Dilemma of Geoconservation of Monogenetic Volcanic Sites under Fast Urbanization and Infrastructure Developments with Special Relevance to the Auckland Volcanic Field, New Zealand

Károly Németh, Ilmars Gravis and Boglárka Németh
Additional contact information
Károly Németh: School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand
Ilmars Gravis: The Geoconservation Trust Aotearoa, 52 Hukutaia Road, Ōpōtiki 3122, New Zealand
Boglárka Németh: School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-25

Abstract: Geoheritage is an important aspect in developing workable strategies for natural hazard resilience. This is reflected in the UNESCO IGCP Project (# 692. Geoheritage for Geohazard Resilience) that continues to successfully develop global awareness of the multifaced aspects of geoheritage research. Geohazards form a great variety of natural phenomena that should be properly identified, and their importance communicated to all levels of society. This is especially the case in urban areas such as Auckland. The largest socio-economic urban center in New Zealand, Auckland faces potential volcanic hazards as it sits on an active Quaternary monogenetic volcanic field. Individual volcanic geosites of young eruptive products are considered to form the foundation of community outreach demonstrating causes and consequences of volcanism associated volcanism. However, in recent decades, rapid urban development has increased demand for raw materials and encroached on natural sites which would be ideal for such outreach. The dramatic loss of volcanic geoheritage of Auckland is alarming. Here we demonstrate that abandoned quarry sites (e.g., Wiri Mountain) could be used as key locations to serve these goals. We contrast the reality that Auckland sites are underutilized and fast diminishing, with positive examples known from similar but older volcanic regions, such as the Mio/Pliocene Bakony–Balaton UNESCO Global Geopark in Hungary.

Keywords: geoheritage; geoconservation; geohazard; resilience; quarry; urban expansion; geodiversity; scoria cone; tuff ring; base surge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/12/6549/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/12/6549/ (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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:12:p:6549-:d:571183

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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