Providing a systematic, integrated and localized system for cataloging and quantitative evaluation of geosites in Iran

One of the important steps in the protection, management and sustainable exploitation of geological phenomena and complications (geosites) is to identify and determine the characteristics of the sites (listing) and then their quantitative evaluation (prioritization). Therefore, it is necessary to provide a systematic, integrated and localized system to list and evaluate geosites in the country. The mentioned article presents the native method of listing and quantitative evaluation of geosites in the country based on review, study, collection and integration of the best researches and published international studies and expert experiences of the authors, interviews with specialists and geological heritage experts in the country. In this research, by studying and reviewing previous studies in the field of geosites evaluation, the best methods were selected and the most frequently used and most frequent evaluation criteria were calculated. Also, the main themes were determined as evaluation indicators from the theme analysis method and based on the interviews conducted with relevant experts and specialists. In order to prioritize and weight the identified indicators, the table of coding results in the form of a closed questionnaire based on the Likert scale was again provided to the experts. In the definitions of the indicators, geological, geographical features, natural factors, as well as economic, social and cultural conditions of the country are considered.