ABSTRACT
A Study on the Improvement of the Biotope Evaluation Index Considering the Village Wetlands
-Focusing on Dangjin City, Chungcheongnam Province-
Park, EunAh
Dept. of Environmental Landscape Architecture
The Graduate School
Sangmyung Universi...
ABSTRACT
A Study on the Improvement of the Biotope Evaluation Index Considering the Village Wetlands
-Focusing on Dangjin City, Chungcheongnam Province-
Park, EunAh
Dept. of Environmental Landscape Architecture
The Graduate School
Sangmyung University
Supervisor : Koo, BonHak, Ph.D.
As the necessity for environmental information map to accurately contain environmental information by the city units increases with sustainable development to protect the natural environment, the interest in biotope map also increases and biotope maps are being actively created by local governments and are being used in land use plans, park green plans, preliminary environmental reviews, land suitability assessment, designation of zone for use, eco-friendly urban development.
Wetlands are the most productive biotopes and provide ecosystem service including functions such as biodiversity increase, carbon reduction, and material circulation. Especially, village wetlands not only functions as a general wetland, but also maintains the water circulation system in the region. Village wetlands are also easily accessible in daily life, providing cultural benefits and economic advantages through hydrophilic recreation spaces.
However, village wetlands are missing from the land ecological evaluation index, and their value is not properly evaluated in the ecological evaluation process, leading to the use and development. Therefore village wetlands are gradually losing their function and being destroyed or buried.
Based on this, this study aims to evaluate the ecological status of Dangjin city and the current state of village wetlands with the purpose of improving the biotope evaluation index and to evaluate the ecological value of village wetlands. This study also aims to suggest ways for improving biotope evaluation indicators that consider the function of village wetlands after analyzing the evaluation criteria of current biotope maps.
For these purposes, land cover map, biotope type map and grade result map, and the distribution characteristics of village wetlands in Dangjin city were analyzed. The target sites were selected and the conservation grades were set according to the RAM evaluation result. Furthermore, the current biotope evaluation method in Dangjin city was reviewed and the indicators were improved so that the ecological function of village wetlands could be evaluated. The improved indicators applied to the target sites so that the ecological function of the village wetland could be evaluated.
As a result of analyzing ecological status in the target sites, the total area ratio of natural areas such as forests, farmland, and rivers among biotope types in Dangjin city occupies about 75%. It means that this area is very abundant in natural space. Biotope level I, which is the highest ecological value, accounted for about 12% of the total area in 2017. 338 village wetlands were derived and were the most distributed in Daehoji-myeon. Myeon is one of local administration areas. The agricultural area was the largest on the land cover in Dangjin city. As a result of analyzing the land cover status of village wetlands impact zone, village wetlands were mainly scattered in the order of agricultural area and forest area. Land cover status of village wetlands was found in inland water and artificial grassland. Wetland was formed near the mountain boundary in the forest area, and the rate of artificial grass was high. It was confirmed that village wetlands were mostly used for agricultural land through waterways. The 44 village wetlands were evaluated with RAM and the conservation strategies were established. As a result, the 1st level accounted for 1.7%, the 2nd level accounted for 4.4%, the 3rd level 77.3%, the 4th level, 15.3%, and the 5th level, 1.3%. The sum of the 3rd and 4th ratios was over 90%, indicating that the risk of damage was high.
As a result of synthesizing the findings, to apply the ecological value of the village wetlands to the biotope map, this study suggested ways as follows.
Firstly, the village wetland DB should also be used as a thematic map. to classify the village wetland in the biotope mapping procedure. The village wetland map should also be able to be classified in classification. The evaluation indicators should be added to assess the value of classified village wetlands.
Secondly, the level of the village wetland itself should be raised with consideration of ecological function. In the existing evaluation indicators, evaluation items that can be weighted to village wetlands should be added. According to the result of the functional evaluation, 5 points are given to high function, 3 points are given to medium function, and 1 point is given to low function.
Thirdly, the influential areas of village wetlands should be set. Then the level of surrounding areas would be raised. Most of the village wetlands rated as “high” by RAM evaluation showed level 3 or 4. The influential areas were also undervalued less than 3 level. Therefore, it was judged to be probable that the village wetlands and the influential areas would be subjected to environmental pressures of use and development.
Also, village wetlands are affected by the surrounding land, resulting in different vegetation transfers, management conditions, and functions. Hence, the evaluation of the buffer area would be necessary to take into account elements such as land cover of the village wetlands corresponding to the core areas based on the UNESCO MAB.
In the existing evaluation index, this study added the influential areas of village wetlands, and set the target areas within 100m around the village wetlands, considering the small and medium animal movement distance and wetland usage distance in the living zone.
The biotope map was derived by applying the improved evaluation indicators to the three final target areas. As a result of the RAM evaluation, three village wetlands were respectively selected as high, normal, and low.
In this study, functional evaluation was conducted for 44 village wetlands, and conservation strategy establishment and evaluation index improvement proposals were suggested. Further researches are needed to apply the biotope map to the entire village wetlands in the future. In addition, it is necessary to conduct further studies on the evaluation methodology for the establishment of the influential areas considering the core area and the practical institutional arrangement for the application of the village wetlands as an environmental master system.
Keywords : Biotope maps, Current status of urban ecosystem, Land ecology evaluation, RAM evaluation, GIS, Influential areas