Planning ahead for products

Whatever the high-level objectives of the project are, it is well worth identifying the intended end-users of the results at the outset, and clarifying planning products that they require (e.g. Pierce et al., 2005). Here, it may be worth revisiting Section 1.2, and thinking carefully about the nature of the project in which you are planning to use Zonation? For scientific (curiosity-driven) research, findings published in an article are the usual products of the project. A research project leading to a publication is rarely revisited again, although later studies may build upon techniques developed there or other findings of the project. While it is important to document how the results were produced, there is rarely a need to re-produce them. For a project supporting operational conservation planning, the situation is usually different. While the same input data may be used for a research project, the final planning and prioritisation products will typically require further processing, visualization and documentation to be maximise their accessibility to a range of end-users including management agencies, business stakeholders, and even the general populace. Furthermore, since operational planning often is a continuous and iterative process, there is frequently a need to revise and improve the analyses and update the planning products as new information comes to hand. Consequently, repeatability and transparency of the process increase in relevance.

Zonation automatically produces a variety of different outputs, including rank priority maps describing the spatial distribution of the conservation priorities, and performance curves (Section 6.2). While these outputs often address the high-level objective directly, more often than not they require additional processing to aid in their interpretation. For example, while a rank priority map can be used to locate and list the top-priority sites, in an operational setting it can also be important to know why a particular site has been given a high (or alternatively low) priority. The answer to the question can be complex, reflecting not only the biodiversity features occurring at a site, but also the manner in which they have been ranked by the Zonation meta-algorithm (including various optional components such as connectivity, habitat condition, weights etc.). It is therefore useful to consider (and budget for) what additional planning products will be required to support achievement of the general project objectives of the project. You should keep these considerations in mind throughout the whole prioritization project and where relevant, you should consolidate all details into planning products.