Tasmanian Reserve Geoconservation Inventory Assessment Using Geographic Information Technology (GIT)

Abstract

Geoconservation is, at its foundation, a grass-roots movement with geoheritage found in geosites containing the most scientifically significant and valuable examples of geodiversity in geosites. Problems arise in the assessment and communication of inventory due to many reasons including lack of consistency in assessment strategies, lack of protections, and a range of traditionally time-consuming, ‘snapshot’ assessments that capture data via means that are not suitable for broadscale public consumption. The case study of Mount Wellington and the encompassing IUCN Category II Wellington Park Reserve was chosen to explore the complexities of geosite and geodiversity site assessment, detection and communication. We revised a 25-year-old inventory that had employed more traditional rapid in-field assessment and expert knowledge approaches, using digital tools. We configured the ‘Collector for ArcGIS’ app for in-field data collection with geoheritage and geodiversity site attributes to be assessed for scientific value, potential touristic use, and potential educational use. We used a combination of other digital tools, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, to present a comprehensively assessed and interactive online inventory of Wellington Park geosites. Our findings suggested that many of the putative geosites in the park had low or moderate scientific values. These sites possessed higher additional educational or touristic use values, especially in the public-facing zones of the park towards local urban centres. Though degradation risk to most sites was relatively low-moderate, due to the resistance of the doleritic geology of much of the park, the positioning of the public-facing zones of the park in close proximity to the major urban centre of Hobart risked adding additional impacts via increased visitation. The Wellington Park is a significant protected area that aims to tell an important story about the evolution of the periglaciated terrain and the endemic fauna and flora that depend upon it. In this sense, the possibility that not all putative geosites have high scientific value (and instead, might be better classed as geodiversity sites) is of limited concern, because the myriad geodiversity elements and additional value rankings (including 50% being highly ‘representative’ elements) provide an opportunity for all who visit the park to observe a coherent story about Tasmania in an easily accessible location. The opportunities realised in the creation of the digital inventory and assessment process are significant for managers however, because they allow for a number of improvements on issues that currently hamper practical geoconservation.