Figure

Illustration of the behaviour of five landscape metrics in the phases of shrinkage and attrition of the remaining parcels of open landscape due to the growth of an urban area

Figure Created 23 Sep 2011 Published 23 Sep 2011 Last modified 29 Nov 2012

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First row: change of the landscape over time (black lines = highways, black area = residential or commercial area; size of the landscape: 4 km × 4 km = 16 km2). Only the effective mesh size behaves in a suitable way (bottom diagram). APS and n both exhibit a jump in their values (even though the process in the landscape is continuous); DTL and nUDA100 do not respond to the increase in fragmentation. (meff = effective mesh size, n = number of patches, APS = average patch size, nUDA100 = number of large undissected low-traffic areas > 100 km2, DTL = density of transportation lines).