• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.99 no.4
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• pp.487-500
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to provide direction for national parks management policies by analyzing national park facility monitoring data collected every 2 years from 2002 to 2006. The results of this study showed the following. Firstly, 16 mountainous national parks showed increasing values in importance and performance in IPA. The trend analysis results showed that the location and capacity of parking lots as well as the number of rest rooms need to be improved. Secondly, two marine national parks indicated increasing values in campground and coastal facilities in IP value. Also, the location, number, and cleanliness of rest rooms, safety and surface condition of trail, guard rail and warning signs, information signs, drinking water fountains and shower facilities were priorities for improvement. The implications of this study will be able to help by providing guidelines for installation and maintenance of park facilities which in turn will improve visitor satisfaction and establish national park facility operation policies.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.101-111
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• 2011

The Returning Land for Farming to Forestry Project in China is similar to the 'The 10-year National Greening Project' of Korea, and is one of the great strategic policies that started in order to develop the people, resources and the environment by the central government of China. Using the ecosystem recovery as the slogan, The Returning Land for Farming to Forestry Project of China has a long history of 70 years, but the accomplishments has been insignificant when compared to the long history. The Returning Land for Farming to Forestry Project was not a trend due to the societal and economical issues of China, but with the increasing interest on the environmental protection in the late 1990s the extent of the ecosystem is gradually increasing. The most difficult, yet most important matter of the Returning Land for Farming to Forestry Project, is that it must consider the ecosystem with the economy. The farmers want financial gains in a short term, and the government aims is gaining cost-benefit over a long period which is why a rational the Returning Land for Farming to Forestry Project of the central government in China is most important. In order for the Returning Land for Farming to Forestry Project of China to develop further in the future, the standardization and distinction of the economic compensation policy is most urgent. Other than this, a new policy and the government interest on the livelihood of the farmers after the completion of the Returning Land for Farming to Forestry Project are needed, and there must be a clear and fair policy enactment environment so that the opinions of the farmers can influence the policy in the policy enactments.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.4
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• pp.677-684
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• 2015

This study analyzed a long-run growth trend of the forestry sector in the Republic of Korea, and forecasted the potential growth in the future after investigating main drivers of growth in the forestry sector through growth accounting analysis. Based on results, we finally suggested a direction to go forward in order to achieve a sustainable growth in the field. After Asia financial crisis, the growth rate of the forestry sector was getting stable with the fast recovery of Korean economy. While the main drivers of growth in the field was labor and capital accumulation in 1980s and 1990s, the main driver of growth has been the increment of capital accumulation since 2000. As the result of our analysis for forecasting the potential growth in the field, the contribution of labor, capital, TFP in total growth is expected as 0.09%, 1.58%, and -0.01%, respectively. The potential growth rate of the forestry sector during 2012-2020 is predicted to be 1.65% and the total production will become 36.25 trillion won.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.113 no.2
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• pp.153-163
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• 2024

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant shift in the lifestyle patterns of the populace across various domains. Concerns surrounding COVID-19 have emerged as pivotal catalysts of change in recreational habits with people giving a particular preference for environments with low population density and increased openness. This trend has resulted in an uptick in excursions to natural reserves, coastlines, and parks. However, during the peak of infectious outbreaks, widespread adherence to social distancing measures has precipitated a steep decline in tourist footfall across natural recreation forests, exacerbating financial deficits to a considerable extent. Thus, this research sought to compare and analyze the operational efficacy and productivity of national, public, and private natural recreation forests pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing non-parametric methodologies, such as data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index analysis. The objective was to identify the factors contributing to the decreases in efficiency and productivity and ultimately offer nuanced recommendations tailored to respective administrative bodies. This study's distinctive focus on the analysis of management efficiency and productivity in natural recreation forests nationwide offers significant academic and practical relevance.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.61-70
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• 1998

This research has been made for influence of forest environmental changes, such as tree-clearcutting affecting to soil chemical and physical properties, on water storage capacity at forest fire land in Keumsan, Chungnam. The analyzed factors were bulk density, porosity, field moisture saturated hydraulic conductivity air permeability and organic matter content, Field moisture saturated hydraulic conductivity and air permeability at uncutting sites were higher than those at clearcutting sites, especially the most differences were appeared at lower slope. After 2 years passed since forest fire, the most changeable parts of soil characteristics were 5-l5cm depth below soil surface. Total Porosity, coarse pore and fine pore at uncutting sites were higher than those at clearcutting sites. Also, as soil depth increased, total porosity and coarse pore were decreased. Bulk density at uncutting sites was lower than that at clearcutting sites, and was decreased as soil depth increased. The order of the change trend in field moisture saturated hydraulic conductivity, air permeability and porosity was slope lower>middle>upper. Organic matter content at uncutting sites were higher than those at clearcutting sites, and decreased as soil depth increased. As soil depth increased, bulk density had the positive correlation, in other hand, porosity, coarse pore, field moisture saturated hydraulic conductivity, air permeability and organic matter content had the negative correlation. It was concluded that forest environmental changes by forest fire degrade soil physical and chemical properties.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.75-84
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• 2019

In this study, the random forest approach was used to predict the national mean rice yield of South Korea by using mean climatic factors at a national scale. A random forest model that used monthly climate variable and year as an important predictor in predicting crop yield. Annual yield change would be affected by technical improvement for crop management as well as climate. Year as prediction factor represent technical improvement. Thus, it is likely that the variables of importance identified for the random forest model could result in a large error in prediction of rice yield in practice. It was also found that elimination of the trend of yield data resulted in reasonable accuracy in prediction of yield using the random forest model. For example, yield prediction using the training set (data obtained from 1991 to 2005) had a relatively high degree of agreement statistics. Although the degree of agreement statistics for yield prediction for the test set (2006-2015) was not as good as those for the training set, the value of relative root mean square error (RRMSE) was less than 5%. In the variable importance plot, significant difference was noted in the importance of climate factors between the training and test sets. This difference could be attributed to the shifting of the transplanting date, which might have affected the growing season. This suggested that acceptable yield prediction could be achieved using random forest, when the data set included consistent planting or transplanting dates in the predicted area.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.113-126
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• 2021

This study was conducted to analyze the forest status and deforestation area changes of the DMZ region in North Korea based on satellite images. Using growing and non-growing season's RapidEye satellite images, land cover of the North Korean DMZ was classified into stocking land(conifer, deciduous, mixed), deforested land(unstocked mountain, cultivated mountain, bare mountain), and non-forest areas. Deforestation rates in the Yeonan-baecheon, Beopdong-Pyeonggang, Heoyang-Geumgang and Tongcheon-Goseong district were calculated as 14.24%, 16.75%, 5.98%, and 16.63% respectively. Forest fire and land use change of forest were considered as the main causes of deforestation of DMZ. Changes in deforestation area were analyzed through Google Earth images. As a results, it was shown that the area of deforestation was on a decreasing trend. This study can be used as basic data for establishing inter-Korean border region's forest cooperation strategies by providing forest spatial information on the North Korea's DMZ.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.95 no.1
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• pp.60-72
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• 2006

The aim of this paper is to identify and evaluate relations for forest greening and the firewood substitution for home use after 1945 Liberation of Korea. Korea faced serious forest degradation by the early 1960s due to the enormous firewood consumption, which was about ten million cubic meters annually, for home use. If the trend of firewood consumption was maintained until 1955's, the total forest area in Korea could be thoroughly degraded within 10 years. The firewood substitution for home use had to be solved as soon as possible. For this purpose, energy sector by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry carried out the substitution policy for home using the briquettes which was the only natural resources for energy produced in Korea. Firewood was prohibited being carried in the major cities by forestry sector, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, from 1958. Only 5.2% of household in the cities used the forest products consumed as a fuel in 1970 because these inter-sectoral substitution measures of firewood for home use turned out a success gradually. After the 1970s, firewood consumption for home use was naturally decreased due to rural people's explosive move to cities, who were major consumers of firewood for home use at that time. Firewood for cooking was substituted by LPG gas after 1985 and firewood for house heating was substituted by coal and oil after 1980. Finally, on the basis of the firewood substitution for home use, the forest degradation that lasted over one hundred years was put a period.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.3
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• pp.419-430
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• 2021

This study investigated spatiotemporal trends of sediment-related disasters in North Korea from 1960 to 2019 and post-disaster recovery cases based on a literature review and satellite images. Results showed that occurrence status of sediment-related disasters was initially externally reported in 1995 (during the Kim Jongil era); their main triggering factor was heavy summer rainfall. Furthermore, forest degradation rate was positively correlated with population density (R² = 0.4347, p = 0.02) and occurrence number of sediment-related disasters was relatively high on the west coast region, where both variables showed high values. This indicates that human activity was a major cause of forest degradation and thus, significantly affected sediment-related disasters in mountain regions. Finally, sediment- related disasters due to shallow landslides, debris flow, and slow-moving landslides were observed in undisturbed forest regions and human-impacted forest regions, including terraced fields, opencast mines, forest roads, and post-wildfire areas, via satellite image analysis. These disaster-hit areas remained mostly abandoned without any recovery works, whereas hillside erosion control work (e.g., treeplanting with terracing) or torrent erosion control work (e.g., check dam, debris flow guide bank) were implemented in certain areas. These findings can provide reference information to expand inter-Korean exchange and cooperation in forest rehabilitation and erosion control works of North Korea.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.77-93
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• 2013

Global warming accelerates both carbon (C) input through increased forest productivity and heterotrophic C emission in forest soils, and a future trend in soil C dynamics is uncertain. In this study, the Korean forest soil carbon model (KFSC model) was applied to 1,467,458 ha of Pinus densiflora forests in Korea to predict future C dynamics under RCP 8.5 climate change scenario (RCP scenario). Korea was divided into 16 administrative regions, and P. densiflora forests in each region were classified into six classes by their stand ages : 1 to 10 (I), 11 to 20 (II), 21 to 30 (III), 31 to 40 (IV), 41 to 50 (V), and 51 to 80-year-old (VI+). The forest of each stand age class in a region was treated as a simulation unit, then future net primary production (NPP), soil respiration (SR) and forest soil C stock of each simulation unit were predicted from the 2012 to 2100 under RCP scenario and constant temperature scenario (CT scenario). As a result, NPP decreased in the initial stage of simulation then increased while SR increased in the initial stage of simulation then decreased in both scenarios. The mean NPP and SR under RCP scenario was 20.2% and 20.0% higher than that under CT scenario, respectively. When the initial age class was I, IV, V or VI+, predicted soil C stock under CT scenario was higher than that under RCP scenario, however, the countertrend was observed when the initial age class was II or III. Also, forests having a lower site index showed a lower soil C stock. It suggested that the impact of temperature on NPP was higher when the forests grow faster. Soil C stock under RCP scenario decreased at the end of simulation, and it might be derived from exponentially increased SR under the higher temperature condition. Thus, the difference in soil C stock under two scenarios will be much larger in the further future.