Abstract
Scenic beauty is one of the most-commonly used indicators in the inventory and assessment of geosites for geoconservation, geoheritage management and geotourism development. It is an important driver of tourists to visit natural areas and it also provides support for the protection of natural heritage. Previous studies on scenic beauty mainly focused on landscape preference and physical characteristics of geosites that affect scenic beauty appreciation. The relationships between the scenic beauty of geosites, their scientific value and the geoscience knowledge of tourists has not been empirically investigated in detail. Hence, this study investigates this relationship using 34 geosites from southeastern Spain. For this purpose, 29 respondents with a geoscience background and who all visited the 34 geosites, 43 respondents with a geoscience background but who did not visit the geosites, and 104 respondents with no geoscience background and who did not visit the geosites, participated in a survey. The first group rated the scenic beauty and the scientific value of the geosites based on a direct field visit during which the scientific background of these geosites was given. On the other hand, the latter two groups rated scenic beauty using representative photos of the geosites. A five-point Likert scale was used to rate the scenic beauty and the scientific value of the geosites. We found a significant relationship between the scenic beauty of geosites and their scientific value, and this relationship becomes more significant if the geoscientific knowledge of the respondents increases. One-way ANOVA results indicated that a geoscience background contributed to higher perceived scenic beauty, especially for those geosites that in general were considered as more scenic by all the respondent groups. It was also found that geosites with viewpoints received in general higher scenic beauty and scientific value ratings.
Highlights
Geodiversity, which has been recognized as a concept worth investigating from the 1990s onwards, is in recent times more frequently introduced into scientific nomenclature
The mean scenic beauty rating by all the respondent groups is positively related to the scientific value of geosites (Figure 5d)
Geosites with a higher scientific value were rated higher for their scenic beauty, and those with lower scientific value were rated lower by all the respondent groups10(Foifg2-7 ures 4a–c and 5a–c)
Summary
Geodiversity, which has been recognized as a concept worth investigating from the 1990s onwards, is in recent times more frequently introduced into scientific nomenclature. It has aroused a strong interest of researchers from geology, geography, biology, spatial planning, general tourism as well as national geotourism and cultural heritage [1]. Geodiversity refers to the “natural range (diversity) of geological (rocks, minerals, fossils), geomorphological (landforms, topography, physical processes), soil (pedological) and hydrological features. It includes their assemblages, structures, systems and contributions to landscapes” In addition to its scientific value, geodiversity is an important resource for education, tourism and cultural identity of local communities [7]
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