Towards a Core Set of Landscape Metrics of Urban Land Use in Wuhan, China

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the urban landscape patterns in Wuhan, China based on the land use data in the vector format. Using the approach of landscape metric analysis, we calculate forty-four vector-based landscape metrics and then reduce redundant ones through a combination of Spearman correlation analysis and factor analysis, in order to extract a core set of characterizing landscape metrics. We find that the urban landscape can be depicted by six factors including the overall shape and diversity, mean proximity, overall area variation, fragmentation variation, elongation variation, and mean shape complexity. After analyzing typical patterns indicated by the core metrics and the spatial distribution of land use patterns, we compare our findings with other studies and discuss how the core metrics coincide and differ.

Keywords

• landscape metric
• urban land use
• correlation analysis
• factor analysis
• vector data