggravated climate change, increasing air temperature. Consequently, climate change has the potential to alter surface water temperature with significant impacts on biogeochemical cycling and ecosystems in natural water body. In this study, we examined temporal trends on historical records of surface water temperature, and investigated the air temperature/water temperature relationship and the potential water temperature change from an air temperature scenario developed with regional climate model. Although the temporal trends of water temperature are highly variable site-by-site, surface water temperature was highly dependent on air temperature, and has increased significantly in some sub-watersheds over the last two decades. The results presented here demonstrate that water temperature changes are expected to be slightly higher in river system than reservoir systems and more significant during winter than summer for both river and reservoir system. Projected change of surface water temperature will likely increase $1.06^{\circ}C$ for rivers and $0.95^{\circ}C$ for reservoirs during the period 2008 to 2050. Given the potential climatic changes, every $1^{\circ}C$ increase in water temperature could cause dissolved oxygen levels to fall every 0.206 ppm.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.123-135
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• 2009

To cope with the threats posed by climate change actively, this study tries to examine multi-functional fashion design with the moral awareness of environment, which could be a direct cause of climate change. Literature and patents on multi-functional fashion design following climate change at home and abroad are examined to find the trend of multi-functional fashion designs. And fashion design that can protect human body to cope with climate change is analyzed. This study found that first, it is necessary to recognize the environment problems in the design process so that material is used to the minimum to minimize pollution and enable welfare and continuation of human society; second, environmentally friendly production and rational consumption such as manual production without waste of energy and material need to be favored to minimize the destruction of environment; third, to cope with environment and climate changes, design that allows an item to have diverse functions is needed so that it can have varied lengths, widths, and thicknesses, and it can be put on and taken off.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

Climate change is the issue that attracts the most attention in the field of environment, as well as the most challenging task faced by the human race. There are various ways to resolve this issue. South Korea has established the primary and secondary national climate change adaptation plans at the national level, and is making it compulsory for each local government (lower and municipal-level) to establish climate change adaptation plans. Climate change vulnerability assessment plays an essential role in establishing climate change adaptation action plans. However, vulnerability assessment has a difficulty performing individual assessments since the results are produced through complex calculations of multiple impact factors. Accordingly, this study developed a web-based supporting tool(VESTAP) for climate change vulnerability assesment that can be used by lower and municipal-level local governments. The VESTAP consists of impact DB and vulnerability assessment and display tool. The index DB includes total 455 impacts of future climate data simulated with RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways) 4.5 and 8.5, atmospheric environment data, other humanities and social statistics, and metadata. The display tool has maximized convenience by providing various analytical functions such as spatial distribution, bias and schematization of each vulnerability assessment result. A pilot test of health vulnerability assessment by particulate matters in Sejong Metropolitan Autonomous City was performed using the VESTAP, and Bukang-myeon showed the highest vulnerability. By using the developed tool, each local government is expected to be able to establish climate change adaptation action plans more easily and conveniently based on scientific evidence.