How can costs get allocated to different zones?

In Marxan with Zones, it is possible to have multiple costs applied to a zone, and it is possible to apply different costs to different zones. The zone-specific multiplier is used to weight and sum costs per zone. It allows the user to assign different weightings to different costs. If some combinations of zone and cost are not present, then that cost will be given a weighting of ‘0’ and will not be considered to formulate a solution.

Cost 1 - Distance from port

Cost 2 - Species biomass

If some combinations of zone and cost are not present, then that cost will be given a weighting of ‘0’ and will not be considered to formulate a solution. In the example below, the "Distance from port" cost is given a multiplier for 10 in the High Protection zone to discourage planning units with high cost values to be included in this zone.

Costs applied to each zone