DU2-European geological heritage
DU2-European geological heritage
12 From A to G terms
The following terms are included in the first chapter of the “GUIDE-INTERPRETER OF GEOTURISM” manual, created through EU ERASMUS Framework. Project name: GEOTUR: Validation and recognition of two competence units in geological tourism Project no. 2018-1-E
- Anthropocene
- Defines Earth's most recent proposal for a geologic time interval as being human influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans. The Word combines the root "anthropo", meaning "human" with the root "-cene", the standard suffix for "epoch" in geologic time.
- Cultural heritage
- is the legacy of tangible and intangible representations developed by a community and passed from generation to generation. Cultural heritage includes tangible cultural heritage such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts, and intangible cultural heritage such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge, and natural heritage including culturally significant geodiversity and biodiversity components or representations.
- Degradation
- Degradation of a given geological resource or place refers to the anthropically derived loss of quality, integrity or value caused by anthropic modifications.
- Geoconservation
- is the amount of measures and actions aimed at maintaining and/or recovering the value of a particular place or element of geological importance. Also could be defined as the identification and care of sites which make a special contribution to our Earth heritage and which can illustrate the Earth history.
- Geodiversity
- is the range of geological features that characterizes a given territory, taking in consideration natural elements such as minerals, rocks, fossils, soils, and natural resources, as well as processes of significant value including the sedimentary, structural, geomorphological and
volcanic processes.
- Geoeducation
- all tools, materials and indoor and outdoor activities describing educational experience dedicated to teach and learn about Earth geodiversity and its impact on life and human activities. Geoeducation provides people with the knowledge of how the human and natural worlds work at local, regional and global scales, and to use different perspectives to understand the world. Geoeducation is part of geoconservation and in a broader sense of education for sustainable development.
- Geoheritage or Geological heritage
- is only a part of Geodiversity, are those elements considered meaningful to be worthy of conservation measures. Its value can be scientific, educational, aesthetic and/or inspirational.
- Geoproduct
- a product related to geopark activities, inspired by local geodiversity or geologic heritage and having a socio-economic impact.
- Geosite
- is general term for a site were geodiversity has special or distinguishing features expressing, a specific geologic framework worthing to be preserved and managed for research, education or tourism.
- Geotourism
- is tourism which sustains and enhances the identity of a territory, taking into consideration its geology, environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents. Geological tourism is one of the multiple components of geotourism.
- Global warming
- Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. The term is frequently used interchangeably with the term climate change, though the latter refers to both human- and naturally produced warming and the effects it has on our planet. It is most commonly measured as the average increase in Earth’s global surface temperature.
- Greenhouse effect
- caused by too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced by fossil fuels when they are burned. Carbon dioxide traps the sun's heat. That is why it is called the greenhouse effect. The trapped heat causes global warming.