Conservation Planning Exercise

Marxan is designed to solve the minimum set problem - selecting areas to meet targets with the lowest possible cost. Below is a simple exercise to help you understand how Marxan works.

Instructions

Select or deselect squares by clicking on them. The goal is to select a group of squares that will meet the target values with lowest possible cost. When you meet your targets you can compare your results against Marxan's results.

0
0
0
$347
0
0
0
$52
0
0
1
$985
0
0
0
$207
89
0
12
$276
30
48
0
$821
69
4
9
$122
0
0
0
$404
0
0
0
$300
0
0
91
$681
0
0
0
$813
0
0
0
$537
0
0
0
$931
0
0
0
$653
71
43
12
$919
99
0
1
$826
0
0
0
$455
17
0
0
$983
0
0
35
$731
31
0
0
$875
0
0
0
$247
55
40
0
$462
0
0
0
$287
0
2
27
$988
70
0
0
$85
37
0
56
$736
0
0
0
$681
0
0
33
$479
0
41
0
$459
54
0
0
$615
0
0
0
$378
80
8
0
$986
0
47
0
$887
0
0
0
$392
0
78
0
$526
0
0
87
$783
66
0
38
$224
0
0
0
$149
0
0
0
$268
0
91
0
$90
0
0
0
$977
0
0
73
$74
0
60
0
$53
25
79
0
$390
0
0
0
$619
11
0
8
$773
0
0
0
$952
0
0
0
$738
0
0
0
$897
0
0
53
$580
76
34
0
$969
0
90
0
$76
0
84
0
$147
0
0
82
$870
0
72
26
$350
0
0
0
$543
0
0
21
$607
58
0
0
$375
0
0
0
$903
0
54
59
$790
75
0
60
$729
0
0
0
$492
0
0
0
$303
0
0
0
$289
0
0
0
$490
0
0
0
$599
91
0
0
$407
0
0
57
$651
0
42
97
$709
0
0
7
$365
0
0
0
$571
0
37
0
$931
0
0
0
$353
0
0
0
$64
0
0
0
$955
0
0
0
$950
0
0
0
$855
0
23
0
$886
0
41
0
$840
81
0
37
$598
0
0
12
$422
0
0
0
$252
0
0
0
$941
0
53
24
$152
0
72
0
$353
0
93
0
$123
0
0
0
$716
0
23
59
$587
0
0
0
$346
0
0
0
$318
0
0
0
$682
11
0
0
$891
0
14
50
$815
0
0
0
$818
0
0
88
$726
0
0
0
$372
0
0
0
$197
48
0
0
$89
0
0
0
$417
0
76
0
$975
Features Target Current Shortfall  
A 267.4 0 0
B 251.2 0 0
C 243.0 0 0
Cost: 0
Boundary: + 0
Shortfall Penalty: + 0
Your Marxan Score: = 0

Marxan Results:

Marxan uses the formula above with Cost, Boundary and Shortfall Penalty to evaluate the affects of selecting or deselecting an area; this is called the Objective Function.

Spatial Arrangement Total Cost Marxan Score
Unclumped: show solution $1775 5175
Clumped: show solution $3140 5340

Clumped vs Unclumped

In many cases having fewer and larger areas is easier to manage. In this case it is desirable for Marxan to select areas in a clumped fashion. You can try to cluster your selection of squares while meeting targets to observe the effects of increased clumping on your boundary, costs and Marxan score.
Once you meet your targets Marxan's results will appear here.

This exercise is produced here with the permission and support of:

PacMARA Logo

University of Queensland

Tools and Training for Marxan

If you are new to Marxan and are looking to get trained, visit the PacMARA website for upcoming courses. If they don't have a course listed, it is still worth contacting them for courses that might be in planning but not yet announced.

A copy of the Marxan Good Practices Handbook can also be found on the PacMARA site in both English and Spanish.

If you are looking for the latest version of Marxan, reports, papers and other resources then visit the Marxan Solutions website.

If you are an ArcGIS user and are looking for an effective way of converting your GIS data into a format that Marxan understands, then the ArcMarxan Toolbox is what you need.

If you are a QGIS user and are looking for an effective way of converting your GIS data into a format that Marxan understands, then the QMarxan Toolbox provides a series of tools in QGIS's Processing Toolbox. If you want a more directed process, the CLUZ plugin for QGIS offers another approach.