Generalizing Boltzmann Configurational Entropy to Surfaces, Point Patterns and Landscape Mosaics

Several methods have been recently proposed to calculate configurational entropy, based on Boltzmann entropy. Some of these methods appear to be fully thermodynamically consistent in their application to landscape patch mosaics, but none have been shown to be fully generalizable to all kinds of landscape patterns, such as point patterns, surfaces, and patch mosaics. The goal of this paper is to evaluate if the direct application of the Boltzmann relation is fully generalizable to surfaces, point patterns, and landscape mosaics. I simulated surfaces and point patterns with a fractal neutral model to control their degree of aggregation. I used spatial permutation analysis to produce distributions of microstates and fit functions to predict the distributions of microstates and the shape of the entropy function. The results confirmed that the direct application of the Boltzmann relation is generalizable across surfaces, point patterns, and landscape mosaics, providing a useful general approach to calculating landscape entropy.

Structural Characteristics of Patches in the Central Lika Landscape – Application of Spatial and Regression Analysis

This paper analyses the structural characteristics (shape, position and condition) of landscape patches in Central Lika according to landscape types and for the landscape of Central Lika as a whole. A set of indicators for the landscape structure was used along with GIS technology. Interrelation of the structural characteristics of landscape patches were determined using regression analysis. When determining the landscape types of Central Lika, a method based on land cover/land use was applied. For this purpose, data from the CORINE database for the year 2012 were used. At the level of the landscape type in Central Lika and the landscape of Central Lika as a whole, a set of indicators for the landscape structure were used, based on a variety of spatial analysis methods: Mean Shape Index – for the landscape patch shapes; Core Area Index – for the condition of the landscape patches, and Average Nearest Neighbour – for the position of the landscape patches. The most important result of this paper was to confirm the correlation between the shape and condition, and between the shape and position of the landscape patches of Central Lika, while no correlation between the condition and position of the landscape patches of Central Lika was found.

Changes of Land Use/Cover and Landscape in Zhalong Wetland as “Red-Crowned Cranes Country”, Heilongjiang Province, China

<p>Hydrological and ecological role of wetlands were growing significant. Based on Landsat satellite remote sensing data collected in the years of 1990, 2000 and 2014, and integrating GIS with analytical methods of landscape ecology, research on changes of land use/cover and landscape pattern of Zhalong Wetland from 1990 to 2014 was conducted. Then, we analysed the effect of human activities and climate changes on land use/cover. The main conclusions were as follows: (1) Significant changes in land use/cover have taken place in Zhalong wetland during 1990-2014.Cultivated land, unused land and construction land increased continually, while the area of reed swamp, water swamp, grass land and water land decreased accordingly; (2) Landscape patch shape has be increasingly irregular and turned complexed, there was the tend of the growing diversification and homogenization of land use change and the growing complicate landscape pattern in Zhalong wetland; (3) There was a warm-dry climate trend from 1958 to 2014; (4) Human activities including population, construction, water land pollution and production have been threatening the wetland ecosystem. Those changes in Zhalong area were caused by nature and human activity. However, the human’s contributions are great.</p>

An Incremental and Philosophically Different Approach to Measuring Raster Patch Porosity

A new method for measuring the porosity of individual 2D raster patches in a GIS for characterizing the combined complexity of a shape’s edge in conjunction with its internal perforations is developed. The method is centered on comparing the number of cellular edge–edge joins relative to the theoretical maximum number of similar joins possible given a set number of cells comprising a landscape patch. As this porosity (Φ) increases, the patch (or shape) can be viewed as deviating from a maximally compact form, comprising higher edge complexity and internal heterogeneity (inclusion of perforations). The approach is useful for characterizing shapes for which a simple perimeter- or area-based metric misses the internal complexity and where the porosity of the patch may provide insight into spatial processes leading to the development of the landscape fabric. I present theoretical results to illustrate the mechanics of the approach and a small case study of boreal wildfire residual vegetation patches in Ontario, where real resulting wildfire process-driven landscape patches are assessed for their porosity at five spatial resolutions. The results indicate that naturally occurring and unsuppressed boreal wildfires in the study area typically produce residual vegetation patches with an average porosity of 17.6%, although this value varies slightly with the spatial resolution of the data representation.

Landscape Pattern Analysis of Land Use in Low Mount Hilly Land of Harbin Eastern Suburb

This article analyzes the general characteristics and its causes of the landscape pattern of land use, taking the Tuanjie town of DaoWai district in Harbin as an example. Using GIS and Fragstats software to calculate a series of landscape index, the data show that Tuanjie town is given priority to with agriculture landscape, and the landscape patch connectivity is stronger; the overall landscape patch shape is complex, showing the human activities interfere significantly; and each patch type concentration and fragmentation is quite different. Therefore, based on the use of their own advantages, put forward reasonable suggestions to the landscape optimization of Tuanjie town land use.

Landscape Pattern of the Xiangjiaba Hydropower Project’ Disturbed Area in 2012 Based on the GIS Analysis

The landscape pattern is often obviously changed at the disturbed area of the large hydropower projects. The landscape pattern of Xiangjiaba hydropower project was analyzed using the geographic information systems technology and the method of landscape pattern index to uncover the effect of hydropower project. Based on the data of GPS, aerial photography pictures and field investigation at Xiangjiaba hydropower’ disturbed area in 2012, the map of landscape pattern and land use was drawn using ArcGIS 10.0, and landscape pattern index was figured out using FRAGSTATS 4.0. The result showed that the total landscape was heterogeneous with 10 kinds of patch types at the disturbed area of Xiangjiaba hydropower project. These patches were ranked by area as: woodlands> farmland> township and village > river >engineering land > shrubs> abandoned land> artificial grassland> waters > open forests. The dominated landscape patch was woodlands with the largest area. The artificial grassland, farmland, engineering land, and woodland were fragmented seriously with high under the influence of human activity and natural condition.