Classification and Quantification of Urban Geodiversity and Its Intersection with Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Urban geodiversity is a complex entity that includes both natural and anthropogenic geological and geomorphological elements, thus requiring broad and interdisciplinary approach to its inventorying and assessment. To estimate and evaluate the widest possible range of urban geodiversity, and to explore the intersection between geo- and cultural heritage, an inventory of 615 natural and anthropogenic geological features of the city of Poznań, Poland, has been established. The preferences of the general public were studied to examine the possibilities of developing urban geotourism. Statistical analyses allowed the estimation of the reliability of the assessment method. The study shows that in the urban environment, anthropogenic geodiversity is rich, although in most cases it scores low in the evaluation. The results of the quantitative assessment reveal few significant correlations showing that the criteria used are not overlapping. However, the preferences of potential geotourists are not consistent with the outcome of the quantitative evaluation. Landforms significantly altered or completely destroyed by human geomorphosites, located in the city centre and close to tourist venues, were selected the most times by the users of the interactive map, but none of these geodiversity sites are included in existing geosite inventories, and most of them ranked low in the assessment process. Studies of potential geotourists’ preferences are therefore required before any strategy for tourism development is adopted. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12371-022-00693-w.

Outstanding Geoscientific Sites in Periurban Areas: the Case of Roses Lighthouse Geosite (Cap de Creus, eastern Pyrenees)

“…In the last decade, we have seen a substantial increasing interest in promoting and disseminating geological values in urban and periurban areas, as reflected in a large number of publications by the geoconservation research community (e.g., Rodrigues et al 2011 ; Del Monte et al 2013 ; Reynard et al 2017 ; Palacio-Prieto 2015 ; Petrović 2017 ; Habibi et al 2018 ; Leguizamón et al 2018 ; Capdevila-Werning 2020 ; Vegas and Díez-Herrero 2021 ). Most of these works agree in the diagnosis that protection of these spaces requires changing some prevailing strategies, eradicating the restrictive criteria of wilderness, and further exploring the relationships between geoheritage and cultural heritage (Pijet-Migon and Migon 2022 ; Wolniewicz 2022 ). Once these areas have been recognized and protected as assets of scientific interest, the fact that they are in publicly accessible zones can be considered as a good opportunity to make visible and disseminate geological heritage to society.…”

Collecting Rocks on the Frontier: Investigating the Geodiversity Significance of Historical Building Stones and Rock Collecting at the Maxey Homestead, Northwest Texas, USA

“…Scholars examine the representation of geodiversity and its geoheritage significance by studying building stones [1][2][3]. Building stones that are used as tiles, large slabs, or bricks to construct prehistoric and historic structures can reveal an ex situ geoarchive of the Earth's history [4], serve as an index of a landscape's geodiversity [5], promote geoheritage awareness [6,7], and symbolize community identity [8][9][10].…”

Earth Science Frontier at Urban Periphery: Geoheritage from the Vicinity of Kazan City, Russia

“…Geoheritage studies constitute an important direction of contemporary earth science [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Significant attention has been paid to urban geoheritage, which also displays notable interactions between the geological and cultural environments [18][19][20][21][22][23]. Particularly, unique geological and/or geomorphological objects have been reported from such different cities as Bucharest (Romania) [24], Cairo (Egypt) [25], La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) [26], Mexico (Mexico) [27], and Shiraz (Iran) [28].…”