FRAGSTATS: A Spatial Pattern Analysis Program

[Tom Moore]

Anyone interested in measures of landscape structure?
Kevin McGarigal and Barbara Marks of Oregon State University
have developed a program named FRAGSTATS that reads in a variety
of raster data formats, and computes a comprehensive set of measures 
from the field of landscape ecology.  Although GRASS format is not
supported explicitly, it is easy to convert GRASS datasets into the
ASCII file format.  I have a bit of experience with this program, and
can vouch that it seems to work very well, there is a rich set of
statistics, and the documentation is superb.  Attached is a 
notice from authors about FRAGSTATS and how to obtain it.

Tom

---------  Included Notice -----------



                            FRAGSTATS
               A Spatial Pattern Analysis Program 


    McGarigal and Marks have developed a spatial pattern analysis 
program, FRAGSTATS, for quantifying landscape structure.  Two
separate versions of FRAGSTATS exist; a raster and a vector version.
The raster version is a C program that accepts landscapes in the 
following formats:  ASCII, 8 or 16 bit binary, Arc/Info SVF files,
ERDAS image files, and IDRISI image files.  The vector version is
an Arc/Info AML that accepts polygon coverages.  The AML also calls 
several C programs.  Both versions of FRAGSTATS generate the same 
array of metrics, including a variety of area metrics, diversity 
metrics, and contagion and interspersion metrics.  The raster 
version also computes a variety of nearest-neighbor metrics.

    All C programs were developed on a Sun Workstation under Unix
and compiled with the GNU C compiler.  The Arc/Info AML was developed
with Arc/Info version 6.1; it will not run with earlier versions of
Arc/Info.  A PC version of the raster FRAGSTATS program is also
available.  A 386 or better machine and a math coprocessor are 
required.

    The software is available from the following FTP site:

                ftp.fsl.orst.edu

                login:  anonymous
                password:  your email address
                cd pub/fragstats.1.0

                
Please read the letter (readme.ps) and the documentation in the man 
directory.  These are postscript files.  See the fragstats.doc ASCII 
file in the raster and vector directories for installation and running 
instructions.  Hard copy documentation and a floppy are available for 
$25 for those unable to obtain the programs electronically.  Make 
checks payable to Kevin Mcgarigal and mail to the address listed below.


Kevin McGarigal                            Barbara Marks
P.O. Box 606                               Dept of Forest Science
Dolores, Colorado 81323-9998               Oregon State University
(303) 882-2114                             Forest Science Lab 020
                                           Corvallis, OR 97331-7501
                                           (503) 750-7287
                                           marks at fsl.orst.edu