Landscape Dynamic Typology – A method to assess landscape dynamics

Abstract

Landscapes are shaped by a dynamic balance of anthropogenic activity and ecological processes. Landscapes are shaped by a dynamic balance of anthropogenic activity and ecological processes. Substantial or fast changes may disrupt the natural balance of ecosystems, jeopardizing their capacity to provide essential services. Landscape changes are often measured via land use / land cover variations, and encompass phenomena such as habitat loss and fragmentation, that have been pointed out as a major cause of biodiversity loss. This work represents an effort to prevent misuse and misinterpretation of the underlying concepts while at the same time offers a conceptual framework, compatible with existing ones, as well as a concrete analytic method and associated tools to implement it. Landscape Dynamics Typology (LDT) can be generally described as a classification system in which landscape changes are organized and labelled according to the spatial land transformation processes that originate them. More concretely, LDT is a method for assessing landscape composition and configuration changes, allowing to identify and geolocate the processes of amount (loss/gain) and geometric (fragmentation/aggregation) variation. Types of dynamics (ToD) are defined by considering how changes are depicted by specific metrics (area and number of patches), follow a nomenclature that integrates landscape composition and configuration aspects, and is versatile enough to relate to and wide enough to accommodate existing paradigms of spatial patterns of land transformation. The operational elements of the LDT ecosystem are the tools intentionally designed and developed to implement the LDT method and associated functions: LDTtool - a python-based add-on ArcGIS toolbox; LDT4QGIS – a set of python scripts for QGIS; and LDTR – an R package. LDT-based approaches can add analytical value in a wide range of topics related to natural resources management, regional planning, urban expansion, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services assessment, or other topics in which land cover patterns and dynamics are relevant. LDT has been used to study urban dynamics in Romania, Indonesia and Ethiopia, afforestation in Spain, invasive alien plants in Portugal, grasslands in Slovenia, and fragmentation/connectivity in South American dry forests, which shows acceptance by the community and attests its utility and usability. LDT is a work in progress that can benefit from further engagement of users and developers by modifying it to fulfil their research needs, to enhance the tools’ performance or simply to add new functionalities in order to expand the analytical capabilities.