Situation and prospect of ecological engineering in Korea

Abstract

Ecological engineering is at a beginning stage in Korea, with its concept first introduced only in the early 1990s. A rebirth of the concept of ESSD (Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development) by the Rio Summit in 1992 and surprisingly rapid dissemination of its concept into the major sectors of development activities would give the most profound impact on the ecological consideration in large-scale development projects as well as land and river plans. Basic knowledge and experience of the ecological engineering, mostly adapted from Germany, U. S. A. and Japan, have been applied in the several fields of civil engineering practice, such as stream and river management, highway construction and land and new-town planing. Since the mid-1990s, the Korean government has sponsored various research and development programs of ecological engineering and techniques-the third generation of environmental technology-in order to develop and disseminate the ecological engineering and techniques to conserve and restore the fragile national ecosystem. Academia is trying to make those knowledge and experience, still fragmented and crude, to be systematic and analytic. Ecological engineering, then, will be established as an important discipline in both academia and engineering-practicing societies.