LineR: a neutral model of landscapes

We proposed a hierarchical model based on successive imbrication of deformed networks, with the deformation being realized on the basis of a reverse Douglas–Peucker algorithm. We first isolated the hierarchical levels of the landscape and analyzed their relative deformations. Then we constructed the hierarchical model and we tested it on a real territory in the Mediterranean zone. Its structural realism was tested against other common neutral models using the pattern-oriented modelling approach. The hierarchical model was the only neutral model able to represent simultaneously the variabilities of three patterns having implications in ecological processes: polyline lengths, sinuosities and polygon areas.