Bridging Terrestrial and Marine Geoheritage: Assessing Geosites in Portofino Natural Park (Italy)

Coratza, Paola; Vandelli, Vittoria; Fiorentini, Lara; Paliaga, Guido; Faccini, Francesco

doi:10.3390/w11102112

Cited by 39 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Numerous methods are described in literature for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of geoheritage and geosites in various contexts (cf. [63,64]): Environmental Impact Assessment and territorial planning (e.g., [65][66][67][68]); inventory of natural heritage sites (e.g., [53,58,[69][70][71]); tourist promotion (e.g., [72][73][74][75][76]); management of nature parks and geoheritage (e.g., [77][78][79][80][81]). A complete review of methods for the assessment of geosites has been recently published by Brilha [82].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geoheritage as a Tool for Environmental Management: A Case Study in Northern Malta (Central Mediterranean Sea)

et al. 2019

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The recognition, selection and quantitative assessment of sites of geological and geomorphological interest are fundamental steps in any environmental management focused on geoconservation and geotourism promotion. The island of Malta, in the central Mediterranean Sea, despite having a steadily increasing growth in population and tourism, still conserves geological and geomorphological features of great relevance and interest, both for their contribution to the understanding of the geological processes acting through time on landscape and for their aesthetic importance. The present work proposes an inventory for northern Malta, through three main stages, with the outcome of a final list of geosites that have the potential to be recognized as both natural heritage and tourist resources with potential economic benefits. In particular, the assessment methodology applied combines scientific value and additional and use-values, showing the links existing between geoheritage and other aspects of nature and culture of the sites. The results provide useful knowledge for the definition of strategies aimed at the development of a sustainable and responsible tourism.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geoheritage as a Tool for Environmental Management: A Case Study in Northern Malta (Central Mediterranean Sea)

et al. 2019

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“…Portofino village is visited by more than 1 million people every year, while tourists reaching San Fruttuoso by boat exceed 400,000. Over 80 km of footpaths are developed, with the well-used tracks accommodating more than 75,000 hikers per year [45,46]. Geology is characterized by the Conglomerate, that includes the south facing portion of the promontory, and by the marly limestone flysch (Mt.…”

Section: Geomorphological Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The scope of our research has been identifying and mapping dry stone wall terraces in an area that has been modified by human action from, at least, the Middle Ages [8,23] period and evaluating the spatial relationships with the possible risk-exposed elements. The Monte di Portofino promontory is famous both for its landscape and its high natural value, attracting more than 1 million between tourists and hikers per year [45,46]. The territory has been strongly modified in the recent 50/70 years: the prevailing agricultural land was devoted to the cultivation of olive trees and wine until the half of the XX century, when it was gradually replaced by tourism [8,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terraced Landscapes on Portofino Promontory (Italy): Identification, Geo-Hydrological Hazard and Management

Paliaga

Luino

Turconi

et al. 2020

Water

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Stone wall terraces are a largely investigated topic in research for both their landscape and cultural/historical value. Terraces are anthropogenic landforms that interact with natural processes and need permanent maintenance to preserve their functionality. In the Mediterranean region, ground effects related to intense rain events often involve terraced slopes that, in some situations, are directly sourced areas of debris/mud flow. Starting from the 1950s, the changing socio-economic conditions caused the abandonment of large portions of rural areas. Nowadays, at the catchment scale, it is frequently difficult recognizing stone wall terraces because of their abandonment and the uncontrolled re-vegetation. This research faces the issue of identifying terraces in the Monte di Portofino promontory, which is internationally famous for its high-value natural and landscape involving broad anthropogenic modifications dating back to the Middle Ages. A remote sensing application, with LIDAR data and orthophotography, identified terraces on the Portofino promontory, enabling investigating even barely accessible areas and increasing knowledge on the territory. The aim of this paper is first of all to point out the presence of such anthropogenic morphologies in the promontory of Monte di Portofino and then to asses and highlight the related hazard. In fact, terraces can be a source of debris/hyper-concentrated flow with highly damaging power, as occurred in the recent years in neighboring areas during particularly intense hydrological events. Then, terraced area mapping, including in use and in abandonment information, is crucial to perform a spatial relationship analysis that includes hazard-exposed elements and to evaluate the possible connectivity factor of buildings, infrastructures, tourism facilities and Cultural Heritage within the hydrographical network.

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“…Geosites-or geodiversity sites (sensu Brilha [183])-are places of a certain value due to human perception or exploitation and include geological elements with high scientific, educational, aesthetic, and cultural importance [71]. Geosites and key geodiversity areas are often protected areas thanks to different directives (e.g., EU Habitat Directive, 1992; OSPAR Convention, 1992; EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, 2008).…”

Section: Geoheritage and Geodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Geoheritage and geodiversity have been investigated mainly in terrestrial environments [71] and references therein, while only a few studies on this topic refer to underwater environments (cf. [62][63][64]66]).…”

Section: Geoheritage and Geodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Seven Good Reasons for Integrating Terrestrial and Marine Spatial Datasets in Changing Environments

Prampolini

Savini

Foglini

et al. 2020

Water

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A comprehensive understanding of environmental changes taking place in coastal regions relies on accurate integration of both terrestrial and submerged geo-environmental datasets. However, this practice is hardly implemented because of the high (or even prohibitive) survey costs required for submerged areas and the frequent low accessibility of shallow areas. In addition, geoscientists are used to working on land or at sea independently, making the integration even more challenging. Undoubtedly new methods and techniques of offshore investigation adopted over the last 50 years and the latest advances in computer vision have played a crucial role in allowing a seamless combination of terrestrial and marine data. Although efforts towards an innovative integration of geo-environmental data from above to underwater are still in their infancy, we have identified seven topics for which this integration could be of tremendous benefit for environmental research: (1) geomorphological mapping; (2) Late-Quaternary changes of coastal landscapes; (3) geoarchaeology; (4) geoheritage and geodiversity; (5) geohazards; (6) marine and landscape ecology; and (7) coastal planning and management. Our review indicates that the realization of seamless DTMs appears to be the basic condition to operate a comprehensive integration of marine and terrestrial data sets, so far exhaustively achieved in very few case studies. Technology and interdisciplinarity will be therefore critical for the development of a holistic approach to understand our changing environments and design appropriate management measures accordingly.

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Bridging Terrestrial and Marine Geoheritage: Assessing Geosites in Portofino Natural Park (Italy)

Cited by 39 publications

References 83 publications

Geoheritage as a Tool for Environmental Management: A Case Study in Northern Malta (Central Mediterranean Sea)

Geoheritage as a Tool for Environmental Management: A Case Study in Northern Malta (Central Mediterranean Sea)

Terraced Landscapes on Portofino Promontory (Italy): Identification, Geo-Hydrological Hazard and Management

Seven Good Reasons for Integrating Terrestrial and Marine Spatial Datasets in Changing Environments

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