GEOMATICS AND GIS BASED SYSTEM FOR GEODIVERSITY INVENTORY AND EVALUATION APPLIED IN KRATOVO

Abstract

The paper presents geomatics – GIS based system for inventory and evaluation of geodiversity. It is composed in a simple way including three phases with various methods used in a specified order. In accordance with this it is objective, repeatable and applicable at different landscapes and different surface size areas. The system was applied in the Kratovo area which is located within the largest paleovolcanic area in North Macedonia. Geodiversity elements were obtained through GPS supported morphographic field mapping, remote sensing method, and statistical analyses. The inventory of geodiversity elements on a spatial unit was performed with approach developed during this research. For this purpose, the Block Statistics tool, and statistical analyses of maximum and variety in ArcMap were utilized. Geodiversity index was calculated by multiplying two layers: number of different geodiversity elements within the spatial units and terrain ruggedness index of the spatial units. In order to facilitate the application in tourism, education and nature conservation the geodiversity index was classified in three classes: low, medium and high. The results of the method showed that three major units with high geodiversity index are present at the study area or 9.95% of the surface. At the west part where the high geodiversity index was detected geomorphological site Kuklica is located. Medium geodiversity index is on the 37.33% and low index on the 51.77% of the study area.
Key words: quantitative method; GIS; geomatics; geodiversity; Kratovo; Republic of North Macedonia