Analysis of Changes in Forest According to Urban Expansion Pattern and Morphological Features - Focused on Seoul and Daegu -

Abstract

Government regulations and policies are important means of restraining the indiscreet expansion of urban areas. According to the standards from those means, it is clear that the fluctuation of forest green proportion encroached by the increase of urban space is obvious. In this study, we interpreted the changes of urban areas as well as the green ones owing to the urban expansion by the decades from 1996, with focusing on the cities of Seoul and Daegu highly developed in South Korea. The purpose of this study is to analyze the spatial expansion and morphological characteristics of urban land cover using not only satellite imageries (1996, 2006, 2016). but also the urban expansion intensity index (UEII) and GUIDOS program. Ultimately, this study is to compare the changes in the rate of forests due to urban expansions annually analyzed based on areas of forest elevation, slope, and the area of single forest patch. In Seoul, the expansion begun from urban space to suburban areas was comparatively rapid, which led the forest fragmentation and the gradual decline of the single patch. However, when it comes to DEM (Digital elevation model) and slope above a certain standard, by the development regulations, there was little decrease in area by anthropogenic developments. The city of Daegu has increased at a slow speed since 1996 in urban and suburban areas, whereas green forests have greatly increased through green forest conservation campaigns. In this way, as to the government policies and regulations, the quantitative and morphological expansion of cities owing to development could be controlled and forest spaces could be preserved as well. Therefore, regulations and policies by the government should be appropriately utilized for sustainable cities.