where pij is the perimeter in meters, aij is the area in square meters and Z is the number of cells.
COHESION is an 'Aggregation metric'. It characterises the connectedness of patches belonging to class i. It can be used to asses if patches of the same class are located aggregated or rather isolated and thereby COHESION gives information about the configuration of the landscape.
Because the metric is based on distances or areas please make sure your data is valid using check_landscape.
Units
Percent
Ranges
0 < COHESION < 100
Behaviour
Approaches COHESION = 0 if patches of class i become more isolated. Increases if patches of class i become more aggregated.
McGarigal K., SA Cushman, and E Ene. 2023. FRAGSTATS v4: Spatial Pattern Analysis Program for Categorical Maps. Computer software program produced by the authors; available at the following web site: https://www.fragstats.org
Schumaker, N. H. 1996. Using landscape indices to predict habitat connectivity. Ecology, 77(4), 1210-1225.