Abstract
This study examined the records of forest fire outbreaks and characteristics over the 518 years of the Joseon Dynasty period (1392–1910) through the analysis of major historical records of Korea. The historical books used in this study were 14 major national historical books, and include the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (朝鮮王朝實錄), the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat (承政院日記), and the literature was examined, centering on official records of the royal palace in the Joseon Dynasty period. The contents of forest fires recorded in the historical record literature include the overviews of outbreak, forest fire types, and forest fire damage. According to the results of analysis of historical records, the largest forest fire damage was in the forest fire that occurred on the east coast in 1672, in which 65 persons died and in the forest fire that occurred in the same area in 1804, in which 61 persons died and 2600 private houses were destroyed by fire. The causes of fire outbreak were shown to be unknown causes in 42 cases, accidental fires in 10 cases, arson in 3 cases, thunder strike in 3 cases, hunting activities in 2 cases, child playing with fire in 1 case, cultivating activities in 1 case, and house fire in 1 case. Forest fire outbreaks were analyzed by region and by season and according to the results, 56% (39 cases) of the forest fires broke out on the east coast and 73% (46 cases) broke out in the spring. Forest fire policies include those for general forests, those for reserved forests, those for prohibited forests, those for capital city forests, those for royal family’s graves, royal ancestral shrine, and placenta chamber, those for hunting grounds such as martial art teaching fields, and relief policies for people in areas damaged by forest fires, forest fire policies for national defense facilities such as beacon fire stations, and burning and burning control policies for pest control. In conclusion, due to the seriousness of forest fires in the Joseon Dynasty period, the royal authority and local administrative agencies made various forest fire prevention policies, policies for stabilization of the people’s livelihood damaged due to forest fires, and methods to manage major facilities in forests.
Highlights
Korea is climatically located in the mid-latitude temperate climatic zone, and has clear and dry weather characteristics in spring and autumn due to the effects of migratory anticyclones
In the Joseon Dynasty period, forest fire management was conducted by both military administrative organizations and the central and provincial administrative organizations and largely targeted at forests nationwide, but first targeted at four mountains ((四山), refer to Bukaksan, Inwangsan, Namsan, and Naksan, which were around the the Joseon Dynasty period capital city) around the capital city and targeted at other areas thereafter
Data were analyzed for agencies in charge of fires and forest fires, forest fire outbreak characteristics, and forest fire policies in the Joseon Dynasty period cantering on major national historical books such as the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (朝鮮王朝實錄), Archives from Records of the Border Defense Council (備邊司謄錄), Seungjeongwon Ilgi, the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat (承政院日記) and the following conclusions were drawn
Summary
Korea is climatically located in the mid-latitude temperate climatic zone, and has clear and dry weather characteristics in spring and autumn due to the effects of migratory anticyclones. As for forests, coniferous forest zones including pine forests, which are vulnerable to forest fires accounts for about 42% of the entire forests in Korea where forests account for 64% of the entire area of the territory. The topography of Korea shows irregular directivity because mountains are overlapping and crossing each other. The mountains have environments close to village life and high slopes with an average elevation of 450 m and an average gradient of 5.7◦. Korea is in environments vulnerable to the outbreak and spread of forest fires [1].
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