Extending GIS-Functionality for the Analysis of 3D Data in Landscape Ecology – A Comparison of Different Approaches

Abstract

Powerful tools for the analysis of spatial data and the characterisation of landscape patterns are required for a sound understanding of ecological processes. This particularly holds true for 3D-data, as topography and surface of vegetation and human artefacts plays an important role in the geomorphological, hydrological, and biological processes present in the landscape. This paper discusses the necessity to integrate mathematical methods and algorithms into geographic information systems (GIS), especially ArcGIS from ESRI®, in order to develop 3D-indices in landscape ecology. Moreover, different ways to extend the analytical capacity of standard GIS are described and compared. A demonstration of programming in .Net will be given. Finally, the third section reports about some examples for applications which have been conducted in a study financed by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG).