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An Assessment Method for Urban Geoheritage as a Model for Environmental Awareness and Geotourism (Segovia, Spain)

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Abstract

The City Council of Segovia, as part of the Second Environmental Education Strategy of the Autonomous Region of Castile & Leon (Spain), together with the Geological Survey of Spain (Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, IGME), has developed a research project to implement the management of urban geoheritage in the Department of the Environment, with the integration of other council departments. Top ten areas, called ELIGES (Spanish acronym for Areas with Geosites for Environmental Education in the city of Segovia, Spain), have been selected from the 94 geosites previously identified for this city. The assessment method was developed specifically with the idea of using geoheritage for environmental education and geotourism at the local level. The assessment criteria used were (1) Value for environmental education (Ved); (2) Scientific value (Vsc); (3) Tourism value (Vtr); (4) Safety and accessibility (Vsa); (5) Conservation and site sustainability (Vcs) and (6) Value of the geosite’s environmental information for geotourism (Vti). These criteria have been assessed for the 94 geosites in the city of Segovia, each of which in turn includes four subcriteria to minimise subjectivity in the decision-making process. Environmental challenges transmitted by the ELIGES are global change and climate change (sea level, temperature changes and extreme storms), geohazards (mainly floods, landslides and rockfalls), groundwater contamination, extinction of species, impacts caused by the exploitation of raw materials, degradation of rocks by pollution in monuments, the harmful and damaging effects of naturally occurring radon on human health and recommendations for collecting and trading movable geological heritage. Understanding the city’s geological past and present through environmental education and geotourism using ELIGES makes all stakeholders more resilient when tackling important issues in our society such as global change and its effects on the urban ecosystem and people.

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Acknowledgments

We especially thank the staff of the Environmental Dept. (Segovia City Council): councillors and technicians responsible for environmental education (F. Arroyo) and Parks and Gardens (L. Yoldi, V. Esteban, J. Velázquez and Á. Pecharromán); the staff of the Dept. of Works and Services (A.L. Ayuso) and the Municipal Information Systems and Technologies Service (M.Á. Collado). We also want to thank the team responsible for the environmental education programme ‘Segovia Educa en Verde’ (A. Díez, N. Sacristán and S. González) and A. Cabrera (IGME) for drawing the map in Fig. 5. We appreciate the revisions made by the two anonymous reviewers who have improved the original manuscript.

Availability of data and material

Available in http://www.segovia.es/educaPatriGeo/ELIGES/index.html

Code availability

Not applicable

Funding

Contract 272/2018/P15010 between the Segovia City Council and the IGME financed by the Regional Government of Castile & Leon, Spain, in the II Environmental Education Strategy

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME, Geological Survey of Spain), Ríos Rosas 23, 28003, Madrid, Spain

    Juana Vegas & Andrés Díez-Herrero

Authors
  1. Juana Vegas
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  2. Andrés Díez-Herrero
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Contributions

Both authors contribute with fieldwork, method design, assessment of geosites, data processing and statistics, interpretation of results and conclusions.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juana Vegas.

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Highlights

• A method is proposed to assess urban geoheritage based on 6 main objective criteria to select the top ten areas in the city that have geosites for environmental education and geotourism.

• This method has been applied to the 94 urban geosites of Segovia, from which 10 key areas called ELIGES (Spanish acronym for ‘Areas with Geosites for Environmental education in the city Segovia’) have been selected.

• The City Council of Segovia has taken on the responsibility for managing the conservation of their local geoheritage and has launched a dissemination plan that includes placing QR codes on outcrops, a web page with all the pertinent information and the publication of a handbook (in Spanish and English) and brochures. It has also integrated them into its own environmental education programme.

• This method and this real experience can be reproduced in other cities with recognised urban geoheritage. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the transfer of scientific knowledge and geoheritage management at the municipal level.

• When urban geoheritage is managed by public administrations based on scientific criteria, it generates benefits for our society (economic, ecosystem, public health), favours gender equality and promotes the participation of people with disabilities and the resilience of citizens to climate change and sustainable development goals (UNESCO 2017).

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Vegas, J., Díez-Herrero, A. An Assessment Method for Urban Geoheritage as a Model for Environmental Awareness and Geotourism (Segovia, Spain). Geoheritage 13, 27 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-021-00548-w

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