Resumen

PARROT, Jean-François; RAMIREZ NUNEZ, Carolina  y  PALACIO PRIETO, José Luis. Geodiversity of Mexico. Invest. Geog [online]. 2024, n.115, e60903.  Epub 18-Mar-2025. ISSN 2448-7279.  https://doi.org/10.14350/rig.60903.

Geodiversity is defined by constituents that include geology, geomorphology, soils, surface waters and groundwater. Here, geodiversity sub-indices are calculated in units of 625 km2 on the basis of three sub-indices, geology (75 types of rock), geomorphology (22 types of landforms) and 29 soil types, expressed in raster images with a resolution of 500 m, and a cell of 25 × 25 km. The number of topics that a cell can contain allows calculating the sub-indices according to the maximum total number of topics contained in each cell in relation with the pixel resolution and the cell size. The sub-index value is directly proportional to the increase in cell size, that is, the larger the cell size, the greater the number of topics contained per cell. The sum of the results concerning the sub-indices is weighted to calculate the geodiversity index. The results indicate that 1.44% of the Mexican territory has a very high geodiversity and in 19.45% it is high; together, these classes include the northwest and south of the country (Sierra Madre del Sur, states of Guerrero and Oaxaca). 57.56% of Mexico has medium geodiversity and 21.19% has low geodiversity; these medium and low indices are in mountainous areas, the Mexican Altiplano and a considerable portion of the Baja California and Yucatán peninsulas. The very low geodiversity is concentrated in the Yucatán Peninsula. The relatively high degree of geodiversity across a large part of the Mexican territory indicates a high potential for geoconservation and consequently the need for appropriate management.

Palabras llave : Geodiversity Index; geological diversity; geomorphological diversity; soil diversity; geospatial data management.

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