Methodological Proposal for the Inventory and Assessment of Geomorphosites: An Integrated Approach focused on Territorial Management and Geoconservation

Geoconservation has been growing in importance within the environmental management context. The conservation of geological heritage is being more and more recognised as an essential issue in nature conservation. Inventories of geosites are considered basic steps in geoconservation strategies and constitute a tool to support management considering the sites’ values, use potential and risks of degradation. There are dozens of proposed methods to create inventories and to perform qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the sites and there are still discussions concerning the issues of how to select and evaluate sites and provide management guidelines. Geomorphosites are geosites with geomorphological nature and it is a category that presents some peculiarities highlighted in the literature. This work aimed at proposing a method for inventorying and assessing geomorphosites designed for territorial management focused on the use potential of the sites, divided into scientific, educational and geotouristic uses, the promotion conditions and the risks of degradation. The method was applied to the southeast coast of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, which has a high geomorphological diversity. The result was the creation of an inventory of geomorphosites in which all sites were described and quantitatively assessed, creating a product that can be easily applied in the management of the sites. The objective of this work was to contribute to the methodological discussions and to strengthen the insertion of geoconservation on territorial management.