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An Ecological Assessment of the Louisiana Tensas River Basin Chapter 7 
Figure 1.2 illustrates how a single community is linked to 
the landscape at several different scales and across 
different mapping units (watersheds and parishes in this 
example). Tallulah is highlighted in the middle of the 
figure. At this scale we concentrate on individual land 
parcels and roads, and our decisions are based on a 
local perspective. Broader-scale perspectives emerge as 
we follow the lines up either side of the figure. We see 
that the community is part of both a subwatershed (left) 
and a parish (right), which, in turn, are components of 
groups of watersheds and parishes. These larger groups 
are components of the entire region. This is an important 
concept because local environmental issues can have 
regional impacts. 
What are Landscape Indicators and How 
Do They Help to Understand Environmental Con¬ 
ditions? 
An indicator is a number that is calculated by summariz¬ 
ing data. The indicator calculations may also consider 
related data or use a model to improve reliability. Well 
known economic indicators include the seasonally- 
adjusted unemployment percentage and number of 
housing starts, both of which indicate overall economic 
condition. In these indicators, seasonal adjustment is 
made with a model, and most economists look at sev¬ 
eral indicators together instead of just one at a time. 
Similarly, landscape indicators can be measurements of 
ecosystem components (such as the amount of forest) 
or processes (such as net primary productivity), and 
models can be used to help interpret the measurements 
in order to understand overall ecological conditions. 
Figure 1.2 
This figure may help to understand how 
a city (bottom center) fits into a larger 
context of either watersheds (left 
branch) or parishes (right branch). 
