The social and economic value of the UK's geodiversity (ENRR709)

Geology and geomorphology are the rocks, fossils, minerals and landforms, and the natural processes which form and change them. The variety of these can be described as geodiversity. Geodiversity provides many economic, social and cultural benefits. Recent research effort into the value of nature (see De Groot 1992; Daily 1997; English Nature 2002; Gray 2004) suggests that these benefits may be considered under four main value classes: appreciation, knowledge, products and ecosystem/natural functions. Each of these value classes may be further split into detailed categories (English Nature 2002). In this research, we utilise the research protocol developed to value nature and specifically apply these classes to investigate the social, economic and cultural benefits associated with geodiversity.