Aesthetic properties of geological heritage landscapes: Evidence from the Lagonaki Highland (Western Caucasus, Russia)

Abstract

Beauty adds value to unique geological features because the former is important for tourist emotional satisfaction. Aesthetic properties of geological heritage landscapes (landscapes dominated by unique geological phenomena) should be distinguished from their aesthetic attractiveness. Field studies permit ranging all basic aesthetic properties according to their local importance. The same information allows realizing appearance of the properties, which can be either positive or negative. The aesthetic properties of a world-class geosite representing ancient carbonate platform and diverse karst features, namely the Lagonaki Highland (western part of the Greater Caucasus Mountains) are examined. It is established that the Lagonaki Highland has physical parameters that determine a specific set of aesthetic properties. Three most important aesthetic properties of the studied object are openness, pattern, and uniqueness. These properties match the expected tourists' idea of beauty, and, thus, the geological heritage landscape of the Lagonaki Highland is characterized by significant aesthetic attractiveness, which is important for tourism development.

Dispersed Geoheritage Points of the Lagonaki Highland, SW Russia: Contribution to Local Geoheritage Resource

“…Most often, it is treated as an area restricted to the Stonesea Range and the surrounding cuesta-type mountain ranges. In this case, this is one single geosite of global value [12]. However, the Lagonaki Highland can be interpreted as a bigger geographical domain that includes also wide peripheries of the above-mentioned core and some other ranges (e.g., the Azish-Tau Range).…”

“…Geoheritage landscapes are landscapes occupying areas of certain size (big or small) dominated by well-visible, unique geological features [12]. Such landscapes are characterized by multiple, potentially-interesting (to scientists, educators, and tourists) phenomena that can be represented either in geosites or other outcrops.…”

“…Generally, this elevated (~2000 m) territory is a domain of the Cenozoic fold-and-thrust belt of the Greater Caucasus, and it is dominated by the Late Jurassic carbonate platform deposits accumulated in a back-arc basin, numerous epikarst and endokarst features, and cuesta-type mountain ranges. The high geoheritage value of the Lagonaki Highland is undisputable and already established [12], as well as its resource potential for science, education, and tourism. However, a kind of challenge of this geoheritage resource exploitation is its big size and manifestation of unique features in numerous, small, and often difficult-to-access localities.…”

Geo-Heritage Specific Visibility as an Important Parameter in Geo-Tourism Resource Evaluation

“…Undoubtedly, a beautiful tourist site makes a site more attractive (and this also makes tourist experience more enjoyable) [13]. Although such an idea may differ significantly, there are some universal criteria for individual and group judgments of what is beautiful and what is not [32][33][34].…”

Karst as Important Resource for Geopark-Based Tourism: Current State and Biases

“…Second, karst objects have been essential sites of nature-based tourism long before the very appearance of the idea of geological heritage and geotourism; for instance, many caves are open to excursions or attract amateur speleologists [15,22]. Third, karst features are distinguished by significant, sometimes outstanding aesthetic attractiveness [23,24] and their natural beauty directly appeals to the criteria of beauty expected of a tourist destination/attraction [25]. Fourth, karst phenomena are closely tied to the archaeological, historical, and ethnocultural peculiarities of some areas (e.g., some caves were populated by ancient humans or served as shelters in historical times).…”