Bee-Bo forest: Traditional landscape ecological forest in Korea

Abstract

People want to live in good environment. In Korea and China, ancient people tried to locate their housing and villages within good surrounding environment. This was named Poongsoo in Korea and Fengshui in China. The theory describes the harmonious spatial relationship between human settlements and natural environment. Because every place cannot have good conditions for residential location in terms of Poongsoo, ancient Koreans tried to improve their living environment by supplementing forests. It is based on Bee-Bo theory. In Korea, the landscape would be a part of total system that includes the man and nature. They thought the landscape could be damaged easily by improper land use and also be supplemented by careful landscape planning. To supplement insufficient landscape elements, Bee-Bo forest was created. It works as disaster prevention zone, microclimate control zone, biodiversity conservation patch and cultural landscape area. It is based on the philosophy that man and nature are parts of the universe and interaction between them should be managed based on energy equilibrium. © 2007 Springer Netherlands.