Abstract
Two stochastic model formulations, one using pixel-based transitions and the other patch-based, were compared by running simulations where the amount of information on which transitions were based was increased. Both model types adequately represented changes in the proportion of the landscape occupied by different land cover types. However, the pixel-based model underestimated contagion and overestimated the amount of edge. The patch-based model overestimated contagion and underestimated edge. Overall, the estimates more closely approximated the expected and the variances decreased as more information was added to the models. As expected, the model that most closely simulated the spatial pattern of the landscape was a 5-data-layer patch-based model that also included ownership boundaries as an additional layer. The simulation methods described provide a means to integrate socioeconomic and ecological information into a spatially-explicit transition model of landscape change and to simulate change at a scale similar to that occurring in a landscape.
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Flamm, R.O., Turner, M.G. Alternative model formulations for a stochastic simulation of landscape change. Landscape Ecol 9, 37–46 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00135077
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00135077