1. “If you could perceive the patterns in a scene, you could then look beyond the patterns to the underlying structure that supports them. If you could see and grasp the methods by which a surface harmony had been achieved, you eventually could understand the deepest meaning and mechanisms of any subject and then make a good painting of it” (Page 66) Koontz 1980: Whispers

2. Understanding a landscape

3. Are we satisfied with this product? Understanding a landscape

4. Is this structure of the landscape interesting and how was it created? Understanding a landscape

5. Is this structure of the landscape interesting and how was it created? Understanding a landscape

6. Can we create a similar landscape structure? What impacts can this structure have? Understanding a landscape Chen & Saunders 2006

7. Landscape ecology are featured with patch-corridor-matrix dogma -- a landscape is composed of multiple ecosystems. It is theorized that new structural and functional features would emerge when >2 ecosystems are placed together Chen & Saunders 2006

8. Once upon a time, there … 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);

9. ( a ) Conventional land mosaic patch corridor ( b ) Complex land mosaic patch interior Road & roadside AMEI AEI AMEI

10. Example 2: Within the area- of-edge influence (AEI), most areas are under multiple edge effects!

11. In general, the scales of structures/patterns we see and scales of the processes that create or maintain them are positively correlated; but this is not always the case. Scale is characterized by both grain (i.e., resolution) and extent: · Grain: smallest unit of measure about which one has information · Extent: Total area (or duration of time) over which we are considering a phenomenon

13. Questions?