Abstract
Tools to Measure Landscape Pattern and Fragmentation Track: Ecology and Conservation Author(s): David Theobald Numerous software packages have been developed to compute landscape pattern metrics. Here I offer a set of tools that differ from common approaches (such as FRAGSTATS) in three important ways. First, most packages are developed using stand-alone programs, de-coupled from GIS software. Second, most landscape analysis packages implement a conceptual approach to landscapes known as "patch-matrix-corridor" that measures the spatial structure of a landscape, but generally has limited ability to quantify more functional aspects of a landscape. Third, most tools are developed as a closed software package. In this presentation I will discuss the overall design of functional-based tools to analyze landscape patterns, briefly describe the implementation of these metrics using tools programmed as ModelBuilder models and Python scripts, and demonstrate how they work using a few examples of measuring forest fragmentation. David Theobald Natural Resource Ecology Lab Colorado State University Fort Collins , CO 80523-1499 US Phone: 970.491.5122 E-mail: davet@nrel.colostate.edu |
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