Building a marine cadastre for South Korea

With the enactment of Ocean Korea 21 (2000), South Korea has made a commitment towards the sustainable development of its ocean and coastal resources, based on principles of integrated and effective management. The complexities of marine area management are highlighted in the Korean situation, with a complex legal and institutional framework, changing economic priorities, escalating conflicts related to resource use, and increasing pressure to address ecosystem problems. South Korea is in a difficult political and geographical situation, with jurisdictional conflict in its maritime regions. Consequently the need to establish an integrated marine management system is fundamentally important to South Korea. Despite the absence of physically marked boundaries, and despite the complexity of reliable marine positioning, maritime boundaries and their associated rights, restrictions, and responsibilities are absolutely real and must be well managed and adhered to (Collier et al. 2003). In this thesis, an examination of marine environmental, policy and information management issues, particularly in the Australian and South Korean contexts, has contributed to recommendations for a marine cadastral system for South Korea.