A software tool dedicated to the modelling of landscape networks

Since landscape connectivity reflects a basic form of interaction between species and their environment, the modelling of landscape networks is currently an important issue for researchers in ecology and practitioners of landscape management alike. Graph-based modelling has recently been shown to be a powerful way of representing and analysing landscape networks. Graphab 1.0 is designed as a package integrating a complete set of connectivity analysis functions. The application can build graphs from a given landscape map by exploring several possibilities for link topology, types of distances and graph definitions. A wide range of connectivity metrics can be computed from these graphs at the global, component or local levels. By extrapolating patch-based metrics outside of the graph using a distance-dependent function, the relationship between the graph and any set of point data can be established in order to compare the connectivity properties of the landscape network and field observations of a given species. In conclusion, Graphab 1.0 provides a full set of coherent modelling functions for analysing and exploring landscape graphs with a single application.