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An Ecological Assessment of the Louisiana Tensas River Basin Chapter 1 
m 
Landscape Ecology and the Analysis of 
Broad-Scale Environmental Condition 
To most people, the term “landscape” suggests either a 
scenic vista or a backyard improvement project. To 
ecologists and other environmental scientists, a land¬ 
scape is a conceptual unit for the study of spatial 
patterns in the physical environment and the influence of 
these patterns on important environmental resources. 
Landscape ecology is different from traditional ecology in 
several ways. First, it takes into account the spatial 
arrangements of the components or elements that make 
up the environment. Second, it recognizes that the 
relationships between ecological patterns and processes 
change with the scale of observation. Finally, landscape 
ecology includes both humans and their activities as an 
integral part of the environment. 
There are many applications for landscape ecology and 
broad-scale information in regional assessments. For 
example, we can identify the areas that are most heavily 
impacted today by combining information on population 
density, roads, land cover, and air quality. In the Tensas 
River Basin, we already have good information (from the 
U.S. Census Bureau) about which areas are most urban¬ 
ized. But which areas have only a small proportion of 
stream length bordered by adjacent forest cover? Which 
areas are characterized by a 
high degree of forest fragmen¬ 
tation? What percentage of 
forest loss occurred on wet 
soils? What about informa¬ 
tion for watersheds instead of 
areas? Broad-scale mea¬ 
surements can be taken in 
order to make relative com¬ 
parisons of these indicators 
over the entire region. 
Another use of this approach 
is to identify the most vulner¬ 
able areas within the water¬ 
shed. Vulnerable areas are 
not yet heavily impacted, but 
because of their circum¬ 
stances they are in danger of 
becoming so. 
One example might be an area that has a relatively high 
percent of forest cover, but that is also experiencing rapid 
gains in human use of the land. Such an area might be 
more vulnerable to forest fragmentation than a similar 
area with less human use or less forest area. 
A third application of this approach is to place localities 
into a watershed and/or regional context. Some indi¬ 
vidual towns and rural areas in the Tensas River Basin 
may seem isolated, perhaps within a large forested area. 
However, all are connected by physical features and by 
ecological processes. Water flows from one place to 
another, roads provide a connecting infrastructure, and 
land cover patterns of forest and agriculture form a 
connected backdrop for all of our activities. While land 
management decisions are made and implemented at a 
local scale, a watershed perspective can guide our 
decisions and make us better stewards of our environ¬ 
ment. By placing our homes, farms, neighborhoods, and 
government organizations into a watershed landscape 
picture, we can begin to make informed decisions that 
consider not only our goals and actions, but our 
neighbor’s as well. 
