Geotourism Potential in Karst Geosystems: An example from the Lund Warming Ramsar Site, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Towards Transferable Use of Terrain Ruggedness Component in the Geodiversity Index

“…If there is the potential for an ongoing research where study areas will be added, then it is sensible to calculate R at the beginning at a higher spatial level. However, if the purpose of the geodiversity evaluation is a special one (e.g., for geotourism [25,[80][81][82], educational [24,83,84] or other) within one set area, then it is not necessary to use data from higher levels that would also encompass other areas.…”

“…Two widely used methods of geodiversity assessment [4,16]-which have also been modified for geodiversity evaluation on micro- [17], mid-and large-scale [18] study areas [17,19] or evaluation purposes [12,20,21]-are the one developed by Pereira et al [22], which equals the G value to the sum of geological, geomorphological, paleontological, pedological and mineral occurrence sub-indices, and the second one by Serrano and Ruiz-Flaño [3], which divides the multiplication of all geodiversity elements in an area and the terrain ruggedness index (R) of that area with the value of the natural logarithm of the area. The second method, which is to be discussed in greater detail in this article, has been extensively used and applied at various levels-ranging from local [23] to landscape [10] ones-and geographic environments, for example karst [17,24,25] and even the seabed [19], among others. Even though extensive attention has been dedicated to the selection of the geodiversity elements [6], not so many studies discuss the terrain ruggedness (sometimes referred to as roughness [26,27] or rugosity [11]) and its significance in the formula.…”