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Approaching an Integrated Qualification and Evaluation System for Geological Heritage

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Abstract

This paper shows how geological heritage can be evaluated using an open system of values or contents displayed by the geological objects. Contents are designated as indicial, documental, iconographic, symbolic, scenic, and conceptual. Their qualification depends on both the relevance of the meaning attributed to the objects by scientific communities (defined as relevance grade) and the public understanding of such meanings related to the social use of the objects (defined as abstract perceptiveness). Contents are ranked into three categories of increasing importance. They are rank I—indicial contents; rank II—documental, iconographic, and symbolic contents; and rank III—conceptual and scenic contents. A higher category (rank IV) is available for a feature with universal content, for example, geological heritage in outer space.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is a contribution to the Project PTDC/CTE-GEX/64966/2006. The authors are grateful to Claudia Magno for the revision of the English version of the manuscript and to Hugo Machado for his help in the figure formatting. The authors are also grateful to the anonymous referees for their helpful contributions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ciências da Terra, Geosciences Center, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Largo Marquês de Pombal, 3000-272, Coimbra, Portugal

    R. Pena dos Reis

  2. Geosciences Center, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Largo Marquês de Pombal, 3000-272, Coimbra, Portugal

    M. Helena Henriques

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  1. R. Pena dos Reis
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  2. M. Helena Henriques
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Correspondence to R. Pena dos Reis.

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Pena dos Reis, R., Henriques, M.H. Approaching an Integrated Qualification and Evaluation System for Geological Heritage. Geoheritage 1, 1–10 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-009-0002-0

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