Urban heat island (UHI) is a phenomenon that occurs in cities worldwide. Therefore, there is an increasing need for studies on the changes in UHI intensity and long-term trends based on macroscopic characteristics related to urbanization. In this study, changes in seasonal UHI intensity based on urban area were analyzed for eight Asian mega cities from 1992–2012. The results indicate that the change in pattern of UHI intensity varies for different cities and seasons. UHI intensity increased as the urban area size increased. Furthermore, the dependency of UHI intensity on the economic situation was also demonstrated. With respect to the seasons, significantly increasing trends appeared during the summer. Moreover, depending on urban characteristics such as geography and climate, increasing trends appeared during other seasons. Population was also found to affect UHI intensity by generating anthropogenic heat; however, its effect as an individual factor appeared to be insignificant. This is a macroscale study that analyzes the effect of urban area size on UHI intensity. Future studies on urbanization factors and levels influencing the UHI intensity using higher resolution materials are required

Forest spatial information is regularly established and managed as basic data for national forest planning and forest policy establishment. Among them, the grade of vegetation conservation shall be investigated and evaluated according to the value of vegetation conservation. As the collection of field data over large or remote areas is difficult, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being used for this purpose. Consequently, there is a need for research on UAV-monitoring and three-dimensional (3D) image generation techniques. In this study, a new method that can efficiently collect and analyze UAV spatial data to survey and assess forests was developed. Both UAV-based and LiDAR imaging methods were evaluated in conjunction with the ground control point measurement method for forest surveys. In addition, by fusing the field survey database of each target site and the UAV optical and LiDAR images, the Gongju, Samcheok, and Seogwipo regions were analyzed based on deep learning. The kappa value showed 0.59, 0.47, and 0.78 accuracy for each of the sites in terms of vegetation type (artificial or natural), and 0.68, 0.53, and 0.62 accuracy in terms of vegetation layer structure. The results of comparative analysis with ecological natural maps by establishing vegetation conservation levels show that about 83.9% of the areas are consistent. The findings verified the applicability of this UAV-based approach for the construction of geospatial information on forests. The proposed method can be useful for improving the efficiency of the Vegetation Conservation Classification system and for conducting high-resolution monitoring in forests worldwide.

Ecological damage refers to the reduction in the value of the environment due to human activities such as development. The intensity of ecosystem damage is worsening worldwide. Although the importance of restoration projects to reduce ecosystem damage is increasing, they are difficult to carry out, owing to the absence of data and monitoring of damaged areas. In this study, ecologically damaged areas for restoration in South Korea were detected using remote sensing and field surveys. For the analysis, national standardized vector datasets and Google Earth images were used; field surveys were conducted from 2018 to early 2020. Our results showed that 62% of the ecological damage that occurred in South Korea existed in forest ecosystems; the damaged areas were mostly smaller than 50,000 m². Additionally, most of the causes and types of damage due to human activities such as development were soil erosion related. The results also suggest the importance of obtaining monitoring data on ecologically damaged areas and the importance of establishing an appropriate restoration plan using this data.

Highly concentrated precipitation during the rainy season poses challenges to the South Korean water resources management in efficiently storing and redistributing water resources. Under the new climate regime, water resources management is likely to become more challenging with regards to water-related disaster risk and deterioration of water quality. To alleviate such issues by adjusting management plans, this study examined the impact of climate change on the streamflow in the Bocheongcheon basin of the Geumgang river. A globally accepted hydrologic model, the HEC-HMS model, was chosen for the simulation. By the calibration and the validation processes, the model performance was evaluated to range between “satisfactory” and “very good”. The calibrated model was then used to simulate the future streamflow over six decades from 2041 to 2100 under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The results indicated significant increase in the future streamflow of the study site in all months and seasons over the simulation period. Intensification of seasonal differences and fluctuations was projected under RCP 8.5, implying a challenge for water resources managers to secure stable sources of clean water and to prevent water-related disasters. The analysis of the simulation results was applied to suggest possible local adaptive water resources management policy.

This study analyzed consulation data for the environmental impact assessment consultation data focusing on onshore wind power and solar power generation projects, which make up the largest share of renewable energy generation, to identify annual trends and the number of consultation cases by type. The GIS Database(DB) construction and location characteristics of existing onshore wind and solar power generation complexes were analyzed. Based on business code and project name, the number of consultations on wind power generation was 127, with another 7,700 solar power generation, showing sharp increases in both 2014 and 2017. By examining project progress based on aerial photographs and satellite images, GIS DB was constructed. Location characteristics were analyzed for wind (31 cases) and solar (42 cases) power generation complexes, which displayed accurate business boundaries. Most wind power generation plants were located in forest areas with an average annual wind speed of more than 6m/s and gentle slopes in alpine areas. In addition, they are located in areas with an excellent ecological environment, such as Ecological Zoning Map first-level areas, Ecological Conservarion Value Assessment Map first-level areas, and core and buffer regions of the Baekdudaegan protected areas. Most solar power generation plants were generated in low altitude flat forest and farmland, forestry-conservation forest, and natural environment conservation area. The results of this study can be used as basic data for effective environmental impact assessment consultations, such as creation of new power generation complexes and improved location standards.

A Study on the Relationship between the Number of Visitors and Degradation of Natural Resources in Bukhansan National Park Degradation of National Park;Biological diversity;Impact of visitors; This study aims to understand the relationship between visitors and the degradation of natural resources in Bukhansan national park. We analyzed the trend of the number of visitors, destruction of natural resources and decrease of biodiversity per year. We further compared three types of trails, heavily-used trails and rarely-used trails and a trail with limited access, regarding the degree of destruction in the National Park through a field survey. Our result showed that increasing number of visitors had direct and indirect impact on the destruction of natural resources in the National Park. The direct impact came from visitors' excessive use of trails. Naturally, increasing number of visitors caused an immoderate use of natural resources. Physical degradation such as exposure of tree root, poor drainage of trails, trail erosion was more severe than other types of trails. Decreasing biodiversity or mild disturbance around trails is the indirect impact such as broken bough, worn-bark in rarely-used trails. Destruction scale greatly increased as the number of visitors increased. Real-named reservation system helped to prevent trails from degradation. Our result calls for the need of controlling the number of visitors to Bukhansan National Park to mitigate the degradation. We recommend dispersing visitors from the heavily-used trails to other trails and implementing real-named reservation system in the rarely-used trails for the effective management of the national park.