The ascent of man

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Gaia A New Look At Life On Earth

Due to the renewed interest for sites of geological interest, both in nature conservation and tourist sectors, numerous regional and national geosite inventories have been carried out in several countries during the last two decades. Several research groups discussed methodological issues, in particular concerning the assessment, and proposed various assessment methods. The University of Lausanne developed a method for assessing the scientific and additional values of geomorphosites in 2007. The method was widely used in regional inventories in Switzerland and abroad. This paper presents a new version of the method and discusses four main issues: (1) the assessment methodology is included in a larger process, from the selection of potential geomorphosites to their use and evaluation by stakeholders; (2) a particular attention is put on the selection of potential geomorphosites that will then be assessed and a simple approach crossing a spatial selection (the selected geomorphosites should be representative of the regional geomorphological processes) and a temporal one (the selected geomorphosites should cover the whole temporal stages of the regional morphogenesis, with both relict and active landforms) is proposed; (3) a new part is added in the assessment method; it concerns the use characteristics and fills a gap in the existing method; (4) finally, the paper discusses mapping and representation issues: specific maps are produced at two levels: simple geomorphological maps accompany the assessment of each geomorphosite and synthetic maps, covering the whole study area, are produced for the communication of results to stakeholders. For this, four types of representation (qualitative, univariate, bivariate, multivariate) are proposed. The method is illustrated by three examples of inventories carried out in Western Switzerland and Haute-Savoie (France).

Integrated Approach for the Inventory and Management of Geomorphological Heritage at the Regional Scale

During the two last decades, numerous inventories of geosites have been carried out at various scales. They aim at documenting the state of the geological heritage, which is the basis for management strategies. In very humanised regions, where the original geomorphology has been highly modified by human infrastructures, agriculture, urban sprawling and various modifications of landforms, it is important to inventory not only the landforms visible today but also former landforms destroyed or hidden by human activities. To address the issue of inventorying invisible geomorphosites, two approaches were tested in the Rhone River valley (Switzerland). The first was an inventory of geomorphosites of the study area. Not only the visible landforms but also the landforms that had completely disappeared were evaluated with the assessment method of the University of Lausanne. A total of 28 geomorphosites were assessed including five missing sites (two sand dunes areas, a braided sector of the Rhone River and two former marshes). These invisible geomorphosites were assessed and their management was discussed. The second study was a multi-method analysis of former landscapes of the nineteenth century. Several data including historical maps, written archives, digital terrain model and iconographic sources were combined and allowed the reconstruction of palaeolandscapes and landforms. Both materials are allowed proposing a strategy for geotourism development.

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How to Integrate Invisible Geomorphosites in an Inventory: a Case Study in the Rhone River Valley (Switzerland)

Demnate commune and High-Tessaout valley are located in the Moroccan central High-Atlas. They have a great and much diversified geological and geomorphological heritage and exceptional landscapes of high mountains. The data obtained from the current work indicate that the studied area present high tourist vocation, in the fact that this territory preserves a large number of geosites linked to many witnesses fossils of extinct animals such dinosaurs footprints, outcropping rock formations of the Precambrian and Mesozoic. Further, it has many remarkable landforms and geosites such as canyons, natural bridge, spectacular waterfalls and scree slopes. The findings support that the area attracts many tourists every year. However, this number remains restricted due to the lack of tools of promotion and mediation of its geoheritage and also due to the low exploitation of the geodiversity. Regarding this situation, geotouristic routes represented on touristic map appear as an essential tool for geotourism promotion and as an efficient means of geosciences popularisation. This paper illustrates three geotouristic routes describing the main geosites in rural areas of Demnate and High-Tessaout valley. These geotourism itineraries can help to explain the high potential interest of the studied areas in geotourism terms.

Mapping Geosites as Gateways to the Geotourism Management in Central High-Atlas (Morocco)

Cette recherche s'interesse aux temoins glaciaires des Chablais dans quatre de leurs dimensions : geopatrimoine, connaissance objective, inventaire de geosites et valorisation. Elle est organisee sur le canevas d'un processus de patrimonialisation auquel elle participe et qu'elle interroge a la fois. En 2009, debutait le projet 123 Chablais, pour une duree de quatre ans. Il concernait l'ensemble du territoire chablaisien, reparti sur deux pays (France et Suisse) et trois entites administratives (departement de la Haute-Savoie, cantons de Vaud et du Valais). Ce projet, elabore dans le cadre du programme Interreg IV France-Suisse, avait pour but de dynamiser le developpement economique local en s'appuyant sur les patrimoines regionaux. Le geopatrimoine, identifie comme une de ces ressources, faisait donc l'objet de plusieurs actions, dont cette recherche. En parallele, le Chablais haut-savoyard preparait sa candidature pour rejoindre l'European Geopark Network (EGN). Son integration, effective des 2012, a fait de ce territoire le cinquieme geoparc francais du reseau. Le Geopark Chablais fonde son identite geologique sur l'eau et la glace, deux thematiques intimement liees aux temoins glaciaires. Dans ce contexte d'interet pour le geopatrimoine local et en particulier pour le patrimoine glaciaire, plusieurs missions ont ete assignees a cette recherche qui devait a la fois ameliorer la connaissance objective des temoins glaciaires, inventorier les geosites glaciaires et valoriser le patrimoine glaciaire.Le premier objectif de ce travail etait d'acquerir une vision synthetique des temoins glaciaires. Il a necessite une etape de synthese bibliographique ainsi que sa spatialisation, afin d'identifier les lacunes de connaissance et la facon dont ce travail pouvait contribuer a les combler. Sur cette base, plusieurs methodes ont ete mises en œuvre : cartographie geomorphologique, reconstitution des lignes d'equilibre glaciaires et datations de blocs erratiques a l'aide des isotopes cosmogeniques produits in situ. Les cartes geomorphologiques ont ete elaborees en particulier dans les cirques et vallons glaciaires. Les datations cosmogeniques ont ete concentrees sur deux stades du glacier du Rhone : le Last Local Glacial Maximum (LLGM) et le stade de Monthey. Au terme de cette etape, les specificites du patrimoine glaciaire regional se sont revelees etre 1) une grande diversite de formes et des liens etroits avec differents autres processus geomorphologiques ; 2) une appartenance des temoins glaciaires a dix grandes etapes de la deglaciation du bassin lemanique.Le second objectif etait centre sur le processus d'inventaire des geosites glaciaires. Nous avons mis l'accent sur la selection du geopatrimoine en developpant une approche basee sur deux axes (temps et espace) identifies dans le volet precedent et avons ainsi realise un inventaire a themes, compose de 32 geosites. La structure de l'inventaire a egalement ete exploree de facon a integrer des criteres d'usage de ces geosites. Cette demarche, soutenue par une reflexion sur les valeurs attribuees au geopatrimoine et sur la facon d'evaluer ces valeurs, nous a permis de mettre en evidence le point de vue anthropo- et scientifico-centre qui prevaut nettement dans la recherche europeenne sur le geopatrimoine. L'analyse des resultats de l'inventaire a fait apparaitre quelques caracteristiques du patrimoine glaciaire chablaisien, discret, diversifie, et comportant deux specificites exploitables dans le cadre d'une mediation scientifique : son statut de « berceau de la theorie glaciaire » et ses liens etroits avec des activites de la vie quotidienne, en tant que matiere premiere, support de loisir ou facteur de risque. Cette recherche a debouche sur l'elaboration d'une exposition itinerante sur le patrimoine glaciaire des Chablais. Ce produit de valorisation geotouristique a ete concu pour sensibiliser la population locale a l'impact des glaciers sur son territoire.

Amandine Perret

Papers

Géopatrimoine des trois Chablais : identification et valorisation des témoins glaciaires