Configurational changes of patchy landscapes dynamics

•Patchy-based models could reveal insights to landscape functioning.•Dynamic configurational changes for patchy mosaics are now implemented.•Configurational changes are illustrated in a complex forest-savannah mosaic.

This paper introduces dynamic configurational changes for patchy mosaics, parameterizable dilation and/or erosion processes of units in a vectorial landscape. Patchy-based models are rare although this conceptual framework could yield insights to the functioning and dynamics of agricultural and natural landscapes. Compared to common raster-based models, they are more parsimonious and intuitive, but their algorithmic computations are challenging. The aim of this study is to implement polygon dilation throughout Minkowski sum on polygons, along with their associated formal grammar, in the DYPAL modeling platform. This computation is a challenging open-problem and this paper provides a first working approach along with the methodology for a generic implementation framework. As an example, this paper illustrates configurational changes on a complex forest-savannah dynamics in a tropical biodiversity hotspot, New Caledonia. Finally, perspectives for configurational changes in landscape modeling are discussed.