Effects of land-use categorization on landscape metrics: A case study in urban landscape of Shenzhen, China

Using remotely sensed data, landscape pattern analysis based on landscape metrics has been one of the major topics of landscape ecology, and more attention has been focused on the effects of spatial scale and the accuracy of remotely sensed data on landscape metrics. However, few studies have been conducted to assess the change of landscape metrics under the influence of land-use categorization. In this paper, we took the Bao'an district of Shenzhen city as the study area, to analyse how land- use categorization would influence changes in 24 landscape metrics. The results showed a significant influence, and based on the characteristics of the response curves of landscape metrics associated with the change in land- use categorization in regression analysis, and the predictability of these relations, the 24 landscape metrics fell into three groups. (1) Type I included 12 landscape metrics, and showed a strong predictability with changing of land-use categorization with simple function relations in regression analysis. (2) Type II included seven indices, and exhibited complicated behaviours against changing of land- use categorization. The response curves of these metrics, which were not easy to predict, consisted of two subsections and could not be described by a single function. (3) Type III included five indices, and showed unpredictable behaviours against the change of the land- use categorization. Their response curves could not be described by a certain function. This study highlights the need for the analysis of effects of land- use categorization on landscape metrics so as to clearly quantify landscape patterns, and provides insights into the selection of landscape metrics for comparative research on a given area under different land- use categorizations.