title: Effects of cost metric on cost-effectiveness of protected-area network design in urban landscapes.
abstract: A common goal in conservation planning is to acquire areas that are critical to realizing biodiversity goals in the most cost-effective manner. The way monetary acquisition costs are represented in such planning is an understudied but vital component to realizing cost efficiencies. We sought to design a protected-area network within a forested urban region that would protect 17 birds of conservation concern. We compared the total costs and spatial structure of the optimal protected-area networks produced using three acquisition-cost surrogates (area, agricultural land value, and tax-assessed land value). Using the tax-assessed land values there was a 73% and 78% cost savings relative to networks derived using area or agricultural land value, respectively. This cost reduction was due to the considerable heterogeneity in acquisition costs revealed in tax-assessed land values, especially for small land parcels, and the corresponding ability of the optimization algorithm to identify lower-cost parcels for inclusion that had equal value to our target species. Tax-assessed land values also reflected the strong spatial differences in acquisition costs (US$0.33/m(2)-$55/m(2)) and thus allowed the algorithm to avoid inclusion of high-cost parcels when possible. Our results add to a nascent but growing literature that suggests conservation planners must consider the cost surrogate they use when designing protected-area networks. We suggest that choosing cost surrogates that capture spatial- and size-dependent heterogeneity in acquisition costs may be relevant to establishing protected areas in urbanizing ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, U.S.A.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Burkhalter
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, U.S.A.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Lockwood
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, U.S.A.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maslo
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, Lucy Stone Hall, 54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ, 08854-8045, U.S.A.
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Fenn
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, U.S.A.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Leu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D002947:Cities; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D065928:Forests; D009515:New Jersey
keywords: bosque; cost; costo; diseño de reserva; forest; optimización; optimization; planeación; planning; protected area; reserve design; urban; urbano; área protegida