Geotourism as a Specialization in the Territorial Context of the Basilicata Region (Southern Italy)

Geosites, a precious and nonrenewable geosphere resource, constitute a wealth from educational, scientific, naturalistic and cultural points of view, capable of expressing an economic potential proportional to their tourist appeal (Bentivenga 2015). This study is part of an important methodological framework: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005), an international project that defines and quantifies ecosystem services (ES) and assesses changes and their consequences on human well-being. The methodology, which is progressively becoming as a cognitive support aimed at the environmental sizing of territorial policies, is considered particularly effective in assessing the impacts of choices associated with different land use scenarios as well as to protection and/or valorization policies. Adequate tool development for sustainable governance passes through a planning activity based on the integration of ecological, economic and sociopolitical elements within an interdisciplinary framework, to which the ecosystem analysis is able to provide important evaluation elements (Cowell and Lennon Environ Plann C Politics Space 32:263–282, 2014). According to MEA (2005), ES are grouped into four categories: supply, regulatory, support and cultural services. Starting from that, this work contributes to build an interpretative model for the evaluation of a relevant part of the fourth class: the territorial tourist attractiveness of the Basilicata region considering location and spatial distribution of the 113 regional geosites surveyed by ISPRA. Two different GIS-based methodologies have been applied to the context of the Basilicata region: the first based on linear geographical regression and the second through the use of InVEST, an open source suite. Comparing the results is useful to improve regional tourist attractiveness connected with territorial distribution of natural resources.