Real-time planning with shinyplanr
The shinyplanr app is a fast, flexible, and transparent web tool that helps countries deliver smarter spatial plans — for biodiversity, climate and people. It puts planning power directly into stakeholders’ hands, letting them test scenarios, explore trade-offs, and make decisions in real time.
Built on robust science and the proven R language and prioritizr engine, shinyplanr helps overcome the delays and disconnects of traditional MSP. It’s user-friendly, fully customisable, and designed for all stakeholders — no prior spatial planning experience is needed.
What makes shinyplanr different?
Real-time planning: Most scenarios run in seconds, allowing stakeholders to quickly test options and iterate without delays.
Transparent, user-driven decisions: Users control targets, costs, and constraints — that means more learning, more trust, and faster buy-in.
Faster consensus, fewer workshops: Stakeholders do not need to agree upfront. Instead, they explore plans independently, reducing the need for multiple expert-led workshops.
Clear trade-offs: See exactly how different features, zones, and costs shape a plan. Understand where the compromises are — and who is affected.
Insights that matter: The shinyplanr app highlights which features drive solutions. Often, only a few constraints determine the outcome — and this becomes clear through direct exploration.
Flexible objectives: Unlike tools with one fixed goal, shinyplanr supports multiple planning questions. Want to see what 30% protection gets you? You can.
Rich functionality: Built in R with prioritizr, shinyplanr offers all the power of Marxan — and then some.
Scalable and customisable: From tiny areas such as Kosrae in Federated States of Micronesia, to vast regions such as the Weddell Sea, shinyplanr adapts to your geography, language, and data.
shinyplanr is fully transferable — a single codebase that can be customised and deployed to any geography using a combination of global and local datasets. We work closely with partners to co-design planning solutions that support biodiversity conservation, restoration, and sustainable use under a changing climate, continually refining the tool based on user needs and emerging science.
While we typically collaborate directly with governments, agencies, and NGOs to deploy and tailor shinyplanr for specific regions, the code is fully open-source and available for groups who wish to build and host their own instance. Whether you are looking for a collaborative partnership or want to deploy independently, we welcome you to get in touch.
The shinyplanr source code is available on GitHub. If you would like to work with us to deploy it for your region, please contact us.