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M.L Porto et al. 2010. Naturalness and diversity of biotopes: their impact on landscape quality 525 i
Naturalness and diversity of biotopes: their impact on landscape
quality-a mathematical model
Maria Luiza Porto 1* , Horst H. Wendel 2 , Jairo J. Zocche 3 , Gilberto G. Rodrigues 4 ,
Marisa Azzolini 1 and Rogério Both 1 .
1 Laboratory of Landscape Ecology, Department of Ecology, University Federal do Rio
Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, PO Box: 15007, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
2 Universität Ulm, D-89069 Ulm, Germany
3 Laboratory for Landscape Ecology, Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of
Extremo Sul Catarinense-UNESC, Av. Universitária, 1105, PO Box: 3167, Cricíuma,
SC, Brazil
4 Departament of Zoology, Center of Biological Sciences, University Federal de
Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Morais Rego, 1235, Cidade Universitária. PO 50670-420,
Recife, PE Brazil
Abstract
A novel mathematical tool serves to quickly grading landscapes from the point of view of
environ-mental value. Model is founded on five building blocks: (i) A landscape is considered
to be mosaic of biotic patches; (ii) each patch displays the characteristics of a single
representative biotope out of a finite set of generic biotopes; (iii) generic biotope´s
environmental value depends on its degree of na-turalness (flora, fauna) and diversity which are
determined in field surveys; (iv) a landscape´s environ-mental value is a simple function of the
environmental values of its constituent biotopes; (v) the influence of shape and corrugated
surface of a patch on the environmental value of the associated landscape is reflected by an
amplification factor. By accounting for the biotic properties (naturalness / biodiversity) and for
the structure of the landscape the model lends itself to comparative and trade off analyses in
land use management and urban development projects.
Keywords: modelling, indices, naturalness of biotopes, diversity of biotopes, landscape
valuation
1. Introduction
According to Farina & Belgrano (2004), landscape is the cognitive dimension of ecological
complexity: Patterns and processes are distributed in a cognitive geographic space, the “ecofield”.
The new paradigm allows to describe the biotic and abiotic characteristics of the
physicoecological space. To understand its foundations the notion of biotope is most helpful.
Commonly conservational recommendations are based on a landscape´s naturalness and
biodiversity. In view of what was said above this approach must be rolled out to its constituent
biotopes.
Efforts in describing landscape´s naturalness and biodiversity were carefully reviewed in a
recent paper of ours (Porto et al., 2010). Especially we pointed out that up to now theore-tical
*Corresponding author: E-mail:mlporto@ecologia.ufrgs.br
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.