Structural attributes of individual trees for identifying homogeneous patches in a tropical rainforest

Mapping and monitoring tropical rainforests and quantifying their carbon stocks are important, both for devising strategies for their conservation and mitigating the effects of climate change. Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) has advantages over other remote sensing techniques for describing the three-dimensional structure of forests. This study identifies forest patches using ALS-based structural attributes in a tropical rainforest in Sumatra, Indonesia. A method to group trees with similar attributes into forest patches based on Thiessen polygons and k-medoids clustering is developed, combining the advantages of both raster and individual tree–based methods. The structural composition of the patches could be an indicator of habitat type and quality. The patches could also be a basis for developing allometric models for more accurate estimation of carbon stock than is currently possible with generalised models.     

Assessing the effects of land use spatial structure on urban heat islands using HJ-1B remote sensing imagery in Wuhan,China

Urban heat islands (UHIs) have attracted attention around the world because they profoundly affect biological diversity and human life. Assessing the effects of the spatial structure of land use on UHIs is essential to better understanding and improving the ecological consequences of urbanization. This paper presents the radius fractal dimension to quantify the spatial variation of different land use types around the hot centers. By integrating remote sensing images from the newly launched HJ-1B satellite system, vegetation indexes, landscape metrics and fractal dimension, the effects of land use patterns on the urban thermal environment in Wuhan were comprehensively explored. The vegetation indexes and landscape metrics of the HJ-1B and other remote sensing satellites were compared and analyzed to validate the performance of the HJ-1B. The results have showed that land surface temperature (LST) is negatively related to only positive normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) but to Fv across the entire range of values, which indicates that fractional vegetation (Fv) is an appropriate predictor of LST more than NDVI in forest areas. Furthermore, the mean LST is highly correlated with four class-based metrics and three landscape-based metrics, which suggests that the landscape composition and the spatial configuration both influence UHIs. All of them demonstrate that the HJ-1B satellite has a comparable capacity for UHI studies as other commonly used remote sensing satellites. The results of the fractal analysis show that the density of built-up areas sharply decreases from the hot centers to the edges of these areas, while the densities of water, forest and cropland increase. These relationships reveal that water, like forest and cropland, has a significant effect in mitigating UHIs in Wuhan due to its large spatial extent and homogeneous spatial distribution. These findings not only confirm the applicability and effectiveness of the HJ-1B satellite system for studying UHIs but also reveal the impacts of the spatial structure of land use on UHIs, which is helpful for improving the planning and management of the urban environment.     

Detecting urban ecological land-cover structure using remotely sensed imagery: A multi-area study focusing on metropolitan inner cities

With increasing attention being paid to sustainable urban development and human habitation improvement, urban ecological land cover (UELC), i.e., surface water and green space, has played an important role of the highly compact inner urban regions. In this study, we developed an efficient approach for UELC mapping by coupling Sentinel-2 multi-spectral imagery and Google Earth high-resolution imagery. In contrast with the conventional single-source and multi-source imagery-based classification methods, the proposed method respectively achieved the highest overall accuracies of 91.50% and 94.05% in the UELC mapping for two test sites (i.e. Shanghai and Seoul). The proposed method is used for urban surface mapping among six world-class cities. For an in-depth analysis of the landscape structures for inner urban regions, seven landscape metrics are introduced for the quantification of the UELC structure based on the obtained high-precision UELC maps. The result shows that London appears to have the best UELC-induced ecological quality, that is, with high percentage of landscape, area-weighted mean fractal dimension, edge density, Shannon’s evenness index values and a low contagion index value, while Tokyo is exactly the opposite. Several common characteristics found through the statistical analysis are: 1) all the inner-city regions have small UELC coverage (< 50%) and low shape complexity; 2) green space generally contributes more to urban eco-environment than the urban surface water; and 3) all cities show high landscape consistency in the inner urban region.     

Nature Conservation versus Scenic Quality：A GIS Approach towards Optimized Tourist Tracks in a Protected Area of Northwest Yunnan,China

Development of appropriate tourism infrastructure is important for protected areas that allow public access for tourism use.This is meant to avoid or minimize unfavourable impacts on natural resources through guiding tourists for proper use.In this paper,a GIS-based method,the least-cost path（LCP） modelling,is explored for planning tourist tracks in a World Heritage site in Northwest Yunnan（China）,where tourism is increasing rapidly while appropriate infrastructure is almost absent.The modelling process contains three steps：1） selection of evaluation criteria（physical,biological and landscape scenic） that are relevant to track decision; 2） translation of evluation criteria into spatially explicit cost surfaces with GIS,and 3） use of Dijkstra＇s algorithm to determine the least-cost tracks.Four tracks that link main entrances and scenic spots of the study area are proposed after optimizing all evaluation criteria.These tracks feature lowenvironmental impacts and high landscape qualities,which represent a reasonable solution to balance tourist use and nature conservation in the study area.In addtion,the study proves that the LCP modelling can not only offer a structured framwork for track planning but also allow for different stakeholders to participate in the planning process.It therefore enhances the effectivenss of tourism planning and managemnt in protected areas.     

Farm size and landscape composition in relation to landscape changes in Denmark

Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 106(2): 45–59, 2006

This paper explores relationships between farm size and landscape composition in terms of densities of uncultivated landscape elements and sizes of agricultural fields. The study is based on national agricultural registers for Denmark and on aerial photo interpretation of three study areas, representing different Danish landscape types. Results indicate significantly smaller fields and significantly higher densities of uncultivated landscape elements on small farms (<25 ha). At national level, current differences between small and large farms are to some extent caused by landscape changes between 1998 and 2004. Analyses of the study areas indicate that current differences between small and large farms mainly evolved between 1982 and 2002, while the influences of changes between 1954 and 1982 are limited. Relationships between farms size and landscape composition are independent of spatial variations in soil type and slope conditions. Consequently, attention must be paid to other parameters linked to farm size. In particular, the effects on landscape composition of part-time and hobby farming, as well as production type, must be considered.     

从自然地理学到景观生态学

Landscape ecology ,as a multidisciplinary field,is relatively new synthetic and holistic science. It evolved from roots in many fields,such as geography,ecology,economy and system science. According to the time一space coupling dynamic model , the development process of landscape ecology can be devided into three phasis:Landscape holistic ecology,spatial structure ecology and regional construction ecology"
The basic theories of landscape ecology included ; ecological evalution , succession , spatial differentianon and biotic diversity，landscape heterogeneity and coexistence of heterogeneity component，island biogeography and spatial mosaic theory ,scale effect and natural hierachical organization theory,biological geochemistry and landscape geochemistry ,ecological reconstruction and ecological location theory.
The scale issue and heteogeneity are the central functional question on the methodology of landscape ecology. Key landscape concepts are structure，function and change. It uses pattern (changse in space)and process(changes in time) as pivotal attributes. More attention should be paid on the macroscopic variation of structure and function of landscape ecology system , edge effect and human impact onthe landscape.     

Spatio-temporal pattern analysis of land use/cover change trajectories in Xihe watershed

Human-induced land use/cover change has been considered to be one of the most important parts of global environmental changes. In loess hilly and gully regions, to prevent soil loss and achieve better ecological environments, soil conservation measures have been taken during the past decades. The main objective of this study is to quantify the spatio-temporal variability of land use/cover change spatial patterns and make preliminary estimation of the role of human activity in the environmental change in Xihe watershed, Gansu Province, China. To achieve this objective, the methodology was developed in two different aspects, that is, (1) analysis of change patterns by binary image of change trajectories overlaid with different natural geographic factors, in which Relative Change Intensity (RCI) metric was established and used to make comparisons, and (2) analysis based on pattern metrics of main trajectories in the study area. Multi-source and multi-temporal Remote Sensing (RS) images (including Landsat ETM+ (30 June 2001), SPOT imagery (21 November 2003 and 5 May 2008) and CBERS02 CCD (5 June 2006)) were used due to the constraints of the availability of remotely sensed data. First, they were used to extract land use/cover types of each time node by object-oriented classification method. Classification results were then utilized in the trajectory analysis of land use/cover changes through the given four time nodes. Trajectories at every pixel were acquired to trace the history of land use/cover change for every location in the study area. Landscape metrics of trajectories were then analyzed to detect the change characteristics in time and space through the given time series. Analysis showed that most land use/cover changes were caused by human activities, most of which, under the direction of local government, had mainly led to virtuous change on the ecological environments. While, on the contrary, about one quarter of human-induced changes were vicious ones. Analysis through overlaying binary image of change trajectories with natural factors can efficiently show the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of land use/cover change patterns. It is found that in the study area RCI of land use/cover changes is related to the distance to the river line. And there is a certain correlation between RCI and slope grades. However, no obvious correlation exists between RCI and aspect grades.     

Assessing the impact of Celaque National Park on forest fragmentation in western Honduras

The effectiveness of parks as management regimes is much in debate. This study examines the effect of establishment of the Celaque National Park, Honduras, in 1987, on limiting deforestation through a comparison with the surrounding landscape using remote sensing, GIS and landscape pattern analysis. Pressure on the park region is found to relate spatially to the locations of towns and roads, with increasing deforestation in the landscape surrounding the park. In contrast, the park has been largely successful in maintaining forest cover. Although the extent of change within the park is not pronounced, the pattern of change is. Expansion of agriculture and coffee production have led to increasing pressure on the park boundaries, with as much as 25% of the landscape surrounding the park experiencing land cover change between 1996 and 2000. This has significant implications for the future of the park.     

福州地区土地景观格局动态变化及多样性分析

利用1985年与2000年数据计算了福州地区景观格局变化的若干指标。结果表明,整体上福州地区土地景观多样性指数、破碎度指数有所上升,优势度指数下降,景观格局趋于稳定,系统趋于优化。同时,借助ArcGIS8．3软件平台对福州地区2000年土地利用数据进行处理,计算景观多样性指数,然后进行聚类分析,在区域内部划分出多样性程度不同的3类子区：闽侯县景观多样性程度最高,长乐、福清、福州、罗源、闽清、永泰次之,连江、平潭景观多样性程度最低。     

Comparative tempo‐spatial pattern analysis: CTSPA

A new method is illustrated for describing the characteristics of urban pattern changes over different time periods. This method employs vector geometry, paired centroids, shared boundary lines, and overlain polygons. Three new statistics are proposed for characterizing local polygon feature changes in quantity, shape, and size. These statistics are standardized, based on conventional theories from urban geography such as directional concentric zones and user‐designated corridors to document both regional and global patterns of land‐use change. This method is used to analyse land‐use changes in metropolitan Detroit between 1990 and 2000. The Detroit case study indicates that the CTSPA statistics are effective in describing urban spatial pattern changes and in characterizing the evolution of discrete urban landscapes over selected periods.