This research is concerned with a comparative cognition of environmental issues in the countryside between socio-cultural groups. Environmental issues have been con연nod to litter, soil, sewage, wild life, noise, landscape, air, housing development, waste land and pesticides. Socio-cultural groups consisted of urban and countryside people who live in Korea and UK. The method of this study depended upon a standard questionnaire with a semantic scale. The cognition of Korean and British people are significantly different in every respect(p =.0001)except air issues. There is a significant similarity between Korean groups in 10 environmental issues(p > .03). Both Korean groups have generally recognized that their countryside environment has faced serious problems to be solved while British groups have not recognized serious problems in their countryside compared to the Korean groups. To both Korean and British groups the most worrying amongst the 10 environmental issues is the litter problem. In particular, there is a significant difference between British groups in soils(p = .0001), wildlife(p = .0009), air(p = .0001) and waste land(p = .0027). The existing policies (or countryside environment in Korea should be completely reconsidered and in Britain policies towards soils, wild life, air and waste land need to be reviewed. From the results it can be seen that cognition to countryside environment undergoes more cultural influences rather than social ones.

This paper is aimed at investigating environmental indicators and needs based on residents' perception at Seosan city, Chungnam province. The results can be summarized as follows ; 1) On the average, the environmental level perceived by residents at Seosan city lies somewhat above the middle one, three points. 2) The perceived environmental level in rural areas is hither than that in urban and suburban ones, 3) There is a difference in residents'environmental needs between rural and urban areas. 4) It is proposed that a long-term and systematic environmental planning for Seosan city should be established to improve the environmental level.