Habitat suitability mapping for sand cat (Felis margarita) in Central Iran using remote sensing techniques

Authors

Shiva Torabian, Alireza Soffianian, Sima Fakheran, Ali Asgarian, Hossein Akbari Feizabadi, Josef Senn

Publication date

2018/2/1

Journal

Spatial Information Research

Volume

26

Issue

1

Pages

11-20

Publisher

Springer Singapore

Description

One of the primary reason of species extinction especially rare species with very specific 
requirements, is habitat destruction. To protect these species, habitat suitability evaluation 
plays a central role. Hence, an attempt is made in this study to evaluate the suitability of 
sand cat's habitat in a sand dune-dominated landscape in Iran. Four Landsat-derived 
indices including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Weighted Difference 
Vegetation Index, Brightness Index (BI) and Salinity Index were combined to characterize 
sand cat's habitat requirements through a land use land cover (LULC) map. Furthermore, a 
set of landscape metrics were employed to explore the spatial pattern LULC classes. Sand 
cat's habitat suitability map was generated by linear combination of the standardized and 
relatively weighted NDVI and BI indices and then categorized into five classes of most ...