Introduction to Marxan

Matthew Watts
Lindsay Kircher

m.watts@uq.edu.au
l.kircher@uq.edu.au

Hugh Possingham

applied environmental decision analysis

university of queensland
australia
www.uq.edu.au/spatialecology

Course Overview
Day 1
9:00 9:10: Course overview.
9:10 10:00: Key concepts in systematic conservation planning
10:00 10:10: Introduction of course participants
10:10 10:25: Coffee break
10:25 10:55: Interactive session I Planning Activity
10:55 11:15: Tasmania Exercise Introduction
11:15 12:30: Interactive session II begin Tasmania exercise (creating Marxan
input files)
12:30 1:30: Lunch
1:30 2:20: Interactive session III Creating Marxan input files continued
2:20 2:45: Applied Marxan Talk- Terrestrial
2:45 3:00: Afternoon tea
3:00 4:00: Interactive session IV Creating Marxan input files continued

Course Overview
Day 2
9:00 9:45: How does Marxan find good solutions?
9:45 10:00 Zonae Cogito Demonstration
10:00 10:15: Coffee break
10:15 12:10 Interactive session V - Running Marxan with ZC and understanding output files
12:10 12:30: Applied Marxan talk- Marine
12:30 1:30: Lunch
1:30 2:15: Interactive session VI Calibration, Configuration Editor, and cluster analysis
2:15 2:45: Marxan with Zones
2:45 3:00: Afternoon tea
3:00 4:00: Continue interactive sessions if needed, question and answer session, extra activities, discussion

Course website
www.uq.edu.au/marxan
Available for download:

Course Materials
Data
Extensions
Presentations

What is systematic conservation planning?

Conservation planning: guides decisions about the

location, configuration and management of
conservation areas
Conservation areas: areas managed for the
persistence of biodiversity and other natural
values (is NOT just about reserves)
Efficient, repeatable, transparent and equitable
process for making conservation decisions

What determines conservation priority?

Suitability for other uses,

scenic beauty, recreational value

Charismatic animals

Total area reserved (%)

30
25
20
15
3

10
5

0
1

1
2

3
Source: Pressey et al. (2002)

What determines conservation priority?

Suitability for other uses,

scenic beauty, recreational value

Charismatic animals

vs

All levels of biodiversity, ecosystem processes, cost-effectiveness, threats, condition

Systematic Conservation Planning

Comprehensive
Adequate
Representative
Efficient

Stages in the planning process

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Identifying and involving stakeholders

Identifying conservation goals
Compiling data
Formulating conservation targets
Reviewing existing target achievement
Selecting new conservation areas
Implementing new conservation areas
Maintaining and monitoring
Margules and Pressey 2000 Nature

Selecting conservation areas

To solve efficiently we first need to establish this
question as a formal problem
Two typical conservation area selection
problems:
The minimum set problem; capture a set amount of
biodiversity for the least cost
The maximum coverage problem; capture as much
biodiversity as possible beneath a fixed budget

Many decision support tools

C-Plan (Bob Pressey and Matt Watts)

http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqmwatts/cplan.html

Zonation (Atte Moilanen)

http://www.helsinki.fi/bioscience/consplan/index.html

ResNet (Sahotra Sarkar)

http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~consbio/Cons/Labframeset.html

More...Ecosystem Based Management Tools Network

www.ebmtools.org/

Minimum Reserve Set Problem

Objective Function:
Minimise the overall cost
Subject to the constraint that all
conservation feature targets are met
(e.g. 20% of each vegetation type)

Marxan is a DST that is capable of:

Addressing core Systematic Conservation Planning
principles
(representation, cost efficiency, spatial constraints,
complementarity, etc.)

Identifying multiple good solutions, even to very

large problems

Systematic, repeatable and transparent area
selection

Easy to use

FREE

Decision-support, not a
decision-maker!

Brief History
Siman: The University of Adelaide (Ian Balls PhD)
Spexan: Environment Australia sponsored
SITES: Spexan linked to Arcview, TNC sponsored
Marxan: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
and National Marine Fisheries Services
Marxan with Zones: The University of Queensland,
Ecotrust and The University of California

Where in the World is Marxan?

Over 1,700 users from more than 100 countries
and at least 1200 organizations

Marine Examples

Channel Islands, California

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

Airame et al. 2003

Kimbe Bay, PNG

Fernandes et al. 2005

Green et al. 2009

Terrestrial Examples
Australia
Maputaland (southern Africa)

Klein et al. 2008

Africa

Smith et al. 2008

Rondinini et al. 2006

Example Application (California)

Objectives:

Identify a network of marine

reserves

Represent biological and

physical diversity

Minimize impact to commercial

and recreational fishing
industries

Identify Conservation Features

Examples
Rocky reefs
Kelp beds
Estuaries
Bird colonies
Breeding sites

Seamounts
Canyons
Pinnacles

Targeted each of these in

each major depth class
(shelf, slope, etc.)
Laura Francis

Socio-economic cost of
Reservation
Recreational Fishing Effort

Commercial Fishing Effort

Fishing Effort
0-5
6 - 25
26 - 50
51 - 240

Approach: MARXAN

1 NM2 planning units.

Calculated how much of each
feature is in each planning
unit

MARXAN provides potential
solutions for meeting
conservation goals at a
minimum cost to fisheries

Monterey

Morro
Bay

Spatial Compactness of Reserves

Planning Unit Inclusion

0 - 10
11 - 20
21 - 30
31 - 40
41 - 50
51 - 60
61 - 70
71 - 80
81 - 90
91 - 100

a. BLM = 0

10

20

40

60

b. BLM = 0.0001

80
Miles

c. BLM = 1

BLM = Boundary Length Modifier

Mathematical Formulation
Minimise
Subject to

c j x j + .BoundaryLength

j=1
n

a ij x j T i

i = 1, K , m

j =1

aij = amount of feature i in planning unit j

Ti = target for feature i
x j = 1 if the planning unit is in the reserve system

The score in Marxan

Combined planning unit cost

+
Combined boundary cost * BLM
+
Combined species penalty factors

26

12

Source: Bob Smith (DICE)

Decision Support NOT Decision Maker

Useful to see how goals/objectives translate spatially
into MPA options
Provides many good solutions
Ensure solutions meeting CARE principles
Identifies key locations
Identifies areas that are negotiable

Laura Francis

Some misconceptions
Prescriptive black box
Only suitable for data-rich regions
Only applicable to strict reserves
Technically demanding
Precludes experts
Does considering cost prevents me from
getting a biologically pure answer?

Keep in mind

Computational capacity or algorithms rarely limit

conservation planning lack of clear objectives
do
Most issues arise because of communication
challenges
Many complexities can be added
More complex spatial rules
Zoning
Risk
Dynamics