Geological resources are basic elements that have shaped both the course of human history and characteristics of human society. Protection of their imprint on our landscapes underlies the field of nature conservation known as geoconservation. Explicitly from 1991—when the term “geoheritage” was used at the First International Symposium on the Conservation of our Geological Heritage—a large body of literature has been produced with multiple conceptualizations. In response to challenges in finding a common definition of geoconservation, a systematic mapping of the scientific literature was undertaken to define key concepts supported by scientific evidence. The aim of this study was understanding the evolution of the research field between 2000 and 2019 to improve conceptual clarity. Relevant databases such as Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Scopus were searched, resulting in the identification of a total of 2478 studies. A method of systematic mapping with supervised keyword acquisition was used to assess geoheritage conservation documents. The analysis uncovered four recurrent concepts, each one describing a very different scope for geoheritage conservation: i) geoscience focus; ii) aligned conservation methods for geo- and biodiversity; iii) the concept of geomorphosites, as a leading resource for geoparks; iv) emphasis on community involvement for sustainability. For characterization of the concept groups, 70 findings were identified as primary articles following criteria implemented through direct reading. These criteria were derived from the identified keywords of each concept group. The information gained by the process allowed us to characterize and list all the major standpoints present in the scientific literature.

地质资源是塑造人类历史进程和人类社会特征的基本要素。保护它们在我们景观上的烙印是自然保护领域（地质保护）的基础。从1991年开始，当在第一届国际地质遗产保护国际研讨会上使用“ geoheritage”一词时，就产生了大量具有多种概念的文献。为了应对在寻找地球保护的通用定义时遇到的挑战，对科学文献进行了系统地制图，以定义由科学证据支持的关键概念。这项研究的目的是了解2000年至2019年研究领域的发展，以提高概念的清晰度。相关数据库，例如Google Scholar，Science Direct，检索了Scopus和Scopus，总共鉴定了2478个研究。一种系统的映射与监督关键字获取的方法被用来评估地质遗迹保存文件。分析发现了四个经常性的概念，每个概念都描述了一个非常不同的地质遗迹保护范围：ii）统一的地球和生物多样性保护方法；iii）地貌的概念，作为地质公园的主要资源；iv）强调社区参与以实现可持续性。为了表征概念组，按照通过直接阅读实施的标准，将70项发现确定为主要文章。这些标准是从每个概念组的已识别关键字中得出的。