r.li.padcv(1grass)

🌸 r.li.padcv — the one and only 💖

okay bestie, so you know that GRASS manual page r.li.padcv from the GRASS User's Manual? yeah. that's her. we're doing this. grab a snack 🍓

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✨ NAME ✨

r.li.padcv — she calculates the coefficient of variation of patch area on a raster map. that's the whole job. iconic behavior honestly 👑

🏷️ KEYWORDS 🏷️

raster, landscape structure analysis, patch index

📜 SYNOPSIS 📜

r.li.padcv
r.li.padcv --help
r.li.padcv input=name config=name output=name  [--overwrite]  [--help]
[--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

🚩 Flags 🚩

• --overwrite — let your output files just bulldoze over existing files. no cap, that's what it does. 💥
• --help — prints the usage summary, aka the little "here's what u asked for" moment
• --verbose — verbose module output, she gets chatty 💬
• --quiet — quiet module output, she goes silent mode 🤫
• --ui — forces the GUI dialog to launch, for when u want the pretty buttons 🎀

🎀 Parameters 🎀

• input=name [required] — name of input raster map. mandatory, bestie, no skipping
• config=name [required] — configuration file. also mandatory 💅
• output=name [required] — name for output raster map. yes, also mandatory. all three. always. 🫶

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

r.li.padcv calculates the coefficient of variation of patch area sizes in hectares as:

(there's a formula here — it lives in the original page as math, and she's doing her thing)

with:

• SD: standard deviation of patch area size
• MPS: mean patch area size
• ai: area of patch i
• Npatch: number of patches

the way that it's literally just SD and MPS and patch math living their best life together 🦋

📝 NOTES 📝

do not use absolute path names for the config and output file/map parameters. like. don't. 🙈

if the "moving window" method was selected in g.gui.rlisetup, then the output will be a raster map. otherwise an ASCII file will be generated in the folder:

C:\Users\userxy\AppData\Roaming\GRASS8\r.li\output\ (MS-Windows)

or

$HOME/.grass8/r.li/output/ (GNU/Linux)

the result is NULL if the sample area contains only NULL values. like, that's it, that's the vibe check result. 💀

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

example one: the classic 💅

to calculate patch area distribution coefficient of variation index on map my_map, using my_conf configuration file (previously defined with g.gui.rlisetup) and saving results in my_out, run:

r.li.padcv input=my_map conf=my_conf output=my_out

example two: Forest map (Spearfish sample dataset) 🌲

g.region raster=landcover.30m -p
r.mapcalc "forests = if(landcover.30m >= 41 && landcover.30m <= 43,1,null())"
r.li.padcv input=forests conf=movwindow7 out=forests_padcv_mov7
r.univar forests_padcv_mov7

example three: Forest map (North Carolina sample dataset) 🌳

g.region raster=landclass96 -p
r.mapcalc "forests = if(landclass96 == 5, 1, null() )"
r.li.padcv input=forests conf=movwindow7 out=forests_padcv_mov7
# verify
r.univar forests_padcv_mov7
r.to.vect input=forests output=forests type=area
d.mon wx0
d.rast forests_padcv_mov7
d.vect forests type=boundary

not the verify block with the # comment in there, we love a self-checking queen ✨

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• r.li (package overview)
• g.gui.rlisetup

📚 REFERENCES 📚

McGarigal, K., and B. J. Marks. 1995. FRAGSTATS: spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure. USDA For. Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-351. (PDF)

👑 AUTHORS 👑

• Michael Shapiro - CERL (patch identification)
• Markus Metz (statistics)

💻 SOURCE CODE 💻

Available at: r.li.padcv source code (history)

Latest change: Friday Apr 17 01:04:26 2026 in commit: 32a143358df26b2e518b03c7e0d79541e8d1e5b1

Main index | Raster index | Topics index | Keywords index | Graphical index | Full index

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© 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, GRASS 8.5.0 Reference Manual

and that's the whole page bestie, r.li.padcv in GRASS 8.5.0, last touched back on Friday Apr 17 01:04:26 2026 🫶 go forth and calculate that coefficient of variation, u got this 💜