Landscape Metrics and its Applications


Landscape metrics are indices designed to characterise geometric and spatial properties of map patterns.
Landscape composition refers to variety and abundance of a particular patch type within a given landscape,  without considering the spatial characteristics of how it is placed or the location of the patches in the landscape mosaic.
Landscape configuration refers to spatial character and arrangement, position, or orientation of patches within a class or landscape. 
Landscape metrics are applied to understand change in the landscape with respect to the ecological aspects and how the landscape visually changes.




Urban Sprawl Characterisation using Landscape Metrics


There are different types of metrics which can be used to characterise the underlying spatial processes. We can determine these spatial processes by assessing the complexity or aggregation in an urban area, the centrality, the compactness and dispersion, and the parameters of porosity.
The above measures can be used to asses how the growth is evolving over time.
There are four patterns of Urban growth: Aggregated, Linear, Leapfrogging and Nodal.



Multi – Criteria Decision Analysis


MCDA is used to resolve decision making problems, especially when there is a very complex problem that has different variables in it.
The endogenous variables are described as a type of decision making problem.
The weighting of variables depends on a few factors, such as; variable variance in degree of the criteria and independency of criteria.
The structure of MCDA involves:




 




Framework of the expected properties
Calculation of the overall index of suitability
Identification of the method which is best suited to resolving the decision making problem.