WORKSHOPS
FRAGSTATS
- 1 day workshop
Date: Friday 18th July 2003
Location: GIS/RS lab, Building 18,
Northern Territory University, Darwin
Cost: $170 AUD (includes morning and afternoon tea, lunch
and transport from Darwin CBD to NTU)
Contact: Dr Kevin McGarigal,
Department of Natural Resources Conservation,
University of Massachusetts,
304 Holdsworth Natural Resources Center,
Box 34210, Amherst, MA 01003
Email: mcgarigalk@forwild.umass.edu
Workshop details:
Purpose
and Objectives
This
workshop is designed to provide an introduction to landscape structure
analysis using FRAGSTATS, a computer software program designed
to compute a wide variety of landscape metrics for categorical
map patterns, and to explore some issues regarding the use of
landscape metrics to describe landscape structure. FRAGSTATS is
distributed for free over the internet and is the most widely
used landscape structure analysis software available. The specific
objectives of this workshop are to:
1. Introduce
participants to landscape structure analysis.
2. Provide participants with hands-on experience with FRAGSTATS.
3. Provide participants with insights into the behavior
of landscape metrics.
4. Provide participants with insights into future directions
in landscape structure analysis.
At the end of this
course, participants will be able to:
1. Select
appropriate landscape metrics for particular questions of interest.
2. Conduct a landscape structure analysis using FRAGSTATS
and appropriately interpret the results.
3. Apply the results of landscape structure analyses to conservation
situations including monitoring land use changes over time, developing
habitat suitability models.
Relevance
Landscape ecology
deals fundamentally with the interplay between process and pattern;
specifically, how, when and why patterns of environmental factors
influence the distribution of organisms or the actions of ecological
processes, and reciprocally, how the actions of organisms and
ecological processes feedback to influence ecological patterns.
Much emphasis has been placed on developing methods to quantify
landscape patterns, which is considered a prerequisite to the
study of pattern-process relationships. This has resulted in the
development of literally hundreds of indices of landscape patterns.
Although there are many different types of spatial patterns, landscape
ecologists have focused much of their attention on categorical
map patterns, in which a landscape is represented as a collection
of discrete patches. FRAGSTATS has emerged as the leading software
package for the analysis of categorical map patterns. In this
workshop, participants will learn how to use FRAGSTATS to analyze
landscape structure.
Landscape structure
analysis is critical for natural resource management and endangered
species conservation because many threats to native biodiversity
involve habitat loss and degradation. Understanding the nature
of landscape-level changes in amounts and configurations of different
land cover classes and linking those changes to ecological processes
can help to identify where management intervention will be most
useful. Additionally, such analyses can help to identify landscape-level
patterns necessary for persistence of threatened and endangered
species and thus are quite useful in recovery planning.
Who
Should Attend
This workshop is
designed for academic, agency, and industry professionals interested
in landscape structure analysis for a broad range of applications.
It is not required that participants have prior expertise in landscape
ecology and landscape structure analysis, although familiarity
with the principles of landscape ecology and general knowledge
of GIS will be helpful. Participants are not expected to have
prior experience with FRAGSTATS, and individuals with even a moderate
level of experience with FRAGSTATS will still find this workshop
helpful. However, this workshop is not designed for individuals
having extensive experience with FRAGSTATS, although even "experts"
will gain new insights.
Provisional
Workshop Agenda
8:00-8:15 Introduction
and Course Overview (Kevin McGarigal)
Introduction of
instructors and course participants, and overview of course organization
and expectations.
8:15-9:00 Background
Concepts (Kevin McGarigal)
Overview of important
conceptual issues related to landscape structure analysis, and
definition of some terms essential to the proper use and understanding
of FRAGSTATS, including:
Landscape Definition
- Classes of landscape
pattern
- The patch mosaic
model
- Scale-grain, extent,
and measurement resolution
- Landscape perspectives-island
vs mosaic
Landscape Metrics
- Levels of metrics
- Components of
landscape structure - classes of metrics
- Structural versus
functional metrics
Use and Interpretation
of Metrics
- Metric redundancy
- Metric reference
framework
9:00-11:00 FRAGSTATS
Analysis of Landscape Structure
(Kevin McGarigal)
The analysis of landscape
structure using FRAGSTATS, including instruction on the use of
the FRAGSTATS software:
- Basic parameterization
- Backgrounds and
borders
- Batch analysis
- Moving window
analysis
11:00-11:30 Landscape
Metric Behavior in Neutral Landscapes (Maile Neel)
Quantitative behavior
of selected landscape metrics across gradients of area and contagion
based on neutral landscapes, including:
- Independent metric
behavior
- Coordinated metric
behavior-landscape structure gradients
11:30-12:00 Landscape
Structure Gradients (Sam Cushman)
Components of landscape
structure in real landscapes, including:
- Methodology for
identifying independent landscape structure gradients
- In search of a
parsimonious description of landscape structure
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-4:00 Case
Study Exercises (Kevin McGarigal, Sam Cushman, Maile Neel)
- Quantifying habitat
fragmentation under alternative land management scenarios
- Quantifying extent
and distribution of suitable habitat for a species of concern
4:00-4:30 Summary
and Future Directions (Kevin McGarigal)
- In search of parsimony-the
choice of landscape metrics
- Reference framework
for interpreting landscape structure
- The gradient
concept of landscape structure
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