Sustainable geoheritage and geosites in the Piana Crixia Natural Park (Liguria, Italy)

The Piana Crixia natural regional park is a small protected area (7.9 km2) located in the north-western Liguria region. The park was established in 1985 to protect two striking geomorphological features: the well know “stone mushroom”, a 15 m-high earth pyramid shaped in conglomerates, and the wide badlands area north of the Piana Crixia village, which is unique for the Liguria region. These two sites are now included in the Italian National Inventory of Geosites; a third geosite, the palaeontological site of Bric Foresto, lies just outside of the natural park borders. Thus, the protected area is characterized by a striking variety of landforms, which make up for a significant and valuable geoheritage, already recognized at the regional and national level. The aim of this study is to present a geoheritage map of the Piana Crixia natural regional park, highlighting landscape and cultural features tie to Earth Science. The base map comprises geological and geomorphological data: the bedrock is made of conglomerates, marls and shales belonging to the Oligocene sedimentary sequence of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin. Several different landforms can be identified, most of them due to fluvial and washout processes (badlands, earth pyramids, meanders etc.) or to the interaction between fluvial processes and recent tectonics (hanging valleys, entrenched meanders). On top of that, the map shows: geoheritage elements in the protected area, such as the three official geosites, other sites of geological and geomorphological interest and viewpoints; the hiking trail network, with the thematic routes identified by the park; visitors centers and other facilities, which are useful information for geohikers.