APLICACIÓN DE CONCEPTOS SEMÁNTICOS PARA EL ANÁLISIS DE LA HETEROGENEIDAD ESTRUCTURAL DEL PAISAJE RURAL

Abstract

The analysis of landscape heterogeneity is a useful tool in classification and mapping processes, and delineation of landscape planning units. Habitually, definition of the level of landscape heterogeneity and its spatial distribution at a number of scales use diversity indices derived from Information Theory (Shannon, Simpson…). Despite their undeniable usefulness, such indices are focused in the analysis of spatial distribution of quantitative (or “syntactical”) information, which allows just for a limited comprehension of results. Nevertheless, possibilities exist for the integration of qualitative elements (relative to “semantic” information) in the analysis, which would permit an enhancement of the analysis’ possibilities. In this work the potential of heterogeneity analysis is defined through the use of two types of heterogeneity indices derived from Information Theory: those analyzing the syntactical information contributed by land cover categorical maps, and those allowing for the inclusion of semantic analysis criteria. Results show the advantages in the application of the latter, related to the improvement of the analysis of the qualitative aspects of landscape heterogeneity.