Landscape Spatial and Structural Analysis in Forest Areas: A Case Study of Nif Mountain, Izmir

Forest landscape has been changing rapidly due to natural and anthropogenic activities for decades. These changes emerge as habitat loss and/or fragmentation in forest landscapes and have been monitored through spatial landscape pattern analysis. This study aims to assess and monitor forest landscape change pattern by using Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA), which is a quantitative indicator for sustainable forest management. ENVI 5.1, QGIS GuidosToolbox 2.5 and RapidEye satellite imagery were used to conduct Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) at the forest landscapes of Nif Mountain. This study focuses on mapping forest landscape changes between 2010 and 2015 and apply MSPA analysis in forest landscape by quantifying on classes of spatial patterns as; core, bridge, edge, perforation, branch, loop and islet. The results of this study show the -biological hotspot- core areas were fragmented and as a result, deforested due to natural and anthropogenic factors. While the total amount of core area was 10.211 ha (% 52) in 2010, it decreased to 5.035 ha (% 44) in 2015.