  Rough set is mainly concerned with the approximations of objects through an
equivalence relation on a universe. Matroid is a combinatorial generalization
of linear independence in vector spaces. In this paper, we define a parametric
set family, with any subset of a universe as its parameter, to connect rough
sets and matroids. On the one hand, for a universe and an equivalence relation
on the universe, a parametric set family is defined through the lower
approximation operator. This parametric set family is proved to satisfy the
independent set axiom of matroids, therefore it can generate a matroid, called
a parametric matroid of the rough set. Three equivalent representations of the
parametric set family are obtained. Moreover, the parametric matroid of the
rough set is proved to be the direct sum of a partition-circuit matroid and a
free matroid. On the other hand, since partition-circuit matroids were well
studied through the lower approximation number, we use it to investigate the
parametric matroid of the rough set. Several characteristics of the parametric
matroid of the rough set, such as independent sets, bases, circuits, the rank
function and the closure operator, are expressed by the lower approximation
number.
