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Geoparks and landscapes - functional modeling for cultural and ecological sustainability

Contact: Lennart Bornmalm, Univ. Gothenburg, Sweden; lennart.bornmalm@marine.gu.se 

Geoparks are areas of geologic interest, but in many instances they are extensively related to the local and regional landscapes. Therefore, the interaction of ecology and society within these settings is understandable only if a "landscape perspective" is applied. The UNESCO network of Geoparks has also stressed the inter-dependencies of geo-heritage, cultural heritage and sustainable ecology.  

The aim is to develop a model that can be adapted and used to understand the crucial, functional relationships between system variables and how these variables can be optimized for sustainable landscape management. The model can be built using management variables and best available practices derived from the comparisons. This case study topic can be applied to most any landscape, and this diversity will itself help increase an understanding of the range of variables and their functional relationships. The papers below illustrate how this case-study work developed several settings. With some adaption, a similar format used for new examples.


 

Geosystem services and Open Source GIS 

Contact: Martin Person, martin.persson@norconsult.com   

Related to the geodiversity theme of Geoparks and Landscapes, the concept of "Geosystem Services" has been used to consider the subsurface abiotic resources, such as minerals, water, geothermal energy, rock and space itself. Sustainable exploitation of these resources requires management strategies. GIS is a suitable tool for modeling and management objectives. This offers an additional case study alternative, as described in the file below.

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