Print PageClimate change has been affecting on various aspects of forests in South Korea. Many literatures reveal the changes of forest vegetation and higher occurrence of disasters due to climate change. Since the forest is an important natural resource to local people, local governments start to consider about the impact of climate change on forest. Thus, the local governments need to establish policies for climate change adaptation. In this study, we assessed climate change vulnerability of forests in South Korea and the result will be used to support the local governments to make adaptation policies.
Results/Conclusions
For the assessment, we selected six evaluation lists by reviewing previous studies. The six evaluation lists are composed of vulnerability of (1) forest vegetation by drought, (2) landslides due to heavy rain, (3) forest fire, (4) forest productivity, (5) diseases and pests of vegetation and (6) detriment of cultural and historical forest landscape. We made a model of climate change vulnerability assessment by researching various literatures, and we chose three indices that reflect environments, society, and economy. They consist of climate exposure, sensitivity and adaptation ability. We made climate exposure indices by using A1B climate change scenario, which was made by the Korea National Institute of Environmental Research. Sensitivity and adaptation ability indices were made through the consultation with several experts for each evaluation list, and previous studies were also reviewed. In this presentation, we would like to show the part of the result with landslides and forest fire vulnerability assessment. Through the assessment, we could identify vulnerable areas, then the result can be useful for local government policymaking.
