Korea is a highly urbanized country, with as many as 9 out of 10 people living in cities, and it is increasingly important to manage the urban areas in eco-friendly and sustainable ways. A bio- tope map is a map that shows an area’s biodiver- sity status based on investigations and evaluations performed by local governments to take better

action against the problems within their adminis- trative districts. It divides the map area by biotope unit and expresses the biotope type based on the ecological characteristics and the rating of each biotope’s value.

The rst biotope map for Korea was created in 2000 in Seoul. Seoul developed a biotope map to

serve as the baseline data for eco-friendly urban management and has been updating it every 5 years. The Seoul Urban Planning Ordinance spec- i es the development and the usage of the biotope map for land suitability assessments and several other elds. A total of 43 local governments, in- cluding Seongnam-si, Gwangyang-si, Goyang-si,

and Siheung-si, had completed or proceeded with producing biotope maps by 2015. Though biotope mapping was initiated according to the purposes of the local governments, the Ministry of Envi- ronment has been promoting biotope mapping since 2007 by creating and distributing the bio- tope mapping guidelines.