Landscape diversity of the Kuril Islands

We consider the use of two approaches in assessing landscape diversity of a territory: qualitative and quantitative analyses of the landscape structure on the basis of landscape maps, and a space imagery-based calculation of landscape diversity. This study revealed that the two approaches under consideration reflect different properties of landscape. It is established that the various indicators used in analyzing landscape maps unveil the aspects of a complicated and multifaceted notion of “landscape diversity”. A number of indicators overlap to a significant extent. Landscape diversity has a high degree of dependence on an island’s area.