1. Introduction

Many conservation and resource management problems involve decisions about where on the landscape to undertake different actions: protection, restoration, different types of management, etc… These decisions are guided by a variety of objectives and priorities affecting diverse groups of people. In most decisions there are both tradeoffs to consider, as well as the potential to take advantage of co-benefits to improve the overall outcome of a set of actions. ROOT is a software tool that provides a way to approach challenging decision problems like these by utilizing an optimization approach to identify a range of management choice portfolios that maximize benefits subject to decision-specific constraints.

1.1. Getting ROOT and sample data

The latest version of ROOT can be downloaded from the github release page: https://github.com/natcap/ROOT/releases

Sample data to accompany the examples in this guide can be downloaded from:

• Sample data: https://storage.googleapis.com/root-sample-data/root_sample_data.zip

1.2. Learning about ROOT

The pages in this guide provide:

• A narrative example of a restoration-planning problem using simple to more complex features of ROOT.

• A discussion of the workflow and data preparation needed to run ROOT.

• Specific guidance on the ROOT interface.

• A step-by-step walkthrough of some examples using the sample data.

Please also visit the Natural Capital Project forums to discuss use of ROOT or to ask questions