Quantifying regional differentiation of yardang groups using terrain texture indices

With yardang research advancing into Earth system science and deep space exploration, there is increasing demand for studies on large-scale spatial patterns. Although texture analysis techniques effectively characterize terrain textures of macro-scale landforms with waveform features, such technique...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Haoyang Jiao, Jianhua Cheng, Fayuan Li, Junfei Ma, Xinyu Xu, Xin Yang, Guoan Tang, Hong Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-08-01
Series:International Journal of Digital Earth
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Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17538947.2025.2539486
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Summary:With yardang research advancing into Earth system science and deep space exploration, there is increasing demand for studies on large-scale spatial patterns. Although texture analysis techniques effectively characterize terrain textures of macro-scale landforms with waveform features, such techniques do not fully capture yardang terrain textures with distinctive surface features. This paper proposes integrating texture analysis techniques with landscape pattern analysis to quantitatively study yardang spatial patterns and reveal regional differentiation. Based on the premise that yardang terrain textures are composed of surface elements with varying shapes, areas, orientations, and spacing, reflecting both individual morphologies and group-level spatial organization. This study extracts these elements in the Qaidam Basin using object-based image analysis (OBIA). Subsequently, to capture both spatial composition and configuration dimensions, yardang terrain texture indices were developed using gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) and landscape pattern indices. Results show the indices effectively quantify yardang spatial patterns and regional differentiation. To support the interpretation of regional differentiation, environmental factors such as wind direction, topography, and lithology were further explored for their influence on yardang spatial patterns across zones. This study offers a novel perspective on regional differentiation and provides methodological insights for yardang research in both Earth system science and space exploration.
ISSN:1753-8947
1753-8955