Abstract
Natural or human disturbances cause landscape changes, which may be measured by the degree of heterogeneity. In a 16km$\times$19km area, divided into 100m$\times$100m cells, of Seoul city and its suburb, land covers are classified into 6 groups in aerial photos and land use maps. The degree of heterogeneity is defined as the number of cells that surround a central cell but have different land cover from the central cell divided by 8. The value of the degree of heterogeneity is between 0 and 1. Major findings are 1) Both urban and natural areas have low degree of heterogeneity, about 0.15~0.17. 2) Suburban area under heavy pressure of development and urbanization has highest degree of heterogeneity, about 0.25. 3) The peak of the degree of heterogeneity moved about 4.5km outward in 22 years. 4) Outer suburban area has lower degree of heterogeneity as the area is a greenbelt or forest. 5) The results show the areas with higher degree of heterogeneity which may need landscape management plans, and natural areas with lower degree of heterogeneity which may need landscape conservation plans. A landscape change model may be built for a specific city when this technique is applied to multiple sectors of the city, and the model may predict future landscape changes of the city.
