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Towards Sustainable Karst-Based Geotourism of the Mount Kalafat in Southeastern Serbia

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the karst landscape of Southeastern Serbia, Mount Kalafat. The evaluation of five representative caves was performed using M-GAM (modified geosite assessment model) and the perspectives and potentials of karst-based geotourism were presented, through speleology, paleoclimate, and archaeology. Moreover, a unique proposal was presented in the form of a karst protection project through the establishment of a karst theme park. Although there are other attractive karst regions in Serbia, Mount Kalafat has been taken as a study area, due to the willingness of the local management structures and authorities to support projects concerning the protection of geoheritage and the development of karst-based geotourism. The results of the research indicate the evident values of the karst geoheritage and geotourism potentials that can become significant indicators for the development of sustainable geotourism and geoconservation in this area. Thus, precise measures and sustainable strategies that could define the geoethical concept of geotourism development have been presented in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 3, Novi Sad, 21000, Serbia

    Aleksandar Antić, Slobodan B. Marković, Rastko S. Marković, Nemanja Tomić, Milica G. Radakovic & Milivoj B. Gavrilov

  2. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Knez Mihailova 35, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia

    Slobodan B. Marković

  3. Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China

    Binggui Cai

  4. Instute for Nature Conservation of Serbia, Vožda Karađorđa 14, Niš, 18000, Serbia

    Dragan Nešić

  5. Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Čika Ljubina 18–20, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia

    Dušan Mihailović & Senka Plavšić

  6. Department of Geography, Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, University of Niš, Niš, 18000, Serbia

    Aleksandar Radivojević

  7. Niš, Serbia

    Dragana Sotirovski

  8. Geographical Institute “Jovan Cvijić” of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia

    Jelena Ćalić

  9. Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 4, Novi Sad, 21000, Serbia

    Jasna Atanasijević

  10. University of Eastern Sarajevo, Vuka Karadžića 30, Sarajevo, 71123, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Dajana Vukojević

  11. Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Qingzhen Hao

  12. Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China

    Qingzhen Hao

  13. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Qingzhen Hao

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  1. Aleksandar Antić
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  2. Slobodan B. Marković
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  7. Dušan Mihailović
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  9. Milica G. Radakovic
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  16. Qingzhen Hao
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Correspondence to Aleksandar Antić.

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Antić, A., Marković, S.B., Marković, R.S. et al. Towards Sustainable Karst-Based Geotourism of the Mount Kalafat in Southeastern Serbia. Geoheritage 14, 16 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-022-00651-6

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