Mapping the abstractions of forest landscape patterns

The evaluation of landscape patterns is necessary to explain the relationships between ecological processes and spatial patterns. For decades, landscape metrics have been used for measuring and abstracting landscape patterns. Since the emergence of FRAGTATS in 1993 the measures and methods incorporated in this software are very widely used and they have become a de facto standard tool for calculating landscape metrics. There are no special metrics for forest landscapes. The selection of metrics rather depends on the purpose of the study than on the land use type. However, there are some metrics that are more used for forest habitats. Forest landscape patterns are changing fast due to natural and human disturbances. Remote sensing offers rapid method of acquiring up-to-date information over a large geographical area and is therefore widely used as a source of data needed for pattern assessment.  However, in order to obtain meaningful results from landscape metrics calculation, the correct preparation of the data is essential. In this chapter we will give an overview of the various metrics used to measure forest landscapes for different purposes. The chapter will deal with five main issues from the perspective of forest landscape patterns: (1) data preparation for metrics calculation (vector vs raster, scale, classification etc); (2) landscape configuration and composition measured by metrics; (3) interpretation of the results; (4) possible usages of the outcomes; (5) future perspectives (3D landscape metrics).