Studying forest management and carbon absorption considering watershed in South Korea

Recently, the action on climate crisis response was emphasized with spread of carbon neutrality from the international community, and the role of forests which is carbon sink was further accentuated. Forest is an important role to respond climate change. Therefore, it could be utilized for the strategy for achieving carbon neutrality. Forest in South Korea account for approximately 63 percent (6,286,438 ha) of land area. In this study, KO–G–Dynamics (Korean dynamic stand growh) model was used for estimating carbon sink with forest management considering watershed, which could help decision making through not fragmented but consistent forest management. Korean reach file (KRF) and forest functions (production forest, disaster prevention for forest etc.) classification map were used for considering watershed and each function. Especially, forest having different functions is applied to different methods of forest management. In addition, in the study, the data including species and age etc., which are representing the forest characteristics, based on 1 ha (100 m x 100m) resolution were used. Compared with a proceeding studies and national statistics, more accurate stem volumes (1,058 million m³ in 2020) and biomass (1,245 million ton in 2020) were estimated. In addition, the study is significant in the sense that diverse management methods in accordance with forest functions and watershed are considered. Furthermore, accurate modeling is possible through understanding of inhomogeneity on forest stands and forest in island area. It could help decision making of forest policy