Uncovering Dominant Land-Cover Patterns of Quebec: Representative Landscapes, Spatial Clusters, and Fences

Kevin Partington,Jeffrey Cardille

doi:10.3390/land2040756

Abstract

Mapping large areas for planning and conservation is a challenge undergoing rapid transformation. For centuries, the creation of broad-extent maps was the near-exclusive domain of expert specialist cartographers, who painstakingly delineated regions of relative homogeneity with respect to a given set of criteria. In the satellite era, it has become possible to rapidly create and update categorizations of Earth’s surface with improved speed and flexibility. Land cover datasets and landscape metrics offer a vast set of information for viewing and quantifying land cover across large areas. Comprehending the patterns revealed by hundreds of possibly relevant landscape metric values, however, remains a daunting task. We studied the information content of a large set of landscape pattern metrics across Quebec, Canada, asking whether they were capable of making consistent, spatially cohesive distinctions among patterns in landscapes. We evaluated the possibility of metrics to identify representative landscapes for efficient sampling or conservation, and determined areas where differences in nearby landscape patterns were the most and least pronounced. This approach can serve as a template for a landscape perspective on the challenges that will be faced in the near future by planners and conservationists working across large areas.

Highlights

IntroductionScientists typically use a variety of mapping approaches that classify broad regions according to a range of criteria: these include terrestrial eco-region maps [1], environmental domain classifications [2,3], and continental-scale biogeographical regionalizations [4,5]
It is a longstanding challenge to appropriately map large areas for conservation and planning.Scientists typically use a variety of mapping approaches that classify broad regions according to a range of criteria: these include terrestrial eco-region maps [1], environmental domain classifications [2,3], and continental-scale biogeographical regionalizations [4,5]
Northern patterns were characterized by extreme values on the first principal component, while landscapes located in the south-central part of Quebec represented different combinations of the three principal components

Summary

Introduction

Scientists typically use a variety of mapping approaches that classify broad regions according to a range of criteria: these include terrestrial eco-region maps [1], environmental domain classifications [2,3], and continental-scale biogeographical regionalizations [4,5]. As systematic planning efforts to cope with climate change begin at local [7], regional [8,9], and continental [10] scales, we can expect a pressing need to understand regions via strategies that can consider multiple criteria, produce flexible outputs, and ingest large amounts of new information. As planners contemplate specific ways to manage resources in a context of climate change [11], it is important to recognize that typical broad-scale classification maps are limited in several ways that can have important implications in their use for large-scale planning. In Quebec, Canada, for example, landscape patterns at any moment are a function of many abiotic, biotic, and human factors operating simultaneously at multiple temporal and spatial scales [14,15,16,17,18]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion