r.li.shape(1grass)

💖 r.li.shape — the GRASS User's Manual glow-up 💖

okay bestie, welcome to r.li.shape, section 1grass of the GRASS User's Manual 🌸 this lil guy is here to calculate the shape index on a raster map, and honestly? it ate. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

r.li.shape — calculates shape index on a raster map 🦋

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🔑 KEYWORDS 🔑

raster, landscape structure analysis, patch index — iykyk 💅

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📜 SYNOPSIS 📜

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

🎀 Flags

• --overwrite — allow output files to overwrite existing files (yes, it will absolutely replace your old files, no cap)
• --help — print usage summary
• --verbose — verbose module output
• --quiet — quiet module output
• --ui — force launching GUI dialog

🍓 Parameters

• input=name [required] — name of input raster map
• config=name [required] — configuration file
• output=name [required] — name for output raster map

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

r.li.shape calculates the landscape shape index like this, periodt:

LSI = 0.25 * E / sqrt(A)

with:

• E: sum of all edges
• A: sum of all patch areas

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📝 NOTES 📝

do NOT use absolute path names for the config and output file/map parameters. literally just don't, it's giving chaos 💀

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

C:\Users\userxy\AppData\Roaming\GRASS8\r.li\output\

(that's the MS-Windows one bestie) or

$HOME/.grass8/r.li/output/

(that's GNU/Linux 🐧)

also!! if the input raster map contains only NULL values, then r.li.shape returns NULL. like, nothing, nada. sorry babe 🙈

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🧚 EXAMPLES 🧚

wanna calculate the shape index on map my_map, using the my_conf configuration file (that you previously defined with g.gui.rlisetup) and save results in my_out? run:

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

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Forest map (Spearfish sample dataset) example, obsessed:

g.region raster=landcover.30m -p
r.mapcalc "forests = if(landcover.30m >= 41 && landcover.30m <= 43,1,null())"
r.li.shape input=forests conf=movwindow7 out=forests_shape_mov7
r.univar forests_shape_mov7

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Forest map (North Carolina sample dataset) example, main character energy 👑:

g.region raster=landclass96 -p
r.mapcalc "forests = if(landclass96 == 5, 1, null() )"
r.li.shape input=forests conf=movwindow7 out=forests_shape_mov7
# verify
r.univar forests_shape_mov7
r.to.vect input=forests output=forests type=area
d.mon wx0
d.rast forests_shape_mov7
d.vect forests type=boundary

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

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

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📚 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)

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Claudio Porta and Lucio Davide Spano, students of Computer Science University of Pisa (Italy). 🎓

Commission from Faunalia Pontedera (PI) (www.faunalia.it)

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💻 SOURCE CODE 💻

Available at: r.li.shape 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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and that's a wrap bestie 🫶 this was the GRASS 8.5.0 Reference Manual, © 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, and yeah — GRASS 8.5.0, r.li.shape(1grass), slay 💅✨🌸