Adding 'patching' to your Patchworks model can add a valuable spatial objective to your analysis. Patch accounts model the distribution of patches of various sizes (in terms of area or frequency) over the landscape. Generally, a patch is defined as a connected set of topologically adjacent polygons, with all polygons in the set having a value for a specified patch membership criterion attribute that is greater than a specified threshold level. This section will explain what a patch criteria attribute is, how to define patch accounts and size classes, how to add these accounts to the PIN file and a brief explanation of the patch sub-account types.
Refer to the following sections if you require information on other patch specific tasks:
Defining topological relationships: refer to the this section
to learn more about creating the required proximal topology
relationships for blocks in the dataset, using the topology
tools (vector and raster) and the
topology.csv data files. See the section called “Creating Block Topology”.
Creating patch reports: refer to this section if you have already defined the patch accounts and wish to create specific reports to summarize patch information in the model and save with scenario results. See the section called “Patch Report”.
Creating patch maps: refer to this section to learn more about adjusting the symbology of the Map Viewer to display patch account properties. See Adjusting Map Symbology.