Classification of landscape diversity as a sourse of the qualitative and quantitative information

Abstract

Being one of ways of systematisation of scientific data, classification plays especially important role in the landscape science. Classifications help to aggregate objects, to set up their spatial and taxanomic hierarchy. The Belarusian Landscape Classification is developed at scale 1:600.000 in a form of a typological landscape map. It has seven hierarchy levels; four of them are principal and three are intermediate. Each level is based on primary (mostly qualitative) indicators. For example, the classification indicators for the level of class are large morphostructural attributes of the territory and landscape zones that represent the area; the type of landscape should belong to one of the landscape zones; the genus of landscape (rod) is recognized by the genesis and time of landscape origin; specie (vid) assembles the areas with similar topography (forms of mezorelief) and soil/vegetation cover. The quantitative information in classification may “hide” behind qualitative characteristics and often can be derived from the indirect attributes. For example, genesis of relief in the zone of glacial accumulation usually correlates well with morphological parameters of the relief, podzol content in the soil - with either pH level in the humus horizon and the depth of the horizon. On the other hand, classifications and the maps based on the classifications allow to calculate the areas of each contour, to make the analysis of landscape structure at any classification level and to assess the landscape diversity (LD). The concept of landscape diversity (LD) implies several levels of landscape diversity assessment. Variations in the approaches to the assessment are caused by complexity of landscape as an object of study, its hierarchical structure and system organization. In the view of the system approach, landscape diversity can be considered as variability of complexes of smaller ranks within a larger system. Landscape diversity is expressed by an index, which reflects objective fundamental characteristics of geographical space: the index contains the information on spatial structure; correlates with the levels of entropy and dispersion in the system and represents the metric characteristic of a landscape in general. The two levels can be distinguished in the LD structure with different specifics of landscape diversity on each level: (1) morphological, i.e. variability of elementary associations (faciya) and sites (urochische) within the landscape; (2) taxonomic, i.e. variability of landscape species (vid) within the genus (rod) and types (type) of landscapes. The assessment of landscape diversity is made on the taxonomic level using indexes of various authors.