With a variety of topographic features and climatic conditions, Korea has extremely diverse habitat types such as coastal wetland, estuary, island, paddy field, cropland and woodland, which provide nesting and feeding sites for migratory birds and carnivorous predators (i.e., Siberian tiger). These habitats are now deteriorated and fragmented due to extensive socio-economic development and road construction; therefore, many endemic species are faced with extinction in Korea by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. The objective of this study was to explore the process of developing wildlife habitat model applied in Korea to quantify and protect suitable habitat for the Korean fauna and flora.

Four major steps toward building a wildlife habitat model were used in this study: (1) overview and designation process of protected area to preserve wildlife habitat, (2) review of management strategy for protecting wildlife species and its habitat, (3) introduction of habitat suitability index (HSI) model developed by the United States and now applied worldwide, and (4) case study to evaluate the preliminary habitat model. All the procedures described above were integrated to develop GIS-based habitat models for Korean fauna and flora, especially considering spatially-explicit habitat variables derived from National Geographic Information System (NGIS) and Environmental Information Systems (EIS).

Biotic and abiotic features should be incorporated into habitat model. Only a few biotic factors and most abiotic factors were available to use in developing the habi