Morro Bay Case Study
Summary:
Evaluating how to obtain conservation goals, such as species or biodiversity protection at the lowest economic cost possible is an important aspect of conservation planning. The affect of species conservation target values on the selection frequency of parcels for conservation was evaluated using Marxan software. Target values are set values that represent a set percentage of species in a region; in this analysis, as expected when target values were increased, the conservation areas expanded.
Problem:
Morro Bay watershed hosts a variety of species some of which are endangered and/or endemic to the region; the area also serves as a popular tourist destination. Managing the area, and conserving the species within the area is important; however, doing this while minimizing costs requires valuable economic and ecological information to be analyzed on a spatial scale.
Approach:
Marxan software is used to identify areas, or …show more content…
Not surprisingly, when increasing the conservation targets, the number of planning units also increased. When increasing the target value for the twelve endangered species in the region, and leaving the target value constant for all other species the output changed dramatically, and the number of planning units selected more frequently increased (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The summed solution of Morro Bay Watershed planning unit selection frequency in Marxan. Areas selected most frequently represent the most cost effective conservation areas to obtain the given target value for the conservation of 140 species. Top right shows the output when the target for all species is 30% conservation. Top left shows 50% conservation for all species. Bottom right shows 100% conservation target for the 12 endangered species, and a 50% target for all other species. Bottom left shows 95% conservation target for endangered species, and 30% target for all other species.
Evaluating how to obtain conservation goals, such as species or biodiversity protection at the lowest economic cost possible is an important aspect of conservation planning. The affect of species conservation target values on the selection frequency of parcels for conservation was evaluated using Marxan software. Target values are set values that represent a set percentage of species in a region; in this analysis, as expected when target values were increased, the conservation areas expanded.
Problem:
Morro Bay watershed hosts a variety of species some of which are endangered and/or endemic to the region; the area also serves as a popular tourist destination. Managing the area, and conserving the species within the area is important; however, doing this while minimizing costs requires valuable economic and ecological information to be analyzed on a spatial scale.
Approach:
Marxan software is used to identify areas, or …show more content…
Not surprisingly, when increasing the conservation targets, the number of planning units also increased. When increasing the target value for the twelve endangered species in the region, and leaving the target value constant for all other species the output changed dramatically, and the number of planning units selected more frequently increased (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The summed solution of Morro Bay Watershed planning unit selection frequency in Marxan. Areas selected most frequently represent the most cost effective conservation areas to obtain the given target value for the conservation of 140 species. Top right shows the output when the target for all species is 30% conservation. Top left shows 50% conservation for all species. Bottom right shows 100% conservation target for the 12 endangered species, and a 50% target for all other species. Bottom left shows 95% conservation target for endangered species, and 30% target for all other species.