Magnitude and Significance in Landscape Change

Auteur(s) et Affiliation(s)

De Pablo, Carlos L.

Department of Ecology, Biology Faculty, Complutense University

Roldán-Martín, María J.

Environmental Research Centre of Madrid Region, Soto del Real

De Agar, Pilar Martín

Department of Ecology, Biology Faculty, Complutense University

Description :
Landscape is organised in mosaics: sets of patches with a defined pattern of boundaries through which patches interact. Changes in patches cause changes in mosaics. Landscape change has two components: a quantitative one, referring to the areas in which changes happen, and a qualitative one, referring to the degree of similarity among the mosaics substituting each other. The quantitative component informs on the magnitude of the change: the total area in which landscape mosaics have changed; the qualitative one informs on the significance thereof: the ecological differences between the mosaics substituting each other. This paper presents an index for quantifying landscape change and for discriminating between magnitude and significance therein. It was tested by study of changes in the landscape mosaics in Madrid, Spain. Results show that the index developed is useful for this purpose. This enables objective comparison of different landscape changes presenting different combinations of magnitude and significance.

Type de document :
Article de périodique

Source :
Landscape research (Online), issn : 1469-9710, 2012, vol. 37, n°. 5, p. 571-589, nombre de pages : 19

Date :
2012

Identifiants :
doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2011.641949

Editeur :
Pays édition : Royaume-Uni, Abingdon, Taylor and Francis

Langue :
Anglais