Evaluation of Landscape Structure for Development and Integration of the Protected Areas

Integrity and connectivity of habitats are among the important factors for the conservation of plant and animal populations within protected areas, particularly when the habitats are connected to each other. Investigating on the integrity of these areas could help interconnecting islanded patches and preventing the negative impacts of fragmentations. This study aimed to quantify the fragmentations of different regions within the protected area of Jajroud. Land-use map was extracted using remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. The acquired data were employed to study the fragmentation of the regions considering the landscape metrics. The results indicate that the northern parts of the region including the national parks of Khojir and Sorkheh Hesar, in general, possess larger patches and higher level of connectivity, while the southern part is tending towards small-grain structure. In addition, it supports the applicability of landscape metrics in assessing the management of the protected areas and identifying the protection patches in order to prioritize the protection of landscape patches.