Principles for Developing a National Soil Heritage Inventory

Abstract

Geoconservation has gained a growing recognition in the last three decades. Significant steps have been given to identify, assess, and protect many geosites worldwide. Several countries have published national geosite inventories but quite often soils are not included in these inventories. Consequently, soils are usually disregarded in geoconservation strategies, in spite of they are geodiversity elements with different types of values that support crucial ecosystem services. Soils have multiple functions and provide valuable data to understand the recent Earth history. This work presents the bases to develop a national soil heritage inventory. This study was applied to Brazil that has a robust taxonomic system and a national soil database, which is a fundamental source of information. The inventory includes 384 pedosites with scientific value, considering the representativeness and rarity criteria. In addition, 220 pedosites were selected considering their importance for the Brazilian history of pedology, together with ex situ occurrences of soil heritage.

The Brazilian soil priorities

“…1), and Amazon Forest since the 20th century. To better use and preserve these environments, it is necessary to know and understand their pedodiversity and its values (Botelho and Brilha, 2022) also through an integrated approach (Paula Silva et al, 2021;Garcia et al, 2022).…”

Soil Trail as a Tool to Promote Cultural and Geoheritage: The Case Study of Mount Cusna Geosite (Northern Italian Apennines)

“…A pedosite was defined by Costantini and L'Abate [10] (p. 143) as a "georeferenced soil having cultural heritage, that is, a soil exposure or a soilscape where an extraordinary cultural interest has been recognised [11]". More recently, following the Brilha [8] approach applied for the geosites, Bothelo and Brilha [12] suggested that the term pedosite should be restricted to soil with high scientific value. Whereas, similarly to the geodiversity sites, the "sites of potential pedological interest" indicate those soils with no particular scientific relevance, but with educational, touristic, or other values [9].…”

Enhancement of Geoheritage and Development of Geotourism: Comparison and Inferences from Different Experiences of Communication through Art

“…An understanding of geoheritage could contribute to knowledge on geological and geomorphological characteristics, education, and public awareness on geoconservation and landscape protection issues. Moreover, the study of geosites promotes the process of developing laws on this topic, and the creation of databases useful for a better knowledge and conservation of geological heritage [9,10].…”