Landscape Characterization in a Watershed of Western Himalayan Ecoregion

Abstract

The study was carried out in Kalsa watershed of Western Himalayan Ecoregion to quantify the landscape structure with special reference to different forest ecosystems. Vegetation and land use map generated using satellite remote sensing data was taken as an input for quantification of landscape structure, which was quantified based on different patch attributes (number, area, shape complexity) and landscape indices viz., Euclidean nearest neighbor distance and contagion. Temperate broadleaf forest exhibited high values for mean patch area, largest patch area, contagion and low values for number of patches, shape complexity and Euclidian nearest neighborhood in contrast to the degraded forest.

Keywords: Landscape indices, vegetation map, patch analysis, contagion, ENN