Assessing the geotourism potential of abandoned quarries with multitemporal data (České Středohoří Mts., Czechia)

Abstract

Quarrying represents a major human impact on the landscape. The positive effects of quarrying have also been appreciated over the last several decades and concern the role of quarries as sites with the potential for geoscientific education and geotourism. In this paper we present a procedure for establishing a multitemporal database of abandoned quarries and their multicriterial assessment in order to determine sites suitable for geotourism purposes. The case of the České středohoří Protected Landscape Area in Northern Czechia is used, as an example of conflicting interest between nature conservation and intense quarrying. Using the combination of old maps and current orthophotomaps, we identified 80 (mid-19th Century), 57 (mid-20th Century) and 38 (2007) quarries. 104 of them were further evaluated according to criteria of scientific and educational value and ‘potential use’ value (visibility, accessibility and extent). This process enabled to determine sites with the highest suitability for geotourism purposes. Finally, we discuss management context for these sites, and possible threats to the sites caused by increased geotourism.