Impact of Physical and Vegetation Patterns on Parks Environment: A Case Study of Gusan Neighborhood Park, South Korea

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of the physical structure, such as altitude, slope gradient, slope direction, and topographical structure, and the vegetation pattern, such as existing vegetation, diameter of breast height (DBH), and crown density, on climate. The analysis results showed the significant difference in relative humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation at varying altitudes, the significant difference in all climate factors except for the wind speed at varying slope gradient, and significant difference in temperature and relative humanity at varying slope direction. The topographic structures were divided into valleys, slopes, and ridges. They were found to differ in relative humidity. However, the differences between constant trends and types were found to be insignificant concerning temperature, wind speed, and solar radiation. Significant differences in temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed were recorded with changing existing vegetation. The DBH showed a significant difference in temperature, wind speed, and solar radiation. The crown density showed a significant difference in temperature and solar radiation. The result of the relationship analysis for the analysis of the effect of vegetation pattern and physical structure on the meteorological environment showed that temperature was affected by slope gradient, slope direction, DBH, and crown density. The relative humidity was correlated with the altitude, slope gradient, slope direction, and topological structure in physical structure and the existing vegetation and crow density in vegetation pattern. The wind speed was correlated with the altitude, existing vegetation, and DHB, and the solar radiation was correlated with the slope gradient, DHG, and crown density. The crown density was the most overall significant factor in temperature, relative humidity, and solar radiation, followed by the slope gradient. DBH was also found to be highly correlated with temperature and solar radiation and significantly correlated with wind speed, but there was no statistically significant correlation with relative humidity.