Landscape fragmentation Effective Mesh Size: major and medium anthropogenic fragmenting elements (FGA2-M), version 2.0, Nov. 2016

The raster file is the basis of the indicator for assessing landscape fragmentation due to urban and transport expansion. The computation is based on the method of Effective Mesh Size (meff, Jaeger 2000). The effective mesh size (meff) can be interpreted as the area that is accessible to animals when starting a movement at a randomly chosen point inside a landscape without encountering a physical barrier. The meff expresses the probability that any two points chosen randomly in an area are connected, that is, not separated by the barriers of a Fragmentation Geometry (FG) such as transport routes or built-up areas. Hence, meff is a measure of landscape connectivity, i.e. the degree to which movements between different parts of the landscape are possible. The meff is measured as an area (km2), within the cells of a 1 km2 regular grid as reporting units.