TFgeotourism: A Project to Quantify, Highlight, and Promote the Volcanic Geoheritage and Geotourism in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)

Volcanic landscapes offer a multitude of resources to the communities that live within them. However, the main attraction that volcanoes offer is associated with volcanic heritage and geotourism. The scope of this project is to create and promote emerging geotouristic products through the empowerment of volcano tourism and thus contribute to strengthening the economic and business fabric of the volcanic island of Tenerife (Spain). In Tenerife, this great geodiversity includes the stravolcanoes, shield volcanoes, calderas, cinder cones, maars, tuff cones and rings, and lava fields, all exposed beautifully in cliffs, ravines, beaches, deposits, etc. The main activities of the project associated with the documentation and quantification of the conservation values of the volcanic heritage are the following: production of a documentary on the volcanic geoheritage of Teide volcano, selection of the top 50 sites of geotouristic interest, creation of urban geotourism itineraries, recreation of the itinerary of Alexander von Humboldt, and creation of a web page for the project. This project will deliver an essential resource needed to diversify the leisure activities offered in Tenerife through the volcanic heritage and geotourism. It quantifies the best that Tenerife can uniquely offer and highlights it in a globally accessible and perpetual manner.

Mapping Lioz limestone in monuments at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

<p>Lioz limestone is a well-known Portuguese natural stone, recognised as Global Heritage Stone Resource (GHSR) by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). This microcrystalline Cretaceous limestone was broadly used in churches and monuments, especially in Lisbon, where it is exploited. It exhibits four varieties of colours: ivory (Lioz), beige (Chainnette), dark pink (Encarnadão), yellow (Amarelo de Negrais), and also many fossils of Rudists, Gastropods and <em>Thalassinoides</em>. This rock was brought to Brazil as ballast in vessels, to stabilise them, and to bring a Portuguese symbol to the "new land". It was mostly used in historical buildings in coastal cities (Belém, Recife, Salvador, São Luis, and Rio de Janeiro) from the 16th to the 20th century, though it can be found in many other of Brazil. The stone that shines in Lisbon, the Royal Stone from Portugal, keeps in Brazilian monuments the memory of the strong relationship between Portugal and Brazil, along this country's history, first as an overseas colony and later as the seat of the United Reign of Brazil, Portugal and the Algarves. The history engraved in these monuments guards that memory, being essential to study the processes of degradation that these rocks suffer. In the central region of Rio de Janeiro, known as “Old Rio”, many heritage buildings present Lioz limestone, usually together with local gneisses, in their construction and ornamentation: in floors, altars in churches, walls, columns and others. Some examples are the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, the Church of Our Lady of the Candelaria, the Bank of Brazil Cultural Center, the Imperial Palace, the Saint Francis of Paola Church, the Saint Luzia Church, the Master Valentim Fountain, the Holy Cross of the Military Church, the Saint Joseph Church, the Riachuelo Teather, and the Gustavo Capanema Palace. The last one is a symbol of the modernism in Brazil. Some of these buildings are in routes of urban geotourism as a form to disseminate science. These places are relevant in many aspects, such as cultural, historical, architectural, geological and educational. Rio de Janeiro is a coastal city with an average temperature of 23,2ºC, rainfall of 1,278mm per year and relative humidity of 78%. Lioz limestone's alteration gets more accentuated in these conditions, and the deterioration can be even more intense. Another point to observe is that many of these buildings are in high traffic areas, and the pollution emitted by the vehicles is highly prejudicial because of the cycles of dry and wet deposition. The Lioz limestone presents low porosity; however, problems as black crusts and biological colonisation are common and can lead to severe forms of degradation, and the monuments' mischaracterisation. This work aims to elaborate an inventory of the monuments constructed and ornamented with Lioz limestone and the observed decay patterns of this stone in Rio de Janeiro. The inventory and the study of the mechanisms and extension of their degradation over time are crucial for their effective conservation for future generations.</p>

The Rock Garden of the Institute of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Jan Kochanowski University—A New Geo-Site in Kielce, Central Poland

The Rock Garden, established in 2019, is a geological showcase of both the Institute of Geography and Environmental Sciences of Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce and the entire Kielce region in central Poland. The collection includes specimens of about 50 rocks: those whose outcrops are located in the Holy Cross Mountains region and those brought here from Scandinavia by the ice sheet around 180 to 130 thousand years ago. The Rock Garden is of scientific importance and plays a didactic, conservational, educational, cultural, aesthetic, recreational, and geotouristic role. This article highlights its importance in the development of urban geotourism.

Urban complex of geotourist sites of the city of Lviv (Western Ukraine)

Lviv is a city with a centuries-old history that is easy to adapt to introduce a new direction in tourism for Ukraine - urban geotourism. Urban geotourism is an innovative form of tourism, the basis of which is the use of objects of modern cities for the promotion of geology, educational activities and tourism business needs. Lviv is a city with high geotourist potential due to its unique geomorphological, geological position, well-developed tourist infrastructure, good information support and a large concentration of unique easily accessible diverse geo-tourist objects. The study of urban geosites for the needs of geotourism, the study of potential objects illuminating the interconnection of geology and architecture in the development of the historical urban landscape in Lviv have only just begun. Currently, there is a summarized short characteristic of the urbanistic complex of Lviv’s geotourist sites and their classification was developed. They are divided into two supergroups (natural, anthropogenic), four groups (natural formations, natural processes, geotourism trails, natural-cultural, mining), two subgroups (polytypic, monotypic), 11 types and 19 categories. The geotourist sites of Lviv have scientific, cognitive, culturalaesthetic value, are easily accessible, important for the educational process and in the case of their popularization will become attractive geo-tourist attractions. They are an important link for restoring Earth’s history, exhibiting the geological structure of Lviv’s territory, demonstrating new approaches to geotourism that combine nature, history and culture. Their study will allow the geomorphological and geological features of the city to be shown , allow us to get acquainted with the history of geological development, and help draw attention to the stone material used in the organization of urban space. Combining stone monuments with the cultural and tourist aspect is a great approach for disseminating geological knowledge.

Geoheritage and Geotourism in the cities: the case of Santiago del Teide (Tenerife, Spain)

<p>The Canary Islands are one of the main “sun and beach” tourist destinations in the world. As an example, Tenerife received in 2018 more than five million tourists. Even so, on the island there are some destinations that are experiencing a decrease in the touristic afflux. With the aim of avoiding the decline of these destinations initiatives have been raised to promote new touristic products and experiences as result of diversify the leisure offer of the island. Within the variety of new products, urban geotourism is one of those new and alternative modalities that may increase the touristic offer of Tenerife. Urban geotourism aims at exploiting the geographical and natural elements (volcanoes, cliffs, beaches, ravines, etc.), that have not been wiped out by the urban growth and transformation processes. Urban geotourism involves also cultural heritage (churches, hermitages, cemeteries, houses, squares, etc.) and the urban layout itself.</p><p> </p><p>The aim of this work is to propose an urban geotourism itinerary through the historical centre of Santiago del Teide (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain). For this purpose, we selected places and elements that are directly or indirectly associated with the monogenic basaltic eruptions of the Chinyero (1909 AD) and the Bilma Mountain volcano (3,000 years BC). Santiago del Teide is a municipality located at the west of Tenerife with an area of 52.21 km<sup>2</sup> and a population of 10,755 inhabitants. The municipality can be divided into two large areas: the coast dedicated to “sun and beach tourism” and mid-elevation areas dedicated mainly to agricultural activities and hiking tourism associated with flowering almond trees. The documented methodology consists of making an inventory of the land forms and processes related to the geomorphological features present in the historical centre and its surroundings. This inventory comprises also natural elements visible in the architecture of the town and allowed classifying and estimating the valuable element of the geoheritage. This identification and selection are based on the variety of inventoried resources, on the possibilities it offers and on its geographical distribution. Twelve places of natural heritage (Way of the Virgin of Lourdes and Mountain Bilma) and cultural relevance (Church of San Francisco Rey, Hermitage of Santiago Apostle, El Calvario, Casona del Patio, CEI Chinyero, Alley of the Virgin, Eras of Rodríguez Guanche Street, Crescent Square, San Francisco Cemetery and Cemetery Road, Queen's Street, Santiago del Teide City Hall, La Grama Quarry, Vicente Febles PR and the Arribas Valley) of the city were selected to design a geotouristic itinerary with a length of about 8 km and requiring about 5 hours walking.</p>