A new view on EU agricultural landscapes: Quantifying patchiness to assess farmland heterogeneity

摘要: Abstract Mapping and assessment of ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes as required by the EU biodiversity policy need a better characterization given landscape typology according to its ecological cultural values. Such should be accommodated discrimination characteristics linked capacity providing socio-cultural benefits. Often, these key variables depend on degree farmland heterogeneity patterns. We employed segmentation metrics (edge density image texture respectively), derived from pan-European multi-temporal multi-spectral remote sensing dataset, generate consistent European indicator heterogeneity, Farmland Heterogeneity Indicator (FHI). mapped five degrees FHI wall-to-wall basis (250 m spatial resolution) over including natural grasslands. Image led clear improvement compared pure application Edge Density, particular detection small patches. In addition deriving qualitative we attributed an approximate patch size each class, allowing indicative field sizes. Based CORINE land cover, identified pastures heterogeneous cover classes with highest FHI, while agroforestry olive groves appeared less average. performed verification based continental regional scale, which resulted general good agreement independently data.