Does landscape pattern influence the intensity of drought and flood?

• The relationship between landscape pattern and drought/flood intensity was studied. • The key landscape metrics were identified by correlation analysis and RDA at seven grid sizes. • Landscape pattern affecting drought/flood intensity vary across land use types and patterns. • Suitable landscape pattern was suggested for alleviating drought/flood intensity. Although land use has proved to have substantial impacts on extreme weather, it is still unknown whether its mosaic or configuration, i.e., landscape pattern, has such effects. Inner Mongolia in northern China (latitudes 40–48° N), a flat plateau with almost uniform altitude (1 km a.s.l.), has diverse landscape patterns formed by various land uses. It is a desirable area to explore the above issues. The landscape pattern of Inner Mongolia in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 was analyzed by GIS techniques, and drought and flood intensity data were collected in the same years. Correlations between landscape pattern and drought/flood events were examined at grain extents of 200, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 and 3000 m. Overall, patch metrics of woodland and waters significantly negatively related with drought intensity, those of cropland mostly positively related with flood, grassland metrics positively related with flood and negatively with drought, bareland demonstrated a non-significant relation. Urban metrics were mainly positively related with both disasters. Based on these findings, a landscape pattern contains woodland patches with less patch number, complex shape, and moderate core area, grasslands with moderate core area, complex shape and even spatial distribution, croplands with high patch number and core area with simple patch shape, companying with the large number of shrub and water patches, is suggested as the most suitable landscape pattern for reducing the possibility of drought/flood intensity in arid and semiarid regions in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]