Source document Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Vol. 7, no. 3 (2012), pp. 231-246. - Baia Mare : North University of Baia Mare, 2012 Keywords landscape metrics   tourism-human impact   ecological significance   LanguageEnglish CountryRomania systematics 502 AnnotationThis study analyses landscape components and human activities, in two different protected landscapes. The main purpose of this work is to measure landscape elements, mainly land cover patches within tourism zones. Outputs of the landscape quantification are numerical values, which is possible to interpret toward to the quality of an on-going ecologic process in landscape. The interpretation of the quantified data will be used to determine ecologic signification of landscape in selected study areas. This research examines land cover patches in the protected areas by a set of landscape metrics for area, size, density, shape and diversity (Number of patches NP, Patch's density PD, Mean patch size MPS, Patch's size standard deviation PSSD, Mean shape index MSI, and Shannon's Diversity Index SHDI). First landscape is represented by Protected Landscape Area of Stiavnica Mountains, located in Slovakia, and second landscape is represented by Special purpose area of "Fruska Gora" National Park Public work category ADE No. of Archival Copy26010