From geoheritage inventory to territorial planning tool in the Vercors massif (French Alps): Contribution of statistical and expert cross approaches

• Innovative approach to classify geoinventory: mixing statistical PCA with heuristic decision.
• From isolated geosites to integrate geo-territory: the contribution of thematic space to the organization of territory.
• Geoinventory and geoheritage as basis of territorial planning: new geographical perspectives for geoscientific object.

Geoheritage is a concept derived from the geosciences, initially referring to the preservation of geoscientific objects. This concept is now used in local or regional development, especially for promoting a territory via the supply of geotouristic services for example. In this way, geoheritage covers the domains of geography, social sciences and strategy planning. In these types of project, geoheritage is considered as a natural resource, which implies a good knowledge of the location and characteristics of the resources concerned. For this purpose, we require an inventory. In this paper, we explore a methodology to draw up a geoinventory adapted to the territorial project of Vercors as well as an analytical approach mixing multivariate statistics and expert knowledge to produce an objective and suitable territorial diagnosis. The statistical approach is PCA-based whereas the heuristic approach combines a blind-test with two non-expert teams and a heuristic classification by two experts. This heuristic approach was based only on visualization of radar chart. Despite the inherent subjectivity of such a methodology, this statistical-expert cross approach provides a consensual classification of the 79 listed geosites and a deeper understanding of the major components making up the inventory. This classification forms the basis of a territorial analysis which proposes the creation of 5 thematic spaces (glacio-tectonic, peleogeomorphology, hydrogeology, morpho-tectonic and stratigraphy) across the whole massif as new territories for the development of geoeducation and geotourism. Finally, the territorial strategy considers the Vercors massif as an important dynamic outdoor museum dedicated to environmental education based on a major contribution arising from the analysis of geoheritage.