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MARXAN
Created by Ian Ball and Hugh Possingham
Biodiversity Representation
Protected areas are now required to be representative of biodiversity.
Selection of protected areas in many places has historically been
opportunistic.
Many reserves were originally designated for their scenic beauty, cultural
significance, lack of economic value or to protect a few charismatic
flagship species.
These PAs do not adequately represent the diversity of ecosystems,
leading to duplication in the protection of some habitats and species and
inadequate protection of others.
Selection techniques improved with the understanding that the range of
biodiversity should be represented.
These techniques often concentrate on areas rich in well-studied habitats
and species, and do not provide quantitative representation or repeatability.
Designing a Portfolio
Marxan can offer decision support for teams of experts choosing
between thousands of planning units and many biodiversity targets.
It selects a portfolio of spatially cohesive units that meet a suite of
biodiversity goals whilst minimizing the cost.
The cost of the portfolio consists of a weighted sum of planning unit
cost, boundary length and penalties for not representing biodiversity
targets to their user defined goal.
A portfolio consists of a network of planning units, some of which are
clustered into potential sites, with others serving to connect isolated
areas of existing or intended conservation management.
Simulated Annealing
MARXAN uses an simulated annealing optimization algorithm to
select a portfolio.
The algorithm is based on iterative improvement with stochastic
acceptance of bad moves.
This allows the algorithm to choose less than optimal planning units
early in the process that may allow for better choices and overall
portfolio later.
As the program progresses, the criteria for a good selection gets
progressively stricter, until finally the portfolio is built.
Planning Units
Planning units can be any shape or size, but appropriate units should be
designed according to the available target data and to best facilitate
conservation efforts in the priority sites identified.
Planning units can be natural, administrative or arbitrary sub divisions of
the land and seascape.
The units should be small enough to reflect differences between
fragmented and non fragmented habitats or distributions, but large enough
to reflect quantitative differences between units.
Data on distributions within very small units becomes presence / absence
information and does not reflect differences regarding the size of patches
or the co-existence of biodiversity elements or targets between the units.
Outputs
Portfolios and Irreplaceability Maps
Outputs
Portfolio Selection
Marxan Inputs
Marxan Inputs
2) Goals
20%
30%
Threat
4) Biological Constraints
Measures can be introduced to assure the portfolio contains targets
that have:
Increasing PU Clustering
0.0001
0.0005
0.001
0.01
0.1
Dominica
Follow the instructions A1-6 to copy MARXAN and the tutorial data
onto your computer and then view the data in ArcView.
Target abundance
Target details (name, goal, spf etc)
Planning unit information
Boundary information (optional)
Block definitions (optional)
Input Tables
Input Tables
Input Tables
B2)
B3)
B4)
B5)
B6)
B7)
B8)
Mapping Irreplaceability
Double click
Exercise 2
Creating Input Files using Tutorial Data
MARXAN Files:
1) Target Abundance File: puvspr.dat
2) Species File : spec_goals.dat
3) Planning Unit File: pu.dat
4) Boundary File: bound.dat
5) Block Definition File: block.dat (optional)
D2) A dbf table is created that contains the ids of the PUs
from the planning unit file.
(puvspr.dat)
(puvspr.dat)
(puvspr.dat)
(puvspr.dat)
(spec.dat)
(spec.dat)
(pu.dat)
(pu.dat)
Results
BLM
Number of Targets
over Goal
0.001
593
16
0.01
579
16
0.03
567
18
0.06
550
18
0.1
547
17
0.5
674
22
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% of Goal
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
Target
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350
300
250
200
150
100
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Target
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tone
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% Goal
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
Target
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lluvial
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shwate
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tone
Moist
% Goal
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
Target
300
0
Wet
alluv
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Wet
extru
s
iv
Mois
e
t Ext
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nized
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% Goal
350
250
200
150
100
50
Target
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extru
sive
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ttere
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ral-R
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ultra
mafic
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ear R
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en
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ntary
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ear R
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eef
t sed
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t
ary
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rama
fic
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trusiv
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alluv
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Dry
Intru
sive
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t lim
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ne
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ultra
mafic
LM w
et lim
esto
LM r
ne
ain in
trusiv
LM r
e
ain e
xtrus
ive
Rain
extru
sive
Rain
intru
sive
Mois
% Goal
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
Target