Analysis of the effect of landscape component classification on landscape diversity index

Abstract

Abstract The landscape diversity index (LDI) is an important level in biodiversity conservation, and its scale dependence has an important role in regional landscape planning and biological conservation. The aim of this study is to analyze in depth the effects of spatial scale changes in the classification of different landscape components on LDI and to explore the thresholds of LDI. The classification of landscape components was accomplished in the ArcMap environment using fusion and merging tools, and the LDI thresholds and scale changes were quantitatively assessed by LDI values. The results show that there are differences in LDI values for different classifications, and the threshold for LDI without considering scale changes can be interpreted as: 0.4215 ≤ LDI ≤ 1.9754. The grain sizes suitable for landscape diversity analysis are 160m and 1280 m, and the effective amplitude range of the I, II and III land type is 9~31 km, while the effective amplitude of three land use types is 20∼31 km, relatively lagging behind. However, when considering amplitude changes, the LDI threshold can be interpreted as 0.3027 ≤ LDI ≤ 2.0947, which is suitable for large-scale regional landscape diversity studies when the grain size is large. In conclusion, the essence of landscape diversity change with scale is caused by changes in the number and area of landscape components, and the threshold analysis should not only take into account the grain size and amplitude, but also consider the landscape background of the study area.