Multiresolution fragmentation profiles for assessing hierarchically structured landscape patterns

For landscapes that are cast as categorical raster maps, we present an entr opy based method for obtaining a multiresolution characterization of spatia l pattern. The result is a conditional entropy profile which reflects the r ate of information loss as map resolution is degraded by increasing the pix el size through a resampling filter. We choose a random filter because of d esirable properties that simplify calculations. Neutral landscapes that are simulated by stochastic generating models provide a way to evaluate the be havior of conditional entropy profiles under known hierarchically scaled ge nerating mechanisms. When the random filter is used, we provide a method to directly compute the conditional entropy profile for specified generating models. Such profiles can provide benchmarks for comparing results obtained from raster maps of actual landscapes that are classified from satellite i mages. These profiles appear to capture much of the information about a lan dscape pattern that is otherwise obtained by a suite of landscape measureme nts which characterize different aspects of spatial pattern. (C) 1999 Elsev ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.