Suitability of different landscape metrics for the assessments of patchy landscapes in West Africa

•Test the suitability of multivariate approaches to eliminate metric redundancy.•Core set of landscape metrics relevant to West African landscapes are proposed.•Metrics are key to structural ecosystem service assessment and spatial planning. The study aimed at identifying a core set of landscape metrics for assessing potential ecosystem services provision and for application in spatial planning in the highly anthropogenically dominated landscapes of the Sudanian Savannah region. Twenty-two metrics for ES services assessment and spatial planning selected from literature were calculated. We employed Spearman’s rank correlation and multivariate principal component analysis factor analysis to identify redundancies between the assessed metrics and select the most promising ones. In our conclusion, we suggest the use of effective mesh size (MESH), mean patch size (AREA_MN), landscape patch index (LPI), COHESION, and aggregation index (AI). While MESH, AREA_MN, and LPI could be appropriate for assessing ecosystem services in our African landscapes, COHESION and AI could represent the most plausible utility metrics for application in spatial planning because they were less redundant. However, application of these metrics in these areas of study is possible if initial preconditions such as spatio-temporal data quality, scale of application, and objectives for their adoption are satisfied.

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