Quarrying and Geoconservation in the Republic of Ireland—the Effectiveness of Guidelines for Operators

The Role of Anthropogenic Landforms in Sustainable Landscape Management

“…Specific anthropogenic processes result in anthropogenic landforms (e.g., quarries, pits, communication cuttings and underground landforms) that can be considered important from the 2 of 16 scientific, educational, cultural, historical, environmental and tourism point of view [13][14][15]. These landforms have multiple functions: -They can be seen as elements that increase the overall landscape diversity [16] and positively influence biodiversity [17,18], especially disused quarries and flooded pits); -They provide information about landscape changes and modifications made in the past, and these can be an important resource for understanding the cultural and technical level of a society [19,20]; -They support an ecosystem service provisioning [21]; -They allow us to trace the use of geodiversity in the past and interpret cultural heritage in relation to abiotic nature [22], including the involvement of local communities [23,24] based on applying of historical ecology [25]; -They possess the potential for developing sustainable forms of tourism (or geotourism), which can positively affect local economic development [26,27]-they can be visually attractive [28] or allow us to interpret the technical aspects of using geodiversity resources, e.g., mining and industrial tourism [29,30]; -They allow us to observe stratigraphical, tectonic, palaeopedological and other Earth science features that would normally remain hidden and unrecorded in the literature or on geological maps [31,32] and the information can be used in both formal and informal education, and it is important from the conservation point of view [33]; -Landforms can be considered as an important stepping stones for biological species sensitive to fragmentation of landscape [34,35]; -Specific anthropogenic landforms form an inseparable part of items of cultural heritage, e.g., earth fortifications and ramparts and irrigation channels [36,37]; -In urban areas, the anthropogenic landforms allow us to interpret urban development [38] and they are an inseparable component of urban landscapes [39].…”

Geological Heritage of the Anthropocene Epoch—A Conceptual Viewpoint

“…Sometimes, the size of quarries and their importance as sources of raw materials make them very unique. Margiotta and Sansò [78], Parkes and Gatley [79], Prosser [80] and Todaro [81] demonstrated the geoconservation importance of quarries. Generally, geoheritage forms either result from geological activity of humans (i.e., these are "consequences" of the Anthropocene) or themselves retain the Anthropocene-linked heritage value or both.…”