Geodiversity, Geoconservation and Geotourism in Hong Kong Global

Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 126 (2015) 426–437 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association jo urnal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pgeola Geodiversity, geoconservation and geotourism in Hong Kong Global Geopark of China Lulin Wang *, Mingzhong Tian, Lei Wang School of Earth Science and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: In addition to being an international financial center, Hong Kong has rich geodiversity, in terms of a Received 22 November 2014 representative and comprehensive system of coastal landscapes, with scientific value in the study of Received in revised form 20 February 2015 Quaternary global sea-level changes, and esthetic, recreational and cultural value for tourism. The value Accepted 26 February 2015 of the coastal landscapes in Hong Kong was globally recognized when Hong Kong Global Geopark Available online 14 April 2015 (HKGG), which was developed under the well-established framework of Hong Kong Country Parks and Marine Parks, was accepted in the Global Geoparks Network (GGN) in 2011. With over 30 years of Keywords: experience gained from managing protected areas and a concerted effort to develop geoconservation and Coastal landscape geotourism, HKGG has reached a mature stage of development and can provide a well-developed Hong Kong Global Geopark Geodiversity example of successful geoconservation and geotourism in China. This paper analyzes the geodiversity, Geoconservation geoconservation and geotourism of HKGG. The main accomplishments summarized in this paper are Geotourism efficient conservation management, an optimized tourism infrastructure, a strong scientific interpretation system, mass promotion and education materials, active exchange with other geoparks, continuous training, and effective collaboration with local communities. This useful information for preserving geoheritage and developing geotourism can help geoparks in the primary stage of development in China and other countries. ß 2015 The Geologists’ Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction the geodiversity will be sustained. Furthermore, the geosite concept, defining a geoheritage site as a place with scientific, The concepts of geodiversity, geoheritage, geosites, geoconser- historical and cultural heritage interest, accessible for visits and vation, geotourism and geoparks are closely related and have studies, is well acknowledged internationally (ProGEO, 1998; Cleal significantly evolved in the last decade. The term ‘‘geodiversity’’ et al., 1999; Todorov and Wimbledon, 2004; Ruban, 2010; Ruban was first used in 1993 as the geological equivalent of biodiversity and Kuo, 2010). Geodiversity, therefore, comprises a diversity of (Sharples, 1993). A commonly used definition of geodiversity by geoheritage and can be quantified with an account of geosite types, Gray (2013) is ‘‘the natural range (diversity) of geological (rocks, type counterparts, and their ranks. minerals, fossils), geomorphological (landforms, topography, Geoconservation, now a growing activity, is defined by Prosser physical processes), soil and hydrological features. It includes (2013) as ‘‘action taken with the intent of conserving and their assemblages, structures, systems and contributions to enhancing geological, geomorphological and soil features, pro- landscapes’’. Despite some initial resistance and concerns about cesses, sites and specimens, including associated promotional and the validity of implied parallels with biodiversity, the term has awareness-raising activities, and the recording and rescue of data gained international acceptance and its use has rapidly expanded or specimens from features and sites threatened with loss or worldwide in recent years (Gray, 2008; Gordon et al., 2012; damage’’. In practice, it is thought to be a more concise way of Erikstad, 2013; Gray et al., 2013). referring to geological, geomorphological and soil conservation Geoheritage refers only to the components of geodiversity in a and relates to activities aiming to conserve various geosites for given place (Dixon, 1996; Gray, 2004; Bruno et al., 2014) with the future generations (Prosser et al., 2013). understanding that as long as the geoheritage sites are preserved, Among geodiversity settings, the most prominent examples of geoconservation are geoparks (Yeung, 2008; Erikstad, 2013; Wang et al., 2014; Dong et al., 2014). The organization of geoparks as a tool for dissemination of the value for protected geosites can be * Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 1082320640. linked to the 1st International Conference on Geological Heritage E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Wang). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2015.02.006 0016-7878/ß 2015 The Geologists’ Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. L. Wang et al. / Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 126 (2015) 426–437 427 in Digne, France in 1991 (Patzack and Eder, 1998). Reflecting the With numerous islands and a long coastline, the coastal desire to strengthen both international recognition and local landscape is well developed. The region has a sub-tropical monsoon appreciation of geodiversity, the European Geoparks Network was climate, characterized by high humidity, high temperatures, ample established in 2000 (Zouros, 2002; Zouros and Martini, 2003). The rainfall, and frequent typhoons during the summer and autumn year 2004 marked a further important step in cooperation and months (Davis, 1999; Yim, 2001). The average annual temperature, geoconservation with the establishment of the UNESCO-endorsed rainfall and relative humidity are 23.1 8C, 2382.7 mm, and 78%, Global Network of National Geoparks, known as the GGN, which respectively. Rivers in this area are mostly small, short waterways, defines a geopark as a well-defined area that contains one or more the longest only about 8000 m in length. The headwaters are short geoheritage sites selected on the basis of scientific importance, and the flow rapid, manifesting seasonal characteristics. rarity, scenic quality, or relation to geological history, events and This area lies to the southeast of the Lianhuashan Fault Zone of processes (Eder and Patzak, 2004; UNESCO, 2014). As of November the Cathaysian block (Fig. 1a) and displays the same dominant 2014, 111 geoparks, including 31 in China, were current members structural trend (Campbell and Sewell, 1997; Sewell et al., 2000). of the GGN, facilitated by UNESCO. The other 80 global geoparks This defines the linear nature of the coastline. The southeast are distributed in 31 countries around the world. structural trend has controlled the geometry of the present river With the rapid development of geoparks attheglobal, national and valleys, ridges, as well as the morphometry of the coastal estuaries, regional levels, geotourism, which is tourism and recreation based on channels, bays and headlands (Fyfe et al., 2000). geology and landscapes, has evolved into an important industry The terrain of this region is composed mainly of Devonian and (Hose, 2000; Hose and Wickens, 2004; Dowling and Newsome, 2010; Permian sedimentary rocks cropping out mainly in the Northeast Zouros, 2010a,b; Jin and Ruban, 2011; Bruno and Perrotta, 2012; New Territories Sedimentary Rock Region and the Late Jurassic to Farsani et al., 2012; Gordon, 2012; Hose and Vasiljevic, 2012) and is Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks with hexagonal columnar joints in regarded as a vehicle for geoconservation (Hose, 2011). the Sai Kung Volcanic Rock Region (Lee et al., 1997; Sewell et al., As the current part of the geological record, Quaternary 2012). The details of the present landscape of Hong Kong were geoheritage is widespread, with a cover of superficial (drift) formed mainly during the Quaternary, evolving slowly as the deposits of this age in many lowland regions and preserved crustal plates migrated, tectonic forces raised and depressed the landforms related to Quaternary processes in uplands (Bridgland, land, the climate changed, and the sea level fluctuated. From the 2013). Thus, in accordance with geodiversity (Gray et al., 2013), Paleocene to the Quaternary, the area experienced crustal uplift Quaternary geoheritage is of great value because of the wide range affected by the Himalayan Orogeny. Persistent weathering and of environmental changes and processes represented in this strong wave erosion further sculpted the landscapes of Hong Kong. period, many of which record the glacial-interglacial climatic As the last glacial period came to an end, the sea level rose. Peaks fluctuations that have been the over-arching characteristic of this created by crustal uplift were partially submerged and became geological era (Brown and Gordon, 2011). However, Quaternary islands. A new coastline was established, with typical coastal geoheritage tends to be ‘‘high-maintenance’’ (Burek, 2012; Bridg- depositional landforms forming in sheltered locations and diverse land, 2013), since the conservation objects are generally Quater- coastal erosional landforms developing in the steeper, more nary sediments of superficial and unconsolidated nature, such as exposed eastern area (Li and Yan, 1999). loess, and landforms that are constantly developing and changing, such as karst and coastal landforms (Tian and Cheng, 2009). These 3. Geodiversity and geosites factors confirm that Quaternary geoheritage represents an important element of geoheritage, and is worth protecting from The HKGG has well

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