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Geodiversity UK

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If we are to reach our goal of sustainable development, understanding and taking account of geodiversity will be crucial. Many of the processes that created England’s mineral wealth, landscapes and soils operate over millions of years and these resources cannot be renewed within a human timeframe, if at all. Research should be used to find the most effective ways to carefully manage coastal processes, mineral deposits, fossil fuels and building materials and search for alternatives. England’s geodiversity faces challenges from

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If we are to reach our goal of sustainable development, understanding and taking account of geodiversity will be crucial. Many of the processes that created England’s mineral wealth, landscapes and soils operate over millions of years and these resources cannot be renewed within a human timeframe, if at all. Research should be used to find the most effective ways to carefully manage coastal processes, mineral deposits, fossil fuels and building materials and search for alternatives. A journey back through 700 million years of geological time reads like a road map of Britain with internationally recognised periods of geological time such as the Devonian and the Oxfordian reflecting the global relevance of the role played by British geologists in helping unlock our geological past and to better understand environmental change, such as the challenges of climate change we face in the future. England’s geodiversity faces challenges from * Coastal protection and development that conceals valuable geological exposures and disrupts the natural processes that helped create them * Inappropriate development such as building on river flood plains * Loss of limestone pavements and cave systems to mineral extraction * Loss of valuable quarry exposures to landfill or industrial development * Neglect of landscape features such as dry-stone walls and vernacular buildings * Poorly planned tree plantations that can obscure and destroy rare geological formations like limestone pavements * Contamination of soils through pollution