Hence, geodiversity is the value describing several elements, which combine themselves, creating abiotic nature, while a geosite is a place displaying geodiversity at the studied location, then geoheritage is the overall value applied to a group of rare and/unique geosite(s) with significance for the Earth’s evolution ( Figure 1). Meanwhile, geoheritage refers to the values describing geosites with some uniqueness and significance in recording the Earth’s history and demonstrating the interplay between abiotic factors and the evolution of the living world, including humans and their society. As part of the geosphere, geosites hold importance in documenting the Earth’s history. In general, a geosite refers to a place with several geological features representing the most typical geological asset in the specific region (e.g., rocks, minerals, fossils, landscape, and others). These terms may be subject to slightly different descriptions between researchers. Geodiversity became a starting point for two other terms: geosite and geoheritage. They claimed that geodiversity is a feature/attribute of abiotic nature, which includes geology, geomorphology, hydrology, soil science, climate and connected weathering processes, and human and biological impacts. The term geodiversity is based on collaborative ideas presented by Gray, Kozłovski, Serrano, and others. Geodiversity assessment is a field still in development and is strongly associated with the physical area of study and associated materials such as maps, GIS data bases, LiDAR files, thematic maps, and other models. In conclusion, it has been demonstrated a simple methodology of general assessment of geodiversity with additional improvements to take account of variability in other abiotic factors. By considering these factors, the assessment becomes specifically tailoring for geodiversity assessment of the islands of Samoa. While initially appearing as a region of simple geology and morphology, complexity is added by considering rock ages, the position and type of eruptive centres, and the coastal geoenvironment. Western Samoa Islands (Savai’i and Upolu Islands) were selected for assessment, as a typical example of basaltic ocean island volcanism generating relatively homogenous rock formations and subject to gradual geomorphology (e.g., shield volcano). This article demonstrates a quantitative-qualitative method for an assessment of geodiversity, based on a five-point evaluation system and the utilization of widely available standard databases such as geological maps, SRTM models, and satellite images.

However, while similarities in research methods may be apparent, the directions, scales, and data utilized are clearly different. The main quantitative method for the assessment of geodiversity was proposed to the scientific world only few years ago and may only be relevant to some places in the world, rather than all, which would be desirable. Therefore, an assessment of geodiversity may be highly dependent on the nature of the territory subject to study, available databases, and the researchers’ field of specialization. The study of geodiversity is still in development, so a uniform and complete paradigm remains to be defined. The assessment of geodiversity is a relatively new field of research connecting abiotic aspects of nature to the wider environment.

Qualitative data method map