• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.349-362
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• 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 Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.190-202
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• 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.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.429-436
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• 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 Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.237-249
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• 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 Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.63-77
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• 2006

The research aim is to classify biotope types of rural eco-villages designed by ministry of environment and analyze landscape ecological characteristics of them. This information would provide information on eco-villages' potential and specific needs to improve landscape ecological structure of eco-villages. Two eco-villages, designated by ministry of environment, in Yoocheon-ri and Sanduk-ri were selected and the landscape ecological metrics used in this study were Area, Shannon diversity index, Shape index, Distance index. The results are as follows. 1) There were five biotope types in large-scale classification, 13 biotope types m Sanduk-ri and 9 biotope types in Yoocheon-ri in middle-scale classification, 31 biotope types in Sanduk-ri and 24 biotope types in Yoocheon-ri in small-scale classification. 2) In the case of area, artificial biotope types, such as artificial forest, agricultural irrigation canal, wet paddy, dry paddy and residential area, covered more than 80% of total area. However, natural biotope types, such as natural forest, river, reservoir, covered just more than 10% of total area. In details, an orchard (26.69%) was the dominant biotope type, followed by artificial forest (19.10%) in Sanduk-ri and the first most abundant biotope type was artificial forest (49.71%), followed by wet paddy (15.95%) in Yoocheon-ri. 3) The result of Shannon diversity index indicated that Sanduk-ri (2.158) had more heterogeneity landscape, rather than Yoocheon-ri (2.051). 4) In the case of shape index, road (13.09) had more complex and irregular shape than either agricultural irrigation canal (3.35) or artificial forest (2.46) in Sanduk-ri. Road (6.52) was also the most irregular biotope shape, followed by river (5.70) and agricultural irrigation canal (4.78) in Yoocheon-ri. 5) Mean Nearest-neighbour Distance (MND) was smallest in wet paddy and dry paddy biotope types in the two study area, suggesting that these biotope types were concentrated within these study areas. From the result, this research suggested information to protect and improve biotopes of eco-villages in the landscape ecological terms. To achieve this improvement plan, there should be strong support by ministry of environment and local governments.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.185-193
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• 2015

A dramatic decline in the abundance of the scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) has been observed across most of its geographic range. In order to evaluate the influence of land cover patterns and their changes on scaled quail abundance, we examined landscape patterns and their changes from the 1970s to the1990s in two large ecoregions with contrasting population trends: (1) the Rolling Plains ecoregion with a significantly decreased scaled quail population and (2) the South Texas Plains ecoregion with a relatively stable scaled quail population. The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Land Use/Land Cover data were used to quantify landscape patterns and their changes based on 80 randomly located $20{\times}20km^2$ windows in each of the ecoregions. We found that landscapes in the Rolling Plains and the South Texas Plains were considerably different in composition and spatial characteristics related to scaled quail habitats. The landscapes in the South Texas Plains had significantly more shrubland and less grassland-herbaceous rangeland; and except for shrublands, they were more fragmented, with greater interspersion among land cover classes. Correlation analysis between the landscape metrics and the quail-abundance-survey data showed that shrublands appeared to be more important for scaled quail in the South Texas Plains, while grassland-herbaceous rangelands and pasture-croplands were essential to scaled quail habitats in the Rolling Plains. The decrease in the amount of grassland-herbaceous rangeland and spatial aggregation of pasture-croplands has likely contributed to the population decline of scaled quails in the Rolling Plains ecoregion.

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.161-178
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• 2017

Whereas the demand for development of forested areas covering more than 60% of Korean territory, permission on the forest development has been still given from the perspective of effective land utilization rather than conservation. As the assessment of large forested areas usually focuses more on forest structure, it has its limitation of observing and analyzing the interior change in forest in this way. This study was aimed at computing landscape metrics using a presence vegetation map and FRAGTSTATS 4.2 and analyzing vegetation mosaics. Colonies in native vegetation were classified into a series of major groups and sub-groups based on the native species within the colonies. The colonies were investigated by analyzing a suite of landscape metrics - Core Area, Percentage of Landscape, Number of Patches, Patch Density, Largest Patch Index, Total Edge, Edge Density, Landscape Shape Index, Mean Patch Area, Euclidean Nearest Neighbor. In the Chungnam province major groups and sub-groups of colonies classified based on the proportion of pine and oak species, and pine species was the principal one in terms of distribution area. As for the competition between pines and oaks, while the coverage of pine-centered colonies were three times larger than those of oak-centered ones, pine colonies showed the greater number of patches and therefore higher fragmentation than oaks at the major group level. For the sub-groups, the largest coverage colonies were not only indicated by Pinus densiflora-Quesrcus mongolica colonies among P. densiflora-centered colonies, Q. accutissima colonies among Q. accutissima-centered ones, Q. accutissima-P. densiflora colonies among Q. accutissima-centered ones, Q. mongolica colonies among Q. mongolica-centered ones, P. thumbergii colonies among P. thumbergii-centered ones, and Q. serrata-Q. acutissima colonies among Q. serrata-centered ones, but also revealed more severely mosaicked than other smaller colonies. The overall mosaicking degree estimated by landscape metrics was considered useful for monitoring and investigating vegetation. However, in order to develop management strategy based on analyzing the reason for the mosaicking process and anticipating a trend in vegetation succession, it is essential to further study about ecological characteristics of each colony in the vegetation.