Search Results (170)

Low-impact development (LID) and nonpoint-source pollution reduction facilities are increasingly expected to function as long-term components of urban infrastructure rather than as isolated environmental features. Their sustainability depends not only on technical design but also on institutional review, construction assurance, operation and maintenance, performance verification, information continuity, and adaptive policy learning. This study comparatively examines the content and structure of three major South Korean guidance documents issued in 2013, 2016, and 2020: the national LID Technology-Element Guideline, Seoul’s Guidance for the LID Prior-Consultation System, and the national Manual for the Installation and Management/Operation of Nonpoint-Source Pollution Reduction Facilities. A directed qualitative content analysis was conducted using seven literature-informed lifecycle-governance dimensions covering problem framing, planning and approval, facility selection and sizing, installation and construction control, operation and maintenance, monitoring and performance verification, and adaptive feedback. Documentary provisions were assessed using a four-level ordinal scale ranging from absent to strong coverage. The analysis indicates a functional expansion of governance provisions across the three documents, from LID principles and technology selection to pre-permit review, quantitative runoff-management requirements, installation guidance, operation and maintenance, monitoring, and performance testing. However, the documents collectively show discontinuities between approval and construction verification, construction and long-term operation, maintenance and compliance, monitoring and policy learning, and lifecycle information management. In response, this study proposes a six-stage lifecycle-governance framework linking planning, pre-permit verification, construction commissioning, asset registration, risk-based maintenance and monitoring, and adaptive policy learning. The framework is presented as an analytical and normative synthesis rather than an empirically validated governance model. Because the study is limited to documentary analysis, the findings do not demonstrate actual implementation effectiveness, regulatory compliance, maintenance quality, or environmental performance and should be validated through future empirical and comparative research. Full article

Background/Objectives: Cognitive impairment can weaken self-management competency in heart failure (HF) patients. This study estimated domain-specific cognitive impairment prevalence using actuarial criteria and identified latent cognitive profiles among Korean HF outpatients. Methods: Using a previously collected cross-sectional dataset of 106 HF outpatients, cognitive function was assessed with the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery-II. Actuarial criteria determined domain-specific impairment, and latent profile analysis (LPA) derived cognitive profiles based on domain composite z-scores. Results: Any cognitive impairment (≥1 impaired domain) was present in 32.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 24.0–41.5%), most frequently affecting executive function (17.9%) and memory (15.1%). LPA identified three exploratory profiles: relatively preserved (30.2%), memory-vulnerable (45.3%), and globally vulnerable (24.5%). In exploratory models, anxiety symptoms were associated with higher odds of memory-vulnerable profile membership (odds ratio [OR] = 2.81, 95% CI, 1.03–7.64) and overall vulnerability in a Firth penalized analysis (OR = 3.39, 95% CI, 1.46–8.11), whereas depressive symptoms showed no significant association. No associations remained statistically significant after false discovery rate correction. Conclusions: Cognitive vulnerability in HF outpatients is phenotypically heterogeneous and showed a possible, unconfirmed association with anxiety symptoms that did not remain statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Outpatient HF care planning may benefit from considering both domain-specific deficits and latent cognitive profile patterns; however, these exploratory findings require validation in larger cohorts. Full article

This study examines user responses to an AI travel assistant in a cross-border tourism service system. Moving beyond adoption-centered technology acceptance research, it conceptualizes these responses as a staged appraisal process in which social and experiential cues shape performance expectancy and effort expectancy, which then influence attitude and two behavioral outcomes: users’ willingness to accept AI and objections to AI. Cosmopolitanism is introduced as an individual-level boundary condition. Survey data were collected from 499 Chinese tourists holding valid South Korean tourist visas after they evaluated Visit Seoul AI, an official AI-based travel-planning tool. The hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results show that social influence, hedonic motivation, and perceived anthropomorphism significantly affect performance expectancy and effort expectancy, which in turn shape attitude. Attitude increases usersf’ willingness to accept AI and reduces objections to AI, with a stronger effect on users’ willingness to accept AI. Cosmopolitanism strengthens the negative effect of hedonic motivation on effort expectancy. This study extends AIDUA to cross-border AI service systems and shows that users may both accept and object to AI travel assistants. Full article

Urban ethnic enclaves are historically layered cultural landscapes whose public signage encodes community vitality, power relations, and cultural identity in ways that conventional land-use inventories cannot capture. Addressing the absence of scalable, longitudinal computational methods for monitoring such at-risk landscapes, this study develops a reproducible digital-mapping pipeline that operationalises linguistic-landscape analysis as a cultural-heritage monitoring tool for heritage-sensitive land-use planning. Taking Daerim-dong—Seoul’s primary Joseonjok (Korean Chinese) enclave—as a case, we process 38,640 Kakao Map Road View images across 17 annual cross-sections (2008–2024). The pipeline integrates four methodological components: a bounded Spatial Weighting Correction that adjusts for uneven historical coverage; zero-shot semantic sign-function classification using the Qwen2-7B-Instruct model; an exploratory Difference-in-Differences design probing the 2016–2017 THAAD geopolitical disruption; and a Boundary Permeability Ratio (BPR) for tracking enclave edge dynamics. The results document a three-phase trajectory—rapid bilingual expansion (2008–2016), stabilisation (2016–2019), and a COVID-period contraction (2019–2024)—and show that raw sign-count metrics can systematically overstate minority-language decline during economic crises once crisis-period signage is isolated. The BPR is presented as a candidate leading indicator of enclave contraction whose operational thresholds remain to be calibrated through multi-enclave validation. As a methodological proof-of-concept, the study illustrates how computational street-view analysis can support cultural-landscape governance, offering urban planners and heritage managers an actionable, transparent baseline for monitoring at-risk multicultural urban landscapes. Full article

This paper examines regional economic development in the Republic of Korea, highlighting its relevance for sustainable growth. Korean regionalism, often framed as disparities between government-favored areas—Seoul and the South-East—and allegedly disadvantaged regions, particularly the South-Western Jeolla provinces, has long shaped public perception and policy debates. Using a panel dataset of sixteen regions from 1998 to 2022, we analyze convergence in per-capita GDP and consumption levels with the time-factor decomposition framework. Our findings reject overall economic convergence, revealing persistent geographical disparities. Yet, contrary to conventional narratives, the South-East and South-West provinces form convergence clubs together, and Seoul aligns with historically disadvantaged South Jeolla in per-capita GDP. Other convergence clubs indicate an urban–rural economic divide. These results suggest that perceptions of regional favoritism may not reflect actual economic outcomes. From a sustainability perspective, the study underscores the need for evidence-based regional development policies: promoting sustainable growth requires attention to empirically observed economic patterns rather than historical assumptions or perceived favoritism. Full article

Quantifying changes in groundwater storage (GWS) remains a fundamental challenge in hydrology, given the sparsity of long-term in situ monitoring networks and the inherent difficulty of direct subsurface observation. Although GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite missions provide a means of tracking total terrestrial water storage at the continental scale, their coarse spatial resolution (~300 km) and monthly temporal sampling limit their direct applicability to regional groundwater studies. Here, we present a spatio-temporal disaggregation and data fusion framework for reconstructing daily GWS anomalies (GWSAs) across the Korean Peninsula, integrating GRACE/GRACE-FO Mascon solutions with the GLDAS Catchment Land Surface Model (CLSM). The approach leverages satellite-derived mass variations to constrain the model’s long-term anomaly structure while retaining the high-frequency temporal dynamics of land-surface modeling. The framework is evaluated against in situ bedrock monitoring well records from five sites: Seoul, Cheongyang, Uiseong, Imsil, and Wonju. Raw time-series correlations range from R = 0.14 to 0.70; upon removal of the monthly climatology to isolate non-seasonal variability, R improves to 0.49–0.72 across all sites, reaching 0.718 in Seoul and 0.707 in Cheongyang, with Cheongyang’s RMSE declining from 8.847 to 7.574 cm. These results indicate that the GRACE-CLSM fusion framework captures genuine sub-monthly groundwater dynamics beyond the dominant seasonal cycle. To our knowledge, this represents the first reconstruction of daily GWS changes for the Korean Peninsula with explicit preservation of spatial mass conservation, and the resulting dataset has direct utility for operational groundwater monitoring in a region subject to hydroclimatic variability. Full article

Compact city policies have been promoted as a mechanism for improving commuting efficiency through higher density and spatial concentration. However, their effectiveness in small and medium-sized cities that experience population decline, such as in small and medium-sized cities in South Korea remains unclear. This study examines how urban compactness and employment spatial structure influence commuting time across different urban contexts in South Korea, with particular attention to contrasts between the Seoul Capital Region and non-capital cities. Using the 2021 Korean Individual Travel Survey, we examine multilevel mixed-effects models that link individual commuting trips to neighborhood-level built environment characteristics and city-level employment spatial structure. The findings reveal systematically different effects of residential and employment density on commuting times. Higher residential density is generally associated with longer commuting times, whereas higher workplace employment density reduces commuting time only in non-capital regions. In the Seoul Capital Region where urban form is already highly compact, further employment densification does not improve commuting efficiency and may even increase commuting time. Instead, shorter commutes are observed primarily where job–housing balance is relatively high and employment is strongly concentrated in a dominant center. Moreover, the contrasting effects of employment Moran’s I and the employment concentration index indicate that employment dominance and spatial clustering capture distinct dimensions of urban spatial structure, with commuting efficiency depending critically on the internal configuration of employment clusters rather than density alone. These findings suggest that, in shrinking cities, compact city policies should be reframed not as strategies of residential densification, but as strategies of functional consolidation, focusing on sustaining viable employment cores and aligning them with transport networks and residential areas. Full article

From the winter of 2024 through the spring of 2025, public plazas in Seoul, particularly Yeouido and Gwanghwamun, became major sites of anti-martial law political mobilization. A striking feature of these protests was the visible leadership and participation of young women, who transformed civil resistance into a festive and affective form of collective action through cheering sticks and performative solidarity. The main driving force behind the political mobilization of young women was the increased influence of feminism after the “feminism reboot” in Korea since 2016. During the civil resistance, they were also active in solidarity with various minorities. The resistance was successful, and Korea has regained the order of a democratic society. However, young women who had experienced autonomous protest and mutual solidarity found themselves, upon returning to their everyday lives, still facing the remaining task of struggling against patriarchal cultures and institutions. Among them, Christian women confronted an even more inhospitable sphere—that of the Korean Protestant church, which remains largely constrained by patriarchal norms, a Christian–Confucian mixture. A representative example is the emphasis on “women’s calling” based on fundamentalist/sexist readings of the Bible. The huge gap between current social change and the church situation is reflected in the recent phenomenon of many young female Christians’ de-churching. In confronting the incongruous realities of young Christian women, this study seeks to provide an ethico-theological basis for a feminist reinterpretation of the Protestant concept of “calling”. After analyzing the social/existential topos of young Korean Christian women in the recent Korean context, this work considers a feminist reinterpretation of the “creation order” and “calling” in the process of an intersubjective dialog between the Bible and pre-patriarchal Korean cultural resources of “Mago-affiliated” myth, Seolmundaehalmang (the Great Grandmother Seolmun) narratives in particular. By providing sociological, ethical, and theological resources to construct new norms of “calling”, this research contributes to enabling young Christian women in Korea to overcome their existential fragmentation and to seek forms of women’s calling that are attuned to their historical moment and identity. Full article

Osteoporosis develops silently and is strongly influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. This study investigated whether three well-established osteoporosis-related polymorphisms—SOST rs1513670, LRP5 rs3736228, and ESR1 rs6929137—derived from a commercial genetic testing panel (HelloGene™) were primarily associated with osteoporosis prevalence and/or incidence and secondarily with bone-related biochemical markers in a Korean population. A total of 843 adults who completed genetic testing at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital and subsequently underwent bone mineral density (BMD) assessment were included. Logistic and linear regression models were applied to evaluate associations between genotypes, osteoporosis diagnosis, and serum calcium and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. None of the examined SNPs showed significant associations with osteoporosis status. However, the SOST variant demonstrated a statistically significant association with serum vitamin D concentration (β = −4.836, p = 1.7 × 10⁻⁶), with TC and CC genotype carriers exhibiting markedly lower vitamin D levels than TT carriers. LRP5 and ESR1 variants showed no significant relationships with either osteoporosis or vitamin D. These findings suggest a hypothesis-generating finding between SOST-mediated WNT signaling and vitamin D metabolism, even in the absence of measurable effects on clinical osteoporosis. Full article

Background/Objectives: Regional disparities in neonatal care capacity may have a disproportionate impact on the smallest and most vulnerable infants. In South Korea, where specialized perinatal resources are concentrated in the Seoul Capital Area (Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon), it remains unclear how these disparities vary by birth weight and time since birth. Methods: We conducted a nationwide, population-based cohort study of preterm infants (<37 weeks gestation) born between 2002 and 2021 using the Korean National Health Insurance Service database. Residential address at birth classified infants into Seoul Capital Area or regions outside the Seoul Capital Area. We examined 28-day and one-year all-cause mortality using multivariable logistic regression, adjusting for sex, birth weight category, early transfer, medical aid status, maternal age, and antenatal visits. Birth weight-stratified analyses assessed effect modification. Major morbidities were evaluated with multivariable Cox models. Results: Among 204,245 preterm infants, those residing outside the Seoul Capital Area had higher adjusted odds of mortality at both 28 days (odds ratio 1.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.30–1.64) and one year (odds ratio 1.25; 95% CI, 1.17–1.34) than those residing in the Seoul Capital Area. Disparities were minimal in infants ≥2500 g but increased progressively in lower birth weight strata, peaking among extremely low birth weight infants (<1000 g) (28-day odds ratio 1.67; 95% CI, 1.40–1.97; one-year odds ratio 1.54; 95% CI, 1.37–1.73). Conclusions: Regional survival disparities among preterm infants in South Korea widen with decreasing birth weight, underscoring the need for targeted neonatal care and post-discharge support in underserved regions. Full article

This study presents an integrated framework that couples three-dimensional geotechnical ground modeling with a HAZUS-based urban seismic vulnerability assessment for Seoul, Korea. Over 63,000 boreholes, in situ seismic tests, and building inventory records were compiled into a unified relational database following rigorous multi-stage quality control. A multi-parameter N–Vs regression model was calibrated to supplement missing shear-wave velocity (Vs) data, reducing prediction errors by more than 20% relative to conventional empirical equations. Based on the quality-controlled Vs dataset, a high-resolution three-dimensional Vs–ground model was constructed to represent subsurface heterogeneity and associated uncertainty across the metropolitan area. The building inventory, comprising approximately 700,000 structures, was standardized according to the HAZUS structural taxonomy and mapped to Korean seismic design eras, enabling a Seoul-adapted vulnerability assessment in which exposure characterization and seismic demand are localized. Site-specific ground-motion amplification and response spectra derived from the 3D ground model were used to modify the spectral acceleration input to the HAZUS fragility functions. Results reveal pronounced spatial variability in site conditions, with northern mountainous zones corresponding primarily to NEHRP Site Class B, central districts to Class C, and southern alluvial basins to Classes D–E, producing amplification differences of up to 1.7 under identical input spectral accelerations. High-risk zones such as Gangnam, Songpa, and Yeouido exhibit concentrated expected damage where thick alluvial deposits coincide with dense stocks of mid-rise reinforced-concrete buildings. Overall, the study demonstrates that integrating high-resolution 3D geotechnical ground models with HAZUS-based fragility analysis provides a physically consistent and data-driven basis for urban-scale seismic risk assessment and resilience planning. Full article

Recent studies have reported a rapid increase in short-duration, high-intensity rainfall over the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA), primarily associated with mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), highlighting the need for high-resolution and multi-platform observations for accurate forecasting. To address this challenge, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) established the Korean Precipitation Observation Program (KPOP), an intensive observation network integrating radar, wind lidar, wind profiler, and storm tracker measurements. This study introduces the design and implementation of the KPOP network and evaluates its observational and forecasting value through a heavy rainfall event that occurred on 17 July 2024. Wind lidar data and weather charts reveal that a strong low-level southwesterly jet and enhanced moisture transport from the Yellow Sea played a key role in sustaining a quasi-stationary, line-shaped rainband over the metropolitan region, leading to extreme short-duration rainfall exceeding 100 mm h⁻¹. To investigate the impact of KPOP observations on numerical prediction, preliminary data assimilation experiments were conducted using the Korean Integrated Model-Regional Data Assimilation and Prediction System (KIM-RDAPS) with WRF-3DVAR. The results demonstrate that assimilating wind lidar observations most effectively improved the representation of low-level moisture convergence and spatial structure of the rainband, leading to more accurate simulation of rainfall intensity and timing compared to experiments assimilating storm tracker data alone. These findings confirm that intensive, high-resolution wind observations are critical for improving initial analyses and enhancing the predictability of extreme rainfall events in densely urbanized regions such as the SMA. Full article

This article examines public preferences for a proposed West Coast submarine high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission network in South Korea, installed by trenching and burying the cables in the seabed, which is essential for facilitating renewable energy integration and ensuring a stable electricity supply to the Seoul Metropolitan Area. The purpose of this study is to estimate South Korean households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the proposed West Coast submarine HVDC network using contingent valuation (CV), thereby assessing its social acceptability amid renewable energy integration challenges. Employing a CV survey with a nationally representative sample of 1000 households conducted from late May to late June 2025, the research applies the one-and-one-half-bound spike model to address zero WTP responses and incorporates socio-demographic covariates to account for preference heterogeneity. The analysis estimates an average monthly WTP of KRW 1832 (USD 1.33) per household for the HVDC infrastructure. Results demonstrate statistically significant public support for the submarine HVDC project despite its high capital investment and potential electricity rate increases. These findings underscore notable consumer acceptance and provide valuable welfare insights for policymakers, reinforcing the prioritization of this project within South Korea’s energy transition framework. This paper contributes to the field of energy infrastructure valuation by advancing methodological approaches and offering policy-relevant recommendations for sustainable grid expansion. Full article

Seismic disasters pose major challenges to urban resilience, particularly in high-density cities where the concentration of people, buildings, and infrastructure amplifies disaster risk. This study establishes a GIS-based analytical framework to evaluate the spatial distribution and fairness of seismic emergency shelters in Seoul, using built-up neighborhoods (called dongs in Korean) as the basic analytical unit. Three dimensions are assessed: (1) 500 m walking accessibility based on the road network; (2) redundancy, representing the number of shelters simultaneously reachable; and (3) fairness analysis, integrating spatial and population-based dimensions to reveal disparities between shelter provision and population demand. The results indicate that overall accessibility in Seoul is relatively high, with more than 50% of dongs achieving coverage levels above 50%. However, distinct spatial disparities remain. Central and mountainous areas, such as Jung-gu, Jongno-gu, and southern Seocho-gu, show coverage rates below 20%, while districts in the southwest and northeast exhibit higher redundancy. Fairness analysis further reveals inequality in shelter capacity relative to population: excluding null values, the median coverage ratio is 0.92 and the mean is 1.29, with only 44.97% of dongs achieving sufficient or surplus capacity (coverage ≥ 1). Notably, 44 dongs fall into the Low–High category, representing areas with large populations but limited shelter access, mainly concentrated in Jungnang-gu, Gangbuk-gu, and Yangcheon-gu. These dongs should be prioritized in future planning. Policy implications highlight strengthening shelter provision in high-population but low-coverage zones, incorporating evacuation functions into urban redevelopment, promoting inter-district resource sharing, and improving public awareness. The proposed framework provides a transferable model for optimizing seismic shelter systems in other high-density urban contexts. Full article

The 10.29 Itaewon Disaster in Seoul, which claimed 159 lives during a Halloween celebration in 2022, has divided Korean Protestant discourse on Halloween into two opposing theological positions: one that interprets Halloween as inherently superstitious and satanic based on its historical origins, and another that embraces it as a contemporary youth cultural phenomenon worthy of protection under principles of cultural diversity. These theological frameworks are intertwined with questions of disaster accountability within the political–historical context of Korean Protestantism’s social engagement, with the former—corresponding to the conservative stream of Korean Protestantism—implicitly attributing responsibility to festival participants while absolving the government, whereas the latter—corresponding to the progressive stream—emphasizes institutional failures in crowd management and public safety protocols. Through comparative analysis with established American Protestant discourse on Halloween, this study examines how Korean Protestant theological interpretations of Halloween intersect with both the specific context of the 10.29 Itaewon disaster and political orientations within Korean Protestantism. The research draws on diverse primary sources, including articles, commentaries, official statements, social media discourse, and sermonic materials, to analyze the emergent Protestant narratives following the disaster. Full article