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Farmland exhibits multifunctionality by preventing flooding and soil erosion and providing social and cultural community comfort. All these functions are essential for sustainable rural development. However, the multifunctionality of farmland is decreasing worldwide because of an aging society, depopulation and income disparity between flat lands and hilly mountainous lands. Regarding the consequences of abandonment, abandonment is intimately linked with the wider issue of the stagnation of the rural economy. The direct payment policy for hilly mountainous land is aimed at restraining farmland abandonment through community-based activities. The panel data difference in differences (DID) estimator was employed to observe the effect of direct payments on the rate of restraining farmland abandonment at the municipality level of the Hokkaido prefecture in Japan for the period of 2005–2015. We estimated that the direct payment implementation provided a 2% effectiveness for restraining the increase in the rate of abandonment as the result of DID estimation. On the other hand, the age group of 65 years or older was negatively correlated with farmland abandonment, which contradicts the general understanding. Older farmers have relatively more interest in contributing to and preserving their community. Therefore, the direct payment can encourage them to participate more in their community preservation. From these results, we concluded that it is necessary to promote farmland consolidation to compensate for the lack of inheritors. In addition, providing direct payment for a well-organized community or active stakeholders can be an effective way of utilizing governmental budgets and sustaining rural development.

This study confirmed the general belief of urban planners that mixed land use promotes walking in Seoul, a metropolis in East Asia, by analyzing the effect of mixed land use on the travel mode choice of housewives and unemployed people who make non-commuting trips on weekdays. Using binomial logistic regression of commuting data, it was found that the more mixed a neighborhood environment’s uses are, the more the pedestrians prefer to walk rather than drive. The nonlinear relationship between the land use mix index and the choice to walk was also confirmed. Although mixed land use in neighborhoods increased the probability of residents choosing walking over using cars, when the degree of complexity increased above a certain level, the opposite effect was observed. As the density of commercial areas increased, the probability of selecting walking increased. In addition to locational characteristics, income and housing type were also major factors affecting the choice to walk; i.e., when the residents’ neighborhood environment was controlled for higher income and living in an apartment rather than multi-family or single-family housing, they were more likely to choose driving over walking.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which integrates public and shared transportation into a single service, is drawing attention as a travel demand management strategy aimed at reducing automobile dependency and encouraging public transit. In particular, there have been few studies that recognize traffic congestion during peak hours and identify related factors for practical application. The purpose of this study is to explore what factors affect Seoul commuters’ mode choice including MaaS. A web-based survey that 161 commuters participated in was conducted to collect information about personal, household, and travel attributes, together with their mode preference for MaaS. A latent class model was developed to classify unobserved latent groups based on trip frequency by means and to identify factors influencing mode-specific utilities (in particular, MaaS service) for each class. The result shows that latent classes are divided into two groups (public transit-oriented commuters and balanced mode commuters). Most variables have significant impacts on choice for MaaS. The coefficient of MaaS choice of Class 1 and Class 2 were different. These findings suggest there is a difference between the classes according to trip frequency by means as an influencing factor in MaaS choice.

This study examines preservice teachers’ perspectives of creativity and character education in mathematics through a university-based teacher education program. We developed a curricular unit on creative character education in a mathematics methods course and investigated participants’ (n = 56) emerging perspectives of teaching creativity and character by the integration of content and process in mathematics. Data were collected through pre- and post-questionnaires and transcribed course discussion and presentation sessions. A quantitative analysis of the questionnaires through a t-test confirmed key changes in participants’ perspectives, while the qualitative context of data illustrates the participants’ emergent views on creative character education in mathematics. Overall, findings suggest that a mathematics teacher education curriculum integrating mathematical creativity and character education has the potential to prepare future educators to implement pedagogy that bridges between process and content in school mathematics for the next generation of learners.

The eco-industrial park (EIP), which aims to minimize by-product and unused energy via reuse and recycling within the industrial complex, offers an innovative pathway to realize regional eco-industrial development. As an environmental, as well as business, innovation, the EIP enables changing the perception of industries and create new business values via the whole supply chain, but such evidences have been less reported to date. As one of the world famous promoter on EIPs, the Republic of Korea (ROK) initiated a national EIP project to enhance its competitiveness and solve environmental problems. While the existing literature reviewed and highlighted its economic outcomes in terms of direct performances of firms within the project, the indirect impacts on the supply chain of national economy were less investigated. Within this circumstance, this study performed a first attempt to apply an input-output analysis (IOA) to investigate the effects of the EIP project on the whole economic system of Korea, via an exogenous specification of the EIP sector in the input-output tables (IOTs). General economic effects in terms of value-added change, employment generation, as well as specific effects like the inducement effects and effects of supply shortage and price pervasiveness were evaluated based on the IOA approach (including demand-driven, supply-driven, and Leontief price models). Results highlighted that, from the supply chain perspective, implementing the EIP project made production and value-added grow by around 1264 billion KRW and 272 billion KRW, respectively (with a unit induction coefficient of 1.6201 and 0.3489 for production and value-added). While generating a direct employment around 1000, an indirect employment was also created of over 5000 persons in the whole supply chain (with an employment inducement effect of 6.4512 persons per 1 billion KRW investment). The production shortage cost from 1 KRW of supply failure is 1.1230 KRW. In summary, EIP was proved to be not environmentally friendly, but also a driver to improve the overall economic performance of upstream and downstream industries in the whole supply chain. As a first attempt to link IOA with EIP, the results of this paper are expected to enlighten policy-makers to forward continued improvement on EIP promotion and combine the EIP idea within national economic system reform and planning.

This paper examines 41 roadside commercial buildings of the Jongno region built in the 1950s–60s that received façade renovations between 2001 and 2017. The aim is to show the relations between the forms of renovation and the regionality of the commercial areas, which have been historically formed in the original city center of Seoul, as well as the relation of these connections to the sustainability of ordinary architecture. Because Jongno has been the city center for the 600 years following the Joseon dynasty, the region is still a center for politics, administration, economics, and culture. Specialized commercial areas exist in each region within Jongno, and each of these reflect their own regionality. Within such regionality, the roadside commercial buildings are adapting and changing to fit the times, and regionality is sustained through façade renovation of ordinary architecture. The façade renovations of roadside commercial buildings that reflect such regionality and sustainability do not involve redevelopment through overall demolition, which represents a loss of regionality and history and is conducted undemocratically; rather, the practice should be acknowledged for adding value as past heritage and the simultaneous incorporation of present and future values.

Climate change adaptation is challenging in community planning because of the conflict between planners’ scientific knowledge and residents’ local knowledge. Focusing on the Bansong Pilbongoreum community in South Korea, we suggest a community-based adaption plan that uses local knowledge and builds consensus between local residents and planners by identifying problems and planning objectives. We applied this plan to our case study, using in-depth interviews, a community workshop, local knowledge, and scientific climate adaptation measures to identify the community’s problems and develop a plan. Planners and residents must communicate so that planners can incorporate local knowledge into effective planning objectives for community adaptation.

Particulate matter (PM) is implicated in severely negative health effects, and subway-system PM is potentially more genotoxic than several other particle types. However, there are insufficient studies on subway-system PM-pollution reduction and control and the potential economic benefits thereof. Thus, the present study undertakes to assess the potential economic benefits resulting from a 10 μg/m3 reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in a subway system, and to evaluate the importance of prevention and management of PM generally and subway-system PM specifically. Socioeconomic benefits such as medical expense curtailment, the precautionary effect on premature death, and the precautionary effect on productivity loss among subway passengers and workers were estimated by the cost-of-illness (COI) method. The health endpoints included two categories of disease: all lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The results showed that the total annual economic value in cost savings was 328.2 million KRW: 124.2 million KRW in direct costs, 186.4 million KRW in premature mortality costs, and 17.6 million KRW in productivity loss costs, respectively. These findings suggest that the control of PM10 and PM2.5 levels in subway systems should be promoted, as such effort certainly can produce significant economic benefits.