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Fragstats is a spatial pattern analysis program developed and published by Fragstats for the quantitative analysis of categorical maps. The software is designed around the landscape mosaic model of landscape structure, in which the landscape is represented as a mosaic of discrete patches organized into classes across the full extent of a user-defined categorical map. Its primary purpose is to quantify the spatial heterogeneity of the landscape as represented in that map, enabling users to characterize landscape composition and configuration in a rigorous, metric-based way. To accomplish this, Fragstats computes a comprehensive set of landscape metrics at three analytical levels: individual patches, classes of patches, and the overall landscape mosaic. This multi-level structure allows analysts to examine fine-scale patch characteristics, aggregate patterns within particular land cover or habitat classes, and broad patterns across the entire mapped landscape within a single analytical framework. The software is relevant to the fields of landscape ecology and spatial analysis, and its use cases center on the interpretation of categorical landscape data, such as maps representing land cover types or other classified spatial phenomena, where measuring spatial pattern is essential to understanding landscape structure. Because it operates on user-defined categorical maps, the program can be applied to a wide range of landscape representations, provided the input data conform to the categorical map format on which its calculations are based. The current version of Fragstats is 6.0.934, and the software catalog records two versions of the program, reflecting its continued development and maintenance by its publisher. In summary, Fragstats serves as a dedicated tool for researchers and analysts who need to measure and compare spatial patterns in categorical maps, offering a standardized approach to landscape metric computation across patch, class, and landscape levels of analysis, consistent with the landscape mosaic paradigm that underlies its design.
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