Landscape Metrics for Assessment of Landscape Destruction and Rehabilitation

Herzog, Félix; Lausch, Angela; Müller, E.; Thulke, Hans‐Hermann; Steinhardt, Uta; Lehmann, Steffen

doi:10.1007/s002670010136

Cited by 170 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Patch Analyst Extension for ArcGIS 10.1 software [72] was used to compute quantitative metrics for describing landscape structure [46]. The most appropriate metrics were chosen, based on previous multi-temporal landscape studies [48,53,[73][74][75]. Metrics were calculated on both landscape and class level ( Table 2).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Pattern Changes in Response to Transhumance Abandonment on Mountain Vermio (North Greece)

et al. 2015

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Transhumance, the seasonal movement of herds between highlands and lowlands following precise, repeated routes, is a common practice in many Mediterranean regions. This livestock movement exploits natural vegetation in both winter and summer pastures. In Greece transhumant herders, drawn by relatively abundant vegetation, usually relocate to mountainous areas between April and October. Mount Vermio was an ideal summer pasture for the nomadic, ethnic group Sarakatsanoi of Thessaly, who used to own big herds. Socio-economic conditions of the 20th century led to the gradual decline of transhumance, resulting in reduction in grazing pressure and changes in vegetation dynamics. The purpose of this study was to monitor changes in landscape patterns in response to transhumance abandonment. Landscape metrics were employed to estimate land use/cover in two altitudinal zones. Results reveal that due to the abandonment of transhumance in the highlands landscape fragmentation increased. Meanwhile, in the lowlands, due to the uninterrupted presence of animals, landscape structure is more stable and diversified. Grasslands and agroforestry systems became smaller and more isolated. In OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 15653 conclusion, the abandonment of transhumance led to the overall deterioration of the rural landscape in the highlands.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Pattern Changes in Response to Transhumance Abandonment on Mountain Vermio (North Greece)

et al. 2015

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“…While there is nothing particularly new about using GIS and remote sensing for mapping and spatial analysis, its application for assessing riparian landscape structural change has rarely been exploited (e.g. Schuft et al, 1999, and see recent review of Herzog et al, 2001). Hence, the objective of this study was to develop appropriate mapping and assessment techniques to quantify the nature and magnitude of riparian landscape structural changes within a catchment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping and analysis of changes in the riparian landscape structure of the Lockyer Valley catchment, Queensland, Australia

Apan

Raine

Paterson

2002

Landscape and Urban Planning

134

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A case study of the Lockyer Valley catchment in Queensland, Australia, was conducted to develop appropriate mapping and assessment techniques to quantify the nature and magnitude of riparian landscape structural changes within a catchment. The study employed digital image processing techniques to produce land cover maps from the 1973 and 1997 Landsat imagery. Fixed and variable width buffering of streams were implemented using a geographic information system (GIS) to estimate the riparian zone and to subsequently calculate the landscape patterns using the Patch Analyst (Grid) program (a FRAGSTATS interface). The nature of vegetation clearing was characterised based on land tenure, slope and stream order. Using the Pearson chi-square test and Cramer's V statistic, the relationships between the vegetation clearing and land tenure were further assessed. The results show the significant decrease in woody vegetation areas mainly due to conversion to pasture. Riparian vegetation corridors have become more fragmented, isolated and of much smaller patches. Land tenure was found to be significantly associated with the vegetation clearing, although the strength of association was weak. The large proportion of deforested riparian zones within steep slopes or first-order streams raises serious questions about the catchment health and the longer term potential for land degradation by upland clearing. This study highlights the use of satellite imagery and geographic information systems in mapping and analysis of landscape structural change, as well as the identification of key issues related to sensor spatial resolution, stream buffering widths, and the quantification of land transformation processes.

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“…There have been attempts to develop metrics that combine multiple components of a pattern into a single value [Bogaert et al, 2000c]. On the other hand, the use of statistical methods such as factor analysis to reduce the number of indices [Riiters et al, 1995;Cain et al, 1997;Bogaert et al, 1999;Herzog et al, 2001] does not render the ecological meaning of a metric to the analyst [Riiters et al, 1995]. Generally, one should attempt to describe independent and fundamental components of a spatial pattern by utilizing a suite of metrics [Li and Reynolds, 1994;Riiters et al, 1995;Giles and Trani, 1999].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for a persistent and extensive greening trend in Eurasia inferred from satellite vegetation index data

et al. 2002

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[1] The northern latitudes have warmed by $0.8°C since the early 1970s, but not all areas have warmed equally. Eurasia shows an overall warming trend, while North America exhibits warming at a lower rate and even a slight cooling trend during the last 50 years in the eastern United States. We analyzed a recently developed satellite normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data set (July 1981 to December 1999) to assess vegetation response to these temperature changes. An index of persistence of the NDVI trend was used to generate patches of different levels of persistence. The persistence data were analyzed for patch area, patch perimeter, patch number, patch coherence, largest patch size, patch fragmentation, pixel contiguity, pixel clustering, and conditional probability of pixel adjacency. We address two questions: (1) Is there a difference in the spatial pattern of long-term NDVI increase in comparison to short-term increase? and (2) Are there differences in the spatial patterns of patches between Eurasia and North America? The results indicate a persistent and spatially extensive and connected greening trend in Eurasia, relative to North America. The regions showing short-term greening in Eurasia show a scattered pattern of spatially remote small patches. In North America the long-term greening pattern is spatially fragmented, and a mixture of short-and long-term NDVI increase is found, unlike in Eurasia. Therefore we conclude that the greening trend in Eurasia is more persistent and spatially extensive than in North America, which is qualitatively consistent with near-surface air temperature observations.

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Landscape Metrics for Assessment of Landscape Destruction and Rehabilitation

Cited by 170 publications

References 50 publications

Landscape Pattern Changes in Response to Transhumance Abandonment on Mountain Vermio (North Greece)

Landscape Pattern Changes in Response to Transhumance Abandonment on Mountain Vermio (North Greece)

Mapping and analysis of changes in the riparian landscape structure of the Lockyer Valley catchment, Queensland, Australia

Evidence for a persistent and extensive greening trend in Eurasia inferred from satellite vegetation index data

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