Abstract:
Systematic conservation planning has become crucial for protecting biodiversity and sustaining
ecosystem resilience in Alula, a Saudia Arabia County where distinctive habitats are threatened by
urbanization and climate change. Despite the pressing need to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem
services, traditional conservation efforts frequently fail to optimize cost-effectiveness while addressing
complex ecological and socioeconomic issues. Spatial zoning of terrestrial areas using Marxan
approach provides a systematic, data-driven alternative that may overcome these constraints and
improve conservation outcomes. This research aimed to use Marxan to identify biodiversity hotspots
in Alula and create an effective network of protected areas for species conservation and ecological
connection. This study employed ArcGIS for topographical analysis, followed by the Getis ord
approach for hotspot analysis. Marxan is used to create a protected area network with conservation
objectives of 30%, 50%, and 70% for species representation, respectively, together with a Boundary
Length Modifier (BLM) to reduce fragmentation and Penalty Factors (SPF) to prioritize rare species.
The findings showed that the 30% target allocated 55% of the area for human use, 39% for strict
protection, and 5% for mixed-use; the 50% target resulted in 49% human use, 39% strict protection,
and 12% mixed-use; and the 70% target assigned 23% for human use, 39% for strict protection, and
38% for mixed-use. The study found that, although a 50% conservation target efficiently met
biodiversity objectives, larger targets, such as 70%, encountered difficulties in accomplishing habitat
conservation in response to the complexity of objective defining and resource allocation. Future
conservation initiatives should incorporate adaptive management approaches and the involvement of
stakeholders to improve the efficacy and sustainability of spatial zoning and conservation assignments.
