Frasassi Caves and Surroundings: A Special Vehicle for the Geoeducation and Dissemination of the Geological Heritage in Italy

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

your paper shows interesting information about the use of geological assets, the dissemination of knowledge of Earth Sciences in geoeducational terms, the promotion of the territory, and the safeguarding of the geological heritage. The case studies that you have reported and the activities and procedures that revolve around them, as subjects of your paper, are certainly exportable to other contexts. I really appreciate your ideas and your effort to fill a cultural gap.

For the above reasons, I recommend your paper for publication after minor reviews. In particular, in the attached pdf I suggest some reformulations and corrections throughout the manuscript.

Only note: although I am not a native speaker, I invite the authors to carefully review the English language and style, as the construction of the sentences shows, in some cases, errors in the construction of the period or in the declension of the verbs (probably due to the haste to deliver work).

To enhance your initiative even more and while understanding the context in which you operated, I conclude by proposing, for the future, to also include an English version of the didactic geological notebooks, in order to reach a wider audience.

Best regards

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Revisor,

in the abstract you suggest us to provide a short introduction to Frasassi caves and to briefly specify the subject of the agreement between authorities. This was not possible due to the maximum word limit (200 words). We integrated your suggestions in the introduction chapter. 

It is our intention to translate the didactic notebooks into English, although the didactic activities foresee (for the moment only) Italian school groups.

All the other suggestions have been appreciated and applied. 

Thank you

Reviewer 2 Report

The article presents new insights into using the Apennine territory of the Marche Region, Italy, for educational purposes. For that purpose, the authors have included notebooks and resources. It is especially beneficial to tech geosciences to local communities. However, the paper could benefit from some improvements.

1. Structure 

 I suggest including a descriptive summary of the geological features of the geosite. Otherwise, the manuscript should change the title. An example of this change could be: "Using Frasassi caves and its surroundings as an educational tool for disseminating the geological heritage."

 It would be good if the authors  could include in 2. Materials and Methods”  a table of the geosite  following international examples to characterize a geosite. This can include data such as lithology, age, biology, cultural aspects, importance, and originality of the geosite.

 

 2. Literature review

P 1 Lines 36 '38 The territory object of these projects is contained within the regional natural park named "Parco Naturale Regionale della Gola della Rossa e di Frasassi" ... [ ] …. considered an extraordinary example of geological, biological, historical, and cultural heritage". No sources are provided for this statement, and readers would like to know more about the site's geological history. So it is recommended to quote previous geological research on the site.

 P 2 Lines 82-83 Lines this quotation differs from the rest of the manuscript.

Author Response

Dear revisor,

we firmly believe that your recommendations are appropriate and we find them very inspiring.

To satisfy your request we inserted in the article an excerpt of the cartography created by the Gola della Rossa and Frasassi Natural Park named "Quaderni del Parco - Geosites and geo-hiking" and realized by (Farabollini P. et al., 2007).

This, in addition to offering a complete scenario of the innumerable geosites of the natural park, also locates other places of interest confirming that the Park area is considered "an extraordinary example of geological, historical, , archaeological, cultural heritage".

We are sure that with his suggestions the article will be able to gain completeness in contents.

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper Frasassi caves and its surroundings: a special vehicle for the dissemination of the geological heritage focuses on the problem of science communication, education, and geotourism. Despite its rather descriptive character, it presents an interesting view of  the “proper” (substantive, engaging, and visually attractive) ways of presenting geological and geomorphological connections in the landscape for both non-dedicated (the notebook) and a more professional audiences (the 3D models). It might serve as a model of modern (geo)education thus the paper is of an applicable character. However, the wider context of the problem should be explained more explicitly, especially in terms of finding universal models of cooperation between schools, academic staff and tourism operators of geotouristic attractions for providing, implementing, and evaluating tools of interpretation as well as “the ways of an encouraging involvement of the local communities” (in the process of what?). Maybe some other proofs of the effectiveness of the two presented ways of (geo)education (in the field and virtual reality) should be evoked to underline the contribution of the authors’ propositions to the (geo)educational practices.

Author Response

Dear revisor,

we made some of the changes you requested.
Thank you

Reviewer 4 Report

As educator, I would like to thank the founders of the project for the great idea that allows the youth to learn more about the Frasassi area.

I also admire the cooperation of the University and local governments. I am especially impressed by the attitude of the Deans and the Rector of the University of Camerino, who support the popularization of science by the University employees.

I agree that geologists are the most appropriate people to provide information about the evolution of the region. As a geographer, however, I must remind you that geographers do exactly the same: they interpret the landscape, explain its origin and evolution. So I am asking for a generalization in the introduction the kind of scientists who are predestined to deal with this subject to "Earth scientists".

Popular language dominates at work. I was wondering whether it should be considered a disadvantage of the article, but after reflection, I think it is a plus of this work. It allows you to reach information about the project to a wider audience. Not only to scientists, but also teachers, cultural workers, etc.

In the part about the 3d project, it is worth adding the information that it is not only a didactic project, but also allows for online visiting of caves and the area around the caves by people who, due to health reasons, cannot do it in reality. So it will be a form of visiting (usualy the only form) for people with disabilities.

Congratulations on a great project.

Reviewer

Author Response

Dear revisor,

we thank you very much for your ideas, especially for having seen our project also useful for disabled users. We applied your suggestions to the article.

Thank you.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The article is taking shape, and I think it can be a good contribution. However, some edits and the methodology section need to be completed:

 

Figures

The map in Figure 1 requires geographical coordinates, north and scale. A reference to the geosite location in Italy should be provided for international readers who have never been to the country. Furthermore, the legend of the map must be translated into English.

 

Title

The title still does not reflect the content of the manuscript. I highly recommend that the authors change the title because it does not explain how the geosites are characterized and valued. This article focuses on preparing material for educational purposes, but the title does not reflect that but highlights the importance of the geosite, so it must include the methodology used to demonstrate that sector's relevance to Geoheritage.

 

 "Materials and Methods" section 

The second section should include a table of the studied geosite following international examples: when valuing a geosite, the authors should include information about the lithology, age, biology, cultural aspects, importance, and originality of the studied area. An example of how to show a qualitative methodology to characterize and value a geosite is described in the following article:

 

Hueso-Kortekaas, K., & Iranzo-García, E. (2022). Salinas and "Saltscape" as a Geological Heritage with a Strong Potential for Tourism and Geoeducation. Geosciences, 12(3), 141.

 

 

An additional review can be performed after completing the 2nd section. 

Author Response

Figures:

• The geosites map is an excerpt of another bigger map. Unfortunately, we don’t dispose of the project GIS file, therefore it is not possible to provide a geographical coordinates network to the map.
• We inserted the North arrow and the legend in English language and a reference to the geosite location in Italy.

Title:

• We reviewed the title as directed by another reviewer. Following your advice, we decided to change the title to “Frasassi caves and surroundings: a special vehicle for the geoeducation and the dissemination of the geological heritage in Italy”

"Materials and Methods" section 

• We provided the desired table.

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

It is good to see that the quality of the article has improved. The only remaining observation is in figure 1 because it is impossible to read the texts on the image. At least some names should be included in a larger text size, and a scale is required. Authors could use a white text box indicating the size of 1 km so that readers can better understand the area covered by the geosite. An example of how the scale in the location map should look is attached.

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear revisor,

we agree with your suggestions, butunfortunately it is not possible to manage and modify the cartography attached in fig. 1. We only have a jpg image, the GIS version is not yet available, therefore it is not possible to modify text labels of or to provide a scale bar rather than a coordinate grid. 

Anyway, we wrote these informations in the figure caption.