Landscape metrics are used in landscape ecology to quantify landscape characteristics related to structure, function and change by quantifying the structure and distributional pattern of landscape elements such as plants, animals and other physical landscape features. To date, there has been little published research on landscape metrics that include social perceptions of landscape. In this pap...

Today, environmental crisis and loss of natural resources are the principle causes of the creation of environmental management systems. The optimal management of natural resources requires the assessment and classification of ecological and environmental potentials. Using this method, the abilities and restrictions of resources can be recognized, and their future trends can be predicted. Nebka ...

Intellectual Capital (IC) has been proposed by Edvinsson and Malone (1997) as a technique for quantifying a company's intangible assets. A careful analysis can result in hundreds of variables, and extracting knowledge from these measurements can be difficult. We introduce a knowledge management technique called IC mapping that attempts to synthesize this data into a fitness landscape. Using the...

Objective: Provide an overview of range of variability (ROV) concepts and their application in landscape planning and management. Highlight the use of historic range of variability (HRV) in establishing context for the current landscape condition and its potential role in guiding specification of desired future landscape condition. Topics covered: 1. Origins of range of variability (ROV) concep...

assessment of rangeland ecological characteristics have been proposed as an important factor in reviewing and monitoring the effects of various management measures and it demands different tools for quantifying and offering a reasonable criterion for comparison of different managements. for this purpose, the landscape function analysis (lfa) method is capable of displaying the structural and fu...

The aim of the MOSAIK-project is to test alternative management systems regarding their efficiency in maintaining the characteristic species composition of dry grasslands. We present an integrated landscape model approach to test an alternative management system for applicability in preserving dry grasslands. By rototilling, i.e. cyclic, massive disturbance in the vegetation cover, we establish...

1. The distribution and composition of in-stream habitats are reflections of landscape scale geomorphic and climatic controls. Correspondingly, Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are largely adapted to and constrained by the quality and complexity of those in-stream habitat conditions. The degree to which lands have been fragmented and managed can disrupt these patterns and affect overall habit...

soil and land information is vital for land use planning and infrastructure development. maps of soils landscapes are powerful tools to guide sustainable planning and natural resource management. fuzzy set theory has been widely used in soil science for soil classification and mapping, land evaluation, fuzzy soil geostatistics, soil quality indices. in fuzzy logic-based approaches, soil spatial...

Species associated with early successional habitats have experienced dramatic declines in the eastern United States as a result of land use changes and human disruption of natural disturbance regimes. Consequently, active management is required to create early successional habitat and promote plant and animal communities that depend on periodic forest disturbance. Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus...