Surface Metrics

HES 505 Fall 2025: Session 17

Matt Williamson

Objectives

  • Describe the importance of measuring recurrent landscape patterns

  • Distinguish between patch, class, and landscape-level metrics

  • Implement patch metric calculations using the landscapemetrics package for R

What do we mean by landscape?

Definining landscapes

Defining Landscapes

Core Concepts

  • Heterogeneity is a defining feature of a landscape

  • Landscapes can be defined and studied at any scale

  • Patterns and processes occur across scales

  • Not limited to terrestrial systems

Heterogeneity and Dynamics

  • Composition

  • Matrix vs. patch-mosaic vs. gradients

  • Community composition

  • Turnover and invasion

Measuring Patches

Measuring Patches

Measuring Patches

  • Patch metrics: describe attributes of each patch

  • Class metrics: describe the distribution of patches within each category

  • Landscape metrics: describe the composition of the landscape based on patches and categories

Scale Matters!!!

Most Metrics Are Correlated

  • Combinations are possible (PCA - Wednesday)

  • Strength - The average variance in configuration explained by a metric/combination

  • Consistency - Do the metrics/combinations mean the same thing in different patches/landscapes

  • Universality - The percentage of regions where the metric/combination plays a role

Why Do We Care

  • Describe the landscape mosaic

  • As a foundation for varying rates in point process models

  • As predictors for other models

  • As an objective for planning