Abstract
Having a national geoheritage inventory is essential to plan effective geoconservation strategies. Since 2017, the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM) has been carrying out a project aimed at the Inventory of the Brazilian Geological Heritage and defined state coordinations to propose indicative lists of potential geosites based mainly on the scientific value (SV) according to the GEOSSIT platform. For the state of Sao Paulo, which was the first in Brazil to have a systematic geoheritage inventory, with 137 geosites already defined, this study intends to analyze them to propose some criteria to select the ones to compound the national list. Fifty-seven geosites were chosen according to both SV (≥ 300, following the requirements of GEOSSIT) and representativeness within each geological framework (when SV < 300). We also evaluated the selected geosites in other national initiatives, such as SIGEP (nine geosites) and the Geoparks Project (five geosites). The GEOSSIT public lists show only three of the 57 geosites already registered, a low number considering that these registrations are relevant indicators for the national inventory. The geosites were also analyzed according to the main thematic classification (eight main thematic categories, with a large number in the petrology theme - 35.10%) and general geological context (73.70% in the Mantiqueira, Parana, and Tocantins provinces and 26.30% in Emerged Phanerozoic Basins - Parana, Bauru, and Sao Paulo), according to the parameters available on GEOSSIT. The sites were also evaluated according to typology, being 33 points, 22 areas, and two sections. Regarding the statutory setting, 30% are in fully protected areas, 36% in public or private areas with non-effective statutory protection (APAs, marine land, paleontological sites, etc.), and 34% comprise public or private areas with no protection.
Highlights
Inventories of geological heritage have long been considered crucial instruments for making the initial diagnosis of geological interest sites in a particular area
The selection based on the above criteria has resulted in 57 geosites, distributed within the 11 geological frameworks established for the São Paulo State inventory (Figure 1)
Pioneering initiatives in geoconservation in Brazil, such as SIGEP, GEOSSIT Platform, and Geoparks Project, developed non-systematic, AD HOC-based inventories. These initiatives are useful in tracing an overview of the current status of the geological knowledge of the territory, this type of survey fails in promoting an adequate sampling of the most representative sites according to the national geological contexts
Summary
Inventories of geological heritage have long been considered crucial instruments for making the initial diagnosis of geological interest sites in a particular area. The data originated from these investigations are essential as bases for geoconservation planning The character of their outcomes controls further actions focused on land use (Brilha and Pereira 2014), scientific communication (Stewart and Nield 2013), dissemination of geosciences (Mansur 2009), geotourism (Moreira 2010) or geoparks planning (Nascimento et al 2015), among others. One of the classical bases of geological heritage conservation is the GEOSITES Project developed by the Working Group linked to the IUGS and promoted by UNESCO (Wimbledon 1996, 2011). The Project had as its prime objective to generate a world-based inventory of geologically relevant sites following a systematization by establishing frameworks that would guide their selection (Wimbledon 2011). Romão and Garcia (2017) investigated 61 geoheritage inventories developed in Brazil until 2017, based on the methods used for geosite selection and quantitative evaluation. Many works do not mention the inventory method applied
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