Geomorphodiversity index of Switzerland for multiscale analysis

Geodiversity refers to the variety of Earth's physical features and processes, and it represents the geosphere counterpart of biodiversity. The abiotic diversity supports natural processes and sustains biotic niches, and it contributes to the human health through a wide range of ecosystem services. Geomorphodiversity, as a part of geodiversity, describes the diversity of landforms, resulting from the lithological and surface processes modelling the landscape. Combining information from a geo-lithological map and quantities derived from a digital elevation model with a simple, multi-scale and reproducible approach, results in discrete geomorphodiversity index (GmI). The raster index has an intuitive content and can be represented at different spatial resolutions, depending on input data and purpose of the study. Here, we implemented the method to obtain the first geomorphodiversity map of Switzerland. The map nicely represents the landscape variability of Switzerland and it can be valuable to identify areas at national scale with a potential hazard for natural phenomena (landslides, flooding, and others). As the index aims at representing the abundance and diversity of landforms in an area, we compared GmI with a field-based geomorphological dataset of the Hérens valley, in Southern Switzerland. The local-scale assessment shows that GmI is an additional tool to understand surface diversity from large- to local-scale, for land use management, and to promote the conservation of natural areas in a broad sense.