Geodiversity of proglacial areas and implications for geosystem services: A review

Bollati, Irene; Viani, Cristina; Masseroli, Anna; Mortara, G.; Testa, Bruno; Tronti, Gianluca; Pelfini, Manuela; Reynard, Emmanuel

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2022.108517

Cited by 20 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 211 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Moreover, wherever they interfere with an established land use, communication network, or safety regulations, they become quickly obliterated unless they are very large. The landform record of environmental change in European high mountains since the end of the Little Ice Age (c. end of the 19th century) is an exception, appearing in focus in some Alpine countries [56,93,94]. The recent study about the retreat of the Aletsch glacier in Switzerland [95] is a pioneering work which is likely to inspire similar studies elsewhere.…”

Section: Geosites and Ongoing Climate Changementioning

confidence: 98%

Geosites and Climate Change—A Review and Conceptual Framework

Migoń

2024

Geosciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Geosites are windows into the geological past, which may be recorded in rocks and their properties, the fossil content, and landform produced by processes no longer operating. Since the histories of sedimentation, life, and landscape evolution are to a certain extent controlled by climatic conditions, some geosites may be used as illustrations of various themes linked to the issue of climate change. In this paper, a coherent systematic framework is proposed for how to look at geosites through the lens of climate change. Four major aspects of relevance are recognized: (i) geosites providing evidence of changing climatic conditions in the past; (ii) geosites providing evidence of an environment different than that of today at the place; (iii) geosites providing evidence of extreme weather events; and (iv) dynamic geosites, subject to change as a response to ongoing climate change. The use of geosites to raise awareness and educate the public about climate change faces various interpretation challenges. In particular, linking with ongoing climate change requires caution and balanced presentation as most geosites record changes which occurred without any anthropogenic component. The preferred focus should be on environmental instability in general rather than on any specific reasons for change.

show abstract

Section: Geosites and Ongoing Climate Changementioning

confidence: 98%

Geosites and Climate Change—A Review and Conceptual Framework

Migoń

2024

Geosciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, in this article, we will focus only on active glacial landscape, i.e., with the presence of a glacier and currently experiencing glacial processes. In mountain environments, an active glacial landscape includes the glacier itself, its proglacial margin or glacier foreland, which is generally understood to be the area located between the LIA moraines and the current position of the glacier snout (Bollati et al, 2023), and the surrounding area, potentially including Holocene and Lateglacial moraines and other geomorphological processes and landforms, such as the ones resulting from paraglacial adjustment (Ballantyne, 2002;Cossart, Braucher, Fort, Bourlès, & Carcaillet, 2008;Mercier, 2008), if they are located in the same landscape unit.…”

Section: Heritage Value Of Glacial Landscapes: a Temporal Scale Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation of World Heritage glacial landscapes in a changing climate: The Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch case

Bussard,

Reynard

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many glacial landscapes on all continents are inscribed on the World Heritage List. Due to climate change, most of the glaciers are retreating rapidly, thus questioning their Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). Ice loss could indeed reduce or modify the heritage values of the UNESCO World Heritage properties where glaciers are the core of the OUV and even question their inscription on the World Heritage List. In a future with fewer or without glaciers, at least two components of the OUV of World Heritage glacial landscapes could be affected: the aesthetic value (criterion vii), which could be reduced if glaciers disappear, and the geoheritage value (criterion viii), which is partly based on current glaciological processes that would no longer exist without ice. This presentation aims to clarify what constitute the heritage values of glacial landscapes and outlines how they could evolve in a future with less (or without) ice. For two sites in the UNESCO Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch property (the Great Aletsch Glacier and the Upper Lauterbrunnen Valley), we describe the evolution of the glacial landscape using a Past-Present-Future framework. We then evaluate the present and post-glacial heritage values according to criteria used in the literature on geomorphosites. We outline two main issues: 1. The two sites are characterized by a very high palaeogeographical interest: the inherited glacial landforms around the Great Aletsch Glacier and Lake Oberhorn have allowed the reconstruction of Holocene glacial stages. In the future, the inherited landforms of high palaeogeographical interest and the para- and periglacial processes that develop in post-glacier conditions are likely to gain interest, while the dynamics of the glacier itself, which is an important part of the current geoscientific value, will decline and even be lost when the glacier disappears. As glaciers retreat, the geoscientific value will therefore depend more and more on the inherited glacial landforms, which allow the understanding of the Earth and climate history, and less and less on the glacier itself and its dynamics. As the inherited landforms can be fragile, are non-renewable and will become more central to the heritage value, their protection is an issue. 2. The aesthetic value of glacial landscapes could decrease because of the disappearance of the glacier (landscape greying). One possible adaptation could be a shift from glacier tourism, which is mainly oriented towards the contemplation of an aesthetic landscape, to geotourism, where the understanding of landscape evolution is proposed to the public.

show abstract

“…Vulnerable glaciers have been equated with 'endangered species' [106,107], leading to their becoming 'last chance tourism' (LCT) attractions [49,72,86,88,108,109]. On the other hand, new attractions, such as developments or extensions of glacier lakes with icebergs, have appeared, as in Iceland, New Zealand, and the Alps [67,[110][111][112], and the evolution of proglacial areas may provide new landforms and geomorphological processes of interest to visitors and have educational value [113,114].…”

Section: Climate Change Impacts On Geotourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change and Geotourism: Impacts, Challenges, and Opportunities

Gordon

2023

Tourism and Hospitality

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate change and rising sea levels present significant challenges for geotourism destinations and activities. Accelerated changes in geomorphological processes threaten or diminish both the physical existence and aesthetic qualities of geoheritage assets, and hence the visitor experience, as well as presenting increased or new risks from natural hazards. This is particularly a concern in mountain and coastal areas, and also where greater extremes of temperature and precipitation affect visitor comfort. A literature review was conducted to assess the extent to which the consequences of climate change have been recognised in geotourism research. With the exception of glacier-based geotourism, few studies have considered the impacts of climate change and reported the planning or development of adaptation measures. However, the didactic potential of geotourism in raising awareness of climate change has been commonly recognised. A review of the wider tourism literature identified additional destination-supply and visitor-demand issues that will affect the sustainability of geotourism in the face of climate change. These include changes in visitor motivations, travel behaviour, perceptions of destination image, and reactions to local, national, and international mitigation and adaptation responses, as well as geoethical considerations around carbon footprints and sustainable modes of travel. Situating geotourism within a broader body of multidisciplinary tourism research should help inform adaptation strategies in conjunction with measures to adapt to the physical impacts of climate change on geotourism sites.

show abstract

Geodiversity of proglacial areas and implications for geosystem services: A review

Cited by 20 publications

References 211 publications

Geosites and Climate Change—A Review and Conceptual Framework

Geosites and Climate Change—A Review and Conceptual Framework

Conservation of World Heritage glacial landscapes in a changing climate: The Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch case

Climate Change and Geotourism: Impacts, Challenges, and Opportunities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About