A New Methodological Contribution for the Geodiversity Assessment: Applicability to Ceará State (Brazil)

Abstract

The concept of geodiversity aggregates the abiotic elements of nature and promotes the geoconservation. The main objective of this work is to contribute to the upgrade of the method for the assessment and quantification of geodiversity proposed by . The method is based on the superposition of a regular grid of 12 × 12 km on different maps (lithology, geomorphology, soil, paleonthology, mineral and geological energy resources) at scales of 1:250,000 to 1:600,000. In addition to other upgrades, the water resources are regarded here as a new component to consider when quantifying geodiversity. The sum of these maps generated the quantitative Map of Geodiversity Indices and the Map of Geodiversity Assessment, ranging from very low to very high geodiversity. The analysis of the geodiversity map of the State of Ceará (Brazil) shows the applicability and advantage of this method, highlighting two regions with higher levels of geodiversity (Northwest and South) and another region with the lowest levels (Sertões Cearenses). The results also allowed the characterization of the State of Ceará concerning the individual components of the geodiversity, especially the water resources. Geodiversity indices and maps are comprehensive and user-friendly data in the territorial planning, considering the geodiversity either as a whole, or each of its components, especially the more sensitive such as fossil conservation, and water, mineral, and nonrenewable energy resources management.

Geodiversity: An integrative review as a contribution to the sustainable management of the whole of nature

“…A quantitative characterisation seems to be more useful to researchers. Several recent studies and methodologies present and discuss geodiversity indices using map algebra with GIS techniques Pereira et al, 2013;Malinowska and Szumacher, 2013;Silva et al, 2013Silva et al, , 2015Melelli, 2014;Pellitero et al, 2014;Kot, 2015;Martinez-Grana et al, 2015;Manosso and Nóbrega, 2016;Argyriou et al, 2016;Araujo and Pereira, 2017;Forte et al, 2018). The objectivity and simplicity of using GIS analysis of geographical data during the data collection allow cartographic representations of geodiversity or partial geodiversity indices and the overlay with other types of spatial data.…”

A geomorphodiversity map of the Soutpansberg Range, South Africa

“…However, for line density calculation, we used river systems derived from the DEM. The fluvial channels were extracted through semi-automatic calculations in SAGA GIS and the Strahler's hierarchical classification of channels was applied at level seven (Araujo, Pereira 2018). This was necessary in order to include waterways that are not captured in the DWAFF system.…”

Exploring Hawaiian long-term insular geodiversity dynamics

“…Island ages are taken from Eckstut et al (2011) methods (Pellitero et al 2015), while the procedure recognizes qualitative, quantitative and combined qualitative-quantitative methods (Zwoliński et al 2017). Quantitative methods include geodiversity indices (GDIs), that calculate the variety in a predefined grid or unit (Serrano and Ruiz-Flaño 2007, Araujo and Pereira 2017, Melelli et al 2017, or use a weighting and ranking scoring system Stachowiak 2012, Pereira et al 2013) to assess a value of geodiversity. Pellitero et al (2015) and Zwoliński et al (2017) provide a more complete overview of geodiversity research and assessment methods.…”

“…However, in geodiversity assessments, such temporal aspects are scarce and hardly developed. This is probably related to the broad purposes and applications of most geodiversity studies, and because geodiversity is still going through a process of conceptual self-affirmation (Araujo and Pereira 2017).…”

“…Broadly, geodiversity and its quantification have their roots in geoconservation and scientific applications (Gray 2013, Zwoliński et al 2017, with a focus on geoheritage and geotourism (Zwoliński and Stachowiak 2012, Knight et al 2015, Newsome andDowling 2017), nature conservation (Burek andProsser 2008, Pellitero et al 2011), and land management (Pereira et al 2013, Seijmonsbergen et al 2014, Pellitero et al 2015, Silva et al 2015, Najwer et al 2016, Araujo and Pereira 2017. More recently, (com-ponents of) geodiversity have been used to explain the distribution of biodiversity resulting from landscape patterns (Hjort et al 2015, Bailey et al 2017.…”