The Use of Town Trails in Raising Awareness of Urban Geodiversity

The majority of people now live and/or work in urban areas and are increasingly becoming divorced from their natural environment. One aspect of geoconservation is to raise public and student awareness of their urban geology so that they better appreciate its relation to the natural world and its resources. Several town trails have been developed by the local RIGS (Regionally Important Geological/geomorphological Sites) groups in the vicinity of University of Chester, to heighten public awareness of their own local urban geodiversity. This is looked upon favourably by the Local Authority, which is keen to increase an appreciation of local distinctiveness. This paper will look at the use of these trails (some bilingual, English and Welsh) and how they have raised awareness among both higher education students and the general public mostly in the tourist sector. NEWRIGS and Cheshire RIGS have set up a successful template for this and the use of work-based learning students in the initial research is explained. The inclusion of urban trail development within the Cheshire region (north west England) LGAP (Local Geodiversity Action Plan) is discussed. The use of the trails in the teaching of one module, The City and Nature, within the newly developed Urban Studies programme is also explored. Preliminary results show that leaflets are extremely effective in raising the profile of urban geology and its conservation within many sections of the urban community. Resume: Beaucoup de gens habitent maintenant ou travaillent dans les villes et sont seoarated de l'environnement naturel. Geoconservation vise a elever la conscience de public et etudiant de geologie pour que les gens urbaine peut apprecier sa relation au monde naturel. Plusieurs pistes de geologie de ville ont ete developpees par les EQUIPEMENTS (les Sites de Geologique/geomorphological Regionalement Importants) les groupes pres de l'Universite de Chester, augmenter la conscience publique du geodiversity urbain local. L'Autorite Locale veut augmenter la reconnaissance du secteur local. Ce papier examinera comment ces pistes ont eleve la conscience parmi les etudiants d'etudes superieures et le grand public. LES EQUIPEMENTS DE NEWRIGS et Cheshire ont etabli un gabarit reussi pour ceci et l'usage de travail-base apprenant des etudiants dans la recherche initiale sont expliques. L'inclusion de developpement de piste urbain dans la region de Cheshire (Angleterre d'ouest du nord) LGAP (le Projet d'Action de Geodiversity Local) est discute. L'usage des pistes dans l'enseignement d'un module, La Ville et La Nature, dans l'emission d'Etudes Urbaine recemment developpee est explore. Les resultats preliminaires montrent que les prospectus sont extremement efficaces dans elever le profil de geologie urbaine et sa conservation dans beaucoup de sections de la communaute urbaine.