The spatial patterns of the Tatra high - mountain landscape structure

The paper focuses on the identification and classification of spatial patterns in the relation to landforms and geomorphic processes considering the middle-scale and micro-scale of the high-mountain landscape. These determine not only the shape of patches or the character of boundaries, but also the character of fragmentation, the heterogeneity of patches, the gradient and the tendency of patches development. Georelief, especially its spatial morphodynamic attributes, represents relevant phenomena of the landscape which facilitate to understand the scale and hierarchy of the landscape structure. The algorithm of this study is based on the spatial identification of landforms, processes and patterns considering large-scale aerial photographs, a field reconnaissance and the partial classification. The main aim of this paper is to create the classification system of spatial patterns as the physiognomic spatial attributes of the landscape structure mosaic in the high-mountain areas. The genesis of spatial structure patterns and their formation enables us to understand better the origin of the high-mountain landscape structure, its function and contents in this environment. Such a classification can be regarded as a basis for the quantitative statistic analyses of the landscape structure and for the detailed research of spatial patterns