Ecosystem Services and Typology of Urban Geodiversity: Qualitative Assessment in Natal Town, Brazilian Northeast
- PDF / 22,083,197 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 6 Downloads / 212 Views
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Ecosystem Services and Typology of Urban Geodiversity: Qualitative Assessment in Natal Town, Brazilian Northeast Matheus Lisboa Nobre da Silva 1
&
Marcos Antonio Leite do Nascimento 2
Received: 20 December 2019 / Accepted: 9 June 2020 # The European Association for Conservation of the Geological Heritage 2020
Abstract Natal is a city located in northeastern Brazil that has a geodiversity composed of different landscapes, flanked by beaches, dunes, cliffs, rivers, mangroves, and lagoons. Throughout the city’s history, which spans more than 400 years, geodiversity has always been present since the early days of local cartography, dating back to the Dutch occupation period, on the seventeenth century, in which the natural environment had been faithfully portrayed. The studies developed in this work approach the geodiversity of Natal City that occurs naturally, in situ. The identification of the main places in which the abiotic nature is highlighted was performed, allied to a geological-geomorphological description. The occurrences were classified according to their area extension and the ecosystem services of abiotic nature, in a system divided into five services (cultural, regulating, provisioning, supporting, and knowledge). In the study area, all services were identified, and of the subclassification in geodiversity goods and processes, 16 out of 25 were observed, which reaffirms the importance of the local abiotic nature. On the tipology of these occurrences, they were identified as sections, areas, point, and viewpoints. Due to its extension and variety, it can be used for science, culture, sports, and tourism, in order to promote, jointly, the dissemination of the natural and cultural beauties of the city and geosciences, helping the geoconservation process. Keywords Ecosystem services . Northeast Brazil . Qualitative assessment . Urban geodiversity
Introduction Cities, over the centuries, were established in natural environments that initially favored their protection and agricultural maintenance. Environments near the coast were used in the installation of mercantilist urban centers from the late fourteenth century. The definitions of urbanism that emerged after the Industrial Revolution changed the needs, shapes, and constructions of cities, favored from the natural resources available for their development. In all these situations, geodiversity was linked to the beginning and expansion of urbis on the planet. Studies on urban geology, or geodiversity in cities, are also compatible with the understandings developed in the specialized literature. * Matheus Lisboa Nobre da Silva [email protected] 1
Postgraduate Course of Geology, Geosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2
Departament of Geology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
The horizon unveiled by geodiversity studies in urban centers allows a direct relation between society and geosciences, being an important tool for dissemination of Earth S
