Once upon a time, there … Some Key Points Structure needs to be defined by objective, proper scale, and variable of interests; All structural elements are dynamic (i.e., constantly changing over time);

Quantifying Landscape Structure: - from realty to abstract -

Illustration patch road Reality Abstract

Spatial Patterns: Points Continuous Lattice/Polygons

Geographical Information System (GIS): an organized collection of hardware, geographical data, and persons that is designed to effectively capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of geographically referenced information. GIS packages are rater- or vector-based. Popular ones include ESRI’s products (ARC/INFO, ARCVIEW, ARC/GIS) and ERDAS’ products (Imagine).

Patch interior AMPI AEI AMEI Roadsides A Land Mosaic

Landscape Location: Lat. Long., elev., ecoregion, climate zone, origin and disturbance history, etc. Total area (ha, acre) Patch Type and number Density (Number of patches per unit area) Size (ha): mean, skew ness, variation, min, & max Frequency table (i.e., size class distribution) Shape Fractal dimension Patch interior AMPI AEI AMEI Roadsides 1000 m

Size class distribution (i.e., frequency table): percent of the total study area comprised by each land cover type

Landscape structure in the Border Lakes and Sylvania (Mladenoff et al )

Study Landscape in N. Wisconsin Landsat TM cover map & a subscene. The land mosaics with AEI are significantly different from the cover map (D-AEI Model) Zheng & Chen (2000)

Patch Shape: Shape Index 1) Where l is the length and w is the width of the patch. 2) Where p is the perimeter of the patch, and A is the area of the patch. Application of shape index in landscape analysis:  Landscape change over time  Among patch type  Among different parts of the landscape  Among landscapes Exercise: calculate F & D of the following patches:

Patch shape: Fractal Dimension Where N is number of steps used to measure a pattern unit length, and r is the scale ratio. A fractal will look the same whatever the level of resolution used to observe the object, i.e. a shape made of parts similar to the whole in some way. (Mandelrot 1985) What is the fractal of (a), (b), ©, and (d)?