Towards establishing effective protective boundaries for the Lunan Stone forest using an online spatial decision support system

Abstract

The Lunan Stone Forest is the World's premier pinnacle karst landscape, and was established as a national park in 1982. The existing boundaries are essentially arbitrary, based on notional scenic value, and take into consideration neither the physical landscape nor the existing pattern of urban development. Moreover, the location of the boundaries is not clear to the local community, rendering them largely ineffective. Developing an online Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) potentially provides a way to establish protective boundaries that are meaningful from the perspective of karst science, yet also readily identifiable by the local community within the context of the existing urban fabric. The 7km2 "core area" of the Stone Forest Park is used to illustrate the use of the SDSS.