• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.190-202
• /
• 2021

Background: Landscape metrics have been widely applied to quantifying the relationship between land surface temperature and urban spatial patterns and have received acceptable verification from landscape ecologists but some studies have shown their inaccurate results. The objective of the study is to compare landscape metrics and texture-based measures as alternative indices in measuring urban heterogeneity effects on LST at multiple scales. Results: The statistical results showed that the correlation between urban landscape heterogeneity and LST increased as the spatial extent (scale) of under-study landscapes increased. Overall, landscape metrics showed that the less fragmented, the more complex, larger, and the higher number of patches, the lower LST. The most significant relationship was seen between edge density (ED) and LST (r = - 0.47) at the sub-region scale. Texture measures showed a stronger relationship (R² = 34.84% on average) with LST than landscape metrics (R² = 15.33% on average) at all spatial scales, meaning that these measures had a greater ability to describe landscape heterogeneity than the landscape metrics. Conclusion: This study suggests alternative measures for overcoming landscape metrics shortcomings in estimating the effects of landscape heterogeneity on LST variations and gives land managers and urban planners new insights into urban design.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.349-362
• /
• 2000

In the study, the feasibility of landscape ecological measures as indices system for interpretation and evaluation of regional ecosystem was investigated through the application to Yongin City. Each patch metrics well showed the class structure and supplemented the class metrics, and class metrics also showed well the landscape structure and supplemented the landscape metrics. And the change analysis through subtraction of two set of landscape ecological measurement in two point of time showed the dynamic trends very well. One of the dynamic trends in Yongin City was the rapid fragmentation. While there was no landcover data on Yongin City, using Landsat data and remote sensing techniques were proved to be efficient and effective to produce the digital landcover data.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.187-197
• /
• 2023

The study aims to identify factors related to landscape structure and socioeconomic characteristics that influence adults' physical activity and health. The study analyzes data from 148,643 respondents from the Korea Community Health Survey conducted in 2021. The study measures various factors, including the frequency of physical activity, stress, depression, and landscape metrics of forest patches. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Larger forest patches and more irregular shapes are associated with higher levels of physical activity among adults. The percentage and area of the forest patch are associated with fewer mental health complaints. Configuration-related landscape metrics such as shape or arrangement of the forest patch did not show a significant association with physical activity. Overall, the study provides insights into how specific characteristics of forest patches in urban areas may influence physical activity and mental health among adults. It emphasizes the importance of green spaces and their potential positive effects on both physical and mental well-being.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.237-249
• /
• 2011

Land-use changes due to the socio-economic environment influence landscape patterns and processes, which affect habitats and biodiversity. This study considers the effects of such land-use changes, particularly on the traditional rural "Maeul" forested landscape, by analyzing landscape structure and vegetation changes. Three study areas were examined that have seen their populations decrease and age over the last few decades. Five types of plant life-forms (Raunkier life-forms) were distinguished to investigate ecosystem function. Principle component analysis was used to understand vegetation dynamics and community characteristics based on a vegetation similarity index. Ordination analysis transformed species-coverage data was introduced to clarify vegetation dynamics. Landscape indices, such as area metrics, edge metrics, and shape metrics, showed that spatial heterogeneity has increased over time in all areas. Pinus densiflora was the main land-use plant type in all study areas but decreased over time, whereas Quercus spp. increased. Over a decade, P. densiflora communities shifted to deciduous oak and plantation. These findings indicate that the impact of human activities on the Maeul landscape is twofold. While forestry activities caused heavy disturbances, the abandonment of traditional human activities has led to natural succession. Furthermore, it can be concluded that the type and intensity of these human impacts on landscape heterogeneity relate differently to vegetation succession. This reflects the cause and consequence of patch dynamics. We discuss an approach for sustainable landscape planning and management of the Maeul landscape based on traditional management.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.81-94
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study is to test the applicability of landscape metrics for quantifying and monitoring the landscape structure in the Geumho River watershed, which has undergone heavy environmental disturbances. Landscape metrics were computed from land cover maps(1985, 1999) for the forest patches. The number of variables were reduced from 12 metrics to 3 factors through factor analysis. These factors accounted for above 91% of the variation in the original metrics. We also determined the relative effects of land development on the changes of forest landscape structure using multiple linear regression analysis. At the forest patches, the conversion of forest to urban areas and agriculture resulted in increased fragmentation. Patch area and patch size decreased. and patch density increased as a result of the conversion of forest to agriculture($R^2=0.696$, p<0.01). The heterogeneity of patch size and complexity of patch shape mainly decreased as a result of the conversion of forest to urban areas($R^2=0.405$, p<0.01). The density of core area and edge showed the tendency increase, but there was no relationship with the conversion of forest to urban area and agriculture The future research will be needed to analyze correlations between landscape structures and specific environmental and socioeconomic landscape functions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.10 no.6
• /
• pp.120-129
• /
• 2007

Rapid urbanization has transformed the spatial pattern of urban land use or cover. This paper concentrates that changed characteristics of landscape structure in the Tancheon Watershed, from 1995 to 2003 were investigated using land cover map. We used FRAGSTATS software to calculate landscape indices to characterize the landscape structure. We found that built up area has been increased rapidly during the study period, while cultivated area and forest area have been decreased rapidly in the same period. From 1995 to 2003, built up area was increased from 19.73% to 39.62% and cultivated area and forest area was decreased 17.60% to 5.97% and 58.31% to 49.41%. Number of patches, mean euclidean nearest-neighbor distance, contagion index, Shannon's diversity index increased considerably from 1995 to 2003, also suggesting the landscape in the study area became more fragmented and heterogeneous. but because of continuously fragmentation, landscape became homogeneity. The study demonstrates that landscape metrics can be a useful indicator in landscape monitoring and landscape assessment.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.429-436
• /
• 2011

Recent landscape changes from human activities, such as agricultural development and urbanisation frequently result in the loss of habitats, the reduction in habitat patch size and an increasing isolation of habitat patches. However, there is little information on woodland changes in agricultural landscapes. Therefore, the aim of this research was to assess spatial characteristics and changes of woodland in an agricultural landscape and how these may have had an impact on ecological process for 33 years. One of the agricultural landscape character units was analysed based on aerial photographs from 1976, 1983, 1994, 2002 and 2009 in Gwangju city. The results indicated that landscape ecological metrics clearly showed that they could be used to monitor changes of woodland ecological conditions during the past 33 years. The results imply that particularly human activities have been leading to the decrease of the mean size of woodland patches and finally result in woodland isolation. These changes may have a negative impact on woodland bird species in the study area. This woodland information can be used to identify the potential and specific needs for setting priorities for conservation planning.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.47-64
• /
• 2013

Landscape structure changes over the past three decades were determined with land use and land cover(LULC) maps, and their relationships with mean air temperature time series were the analyzed for the Busan metropolitan area and South Kyeongsang Province, Korea. The geometric structures of the LULC data were quantitatively represented based on FRAGSTATS, a spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure. FRAGSTATS-derived landscape metrics confirmed that there were major changes in LULC and landscape fragmentation in the region. Meteorological observation records showed that mean air temperature had increased from $14.1^{\circ}C$ in the 1990's to $14.8^{\circ}C$ in the 2000's in Busan. For South Kyeongsang Province, they increased from $13.2^{\circ}C$ to $13.9^{\circ}C$ during the same time period. These long-term temperature changes are correlated with typical spatial pattern changes of LULC in the southeastern region of the country. Spatial metrics analysis showed that urban area expanded from 9.7% to 26.8% of Busan while forest and agricultural land decreased by 9.6% and 14.9%, respectively over the past thirty years. The significant urbanization are tightly associated with deforestation, removal of agricultural land, and fast temperature increases since the 1990's. The urban area of South Kyeongsang Province rapidly increased, and it became 12 times as large as it was. The degree of temperature increases differed among three different sub-regions. The temperature increasing rate was lowest in the coastal region while the colder mountainous region had the highest figure.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.49 no.6
• /
• pp.65-76
• /
• 2007

Studies in landscape ecology have emphasized on the relationship between landscape patterns and shapes. A variety of landscape metrics has been developed so far to quantify landscape structures. Therefore, their developments and widespread applications become possible with the advent of spatial information systems including geographic information systems(GIS) and remote sensing. This study is to grasp the change of land use and landscape ecology indices, and to analyze the change of landscape structure in a part of Gyeonggi-do during 15 years from 1985 to 2000. Green-area distribution maps and agricultural-area distribution maps for the analysis were reconstructed from land cover maps constructed by WAMIS(Water Management Information System). And then, 4 landscape ecology indices(TA, LPI, SHAPE_AM, CAI_MN) for the green-area and 5 landscape ecology indices(TA, PD, LPI, LSI, CAI_MN) for the agricultural-area were selected by using pearson correlation analysis. According to the spatio-temporal change analysis using landscape ecology indices, the green-area fragmentation of Yongin was the most severe of the study area and the agricultural-area fragmentation of Gwangju and Namyangju was more severe than any other regions.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.391-407
• /
• 2012

The loss of connectivity and fragmentation of forest landscapes are seriously hindering dispersal of many forest-dwelling species, which may be critical for their viability and conservation by decreasing habitat area and increasing distance among habitats. For understanding their environmental impacts, numerous spatial models exist to measure landscape connectivity. However, general relationships between functional connectivity and landscape structure are lacking, there is a need to develop landscape metrics that more accurately measure landscape connectivity in whole landscape and individual patches. We reviewed functional and structural definition of landscape connectivity, explained their mathematical connotations, and applied representative 13 indices in 3 districts of Seoul having fragmented forest patches with tits, the threshold distance was applied 500m by considering the dispersal of tits. Results of correlation and principal component analysis showed that connectivity indices could be divided by measurement methods whether they contain the area attribute with distance or not. Betweenness centrality(BC), a representative index measuring distance and distribution among patches, appreciated highly stepping stone forest patches, and difference of probability of connectivity(dPC), an index measuring including area information, estimated integrated connectivity of patches. Therefore, for evaluating landscape connectivity, it is need to consider not only general information of a region and species' characteristics but also various measuring methods of landscape connectivity.