Urban open spaces such as parks can act as urban cool islands. For example, in Seoul, Korea, the many Lee Dynasty royal palaces and tombs act as urban cool islands that reduce the temperature of the park compared with the surrounding urban areas. In order to determine the effect of air temperature differences because of the urban royal tomb park, Seolleung Royal Tomb Park (SPK) and the nearby Seolleung subway station (SLS), air temperatures were recorded at 10 min intervals from November 9th, 2007 to November 8th, 2008. The data were analyzed and examined to illustrate air temperature-reducing effects during the day and over the year. Results of the investigation show that the average air temperature differences due to SPK in the nearby SLS was 1.76°C, and the maximum air temperature-reducing effects due to SPK occur in September, not during the winter. The air temperaturereducing effect due to SPK decreases rapidly from the park boundary, because of the urban morphology and land use.

Flooding is extremely dangerous when a river overflows to inundate an urban area. From 1995 to 2016, North Korea (NK) experienced extensive damage to life and property almost every year due to a levee breach resulting from typhoons and heavy rainfall during the summer monsoon season. Recently, Hoeryeong City (2016) experienced heavy rain during Typhoon Lionrock, and the resulting flood killed and injured many people (68,900) and destroyed numerous buildings and settlements (11,600). The NK state media described it as the most significant national disaster since 1945. Thus, almost all annual repeat occurrences of floods in NK have had a severe impact, which makes it necessary to figure out the extent of floods to restore the damaged environment. However, this is difficult due to inaccessibility. Under such a situation, optical remote sensing (RS) data and radar RS data along with a logistic regression were utilized in this study to develop modeling for flood-damaged area delineation. High-resolution web-based satellite imagery was also interpreted to confirm the results of the study.

A combined approach of remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS) was used in this study to identify the impact on urban surface radiant temperature (SRT) of urban green-space change. Urban SRT increases as green-space area is converted into non-green-space area. Also, well preserved green space and newly connected green space contribute to a decrease of the SRT. Seoul Metropolitan area is rapidly expanding. Existing urban SRT studies have, however, mainly been conducted for Seoul City. The most rapidly expanding area in Korea is now the Seoul suburban area, for example the Mt Gwanggyo area. Although changes of SRT and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as a result of land-use change have been measured in many other studies, the results in these studies were derived from data from different seasons. Also, these studies did not examine a newly expanding area. Considering these problems, the same seasonal multitemporal data were used in this study to derive the SRT change for the same season in different years. This study confirmed the importance of effective management and location of urban green space for urban SRT mitigation. Ultimately, the impact on urban SRT of urban green-space change should be regarded as an important factor in urban planning.

Every summer, North Korea (NK) suffers from floods, resulting in decreased agricultural production and huge economic loss. Besides meteorological reasons, several factors can accelerate flood damage. Environmental studies about NK are difficult because NK is inaccessible due to the division of Korea. Remote sensing (RS) can be used to delineate flood inundated areas in inaccessible regions such as NK. The objective of this study was to investigate the spatial characteristics of flood susceptible areas (FSAs) using multi-temporal RS data and digital elevation model data. Such study will provide basic information to restore FSAs after reunification. Defining FSAs at the study site revealed that rice paddies with low elevation and low slope were the most susceptible areas to flood in NK. Numerous sediments from upper streams, especially streams through crop field areas on steeply sloped hills, might have been transported and deposited into stream channels, thus disturbing water flow. In conclusion, NK floods may have occurred not only due to meteorological factors but also due to inappropriate land use for flood management. In order to mitigate NK flood damage, reforestation is needed for terraced crop fields. In addition, drainage capacity for middle stream channel near rice paddies should be improved.

Drought is one of the most severe natural disasters in the world and leads to serious challenges that affect both the natural environment and human societies. North Korea (NK) has frequently suffered from severe and prolonged droughts since the second half of the twentieth century. These droughts affect the growing conditions of agricultural crops, which have led to food shortages in NK. However, it is not easy to obtain ground data because NK is one of the most closed-off societies in the world. In this situation, remote sensing (RS) techniques and cloud computing climate data (CCCD) can be used for drought monitoring in NK. RS-derived drought indices and CCCD were used to determine the drought-vulnerable regions in the spring season in NK. After the results were compared and discussed, the following conclusions were derived: (1) 10.0% of the total area of NK is estimated to be a drought-vulnerable region. The most susceptible regions to drought appear in the eastern and western coastal regions, far from BaekDu-DaeGan (BDDG), while fewer drought regions are found near BDDG and the Nahngrim Mountains. The drought-vulnerable regions are the coastal regions of South Hamgyong Province, North Hamgyong Province, South Pyongan Province, and South Hwanghae Province. The latter region is the food basket of NK. (2) In terms of land cover, the drought-vulnerable regions mainly consisted of croplands and mixed forest.

Forest fires cause damage to property and the environment around the world every year. North Korea has suffered from fires every year. Fires may lead to temporary or permanent damage to forest ecosystems, long-term site degradation, and alteration of hydrological regimes, producing detrimental impacts on economies, human health, and safety. In North Korea, fires cause serious damage to the affected mountainous environment. However, it is very difficult to obtain ground information or perform field checks because of the political isolation of North Korea. Thus, there are few studies that have investigated North Korean fires. In this situation, remote sensing techniques and digital topographic data can be used to investigate fire characteristics in North Korea. In this study, fire trends were analyzed using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC) from 2004 to 2015, and Landsat data were processed to estimate burned areas in South Hamgyong Province (SHP) and Gangwon Province (GWP) in North Korea. The burn severity of large fires in elevation, slope, and landform features was also analyzed to investigate large fire-burned areas using 30-m-resolution Global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). After the results were compared and discussed, the following conclusions were derived. (1) In terms of location, fires in SHP were relatively concentrated along BaekDu-DaeGan (BDDG), while fires in GWP were scattered throughout the province. (2) In terms of size, the large fire-burned areas with an area greater than 1000 ha are significantly more frequent in SHP than in GWP. In brief, large fires occurred more frequently and were more serious in SHP than in GWP. (3) In terms of forest type, coniferous areas were more susceptible to damage from fires and large fires than deciduous areas in both GWP and SHP. This is attributed to the combustible resin within the coniferous trees. Particularly, when a crown fire occurs, it tends to spread rapidly throughout the coniferous forest. (4) Regarding landforms, most large fires occurred along windward-side open slopes, while there were very few fires in shallow valleys, high ridges, or U-shaped valleys. It is believed that cultivation in high-elevation terrain and a lack of fire-extinguishing equipment and systems allow large fires to spread quickly. North Korea is very susceptible to large fire damage and must develop preparation measures against such situations.

No abstract

Skyscrapers negatively impact the environment by creating gusty winds, known as building winds, which are the result of descending turbulences caused by the blockage of upper air by tall buildings. Usually, a building wind impact assessment (BWIA) is carried out using a wind tunnel test or computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation methods. The application of wind tunnel test is limited by the high costs of the models. Thus, CFD simulations are now the preferred approach to save time and expense as a result of advancements in computer technology, however, differing grid cell sizes greatly impact simulation results. Therefore, it is important to select appropriate cell sizes. CFD simulations based on different grid sizes were tested and compared in this study. The study site is located in the Dogok-dong at Gangnam-ku in Seoul, Korea. The study results revealed significant errors when using coarse grid sizes due to incorrect representations of building shape.