The Geoheritage of Northwestern Central Morocco Area: Inventory and Quantitative Assessment of Geosites for Geoconservation, Geotourism, Geopark Purpose and the Support of Sustainable Development

Throughout the course of the last years, geoconservation is increasingly becoming on the A-list of topics holding more and more attention, given its importance on geoheritage regarding several scales: conservation, geotourism, geoeducation, and local development. Central Moroccan massif is one of the Variscan massifs that amass a number of geosites (sedimentological, basin genesis, petrographical, paleoclimate …) allowing the understanding of the relevant period of the Earth’s evolution and the geodynamics of the area, as well as, it contains geosites from the Ediacarian to Quaternary. In this perspective, the current work aimed to identify priority sites for geoconservation actions, geoeducation, and geotourism. All geological sites were inventoried and evaluated by a quantitative assessment relying on the scientific value, the degradation risk, the educational and touristic potential uses regarding both the protection priorities and the use management. The inventory of geosites and their quantitative assessment were performed by the method of Brilha (Geoheritage 8:119–134, 2016). The takeaways of this work may help improve the sustainable development of the area through the establishment of geopark, the implement of a geoconservation strategy and the geotourism action plan. In addition, it could be the path to achieve a global target of the sustainable goals in the Central Morocco area.