Landscapes of the Yazd-Ardakan Plain (Iran) and the Assessment of Geotourism—Contribution to the Promotion and Practice of Geotourism and Ecotourism

Iulian Dincă (), Seyede Razieh Keshavarz and Seyed Ali Almodaresi
Additional contact information
Iulian Dincă: Department of Geography, Tourism and Territorial Planning, University of Oradea, 410087 Oradea, Romania
Seyede Razieh Keshavarz: Geography Department, Islamic Azad University, Yazd Branch, Yazd 89168 71967, Iran
Seyed Ali Almodaresi: GIS & RS Department, Islamic Azad University, Yazd Branch, Yazd 89168 71967, Iran

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-23

Abstract: The attractions and capabilities of geomorphosites are among the unique assets of each country, and their identification, classification, and planning have great importance for the development of tourism. The purpose of this research was to identify, quantitatively analyse, and classify landforms treated as geosites and landscapes of Yazd Province, using the Pralong method. The present study is a descriptive analytical research based on library studies and field surveys. After determining the study area using satellite imagery, six geomorphosites were selected. Using the Pralong method, six geomorphosites were evaluated: Chak Chak, Mountain Eagle, Siahkooh, Shirkooh, Qanat, and Barfkhane Tezerjan. In this method, using the extraction of collected data from the questionnaires completed by 41 geotourism experts in the first stage, the four grades that were evaluated in terms of potential capability of geomorphosites include the appearance aesthetic, scientific, historical-cultural, and socio-economic variables, and in the next step, two variables of productivity value and quality of productivity were evaluated. The results of evaluations showed that the geomorphosites Chak Chak and Barfkhane Tezerjan had the highest score (0.62) and are the best geomorphosites for converting to geotourism and ecotourism applications, and they have high potential for attracting tourists. The second place was dedicated to the Shirkooh geomorphosite, which is considerable in terms of the average tourism grade. The best average productivity value belonged to the Chak Chak geomorphosite with 0.52, and the last one was Mountain Eagle with 0.32. All six attractions in this study had a medium grade in the qualitative scale index, meaning that they have good potential in geotouristic and ecotouristic points of view and could be improved by regional planning. Therefore, the results of this study can be used by local managers and planners to develop and promote geotourism and ecotourism.

Keywords: geosite; geomorphosite; Pralong method; geological and geographical diversity; identity characters (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/4/858/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/4/858/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:4:p:858-:d:1120358

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().