Technology to analyze spatiotemporal landscape dynamics: Application to Cadiz Township (Wisconsin)

摘要

As landscape ecology has matured, it has gone beyond description of land-use changes, to examining the functional relationships between spatial patterns of landscapes and ecological processes. Attempts to describe these relationships at larger scales or in complex landscapes have been hampered by the lack of spatially explicit distributed parameter models linked dynamically to geographical information systems (GIS). This paper describes developments we have made to link such models to GIS and to develop visualization methods (a graphical interface) that permits the user to readily manipulate large element files containing model parameters. We then present preliminary results illustrating the effects of pattern (in an agricultural landscape) on water and material flow across a heterogeneous landscape composed of multiple watersheds. These dynamics are driven in large measure by the location, size, and number of forest patches. By use of soil, hydrologic, and vegetation data from a real landscape, the effects of spatial relocation of vegetation on water and sediment dynamics are explored through the model-GIS combination. The spatiotemporal modeling approach described here could be useful in effectively managing ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation at the landscape scale.