Emmanuel Reynard

Integrated Approach for the Inventory and Management of Geomorphological Heritage at the Regional Scale

Due to the renewed interest for sites of geological interest, both in nature conservation and tourist sectors, numerous regional and national geosite inventories have been carried out in several countries during the last two decades. Several research groups discussed methodological issues, in particular concerning the assessment, and proposed various assessment methods. The University of Lausanne developed a method for assessing the scientific and additional values of geomorphosites in 2007. The method was widely used in regional inventories in Switzerland and abroad. This paper presents a new version of the method and discusses four main issues: (1) the assessment methodology is included in a larger process, from the selection of potential geomorphosites to their use and evaluation by stakeholders; (2) a particular attention is put on the selection of potential geomorphosites that will then be assessed and a simple approach crossing a spatial selection (the selected geomorphosites should be representative of the regional geomorphological processes) and a temporal one (the selected geomorphosites should cover the whole temporal stages of the regional morphogenesis, with both relict and active landforms) is proposed; (3) a new part is added in the assessment method; it concerns the use characteristics and fills a gap in the existing method; (4) finally, the paper discusses mapping and representation issues: specific maps are produced at two levels: simple geomorphological maps accompany the assessment of each geomorphosite and synthetic maps, covering the whole study area, are produced for the communication of results to stakeholders. For this, four types of representation (qualitative, univariate, bivariate, multivariate) are proposed. The method is illustrated by three examples of inventories carried out in Western Switzerland and Haute-Savoie (France).

Regional modelling of present, past and future potential distribution of discontinuous permafrost based on a rock glacier inventory in the Bagnes-Hérémence area (Western Swiss Alps).

A regional model was used to draw the permafrost distribution in the 200 km 2 of the Bagnes-Hérémence area (Western Swiss Alps). The model is based on the fact that permafrost distribution depends mainly on altitude and orientation and that the minimal altitude of active/inactive rock glaciers can be used as an indicator of the lower limit of discontinuous permafrost. The lower limit of relict rock glaciers is also used as an indicator of past distribution of permafrost. An inventory of rock glaciers was therefore made in the study area. The lower limit of permafrost during the Younger Dryas was determined by comparing the position of relict rock glaciers and glacier extension during the Older Dryas. The model was then applied to four periods (Younger Dryas, Little Ice Age, current period and future) in order to show the temporal evolution of permafrost distribution and glacier extension.

Geomorphology of the Hérens valley (Swiss Alps)

This paper presents a geomorphological map of the Hérens valley in the Western Swiss Alps. With an area of 270 km2 and altitudes ranging from 470 to 4357 m a.s.l., this valley is one of the main secondary catchments of the Upper Rhône valley. The high differences in altitudes, combined with a varied geology, create an important geomorphic diversity. The main processes active in mountain areas, that is, glacial, periglacial, gravitational and fluvial processes, are well represented. The map was produced in ArcGIS using a specific legend developed at the University of Lausanne.

Assessing the sustainability of water governance systems: the sustainability wheel

We present and test a conceptual and methodological approach for interdisciplinary sustainability assessments of water governance systems based on what we call the sustainability wheel. The approach combines transparent identification of sustainability principles, their regional contextualization through sub-principles (indicators), and the scoring of these indicators through deliberative dialogue within an interdisciplinary team of researchers, taking into account their various qualitative and quantitative research results. The approach was applied to a sustainability assessment of a complex water governance system in the Swiss Alps. We conclude that the applied approach is advantageous for structuring complex and heterogeneous knowledge, gaining a holistic and comprehensive perspective on water sustainability, and communicating this perspective to stakeholders.

Assessing sediment dynamics from geomorphological maps: Bruchi torrential system, Swiss Alps

Abstract Please click here to download the map associated with this article. In alpine environments, debris ows are a dangerous geomorphic process and the main sediment transport agent in mountainous watersheds. In these areas, topographic conditions and land cover often reduce accessibility to conduct field surveys, such as geomorphological mapping. Remotely sensed data, including digital elevation models, can be used to highlight and map the main geomorphologic features, to analyse characteristics of the hydrographical network and, hence, to evidence the location and the potential volumes of sediment supply zones.

GeoGuides, Urban Geotourism Offer Powered by Mobile Application Technology

Scientific research about geological and geomorphological heritage recently proved to be the base of new opportunities for tourism. The peculiar case of urban landscape analysis offers new frontiers to the traditional urban cultural tourism. The tourism offer based on natural aspects of urban areas is described in this paper thanks to three examples of urban geotourism tools: GeoGuide Lausanne, TOURinSTONES and GeoGuide Rome mobile applications. Each case focuses on the transfer of geoscientific knowledge from scientific research to the “tourist” content, with the innovative support of the mobile application technology. The apps contribute to the promotion of the links between cultural and geological heritages, which is the goal of urban geotourism: to convey the message that substrate profoundly influences the culture that is established on it. The mobile application technology has many strengths for interpretation, e.g. by overlaying images or adding sounds and videos, which allow the visitors to discover landforms now covered by buildings and infrastructures; it has also technical strengths, such as looking for additional information and organizing the city visit at home or to reexperience it after the trip. The apps do not have any impact on the field; they are concise, easy to read, interactive and funny. The public understanding of science is very important; it helps enhancing the role of the researchers and the impact of their work on the society and the daily lives of citizens. In this context, GeoGuide apps are useful to transfer knowledge and make it usable to people.

Multi-scale Web Mapping for Geoheritage Visualisation and Promotion

Due to the renewed interest for sites of geological interest, both in nature conservation and tourist sectors, numerous regional and national geosite inventories have been carried out in several countries during the last two decades. For this purpose, various assessment methods have been developed and published. The issue of the representation of the results of inventories—in particular, the mapping system, the question of updating data—remains open. Moreover, if in the field of nature conservation, practitioners are used to working with GIS, it is not the case in the tourist sector where data must be delivered to the users in open-access and easy-to-use formats. This paper discusses what opportunities of web mapping methods and techniques there are in the domain of geoheritage assessment and promotion. A web mapping application in Google Maps application programming interface (API) framework is proposed to disseminate the results of geosite inventories carried out in Switzerland both at national and regional scales. The interest of the proposed application is discussed according to three main criteria: mapping interests and limitations, management purposes and interpretive issues.

The importance of mountain geomorphosites for environmental education: examples from the Italian Dolomites and the Swiss Alps

Because of their specific physical characteristics (altitude, slope, orientation, climate), mountain environments have an important natural diversity. In particular, their geodiversity is generally much larger than in the lowlands, and because mountain geosites are often very aesthetic, mountain areas present a great potential for geoheritage, geoconservation and geotourism studies. This paper reviews six reasons why this potential is high and concludes that mountain areas are particularly interesting to develop educational programs on three current environmental issues: climate change; natural hazards; and human impacts on particularly sensitive geomorphological environments. Then, the paper reviews the principal research in the field of geoheritage currently carried out on these three topics and presents two case studies in the Italian Dolomites and the Swiss Alps.

Runoff Impact on Active Geomorphosites in Unconsolidated Substrate. A Comparison Between Landforms in Glacial and Marine Clay Sediments: Two Case Studies from the Swiss Alps and the Italian Apennines

The cultural value of geomorphological heritage (i.e., geomorphosites) is universally recognised and at the same time the interest on its mutability, as a consequence of both natural-climate and human pressure, is growing. In some cases a sudden increase in the velocity of processes can cause irreversible modifications threatening the survival of sites as well as their scientific value in terms of integrity. The focus of this paper is put on two types of geomorphosites (active geomorphosites and evolving passive geomorphosites), in which it is possible to observe and quantify the geomorphological processes varying mainly as a response to climate change. The study cases are runoff-derived landforms on unconsolidated deposits in two morphoclimatic contexts: ‘calanchi’ on marine originated clays in the Italian Apennines in Mediterranean climatic context (Crete d’Arbia and Radicofani, Tuscany) and earth pyramids formed in glacial deposits in continental Alpine environment (Pyramides d’Euseigne, Canton Valais, Switzerland). In both sites, human activities have strongly contributed to landscape evolution. To investigate erosion rates, dendrogeomorphological analysis (i.e. stress indicators and root exposure analysis) were combined with traditional quantitative geomorphological techniques. Analysis of the roots exposure, well correlated with the climatic data (denudation rates are higher during wet period), show that denudation rates are lower at Pyramides d’Euseigne due to the different texture of the deposits. Unfortunately, at the moment, a comparison between the two sites based on geomorphological monitoring data is not possible due to the different time interval of analysis, and only conclusions on denudation rates coming from roots exposure are allowed. Both geomorphosites have a high scientific value (representativeness and educational exemplarity) and are characterised by dynamicity. Providing data for modelling the sites evolution and possible decrease of their scientific value, caused by proceeding of the process itself, may be particularly significant.

How to Integrate Invisible Geomorphosites in an Inventory: a Case Study in the Rhone River Valley (Switzerland)

During the two last decades, numerous inventories of geosites have been carried out at various scales. They aim at documenting the state of the geological heritage, which is the basis for management strategies. In very humanised regions, where the original geomorphology has been highly modified by human infrastructures, agriculture, urban sprawling and various modifications of landforms, it is important to inventory not only the landforms visible today but also former landforms destroyed or hidden by human activities. To address the issue of inventorying invisible geomorphosites, two approaches were tested in the Rhone River valley (Switzerland). The first was an inventory of geomorphosites of the study area. Not only the visible landforms but also the landforms that had completely disappeared were evaluated with the assessment method of the University of Lausanne. A total of 28 geomorphosites were assessed including five missing sites (two sand dunes areas, a braided sector of the Rhone River and two former marshes). These invisible geomorphosites were assessed and their management was discussed. The second study was a multi-method analysis of former landscapes of the nineteenth century. Several data including historical maps, written archives, digital terrain model and iconographic sources were combined and allowed the reconstruction of palaeolandscapes and landforms. Both materials are allowed proposing a strategy for geotourism development.