Landscapes are heterogeneous mosaics of ecosystems or different habitat niches, which are of interest for ecologists. The patterns of the elements within landscapes are studied at may different scales to draw conclusions about wide range of ecology topics such as species distributions dynamics, habitat loss & fragmentation and invasive species. Nowadays, the most pressing issues within landscape ecology relate to disturbance caused by human activity and many popular topics such as the loss of keystone species due to land cover conversions are broadly acknowledged.

GIS is used as a tool to visualize and quantify the patterns occurring within a landscape and evaluate the influence of processes acting on the landscape. Four groups of processes are distinguished here: abiotic, biotic, anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Abiotic factors are the underlying conditions governing the appearance of any place on Earth. The climate, soil properties and slope of a site determine the range of species that can possibly live here. Biotic interactions are given by the ecosystem itself in the from of competition or symbiosis, which create spatial autocorrelation. Disturbances happen naturally in the form of fires, storms, floods or other natural disaster. In recent history, humans have caused an unprecedented change in the landscape by land conversion, the introduction of species and even an greatly accelerated change of climatic conditions.