Digital representation of spatial variation of multivariate landscape data

We propose a method that has general relevance to the digital representation of spatial variation of multivariate landscape data. It is based on the average similarity that operational geographic units (OGU) have with the adjacent ones according to characters relevant understanding landscape patterns and dynamics. The method is flexible and easily executable within the technological framework of geographic information systems (GIS) that today is available even free of charge or at very low cost. An example shows how the method, applied to spatial data of a floristic project for the urban area of Trieste (NE-Italy), can identify floristically homogeneous patches and can quantify the heterogeneity of the transition zones between such patches.