The Building of Environmental Geographic Information System

for Supporting Environmental Policymaking in Korea

Cho, Deokho (Professor of Daegu University in Korea)

chodh@daegu.ac.kr
Bae, Minki (Research Professor at Daegu University)
luca27@empal.com
Um, HongSuk (Research Professor at Daegu University)
Man2win@yumail.ac.kr
Shin, Dongho (Professor of Wonkwang University in Korea)
dhshin@wonkwang.ac.kr

ABSTRACT

The goal of this study is to build a geographic information system for environmental
policymaking. To achieve this goal, this study first surveys the local environment status. Based
upon the collected environmental data, it forecasts the future environmental status of each city in
Gyeongbuk province and generates a geo-referencing code. Finally, by using these data, it
builds up a future environmental geographic information system for supporting environmental
policymaking. This study consists of three major parts: 1) developing integrated environmental
indicators, 2) establishing an environmental capacity database on the local level, 3) building up
an environmental capacity geographic information system, and 4) making an environmental
policy monitoring system. The results of this study will contribute to establish a warning system
to prevent an excess of environmental capacity. They will also provide the framework and
standard for integrating various environmental databases with a local environmental and
geographic information system.

Key words: Environmental indicators, geographic information system, geo-coding and geo-
referencing, environmental policy

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I. Introduction

In the 21st century, the quality of the environment is one of the most important

factors for strengthening of national competitiveness and determination of the quality of

life. In Korea, the citizen's concerns on the environmental amenities are gradually

increasing. However, the environmental condition of the South Korea is relatively

weak because of the high density of the population, the lack of developable land space,

and the rapid urbanization and industrialization. These natural and social conditions

have deteriorated the environmental status such as air pollution, water pollution, solid

waste problem, ocean pollution and so on.

In order to solve these environmental problems, the Korean government has

improved the environment-related organizations and laws and greatly expanded the

government budget for the environment protection. It also develops the several

environmental indicators (EIs) in order to measure the environmental quality and

focuses on the sustainable development to protect the natural and social environments in

the Korean Peninsula.

The Korean government has constructed the National Information Infrastructure

(NII) to use land effectively by constructing digital territory through the building of

databases such as population, housing, land, traffic, and environment and so on.

However, in the national level these databases do not contribute to understand

systematically the environment status because current indicators only include the

physical indicators such as atmosphere pollution, water quality, and solid waste except

the social indicators such as environmental education, environment technology and so

on. Furthermore, it is very difficult to grasp the local environmental problems because

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environmental databases do not integrate with geographic information system.

Therefore, this study intends to build the environmental geographic information system

and contributes to establish the environmental policy monitoring system (EPMS).

In order to establish EPMS, it develops the integrated EIs including the social

environmental indicators and the physical environmental indicators and collects

integrated environmental indicator data by time series base. It also builds a relative

integrated environmental indicator database (IEID). This research builds a

environmental geographic information system (EGIS) through geo-coding and geo-

referencing on each environmental data. EGIS will be connected with analysis programs

such as SAS or SPSS for execution of a time series analysis, a causal relation analysis, a

correlation analysis, and a spatial analysis in order to build up the EPMS. The result of

this study will contribute to make a tailored environment policy because it can provide

the future local environmental information and execute the simulation process on each

development project.

II. Review of Environmental Information Systems in Korea

1. The Status of Geographic Information System

At present, National Geographic Information System (NGIS) and Korea Statistical

Information System (KOSIS) are the representative information systems in Korea. The

goal of the NGIS is to provide the geographic information for the environmentally

sound and sustainable land development. The major issues of the NGIS can be

categorized as follows; 1) Establishment of spatial databases for the NGIS: 2)

Establishment of data standardization: 3) Assistance of GIS-related technical

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development: 4) Development of framework for utilization and application of the NGIS.

KOSIS is built for efficient management the statistical data such as economy,

population, land, and housing and so on. One of the major functions of KOSIS is to

provide statistical information for a variety of users.

Address and facility searching is major function of Internet map services like

Figure 1. However, this figure conceptually differs with statistical geographic map.

Therefore, in order to convert this figure to the digital map, geo-coding process is

necessary and statistical data should be integrated.

a: South Korea b: Daegu city, South Korea

c: Susung-Gu, Daegu city, South Korea d: 3 Dimension map, Susung-Gu

<Figure 1> Internet map search service in Daegu City

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 2. The Environmental Geographic Information System

The Ministry of Environment only supplies physical environmental statistical data

such as air, water, and solid waste like Figure 2 but it does not provide the social

environmental data such as environment education, budget, and environmental

technology which are important factors in building the environmental policy

( http://ngis.me.go.kr/egis/ ).

a: Geographic information system b: National territory environmental character

web service grade map
<Figure 2> Web geographic information service from the Ministry of Environment

Korea Forest Research Institute also services a nationwide forest map that shows

the location of national forest resources such as botanical species and the rarity of plant

habitat. And National Park Authority provides satellite pictures such as climbing

routines, facilities, and culture resources of each natural park on the web

(http:/www.npa.or.kr/).

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a: Web map service with satellite picture b: National park information system
<Figure 3 > Satellite picture service and national park information system

National Geographic Information Institute is servicing a National Atlas that collects

a representative statistical data such as population, industry, economy, and environment

on its website (http://www.ngi.go.kr). However, this database only the aggregated

statistical data at the nation and city level instead of the micro data in the level of each

census tract. Therefore, there are some limitations to use these data for analyzing the

local environmental status.

a: Query of attribute data and display

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 b: Download of raw data
<Figure 4> National statistical map service from National Geographic Institute

3. Land Suitability Assessment System

The Land Suitability Assessment System is newly introduced to provide criteria for

land use classification in order to prevent unplanned development. It classifies land-use

types into five grades: priority preservation, preservation, agriculture, development, and

the developed area grade. The land suitability assessment should be executed before

processing the land development in order to select the suitable land for the development

like Figure 5.

A: Landuse map b: Ecosystem map

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C: Forest use map d: Final suitability map
<Figure 5> Land Suitability Assessment System

After reviewing the environmental geographic information systems, this research

could figure out that most of map focused on the visualization of information but they

do not provide the analytical procedure for getting the secondary information. In

addition, Social indicators which are important factors in building of environmental

policy are not included in environmental geographic information system. Moreover,

there is no environmental geographic information system which provides realistic

solutions on what relationship is existed among EIs?, which EIs cause environmental

problem?, How will environmental problems change in the future? What is the most

suitable solution to prevent the deterioration of local environmental problem?

Therefore, this research links integrated environmental indicator data with

geographical data, and analyzes the relationship among EIs through time series analysis,

spatial analysis, causal analysis, and correlation analysis, and suggests a tailored

environmental policy which is necessary in each local government level through

forecasting and monitoring the environmental status.

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III. Research Methodology

1. Research Area

The Province of Gyeongbuk is located in the south-east part of Korean Peninsula.

Its area is larger than that of other local governments and has various cities such as

industrial-centered, rural-centered, and cultural-centered city. And its environmental

problems differ from any other local government. Up to now, environmental policy of

provincial government could not solve the specific environmental problems of each city

because most of local environmental policy was established by the provincial

government without considering environmental problems of each city.

<Figure 6> Location map of Gyeongbuk Province

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 2. The Development of Integrated Environmental Indicators

Based upon the environmental law, this research intends to re-categorize the

integrated EIs including environmental management indicators such as environmental

budget, environmental education, and environmental technology like Table 1 because

environmental management indicators are important EIs affecting the level of future

natural and living environment.

<Table 1> Examples of Integrated Environmental indicators based on Korea Environmental law
Duration of Sunshine
Climate
Damages from Storms and Floods
Topography
Soil Pollutant Emitting Facilities
Soil
Soil Pollution by Pollutant
Area and Length of Rivers
Landscape River and Marsh
Natural Water Supply Source Protection Areas
Environment Length of Coast and Island Area
Sea and Coast
Marine Pollution Accidents
Forest Land Area by Forest Type
Forest Growing Stock by Forest Type
Forest Damaged Area
Korean Species
Ecosystem
Designation of Endangered, Vulnerable Wildlife
Living SO2, NO2, and CO Emissions
Environment Total Suspended Particulate
Air
Concentration
Air Pollutant Emitting Facilities
BOD and COD Density of Rivers and
Streams
Environment Water
Drinking Water Quality
Pollution
Waste Water Discharging Quantity
Water Supply Rate
Water Supply and Drainage
Sewerage System Supply Rate
Disposal of General Wastes
Wastes
Waste Recycling Rate
Noise and Vibration Noise and Vibration Generating Facilities
Housing Population Density
Environment Population Trend in Population
Number of Livelihood Protection Persons

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 Number of Industries
Industry and Energy
Total Energy Consumption
Length of Roads
Roads and Transportation Motor Vehicle Registration
Traffic Accidents
Natural Environmental Preservation Area
Land Use
Dwelling Zone Area
Green zone area
Parks and Green zone Park Area per one Person
National and Local Cultural Property
Environmental Law
Environmental Budget
Environment Collection of Waste Treatment Charge
Environmental Finance
Administration Collection of Environmental
Improvement Charge
Environmental Information
Supporting Amount on Environment
Environment Environmental Technology Technology Field
management Umber of Environmental Companies
Environmental Subjects Selected School
Environmental Education
Environmental Environment Technology Manpower
improvement
Environmental Impact
Assessment Consultations
Co-work System between
Government and Nonprofit
Corporations

And this research collects the integrated environmental indicator data produced in

several government agencies such as Korean Research Institute for Human Settlement,

National Geographic Information Institute, the Ministry of Government Administration

and Home Affairs, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, and the Minister of

Information and Communication.

3. Analysis Software

This research builds up environmental database using Excel and Access (XLS file

Format) and link environmental database with geographic information using ArcView

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8.3 (SHP file format) with extensions such as Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst, and Geo-

statistical Analyst because XLS and SHP file formats are compatible with most GIS

software and easy to link environmental database and geographic information like

Figure 7.

It also uses the SAS® Bridge for ESRI to link geographic environmental data with

analysis program such as SAS, SPSS. And analysis programs are used to identify what

kind of relationships are existed among EIs through various analyses such as logistic

analysis, correlation analysis, time series analysis, and so on.

<Figure 7> Data conversion for building EGIS

VI. The Building of Environmental Policy Monitoring System

1. The Building of Integrated Environmental Indicator Database

1) This research re-categorizes EIs including environmental management indicators

based on the environmental law and selects practically measurable indicators.

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2) It analyzes the structure of environmental data, the building procedure of NGIS,

and the method of data update.

3) It identifies current administrative districts of each city and the postcode systems

for geo-coding and geo-referencing.

4) It collects the integrated environmental indicator data in each local government

level. And insufficient or outdated data are supplemented by field or questionnaire

surveys, linear models, and log models.

<Figure 8> The Building of Integrated Environmental Indicator Database

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 5) It builds up IEID by using a relative data model because this data model can

implement the spatial analysis and arithmetic analysis.

6) It links environmental data with spatial units such as point, line, and polygon using

Extension Entity Relationship Data Model. For example, entities are consisted of

Gu, Dong (administrative district), and pollutants like Figure 8. And relationships

like “occur”, “aggregate”, and “locate” are existed between these entities. And

entities are displayed by spatial units which have location information.

<Figure 9> Example of Entity Relationship Data Model

7) It designs a spatial database schema per spatial units using tabular type data

structure because tabular type data structure is easy to insert and delete environmental

data, and to transfer its data to other analysis programs.

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2. The Building of Environmental Geographic Information System

This research builds Environmental Geographic Information System through linking

IEID with geographic information of each local area by Geo-coding and Geo-

Referencing method. Specific procedures for building EGIS are summarized as follows:

1) This research searches the way which encodes location information such as

postcodes or administrative districts on IEID.

2) Each integrated environment indicator data will be assigned to administrative

districts such as Province, City, Gun, Gu, Eup, Myon or Dong depending upon

survey boundary. And it analyzes the geographic topology structure such as point,

arc, and polygon in order to link IEID with administrative area.

<Figure 10> Geo-Coding and Referencing System

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3. The Building of Environmental Policy Monitoring System

This research builds Environment Policy Monitoring System (EPMS) by

connecting an EGIS with analysis programs like SPSS or SAS and executes time series

analysis, causal relation analysis, and correlation analysis. More specifically, EGIS

connects with an SAS or SPSS statistics programs using the SAS bridge® for ESRI and

executes various analysis for building a tailored environmental policy.

V. Conclusion and Policy Implications

This research developed the integrated environmental indicators and they are

assigned to the administrative districts in order to integrate the environmental database

with geographic location where the environmental problems were generated. And these

databases were connected with analysis program using SAS Bridge program in order to

analyze a local environmental status. Based upon these analyses, this study can forecast

the future environmental state in specific local areas and display the degree of severity

of environmental problems visually using the EGIS. More specifically, EPMS can

predict the future environmental status of each city through simulating the policy factors.

Based on these simulation results on the environmental policy of each city, we can

monitor the environmental policy of each city and suggest a tailored environmental

policy. EPMS can be used as a decision making supporting system for building the local

environmental policy. It also suggests some lessons on the other policy building such as

landuse planning and environmental impact assessment in the Gyeongbuk province.

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