The meth od ol ogy of a com plex en gi neer ing-geo log i cal ap proach to es tab lish a geopark: case study of the Ma³opolska Wis³a River GorgeJoanna PINIÑSKA 1, * , Andrzej DOMONIK 1 , Artur DZIEDZIC 1 and Dominik £UKASIAK 1 1 Uni ver sity of War saw, Fac ulty of Ge ol ogy, ¯wirki i Wigury 93, 02-089 Warszawa, Po land Piniñska, J., Domonik, A., Dziedzic, A., £ukasiak D., 2015. The meth od ol ogy of a com plex en gi neer ing-geo log i cal ap proach to es tab lish a geopark: case study of the Ma³opolska Wis³a River Gorge. Geo log i cal Quar terly, 59 (2): 408-418, doi: 10.7306/gq.1181Ma³opolska Wis³a River Gorge is lo cated in the mid dle stretch of the Wis³a val ley be tween Zawichost and Pu³awy. Its great por tion is sup posed to be turned into a geopark safely ap proach able by tour ists along walk ing trails lead ing to planned geosites. While gen eral cri te ria of geosite se lec tion are ori ented on pro mot ing ex pected in ter est ing at trib utes of the planned geopark or, in a spe cial case, on rec og niz ing pos si ble strong geo log i cal haz ards such as vol ca nic, earth quake and tsu nami phe nom ena, the in ner prob lems of tour ist safety are not com monly rec og nized. The Wis³a Gorge and its close vi cin ity of geopark is ded i cated to cul tural her i tage, geo log i cal his tory, land scape and lo cal folk lore. The in ner haz ards of di sas ters are cre ated here by steep, slip pery paths, col laps ible loessial can yons, rock-falls from weath ered rock-walls, and high wa ters of the nearby river chan nel run ning along side or flood ing tour ist foot paths. Rec og ni tion and pre vent ing mea sures against such haz ard re quire de ter mi na tion of the cur rent en gi neer ing-geo log i cal con di tions by test ing rock and soil prop er ties along the gorge, and by check ing the like li hood of nat u ral dis tur bance of the ter rain safety. The vul ner a bil ity of ex posed rocks to processes of nat u ral ero sion, steady weath er ing prog ress, turn ing steep clayey bluffs into slip pery ground, and to an im pact of long-term anthropogenic fac tors had to be rec og nized, checked, and tested for a fi nal as sess ment of suit abil ity of the selected place to serv ing as a geopark. The spe cial prog nos tic pro ce dure of en gi neer ing-geo log i cal haz ards was rec ommended, ap pli ca ble prior to the geopark plan ning stage. The pro ce dure en com passes a thor ough as sess ment of pos si ble safe ac ces si bil ity to par tic u lar geosites in the area des ig nated to be come a geopark. The suit abil ity of the se lected area to serv ing as a geopark was, thus, ana lysed me thod i cally with re gard to a de tailed en gi neer ing-geo log i cal and geomechanical eval u a tion of pos si ble haz ard fac tors within the whole ter rain. Proven en gi neer ing geo log i cal meth od ol o gies were em ployed for the haz ard as sess ment pro ce dure. Each of the fac tors was sub jected in di vid u ally to close ex am i na tion, with re sults recorded into a GIS in te grated in for ma tive layer, a...