I this paper, 1) a delineation of main theoretical, methodological and applicative issues of landscape ecology, 2) a comparison between landscape and ecosystem ecology, 3) a critical overview of actual limits of landscape ecology, are depicted. We conclude that: a) from a theoretical viewpoint, ecosystem and landscape ecology differ since they deal with ecological topics having very different s...

this paper presents a new approach for assessing agricultural landscapes based on mixturemethods and the study and definition of aesthetic attributes as lines, forms, texture, spatial composition, scaleand color as they are the closest to human perceptual aesthetic attributes. a set of variables capable ofquantifying those attributes in a simple, objective and systematized way will be proposed....

Soil landscape mapping is a regional planning tool that identifies soil and landscape constraints to development from natural resource management and engineering view points. Currently, this dataset is the only one available for identifying land capability in its broadest sense. More detailed soil landscape information at the hillslope facet level is necessary to identify specific urban and rur...

tall buildings despite their different features and impacts are just defined by their height. the main problem of defining tall buildings in cities in terms of urban landscape is that this definition does not have an appropriate relativity, and only includes the investigation of tall buildings based on their height. applying the criteria for locating, architecture and height of tall buildings i...

We present the application of a new knowledge visualization tool, VxInsight, to the mapping and analysis of patent databases. Patent data are mined and placed in a database, relationships between the patents are identified, primarily using the citation and classification structures, then the patents are clustered using a proprietary force-directed placement algorithm. Related patents cluster to...

In this paper, we examine the usefulness of recombination from two points of view. First, the problem of crossover disruption is investigated. This is done by comparing two Genetic Algorithms with diierent crossover operators (one-point and uniform) to each other on NK-landscapes with diierent values of K relative to N, and with different epistatic interactions (random and nearest neighbor). Se...

In classical evolutionary theory, genetic variation provides the source of heritable phenotypic variation on which natural selection acts. Against this classical view, several theories have emphasized that developmental variability and learning enhance nonheritable phenotypic variation, which in turn can accelerate evolutionary response. In this paper, I show how developmental variability alter...

BACKGROUND Landscape attributes influence spatial variations in disease risk or incidence. We present a review of the key findings from eight case studies that we conducted in Europe and West Africa on the impact of land changes on emerging or re-emerging vector-borne diseases and/or zoonoses. The case studies concern West Nile virus transmission in Senegal, tick-borne encephalitis incidence in...

Landscapes’ theory provides a formal framework in which combinatorial optimization problems can be theoretically characterized as a sum of a especial kind of landscape called elementary landscape. The elementary landscape decomposition of a combinatorial optimization problem is a useful tool for understanding the problem. Such decomposition provides an additional knowledge on the problem that c...

Understanding the processes underlying spatial patterns of genetic diversity and structure of natural populations is a central topic in evolutionary biogeography. In this study, we combine data on ancient and contemporary landscape composition to get a comprehensive view of the factors shaping genetic variation across the populations of the scrub-legume grasshopper (Chorthippus binotatus binota...