The scope, definition, and appreciation of landscapes, as highlighted by geotourism historical studies, has varied over time. Landscapes are a physical, scientific, and cultural construct; approaches to landscape management studies reflect the interplay of these, together with socio-economic and political tensions. There is considerable need to improve the type, scale and number of landscape management approaches, models, and studies to best conserve such natural resources – especially by limiting the negative impacts of humankind’s interference and climate change. Given geotourism is a form of sustainable tourism focused on the environmental and cultural appreciation of, and incorporating in its broadest scope education about, earth science sites it is a useful paradigm to apply to such futureproofing work, especially within seeming fragile Quaternary landscapes.
Consequently, with the widespread awareness of evolving significant changes in modern polar, present and former glaciated and periglacial regions, it is appropriate to examine such landscapes from the geotourism perspective as Quaternary relict glacial geoheritage. The Quaternary Period – divided into the Pleistocene (2.58 Mya to 11.7 Kya and the Holocene (11.7 Kya to the present-day) epochs – created landscapes that reflect the effects of cyclical glacial erosion and deposition, advance and retreat. The Pleistocene climate alternated over a wide range of timescales between periods, separated by warm interglacial times, of severely cold glacial activity. At the margins of that glacial activity, periglacial environments also extended and decreased. The volume of ice locked up during cold glacial times led to lower global sea levels, whilst the warm interglacial times correlate with higher sea levels, than the present-day. The Holocene is really an interglacial period, the end of which is overdue. It corresponds with the rapid population increase and global spread of modern humans.
Strictly Quaternary landscapes vary in scale and altitude; from continental ice sheets to valley glaciers, and from high mountains and (including loess) plateaus to coastal (including marsh and dune systems) lowlands; they are threatened by natural processes, some of which are escalating in significance due to climate change, extractive industry developments, changing agricultural practices, transport and tourism infrastructure schemes and the impacts of increasing tourist numbers; the latter especially in formerly remote and inaccessible, and specifically in geoparks and protected, areas. Hence, there is an obvious need to better understand and disseminate research on the characteristics of Quaternary landscapes, especially as they pertain to geoconservation and sustainable management for tourism – that is, true geotourism.
This Research Topic focuses on the sustainable management of Quaternary landscapes for and by tourism through reconciling competing land uses, natural resource needs, and stakeholder expectations and aspirations. Hence, papers are invited for submission that:
- combine studies of such landscape analyses, their benefits for stakeholders (from individuals and – particularly Indigenous – communities to businesses and various levels of government), to underpin sustainable landscape management and geoconservation.
- combine such studies and explore the markets that politicise and monetize stakeholder benefits to underpin sustainable landscape management and geoconservation.
- combine such studies and explore them within the context of protected and promoted Quaternary landscapes, such as national parks and geoparks.
- explore new and innovative ways of thinking about and promoting earth science awareness and contemporary issues through Quaternary landscape-based projects and studies.
- examine other Quaternary landscape-based themes related to sustainable management and geoconservation.
Keywords:
geoheritage, geotourism, glacial, landscape management, quaternary, sustainable tourism
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
The scope, definition, and appreciation of landscapes, as highlighted by geotourism historical studies, has varied over time. Landscapes are a physical, scientific, and cultural construct; approaches to landscape management studies reflect the interplay of these, together with socio-economic and political tensions. There is considerable need to improve the type, scale and number of landscape management approaches, models, and studies to best conserve such natural resources – especially by limiting the negative impacts of humankind’s interference and climate change. Given geotourism is a form of sustainable tourism focused on the environmental and cultural appreciation of, and incorporating in its broadest scope education about, earth science sites it is a useful paradigm to apply to such futureproofing work, especially within seeming fragile Quaternary landscapes.
Consequently, with the widespread awareness of evolving significant changes in modern polar, present and former glaciated and periglacial regions, it is appropriate to examine such landscapes from the geotourism perspective as Quaternary relict glacial geoheritage. The Quaternary Period – divided into the Pleistocene (2.58 Mya to 11.7 Kya and the Holocene (11.7 Kya to the present-day) epochs – created landscapes that reflect the effects of cyclical glacial erosion and deposition, advance and retreat. The Pleistocene climate alternated over a wide range of timescales between periods, separated by warm interglacial times, of severely cold glacial activity. At the margins of that glacial activity, periglacial environments also extended and decreased. The volume of ice locked up during cold glacial times led to lower global sea levels, whilst the warm interglacial times correlate with higher sea levels, than the present-day. The Holocene is really an interglacial period, the end of which is overdue. It corresponds with the rapid population increase and global spread of modern humans.
Strictly Quaternary landscapes vary in scale and altitude; from continental ice sheets to valley glaciers, and from high mountains and (including loess) plateaus to coastal (including marsh and dune systems) lowlands; they are threatened by natural processes, some of which are escalating in significance due to climate change, extractive industry developments, changing agricultural practices, transport and tourism infrastructure schemes and the impacts of increasing tourist numbers; the latter especially in formerly remote and inaccessible, and specifically in geoparks and protected, areas. Hence, there is an obvious need to better understand and disseminate research on the characteristics of Quaternary landscapes, especially as they pertain to geoconservation and sustainable management for tourism – that is, true geotourism.
This Research Topic focuses on the sustainable management of Quaternary landscapes for and by tourism through reconciling competing land uses, natural resource needs, and stakeholder expectations and aspirations. Hence, papers are invited for submission that:
- combine studies of such landscape analyses, their benefits for stakeholders (from individuals and – particularly Indigenous – communities to businesses and various levels of government), to underpin sustainable landscape management and geoconservation.
- combine such studies and explore the markets that politicise and monetize stakeholder benefits to underpin sustainable landscape management and geoconservation.
- combine such studies and explore them within the context of protected and promoted Quaternary landscapes, such as national parks and geoparks.
- explore new and innovative ways of thinking about and promoting earth science awareness and contemporary issues through Quaternary landscape-based projects and studies.
- examine other Quaternary landscape-based themes related to sustainable management and geoconservation.
Keywords:
geoheritage, geotourism, glacial, landscape management, quaternary, sustainable tourism
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.